wp_guy

Then… I think it’s not just a matter of CSS… since the columns should load in order…

You could separate the sidebar.php in two: sidebar-left.php and sidebar-right.php and then change your index.php file to load the left sidebar, then the main content and then the right sidebar… something like:

<?php get_sidebar("left"); ?>

<div id="content">
...
</div>

<?php get_sidebar("right); ?>

Then the CSS part should be much easier.

Indeed… what the code in your sidebar.php file does is: If the widgets feature is available and there are widgets, then show these widgets, if not, then show the regular sidebar.

If you want your regular sidebar AND the widgets then you might want to change your code to something like:

<div id="sidebar">

<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar() ) : ?>
    <!-- What happens if there are no widgets -->
<?php endif; ?>

<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>' ); ?>

<h2>Archives</h2>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>

<h2>Calendar</h2>
<?php get_calendar(1); ?>

<h2>Categories</h2>
<?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=0&hide_empty=0&all=1'); ?>

<?php /* If this is the frontpage */ if ( is_home() || is_page() ) { ?>
<?php get_links_list(); ?>

<?php } ?>

</div>

how so?

No problem… I just tend to avoid raw database queries in case the database structure changed in future WP releases.

Raw PHP files don’t validate, because they contain PHP code, and PHP code isn’t HTML.

Try validating the whole site instead of just the PHP files.

I’d recommend you create a different page template with a separate loop.

More on page templates.

Custom loop extracted from here:

// Get the last 10 posts in the special_cat category.
<?php query_posts('category_name=special_cat&showposts=10'); ?>

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
    <!-- Do special_cat stuff... -->
<?php endwhile;?>

lol >:-O