Styling Your Wordpress Comments

A fun part of customizing Wordpress themes is designing a comments format which complements the rest of the site. Here are three examples from recent projects, including code samples and downloads to the original .PSDs:

Green Gravatars

This comment style was part of a very green-and-beige environmental blog which since received a makeover. It requires the gravatar plugin and three different images: the scanlines, the clock and the gradient, which can be exported from your .PSD.

First, we’ll need to first edit the ordered-list section of the “comments.php” template:

<ol class="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<cite>
<img src="<?php gravatar("R", 32); ?>" alt="" />
<span class="author"><?php comment_author_link() ?></span><br /><span class="time"><?php comment_time() ?></span> on <a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?></a> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?>
</cite>
<div class="commenttext"><?php comment_text() ?></div>
<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>
<?php endif; ?>
</li>
<?php
/* Changes every other comment to a different class */
$oddcomment = ( empty( $oddcomment ) ) ? 'class="alt" ' : '';
?>
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
</ol>

Aside from a few images, the rest of the styling is accomplished with CSS:

ol.commentlist {
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
	}

.commentlist li {
	list-style:none;
	margin-bottom:14px;
	}

.commentlist cite {
	padding: 7px;
	display:block;
	font-style:normal;
	background:url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_comments2_cite.gif);
	border-top:1px solid #d6e4c1;
	border-bottom:1px solid #779d42;
	color:#596e3b;
	}	

.commentlist a:link, .commentlist a:visited {
	color:#596e3b;
	}

.commentlist a:hover, .commentlist a:active {
	color:#8ec343;
	}

.commentlist cite img {
	padding:1px;
	border:1px solid #aab59a;
	float:left;
	margin-right:9px;
	}

.commentlist .author {
	font: small-caps bold 1.2em Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
	text-decoration:underline;
	}

.commentlist .time {
	background: url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_clock.gif) no-repeat 1px;
	padding-left:13px;
	}

.commenttext {
	background: #9bc561 url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_comments2_text.jpg) repeat-x bottom;
	border-top:1px solid #c5f386;
	padding: 0 20px 10px 20px;
	color:#fafcf6;
	}

Keep in mind, each of these examples uses ems for font sizing, so your existing CSS may need to be tinkered with to match the screenshot above.

Download

The Speech Bubble

I designed this comment style for my company’s website. It requires two images, the quote marks and the little curl. The relevant template code looks like this:

<ol class="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<div class="quote"><?php comment_text() ?></div>
<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>
<?php endif; ?>
</li>
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?> on <a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?></a></cite>
<?php
/* Changes every other comment to a different class */
$oddcomment = ( empty( $oddcomment ) ) ? 'class="alt" ' : '';
?>
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
</ol>

And here is the CSS:

.commentlist .quote {
	background:url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_quote.gif) no-repeat top right;
	}

.commentlist li {
 	padding: 5px 18px 22px 18px;
	margin-top:15px;
	background:#454545 url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_commentlist.gif) bottom no-repeat;
	color:#e4edee;
	}

.commentlist cite {
	display:block;
	font-style:normal
	}

.commentlist cite a:link, .commentlist cite a:visited {
	color:#88e5f0;
	text-decoration:none;
	}

.commentlist cite a:hover, .commentlist cite a:active {
	color:#FFF;
	text-decoration:underline;
	}

Download

Alternating Arrows

This comment styling originated from a music magazine I mocked up but never quite launched (so feel free to use it). I don’t always make use of the “.alt” class for comments, but it’s handy here for making the arrow and colors alternate. The images used are two different “paint” effects, the diagonal pattern, the chainlink and two kinds of arrows.

Here is the template code:

<ol class="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<div class="commenttext">
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?></cite>
<?php comment_text() ?>
<span class="date"><img src="/images/commentlink.gif" alt="" /> <a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_time() ?> on <?php comment_date('n/j/y') ?></a></span> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?>
</div>
<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>
<?php endif; ?>
</li>
<?php
/* Changes every other comment to a different class */
$oddcomment = ( empty( $oddcomment ) ) ? 'class="alt" ' : '';?>
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
</ol>

And here is the CSS:

ol.commentlist {
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
	}

.commentlist li {
	margin-bottom:8px;
	background: #60360b url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/comment_arrows.gif) bottom no-repeat;
	color:#FFF;
	list-style:none;
	width:413px;
	}

.commentlist .commenttext {
	background:url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_paint.gif) no-repeat;
	padding:22px 22px 50px 22px;
	}

