[wp-docs] CSS Styles in the Codex

[Chris]

Thanks Lorelle. I have some notes that I've put together regarding the 
styling. They are as follows:

    * A rule in the Codex's CSS prevents DIVs from being styled. I
      worked around this by using SPANs with a display of block. It
      would be better if DIVs could actually be styled. As it is, there
      are DIVs, such as the container for drafts, that are styled but
      don't show the styling currently.
    * It would be nice if a class existed that would apply the PRE
      styling to other elements (such as DIVs). This would make it very
      easy to create code blocks that support wrapping. It would also
      ensure that any updates to PRE styling would affect blocks that
      are styled to look like PRE.
    * The CSS rules don't have any padding for table elements. The only
      way to work around this (due to not being able to define CSS rules
      other than via individual style declarations) is by either using
      cellspacing and cellpadding (not desirable) or adding style
      information to every TH and TD element (also not desirable).
      Adding padding in the CSS for all tables would make overriding
      difficult, so I would like to request a class that can be used to
      apply padding to all th and td elements without using styles for each.
    * Lack of styling for DD and DT elements. I solved this by manually
      applying style information to each element. The way that DD and DT
      elements are styled in the PHP documentation is very nice. Similar
      to my request with tables, I'd like to be able to use a class on
      the DL element to apply this type of styling to the DD and DT
      elements.
    * The </dd> and </dt> elements are not supported, thus breaking
      standards. If I include the closing DD and DT tags, they are
      parsed as text and not as tags.
    * The %%% directive makes very nicely-colored PHP code output, but
      it has limitations.
          o To get the output to be have syntax highlighting, it needs
            to be wrapped in <?php ?> tags. This adds unnecessary lines
            since the presence of these tags can be assumed in most
            instances. It would be nice if there could be an option to
            force highlighting without the use of the tags.
          o The output is not contained in a box like as the CSS styles
            the PRE. This type of container is helpful as it clearly
            sets the code apart from the rest of the documentation. I
            manually applied this look using the styled SPAN that I used
            for the function structure.

You can see examples of how I worked around all these issues at my 
wp_cache_add draft 
<http://codex.wordpress.org/User:Chrisbliss18/wp_cache_add>. This will 
give you a good idea of how much styling I had to apply to get a 
consistent look.

These are just notes and ideas. By no means, do they have to be 
implemented. However, I would see it as a very nice New Year's gift if 
some were. :)

Chris Jean
http://gaarai.com/
http://wp-roadmap.com/



Lorelle VanFossen wrote:
> I've been told by Matt Thomas that he and another new designer they 
> just hired will be fixing the design style problems with the Codex. 
> I've sent them a whole list of things that need fixing, but if there 
> is anything really annoying you, please post it here in this thread so 
> we don't miss anything.
>
> A key thing I'm asking to get changed is moving the third column back 
> over to the left so we have more room when editing. I'm really tired 
> of feeling squished when logged onto the Codex and editing a Codex page.
>
> I've also updated http://codex.wordpress.org/Help:Editing with all the 
> core Mediawiki styles used in the Codex, with a few Codex specific 
> ones. I've also included notes to point out where the CSS styles go 
> wonkers with the hope that these will be cleaned up. Until they are, 
> just continue to put in the right code and not force the styles to 
> conform so we won't have to go back and fix them when they are 
> "corrected" properly.
>
> Thanks to all for your patience while the Codex has been a little 
> unstylish. :D
>
> Lorelle
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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