Title: diff style on latest post, diff layout for single Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # diff style on latest post, diff layout for single * [retardedjimmy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retardedjimmy/) * (@retardedjimmy) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/) * Hi all, I’m new to wordpress, but working my way steadily through a redesign from moveable type. I love all the functionality, and I’m quickly picking up the php ins and outs as I go along. I have the feeling these two questions are easy to answer, but I haven’t yet seen documentation, on wiki or boards. 1) On my main homepage, I want to emphasize the latest post, probably by using different style tags in my wp-layout css. Can I single out the first post (latest post shown) and style it differently than the others shown on the page? 2) I want to put different lists on the side menu on single post pages (individual archives in mt speak), but it seems like single post pages are just the index.php layout with only one post inside “#content”. Can I change my side menu based on how many posts are being shown in the main content area? Can anybody point me in the right direction on either one of these? Thanks much Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/page/2/?output_format=md) * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92561) * for question #2: Take a look at this [http://wiki.wordpress.org/HideStuffOnPermalinkPage](http://wiki.wordpress.org/HideStuffOnPermalinkPage) * Thread Starter [retardedjimmy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retardedjimmy/) * (@retardedjimmy) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92578) * Nice. Here’s what the solution looks like. In index.php: ` Thanks. Any ideas on #1 anyone? * Thread Starter [retardedjimmy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retardedjimmy/) * (@retardedjimmy) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92585) * Ok thanks Beel (and moshu, i didn’t thank you before). That works, kind of. Once I got it, it worked out (the `else` has to be closed before the `endforeach` of the loop, in case anyone else is trying it), but the problem now is that it changes the format of _every_ first post, not just the ones on the homepage, but also the ones on the archives, even on the individual pages. I could probably work around it, but the front page is meant to be like a splash, with a bigger, brighter design then the rest. Does anyone know if there are any global flags to test whether a page is an archive (monthly or cat), a single page or the basic homepage? `$single` works, but is there a `$home` or an `$archive`? Heh, thinking out loud, that means I’d have to put my `$count` loop inside yet another `$home` test loop. 🙂 good times. * [Beel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/beel/) * (@beel) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92642) * What version of WP are you using? * Thread Starter [retardedjimmy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retardedjimmy/) * (@retardedjimmy) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92646) * 1.2 mingus * Thread Starter [retardedjimmy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retardedjimmy/) * (@retardedjimmy) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92688) * Found a solution, if not a very smooth or beautiful one… Basically I used `if(! single)`, `if ($p)`, `if ($m)’, and ‘if ($cat)’ a lot. There are crazy loops all over the page, and unfortunately everything gets loaded everytime index.php is loaded (a blog all in one page!), but I can do what I wanted, which is show different menus and different formatting depending on what page I’m on. Maybe 1.3 will have a better method of linking to new templates. In the meantime, if anyone knows a better way, I’m all ears. * [charle97](https://wordpress.org/support/users/charle97/) * (@charle97) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92689) * if you’re using the clean uri option for your permalinks, you can create separate templates for individual and category archives and then modify the rewrite rule corresponding to each type of archive by replacing ‘index.php’ with the names of the templates. * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92863) * Charle, could you further explain the process that would be needed to achieve these separate templates? If you could walk me through what I’d have to do to set this up that would be great. Thank you! Max * [elasticdog](https://wordpress.org/support/users/elasticdog/) * (@elasticdog) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92864) * Boy…that formatting didn’t really work. Let me try again: ` // Faking multiple templates for #subcolumn if ($single) { require('includes/subcolumn-single.php');// individual posts } else if ($cat) { require('includes/subcolumn-category.php');// categorical listings } else if ($m) { require('includes/subcolumn-month.php');// monthly listings } else if ($year) { require('includes/subcolumn-year.php'); // yearly listings } else { require('includes/subcolumn-home.php'); // home page} * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92865) * Thanks ElasticDog. Not exactly what I was looking for.. I should give an example. Let’s say I have my index.php and I format it and it’s all perfect for the index of my site, then I have another category which is “news” and I want to use different HTML for that page; I want to take this category and link it’s template to a different file. Maybe it’s the same template with some introductory text at the beginning which is only relevant to the news section of the site and therefore should only be displayed there. I’m new to WP and not so great with PHP, so if you guys have some ideas you might have to walk me through the process. Thanks again! Max * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92873) * Thanks a lot! I really appreciate your help, absolutely invaluable! * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92874) * Can I substitute the category id in place of the name? Such as: ` * [elasticdog](https://wordpress.org/support/users/elasticdog/) * (@elasticdog) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92875) * That’s a good question…I honestly don’t know. If you _can_ do it, you’d have to leave the category ID outside of quotes, since it’s a value and not a string. So that would give you: ` …but I don’t know if that will work or not. Give it a shot 🙂 * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92876) * Interestingly enough here’s what I did: ` I had to put my feedback div in an external file and include it in this script so that it would disappear. Note, this is about the extent of my PHP knowledge, but it does work. Again, thanks for your help, Max * [Doraemon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doraemon/) * (@doraemon) * [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/#post-92877) * Interestingly enough here’s what I did: ` I had to put my feedback div in an external file and include it in this script so that it would disappear. Note, this is about the extent of my PHP knowledge, but it does work. Again, thanks for your help, Max Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘diff style on latest post, diff layout for single’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 16 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [elasticdog](https://wordpress.org/support/users/elasticdog/) * Last activity: [21 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/diff-style-on-latest-post-diff-layout-for-single/page/2/#post-92904) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics