Changing theme widget & page placement

1. You chose two themes that don’t have a sidebar. Choose one that does, because adding a sidebar yourself is not that easy and defeats the purpose of having someone else support the theme.
If you stick with themes that only do theme stuff (like all the ones in the WP repository), it shouldn’t be difficult to switch themes at any time.

2. Child pages have the parent page in the URL also. So if it was /one and /two then after it would be /one and /one/two. The internal links would be fine, but anything that linked to /two would need to change to /one/two.

3. “on all themes”? Does this mean you have a plugin that is affecting this?

OK. Your answer to #1 make sense to me. Means more searching and taking a chance on picking a theme that will in the future be unsupported and create the same sorts of difficulties I’m having with php. Oh, well….

#2. I’ll just have to check out the urls of the pages. Doable and re-linkable, if necessary.

#3. On my current theme, and on the ‘live preview’ of both twentytwenty and twentyseventeen, the mobile theme shows this undesired picture. Do I understand that there is a plugin affecting this? If so, how do I know which one?

You can use the Health Check plugin in Troubleshoot mode to disable plugins and theme for your user only, to isolate the culprit.

I download the “Health Check” plugin and then run it, turning off the plugins I’ve installed one at a time, yes? How will I know something is monkeying just with the Mobile Mode? And will it give me a lot of CSS coding? If so, I’m a fish out of water.

Not really anxious to experiment without some understanding, as several reviews said it screwed up their sites. =-)

You said it was the live preview that showed the undesired image. So you can use Health Check’s Troubleshoot mode to disable all plugins, go into live preview, and see if the image is there. If it is, the problem is in your content or your theme, but since you said it happened with several themes, it should be either your content or a plugin. If the image isn’t there, enable plugins one by one until the image shows up in live preview. Then you know which plugin is causing the problem. Then you can remove the Health Check plugin.

The plugins disabled are only disabled for your user. Your visitors will still see the site with plugins enabled. (The reviews you read are from the much older version of the plugin, before the WP Support team lead took over the plugin. That newer version is the basis of WP core’s Site Health code.)

The light dawns! I understand what you are saying and will check it out. I have found two themes that I think will do the trick, so I’m good there. They also show the mobile view as goofy, so I’m more that willing to try out Health check and see what’s up.

Many thanks,
Judith

OH, in case it matters, the problem with the mobile view is not just in ‘live preview.’ The current website, with my current theme, is responsive but mobile device users see that goofy image. That’s how I found out about it.

But I appreciate your assistance and will check out the “Health Check” plugin soonest.

I’m hopeless…I installed Health Check. I did the Health Check and most issues have to do with the fact that my php needs updating. But everyone says to change the theme first and then update the php, so that’s on hold. My issue is with what Mobile users see, but I do not know how to see the Mobile View of my site from my dashboard. It’s probably something obvious, but I don’t know what it is. I’ve read the www.remarpro.com page on Troubleshooting using the Health Check, but it didn’t help.

Can you help there?

The Health Check part of the plugin is the predecessor to Site Health that is in core. What I was saying to use is the Troubleshoot mode to disable all plugins. Then go into ‘live preview’, which I assume is the Customizer (unless you meant the Preview from the editor), to see if the problem remains.

Even in “Customize” I do not see any means of looking at the Mobile Users view.

In Troubleshoot mode, it shows themes that are available. Choose one, and you then have to return to Appearance, at which point just the chosen theme is shown. Buttons along the bottom show Customize, Widgets, Menu, Header, background. Choosing ‘customize’ takes you to a view of the website but nothing there has any indication of Mobile view.

It states right on the Health Check Troubleshoot dialogue box that the only one who sees changes is me, not visitors. So it won’t do me any good to get out a tablet and go visit the site, as the mobile view will still be goofy and undetered by troubleshooting.

What am I missing?

If I have to turn off the site, and then enable plugins one at a time, whilst I use a tablet to see the changes, I’ll do that. Especially if someone can tell me how to make a temporary front page that says “This site is under construction. Come back later.” But sure would rather not!

FYI anyone who has a similar issue and follows this to its bitter end:
Healthcheck didn’t help with the issue of mobile view.
Never got an answer from anyone on seeing mobile view from WordPress dashboard.
Turned out that tablet sees the page the same as my PC and laptop. Image problem is only on smartphones. I’ve decided it isn’t worth the hassle to change.