Title: Making a theme responsive
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Making a theme responsive

 *  [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * (@iantskon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/)
 * So I know your theme is responsive, but had a split decision between owners where
   they decided to go with another developer. This other developer bought a “premium”
   theme for their WordPress (which previously had frontier installed) and used 
   it instead. Well now they aren’t happy because this new site isn’t responsive
   and they want me to make it responsive for them.
    I’ve never done this before,
   but that’s not going to stop me from putting a bid on it and trying to figure
   it out. So my question is, how difficult would it be for me to take a site/theme
   that isn’t responsive (i.e. [http://www.activorenewables.com](http://www.activorenewables.com))
   and make it responsive using CSS [@media](https://wordpress.org/support/users/media/)
   queries…
 * thanks for any advice in advance
    -Ian

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  Theme Author [ronangelo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ronangelo/)
 * (@ronangelo)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428728)
 * > So my question is, how difficult would it be for me to take a site/theme that
   > isn’t responsive
 * It’s quite simple if the theme only has 1 or 2 columns. It would be a matter 
   of adding `max-width: 100%;` to the divs and some content (images, videos…)
 * You can use media queries to indicate when a div goes underneath another to form
   1 column in case there are 2 initially. Media queries would also be useful to
   control when certain elements are shown or hidden. Ex. Some theme have separate
   navigation menus for certain screen sizes.
 *  Thread Starter [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * (@iantskon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428736)
 * [@ron](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ron/) thanks, I’ll be playing with
   it tonight so I’m sure I’ll be back with some more questions before long.
    I’ll
   be more than happy to send some cash your way for your time.
 *  [CrouchingBruin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/crouchingbruin/)
 * (@crouchingbruin)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428740)
 * The site looks simple enough to convert. I would say your biggest hurdles will
   be making the slideshow resize itself and toggling to a drop-down or hamburger
   menu at whatever screen width you decide on.
 *  Thread Starter [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * (@iantskon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428741)
 * So the first issue I’ve run into is that my cell phone is still viewing the site
   as a “desktop” site. You mentioned some themes having separate navigation menus
   for certain screen sizes, I think that is the client’s main concern – having 
   menus be readable/navigable on smaller screens.
 * I created a test version of the [clients site](http://www.sulu13.net/test/) while
   I try to learn/figure out the media queries, etc.
 * I’m beginning to think it may be easier (for me anyways) to take a responsive
   layout (such as the frontier theme) and style it to look like the client’s current
   set up (complexity-2), although over all I would like to better understand media
   queries.
 *  Theme Author [ronangelo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ronangelo/)
 * (@ronangelo)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428745)
 * > my cell phone is still viewing the site as a “desktop”
 * You’ve added the `max-width: 100%;` right? Add this on the `<head>`
 *     ```
       <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * (@iantskon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428775)
 * Thanks for the tip, I put that meta tag into the <head> and it now recognizes
   my max-width styling.
    This is as far as I’ve gotten… [http://www.sulu13.net/test/](http://www.sulu13.net/test/)
   Still playing with it, I know the menu is supposed to be displayed as a block
   and not a table, right? I couldn’t seem to get that to work. No luck with the
   slider either. Going to get back to it tomorrow, signing off for now. Any advice
   is welcome. Cheers!
 *  Thread Starter [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * (@iantskon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428777)
 * *update*
 * I was able to make the menu a block, just had to change height to 100% for it
   to view correctly.
 * The menu looks good from my phone, but when I click on any of links other than
   the home page it becomes distorted.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Making a theme responsive’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 7 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ian Schoonover](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iantskon/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-responsive/#post-4428777)
 * Status: not a support question