#theme qs

LOL this is not stupid!! and if you DM me off anon, i can help you more thoroughly, but i’m happy to walk you through it either way. are you talking about this page?

if so, i have a tutorial here! it’s in the second half of the answer. if that’s not what you’re talking about, let me know and i’ll try to help with whatever it is.

I don't understand, "Appearance Options: If you want to edit your blog’s title, description and avatar, you can do so in the customizer under “Appearance Options”. Editing your appearance in the Customizer is the same as editing it in your blog settings or in the blog view. Most themes will display the blog title, description and avatar you set here (but not all). Some themes may have extra settings that you can find and edit under “Theme Options”." Is this the same thing as what you do in mobile? The avatar and names?

"Open links in new window: Enabling this will make all links on your blog open in a new window."

"Use default mobile theme: If your custom theme is not displaying on mobile, you’ll need to disable the “Use default mobile theme” in the Customizer. This setting is enabled by default and will override your custom theme with a special layout optimized for browsing on mobile devices. Toggling off this setting is recommended only if your custom theme is responsive and works on different screen sizes."

"Preview: You can select between displaying different posts in your theme preview in the Customizer. Your options are: My posts: This will display all your posts in the theme preview. Sample posts: This will display a set of sample posts in the theme preview. Posts per page: Select how many posts per page your theme will display on one page. Note that some themes may have infinite scroll rather than a pagination."

"Add custom CSS: If your theme allows it, this is where you can enter custom CSS styles without making changes to the theme’s code itself."

I feel like I'm misunderstanding a lot here and feel like I might mess up if go and try to see how everything is... 😔

yes and no. the appearance options, yes, it’s the same as what you’re editing on mobile. but theme options are unique to whatever theme you choose and will let you choose different colors and fonts and stuff. this will only show up on your .tumblr.com site.

this just opens your link in a new tab when you click on it so you don’t lose the page you were just on

turn this off if you want your theme to show on mobile web apps like safari or chrome. if you keep it on, you’ll only see the mobile layout even if you visit the .tumblr.com version of your blog and you’ll only be able to see it on desktop.

this is just to help you while you’re editing your blog; it has no affect on your actual blog.

ok this is more advanced, and would require a lot of teaching because CSS is what really customizes a theme LOL. i suggest you learn via W3Schools or MDN web docs, but before any of that, maybe just get comfortable with the customizer first. there are already a lot of great free themes out there

1. How do you install themes from Tumblr?

2. How do you install themes from others?

3. What does, "copy the codes and paste" even mean? Copy code from where and paste where?

4. How to customize?

Thank you so much for helping out 😭

you’re not disturbing me at all! i’m happy to help :)

you can find detailed instructions on how to do most of these here, so i’d recommend trying to follow this tutorial first and get acquainted with the platform, then if you have more questions, i’m happy to answer them! the only thing i don’t think it covers is #3.

to copy and paste a code, you’d go to a theme creator’s blog (i mentioned a few in your last ask), pick one of the themes you like, and then just follow their directions to get the code for it (sometimes it’s on google drive, sometimes it’s on github). once you have the code copied, you’ll go to your blog’s customize page, click “edit HTML,” remove the existing code, and paste.

yes, themes have always been a thing on here! i only learned basic coding bc of myspace and tumblr LOL. if you go to your blog on the tumblr app, you won’t see it bc the app automatically uses the mobile profile, but if you put the .tumblr.com url in your mobile web app (e.g. safari), you’ll see your theme (you’ll have to disable mobile display first though).

to edit, go to blog settings on desktop > custom theme > enable theme. once it’s enabled, you can click edit theme, and from there, you can choose a theme from one of the free ones that tumblr provides, or you can install a theme from a creator by copying and pasting the code in the “edit HTML” section!

some great theme creators to get you started: @pirateskinned @glenthemes @springdoy @xuethms

How do you change the Tumblr interface that way? From Tumblr web or mobile it doesn't look that way the way it does from jetblackcode.

Here's the link to see what I mean: https://joshujin.tumblr.com/post/782755335819657216/smile-scoups

okay i THINK i know what you’re asking, but if i don’t, please DM me so i can better understand.

so i’m assuming you’re on desktop, right? bc when i click on my and kae’s posts using this site on mobile/app, it takes me straight to the posts as normal, but on desktop, it takes me to our .tumblr.com sites. if this is what you mean, it looks different because we have themes! this is a feature you’ll have to turn on in your blog settings on desktop! after you do, you can choose a theme for your blog (or just build one yourself).

if this is what you’re talking about, i have a page here that sources everything i’ve used for my themes, and you can view Qs i’ve answered about my theme/coding here.

hello!

different description boxes

you'll have to go into "edit HTML" when you're customizing your theme. you'll notice toward the beginning of your theme, there will be a handful of meta tags; these are what allow you to have those text spaces/color choices/etc. that are available on the first page when you first enter the customizer.

usually, the way description works is the HTML will just say something like <div class="CLASS NAME">{Description}</div>, where the {Description} block is whatever you put into the text box in the customizer. this block is also what shows up on your mobile theme.

so to make them different, we have to make a meta tag and replace the {Description} block! in my case, i named it "desc" to make it easy, and i put

<meta name="text:desc" content=""/>

where all the other meta tags live (again, somewhere in the beginning). then, i went to wherever the description block is in the HTML (you can ctrl/cmd+f "{Description}"; it will be after "<body>"), and I replace "Description" with "{text:desc}" so that it looks like this:

<div class="description">{text:desc}</div>

then, when you save and exit the "edit HTML" page, you should now have a box called "desc" (or whatever you named your new description block). when you fill it out, it will be different from your mobile description :)

putting text on my ask page

this one comes with a caveat: you have to make a new blog page, so if someone visits your ask page from the mobile app, it will go to the original /ask where there's no text vs. the page you made. so hopefully, you don't mind that!

when you're customizing your theme, scroll all the way down and click "add a page." i used the standard layout, but you can use a blank page if you want it super custom. choose a link name; mine is just /asks. then, ofc, fill it out with whatever text you want! when you're ready to add your ask box, put this code in:

<iframe frameborder="0" height="190" id="ask_form" scrolling="no" src="https://www.tumblr.com/ask_form/[URL]" width="100%" style="background-color: transparent; overflow: hidden; height: 190px;"></iframe></p>

replace [URL] with your tumblr address (e.g. mine would say joshujin.tumblr.com). when you're previewing it, it will probably say "request denied" where your ask box is supposed to be, but once you save and view the page, it will act like normal!

and that's it!

hope that helps! don't feel like you have to limit your Qs! you can ask whatever you want and if i can help, i will, and if i can't, i will try to point you in the right direction :)