Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I make it so that the comments are displayed as the default?

Q: Can I make it so that the comments are displayed as the default?

A: Yes. In your WordPress admin area, go to “Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier)” –> “AWP Managment.” Then click on “comments.” Look for a checkbox that says: Have “Comments open by default on index page?” Click it on and save your changes by scrolling down and clicking save.

Then, in your “Theme Editor” open the file called “Main Index Template” (index.php). Look for these lines of code:

<?php do_action('awp_comments'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_comments_link');?> |
<?php do_action('awp_commentform'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_commentform_link');?>

Delete the second line and rearrange the order of the lines so it looks like this:

<?php do_action('awp_commentform_link');?>
<?php do_action('awp_comments'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_commentform'); ?>

Save your changes.

Questions? Instead of emailing for support, leave a comment below so everyone can benefit from any clarification.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 and is filed under Comments, Customizing ProPhoto, Frequently Asked Questions. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

67 Responses to “Can I make it so that the comments are displayed as the default?”

  1. On May 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm marta said:

    I have checked this and all looks good. The problem I am having is that I have people trying to leave comments and it is telling them they need to sign in. I don’t believe that this is standard, and I have checked everywhere in my blog admin, to see if something needs to be changed and I cannot find anything.

    Please help!!!
    Marta

  2. On May 5th, 2008 at 6:44 am Jared said:

    marta » you probably have a setting checked that people must be registered and logged in to comment. Check in your admin panel, under “Settings” –> “General” down about a third of the page under “membership”.

  3. On May 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm marta said:

    Thanks! I swear I had checked that! I even remember seeing it! Thanks :)

  4. On May 7th, 2008 at 7:47 am Amanda said:

    Hi there,

    I’ve done this step and my comments are appearing I’m just having some trouble with the code to change the background colour of the comment box. I go into the style sheet and input my colour code but what happens is I get a small little box of that colour right above the comment box and the comment box stays white. It’s driving me insane. I can’t seem to figure it out. Any help would be REALLY appreciated!!
    Thanks!! :)

  5. On May 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm Aruna B. said:

    Hi Amanda,
    I was wondering the same thing…it’s located in the main “stylesheet” under “Line 115″.
    Hope that helps!

  6. On May 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm MAC said:

    Hi. I am goin under Design but I CANT find AWP management. I am using wp 2.5. Thanks for your help. Does this mean that I will have an open box with the comments and a scrolling bar on the side? Oh, and please let me know when you get the new template done. I will buy it!!!!

  7. On May 13th, 2008 at 5:35 pm Jared said:

    Mac -> If you don’t see “AWP Managment” then probably you don’t have the plugin activated. Go to “Plugins” and activate Ajaxed-WP. Then try again.

    Amanda -> I don’t know how I missed your comment! Sorry! Aruna is pretty close, it should be around Line 122 right under: “body.home #comments”

  8. On May 13th, 2008 at 9:10 pm MAC said:

    I got it!!!! I had to activate it. As I was browsing your wonderful site and tutorials I figured out. Thanks!!!!!

  9. On May 21st, 2008 at 11:09 am matt said:

    hey…i was wondering if there is a way to have the comments post without having to approve them?
    thanks
    matt

  10. On May 21st, 2008 at 12:03 pm Jared said:

    @matt: yes there is, just go to “settings” -> “discussion” and change the options to your preference.

  11. On May 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm Dennis said:

    Hi,

    How do I change the color of the text in the comments section. I was able to change the background color and the color of the commenter’s name but not the text color.

    Thanks

  12. On May 27th, 2008 at 8:56 am Jared said:

    @Dennis: Good question! I posted the answer here: http://www.professionalphotographertheme.com/tips/change-the-comment-text-color-on-main-pages/

  13. On July 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm aviva said:

    I placed this code into the index and it isn’t working. I’m not as concerned with having the comments show, as I am with having the LINK to “Comments 1″ work; right now it’s static, and for someone to leave a comment they have to click on the post title. Is there a way to allow comments from the comments at the bottom of the posts? (is that question clear as mud?) :) Thanks!!

