Thursday 20 December 2007

TIP - Screw that Spanner

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I may be in a majority of ONE, but I've always disliked the "Screwdriver & Spanner" icons that appear below every widget in the sidebar. I KNOW my visitors cannot see these distractions, and that they only appear on the page of the blog owner, but I don't like the S&S, so there!

It irritates me because I know that I can access the widgets through my control panel, BUT your take might be different. Especially if you've added a lot of widgets and when you look at them in "Add and Arrange Page Elements", you don't have a clue which one is which. If you are in this category, then skip this 'tute'!

And then there is that "Pencil" icon below every post! Do you need it? For my part the answer is an emphatic 'YES', because I've lost count of the number of times I've re-read a post and found a typo that needs a quick correction. At least the "Pencil" takes me directly to the edit window of the post without having to click through several different steps to reach the same area.

 

 


 

Want to remove one, or the other, or both? You've come to the right place!


 

1. THE PENCIL

Go to Settings | Basic and where it asks you the question, "Show Quick Editing on your Blog?", simply answer "No"

Done.


 

2. THE SPANNER & SCREWDRIVER

Only a bit more complicated. That is, if you consider editing HTML as complicated! You only have to insert a bit of CSS code into the CSS already in your template.

Go to Template | Edit HTML, scroll down until you find the CSS properties and insert the following code anywhere on a new line immediately after a closing brace [ } ]:

.quickedit {
display:none;
}

It is a good idea to put a 'commented-out' description of what you've just inserted, so that you can find it again quickly if you wish to reverse your editing.

 

 


 

Here is another 'screencap' of the same area I captured in the first pic, showing that the 'spanner has been screwed', but if you start to get withdrawal symptons without them there, retrace your steps and undo what you've just done!

 

 

Happy Blogging!

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9 comments:

John said...

Egads! I've always wondered what the pencil was for! I've been editing the old fashioned way...

virtual nexus said...

Neat pieces of advice - I've been looking for a straightforward Calendar widget, and have copied yours. With thanks, J

Fletch said...

You're both welcome. Glad the 'advice' is of some use ...

Charlene Amsden said...

About that pencil -- I have a blog that doesn't have one, and I love it on my others. Can you tell me why it's missing and how to fix it?

Charlene Amsden said...

Oh, I forgot to tell you -- no pencil even though I have quit editing enabled. Does it matter which tempalte one uses? And how do I tell before I choose one?

Charlene Amsden said...

quick!

ack!

Of course, now that you think I'm an idiot, never mind.

ALSO: I found you through David's blog (which I visited for the first time yesterday).

Fletch said...

'ack', indeed, quilly.

So, have you got a pencile or not?. Did you deactivate it by accident? Did you misplace it and find it again? Did you ... (ermmm ... what is the meaning of life)?

Let me know if you're still having a problem with that pesky pencil.

Shauna said...

Thank god I got ridda that awful screwdriver, thanks a hundred times, they were making me nuts!!! :)

Fletch said...

Made my day, Shauna.

I was beginning to think I was the only one in the 'blogosphere' that disliked the "Screwdriver and Spanner" icons.