.commentlist cite {
	display:block;
	color:#FFF;
	font-weight:bold;
	text-transform:uppercase;
	font-style:normal;
	background:url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_cite_arrows.gif) bottom repeat-x;
	padding-bottom:12px;
	font-size:1.1em;
	}

.commentlist a:link, .commentlist a:visited {
	color:#fff9b9;
	}

.commentlist a:hover, .commentlist a:active {
	color:#FFF;
	}

.commentlist .date {
	background:#930e27;
	padding:3px;
	}

li.alt {
	background:#836241 url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/comment_arrows_alt.gif) bottom no-repeat;
	}

li.alt .commenttext {
	background:url(http://www.yoursite.com/images/bg_paint_alt.gif) no-repeat;
	}	

li.alt .date {
	background:#67421c;
	padding:3px;
	}

Download

131 Responses {+}

Aug 30
6:17 am

Sudar
Thanks for sharing your work.

{Reply}
- May 11
  9:31 am
  
  reji
  knlknlknl
  
  {Reply}
Sep 7
8:47 am

Fred
Thanks ! It will help a lot :)

{Reply}
Oct 10
2:28 pm

indojepang
thank u for sharing !! :D

{Reply}
- May 6
  12:50 am
  
  gobi.a
  nice
  
  {Reply}
Oct 17
9:16 am

manfred
Thx mate for the tutorial. But please check your code. There are some typos in it.

Ex: id=”comment-”
should be
” id=”comment-”

{Reply}
Jan 3
9:21 pm

Martha
Beautiful styling! I’m determined to make this work, though I must admit I’ve spent quite a while trying to identify the errors. I keep getting Parse Error codes and the only changes I made was add this code. *sigh*

{Reply}
Jan 13
3:00 pm

Craig Knott
I just wanted to send you a quick hello and a thank you for this very useful article. I found myself searching through the web looking for some kind of tutorial, or at least a website, that covered the structure of the comments.php.

Feel welcome to take a peek (and more than welcome to have a bash at making author comments stand out; my style.css has a worrying mish-mash of your code and the original that causes headaches).

I digress. Thanks once again for the useful guide. Credit where credit’s due.

{Reply}
Feb 18
3:18 am

Wallace
Using white-space in comments?
Test 2 “nbsp”

{Reply}
Mar 15
2:39 pm

Jenny
how would you do the comments so that the comments and trackbacks are seperate?

{Reply}
Mar 20
12:34 pm

darkbloom
how do you do italics

{Reply}
Mar 26
1:34 am

Merci
Darren, you rock! Thank you very much for the tutorials. More power to you!

{Reply}
Apr 7
4:40 am

Posicionamiento Valencia
This post is a great help to me. Thanks for all.

{Reply}
Apr 8
5:25 am

Kris
Hi, I have a typepad account and I was wondering if anyone new of a tutorial that went step by step to show how to style the comment section. The above is great but I’m a complete novice and need a bit more explaining. Thanks so much !

{Reply}
Apr 14
9:18 am

Jesse Petersen
Darren, this is a huge help to get on the way understanding the inner working of comments. I have trashed dozens of themes in my time because I didn’t like how the comments and input boxes were styled.

One question: How can you distinguish between the author/blog representative and other commenters to allow a visitor to see that particular comments are the blog’s stance? I think that would be a terrific modification to the gravatar style (i.e., change the background color for the blog owner).

Thanks!

{Reply}
Apr 19
10:30 am

Sofija
Very nice blog design and layout!

{Reply}
Jun 13
1:52 am

Jack
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this post. I was able to implement it with no problems whatsoever. Big up!

{Reply}
Jun 16
4:04 pm

Karl
Hi there,

I am trying to implement this idea in my website but for some reason the numbers are not showing up against the comments. What code would allow me to do this or what code might be preventing this?

Thanks

{Reply}
Jun 17
4:16 pm

barry
Thanks for your great help!

{Reply}
Jun 26
9:32 pm

WINDOWS
Óõ òû ,êë¸âî !

{Reply}
Jun 29
6:07 am

seyret
thank you i am downloaded good job.

{Reply}
Jul 7
3:11 am

M3DS Real
Great work,Thank you for tharing it!

{Reply}
- Feb 27
  5:55 am
  
  Bali Megah Villas
  The Info very help me, thank a lots.
  
  {Reply}
  - Apr 28
    1:27 pm
    
    Darren
    Thanks!
  - May 10
    3:29 pm
    
    çizgifilm
    Thanks for your great help!