help with Firebug for WordPress

  • Resolved Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)


    14 years, 11 months ago

    I don’t get it. Every time something i can’t figure out how to style correctly and is *clearly* coded wrong (because it looks wrong on the front-end) i open up Firebug to try to diagnose the problem, and I have never once been able to do it. I just want Firebug to “show me the money”. like, “oh, there it is, i see it. I see the problem now.” I’m beginning to think that my Firebug is defective. I’m pretty sure that I’m not defective, but if anyone here can prove me wrong, it would make my day.

    I want to learn how to fish, I really do. I don’t just want you to give me a fish, I want you to teach me how to fish, with Firebug. So all I’m asking, is if you can go to the following website (http://bit.ly/n1BnkN) see where the text in the Header is clearly off, and open firebug, and take a simple screenshot of “where” “exactly” Firebug shows you what is wrong with this code.

    Heck, you don’t even have to do it with my site. You can do it with any site. Again, I’m not concerned just about fixing this particular problem, I just want to understand why I *never* can see what is wrong in Firebug. I just want someone, anyone to post a screenshot of the Firebug interface, where Firebug is actually showing you “<– fix this code here” or “this is what’s wrong —>”. I just want to see with my own eyes, how they display it, because I have yet to witness it.

    I’m sorry, this is a cry for help.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • esmi

    (@esmi)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    I’d happily do that but I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to the header text being “off”.

    teolives

    (@teolives)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    I don’t see anything wrong with your site… nor will Firebug!
    The w3c validator though finds some errors: check your site at http://validator.w3.org and correct the errors and see if new ones show up once you’ve corrected the old ones.

    I assume you are either using Mozilla or Chrome if you are using Firebug.
    When you launch it by pressing the bug icon it should open a window in the bottom part of your browser that will show you the HTML, CSS and script (and so forth) part of the site you are examining. That’s it, no flashy messages telling you what’s wrong with your site!
    Firebug is extremely useful though if you want to style a site: you can change style properties on the fly and see immediately the output on your screen, you can select items from the site and see what is the style associated to the divs that contain them, etc.

    There are a few Firebug’s tutorials out there that you might want to have a look at but I guess you are asking Firebug to do something is not capable of.

    Thread Starter Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    sorry, your display is probably not wide enough then. the site title is actually 3 words, and the third word is ‘Records’ which got moved down a carriage return and pushed all the way left side of the site, outside the main #wrap.

    Thread Starter Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    Teolives, yes, I understand that, but when i launch it and in the window there are two panes, and in the right pane it shows the CSS and I am expecting to see something in there that points out which lines of code are wrong. how am I supposed to know which lines of code are negatively affecting the display? I’ve watched several tutorials in the past, btw.

    Thread Starter Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    teolives, the w3c validator only showed one errer, it was with an alt tag

    Thread Starter Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    well i solved the problem. but i would still like to know how firebug works. or you seem to be saying that you are supposed to use it to play around with the CSS and ‘poke and hope’ to see where your problem is. if that is so … Whip’em Out Wednesday

    Moderator Helen Hou-Sandi

    (@helen)

    Core Lead Developer and 4.0, 4.7, and 5.6 Release Lead

    14 years, 11 months ago

    Firebug can only show you what is there in your code, it can’t read your mind and know what’s “wrong”. If you are selling your web design services, you should be able to look at the CSS that’s listed for a given element and figure out what is making it display in a way that you don’t want it to (e.g. it’s not wide enough, it’s inheriting a color from somewhere else, etc.). There is no way for a computer to know that, say, you don’t want something to be green. As far as the computer is concerned, the code told it to be green so there it is. It’s up to you as the human to figure out what code is making that undesired result happen. The only errors a computer can tell you about are technical/syntax ones, e.g. something spelled wrong or not found.

    Thread Starter Grackle Design

    (@mikedark)

    14 years, 11 months ago

    my bad. [Removed uncalled for remarks – Mod.]

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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