If you are like me, you are constantly changing the layout and design of your blog. Viewing the same design elements can get tiring after a while and sometimes, a change is necessary. One of the simplest design alterations you can make to your blog involves changing the width of your blog post area. Here I will lay out instructions on how to widen or make narrower your post width and you will not need any coding experience to follow them.
Back when blogging was for the most part streamlined (the age of blogger.com), and design options were limited, blogs tended to have very narrow widths. Narrow widths allow for less text per line (causing less of an eye-strain for readers) but also cheapen the overall feel of the site. Wide widths can get the blog more of a professional look but also make it more difficult for the reader because of more text per line. Finding a compromise that fits your site perfectly is the key.
To alter the width of your blog, you first need to open up your style sheet. This will be named style.css in WordPress and can be accessed by clicking on your editor button under the appearance tab in the admin control panel. After you have clicked on the editor button, you should be taken to a screen called “Edit Themes,” and you will see a list of files on your right hand side.
1. Click the Stylesheet (style.css).
2. Sift through the code and look for a comment (will begin and end with a “/*”) that says “posts” or something similar. If you do not see a comment that says “posts” or anything similar, look for a div class or id (will look like div# or div.) that is titled “posts” or anything similar. More likely than not, your blog posts will have their own custom divider with custom styles. It will be easier to find the “post” div if you look for a line of code under it that looks like this: “width: 600px;”. The width will probably be over 300px.
3. Under the post div you just identified (either by looking for a comment or at the name of the div), look for a line of code that specifies width. The value will most likely be measured in pixels (px) and you can change it to your liking.
4. Click the update button at the bottom of the page (which is blue if you are using the default WP admin theme).
5. Preview the changes by clicking the “View Site” button. If the width is not to your liking, change it again in the Stylesheet.
If you are having difficulty changing the width after reading this tutorial, please don’t hesitate to ask for help by leaving a comment.