  14. On July 1st, 2008 at 11:35 pm aviva said:

    I just realized my question was answered on another post. I’ll shut up now.

  15. On July 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 pm cher said:

    i’m trying to get the comments to display by default on the main page. I’ve clicked on the ‘comments open by default on index page’ and have changed the code in index.php as in your example but now all my posts show the first’s post comments. why is it doing this?

    also can’t seem to change the background color on line 122 — it’s still showing up as white.

  16. On July 4th, 2008 at 9:21 am Jared said:

    @cher: cherry, why don’t you email me your WP login info through the email on the support page and i’ll try to figure out your comments.

  17. On July 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm pam campbell said:

    I changed my domain name and lost my old blog settings etc. Back to square one trying to get customized. Comments are showing as I want them to but something is weird with the little box to the right -little tiny aqua dots and a little aqua box to the left. I can’t figure it out and I have been through the tutorials. I wanted a colored background-that is what I used to have…

  18. On July 8th, 2008 at 8:15 pm Jared said:

    @pam campbell: i think you forgot to check the box “use a custom awp template for your theme” in the “AWP Managment” => “comments” section. try checking that and see if it fixes your problem.

  19. On July 11th, 2008 at 11:36 am Jingzi Zhao said:

    The codes are working! I do have another question though. How do I have the comments box displayed as default after the post? I did a bit research and was told that the theme might disabled it and if so how to enable it? Thank you!

  20. On July 11th, 2008 at 3:01 pm Jared said:

    @Jingzi Zhao: since you’re using Ajaxd-Wordpress to handle comments, you’d have to try to show the comment form by default through the plugin admin. Go to “Design” => “AWP Managment” => “Comment Form” or something like that and experiment.

    I didn’t design the theme to show the comment form by defualt, so I’m not sure there is a *simple* answer.

  21. On July 11th, 2008 at 6:00 pm Jingzi Zhao said:

    Thanks, I did it. Just so that other people can benefit too – I went to “Design”=>”AWP Management”=>”Add Comments” and check the box that says “Have Add Comment Box open by default on index page?” and that’s it! The comments box is now displayed after a post.

  22. On July 14th, 2008 at 6:19 pm Jan Jones said:

    Hi Jared,

    Today I watched all the great support videos again and came here to find out how to open my comment section as you describe. However, when I went to my index.php template, the lines of code there do not match what you have in this tutorial. Fearing a disaster because things did not match up, I wanted to ask you what needs to be there to have the comments open to viewing after approved?
    Should I just delete what’s there and type in the three lines you have here?

    Thanks.

    Jan

  23. On July 15th, 2008 at 5:25 am Jared said:

    @Jan Jones: yeah, just delete what is there and copy paste the code from above. if for some reason it doesn’t work, we can always restore that page, so there’s no real risk.

  24. On July 15th, 2008 at 8:46 am Jan Jones said:

    I took out the 4 lines, put in the 3 lines, according to re-ordered directions and now I have something on the blog that says “add comment add comment” and nothing opens for any comments.

    We still would like to have the comments box open/visible. What should I do from here?

    Thanks.

    Jan

  25. On July 15th, 2008 at 8:58 am Jan Jones said:

    Some progress…lost one of the “add a comments” so there’s one left there and it does open to the comment box. No more “hide comment” and the box is still not remaining open. Need to know a few more tweaks here to get this going.

    Thanks.

    Jan

  26. On July 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm Jared said:

    @Jan Jones: i’m emailing you.

  27. On July 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am Maria said:

    Is there a way to adjust the comment form box so that it’s not as tall (adjust the vertical)? I’ve tried adjusting the textarea rows and other padding with no luck. Any suggestions?

  28. On July 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm Jared said:

    @Maria: that’s kind of tricky. i think you’d have to dig into either the awp-comments.php file in the theme or into the ajaxd-wordpress plugin itself.

  29. On July 28th, 2008 at 9:53 pm Sylvain Gentile said:

    Hi Jared, I’m having the same problem that Jan Jones was having, 4 comments above this. In regards to the “lost one of the “add a comments” so there’s one left there and it does open to the comment box. No more “hide comment””

    I replaced the 4 lines with the 3 lines just like the instructions said to, in order to get a comment box. Take a look at my page if you’d like it doesn’t seem to want to work.

  30. On July 29th, 2008 at 8:04 am Jared said:

    Sylvain – you just had forgot to change the setting in AWP management to “Comments open by default on index page”.

    i fixed it for you.

  31. On July 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm Sylvain Gentile said:

    Thanks Jared! You rock! The layout is awesome, thanks again.

  32. On August 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm Wilson Cabral said:

    Hi Jared, first of all I just want to thank you for the great job with prophoto theme. I’ve lost the option to add a comment right bellow the postings! Can you help?

  33. On August 1st, 2008 at 6:55 pm Jared said:

    @Wilson Cabral: it looks like you made the comments displayed by default. can you TRIPLE check that you also edited the index.php file EXACTLY as shown above as well?

  34. On August 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm Wilson Cabral said:

    I’ve looked the settings at awp management and selected each one of the options as follow:
    «—Have Add Comment Box open by default on single post pages?
    «—Have Add Comment Box open by default on pages?
    «—Have Add Comment Box open by default on index page?

    And couldn’t have the add comment back underneath the post.

    However if I double click on the title of the post then I can leave a comment.

    thanks

  35. On August 1st, 2008 at 7:09 pm Wilson Cabral said:

    My bad!!!! I found it!

    Thanks for your help!

    Wilson

  36. On August 17th, 2008 at 11:22 pm Hope said:

    I am setting up my ProPhoto blog right now. I am wondering how to (if I can) have the comments display the date and time the comment was made. I haven’t been able to find any information about this on your site.

  37. On August 18th, 2008 at 6:27 am Jared said:

    @Hope: good question. this feature is not built into this theme, sorry. it is going to be an option in my next theme.

  38. On August 18th, 2008 at 10:50 am Hope said:

    Hmmm. I could swear I’ve seen it used on some other people’s ProPhoto blogs.

  39. On August 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm Jared said:

    @Hope: hmmmm…. am i going crazy? send me a link if you see one. maybe someone modified one of their template files…

  40. On August 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm Sandra said:

    I don’t have an AWP plug in that I can activate. I’m assuming I have to download it?? I’ve searched wordpress for a download and came up empty…. any suggestions?

  41. On August 25th, 2008 at 7:38 pm Jared said:

    @Sandra: the AWP plugin was included in your download folder when you purchased. if you followed all of the tutorials when installing, you should have already uploaded it. if not, it’s in your download folder and the tutorials instructions on the website will tell you how to upload it and activate it.

  42. On August 28th, 2008 at 8:29 am Sandra said:

    SOOOO sorry! Don’t know how I missed that! Thanks for the help!

  43. On August 28th, 2008 at 7:52 pm Keith Pitts said:

    Hi,

    I know I am doing something wrong but I don’t know what? I would like to have the comment box like Mark Ridouts. I can’t seem to get it to work. I also tried to change the background color in the comments and nothing happened. If it did then I probably messed something else up that I don’t know about. I love this template and I have had a relitivly easy time with most of it. These are the things I am scratching my head about.

    Oh, and can anyone tell me how I managed to get two login and meta sections in the footer? Thanks in advance.

    Keith

  44. On August 29th, 2008 at 4:53 am Jared said:

    @Keith Pitts: you’re problem with your comments is that you forgot to set something in the AWP management. go to “Design” => “AWP Management” => “Comments” and make sure “use a custom AWP template from your theme” is selected and saved.

    regarding your footer. did you fiddle with the widgets at all under “Design” -> “Widgets”?. If so, you may have added in those extra blocks.

  45. On August 29th, 2008 at 1:47 pm Keith Pitts said:

    Thanks Jared. Got it fixed. You were right on the money.

  46. On September 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am Renee Bell said:

    awww been meaning to do this for months, glad I finally got around to it!!

  47. On September 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm Heather said:

    I’m having the same issue as Amanda in may. I’ve changed the color of the comments background on line 122, but all I get is a tiny square of color above the comments instead of the whole comment box being that color.

  48. On September 29th, 2008 at 6:26 am Jared said:

    @Heather: read what i wrote to Keith Pitts 3 comments up. that’s your problem.

  49. On September 29th, 2008 at 7:45 am Heather said:

    Oh, for crying out loud; the ONE option I didn’t try on my own yesterday. Thank you so much and sorry to be so stupid!

  50. On October 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm Michael said:

    Following the instructions posted in a comment above, I was able to get the comment input box to show by default, but it’s quite big. Is there a way to adjust the height of the comment input box?

  51. On October 17th, 2008 at 8:47 am Jared said:

    @Michael: Not really, that I know of, not without editing some files in the Ajaxd-WordPress plugin. Sorry! I didn’t really design the theme with that in mind. You’re welcome to try to hack your way through it and let us know if you find a way to do it!

  52. On November 1st, 2008 at 9:28 am Aris said:

    Hi Jared

    I did everything literally but don’t know what I did wrong because now, every comma or period became an question sign, there are dozens of those all over my blog. PLease help, how can I fix that!!!!!!!!!!

    thanks

  53. On November 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 am jerryr said:

    Hi – I am working with my graphics designer on her wonderful new blog.
    We were success at the ‘export’/'import’ from blogger to wordpress and then from wordpress to wordpress.org. All went well. The only issue I am having is that you comments don’t automagically show up on the ‘imported’ posts, only the latest and greatest posts.

    Any thoughts to why this is occuring ??
    - jerryr

  54. On November 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm jerryr said:

    Hi – more to the posting above.
    specifically

    on the home page, all is well :
    http://www.louisianamomentsblog.com/blog/

    but on the
    http://www.louisianamomentsblog.com/blog/?m=200803

    the comments are not automatically apprearing.
    Assistance is greatly appreciated – jerry

  55. On November 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am Jared said:

    @Aris: sent you an email…

  56. On November 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 am Jared said:

    @jerryr: on archive pages, comments do not display inline. that is the correct behavior.

  57. On December 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm Whitney Gray said:

    I don’t know why, but no one can comment on my blog all of a sudden. ??? The link to comment is gone. It shows past comments but you can’t leave a new one.
    What happened???

  58. On December 9th, 2008 at 2:19 pm Whitney Gray said:

    I just want it to say “Add Comment” not have a big box at the end of the post by default. How do I do that?

  59. On December 10th, 2008 at 7:33 am Jared said:

    @Whitney Gray: it looks to me like you turned on the option to have the comment box display by default. is that right? you should turn that off, and then make sure that your index.php file wasn’t edited. hmmm…. maybe just send me your wp login to the support email (click the support tab at the top of this page)

  60. On January 8th, 2009 at 12:10 pm taproot said:

    I can’t find the code in my index.php file. Here is all the HTML:

    <div id=”post-” class=”entry-post self-clear “>

    <a href=”" title=”" rel=”bookmark”>

    <!–#post—>

  61. On January 8th, 2009 at 12:10 pm taproot said:

    well all the code didn’t display.

  62. On January 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm admin said:

    @taproot: can you send me an email through the support tab?

  63. On April 21st, 2009 at 1:53 pm galina said:

    Can you please let me know how can I make my comments appear a little bigger? Basically, my question is how do I change the font size for the comments? I’m with the older version of ProPhoto Blog, if that makes a difference.
    Thank you!

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