Word Press Issues

Sidebar.php is the common file to edit and it can be usually edited within wp-admin, in the design editor screen.

Do you want to actually edit the code or do you want to add content/widgets to your sidebar?

If the latter, go to Appearance-Widgets

From there you can drag and drop widets into your sidebar.

If you want to edit code then yes, you'll need notepad at the least.

Pete

Nobody should ever use the online theme editor. Period.

In order to make it work - you need to set the permissions (chmod) on the files to 666 (satanic number: meaning all the hackers have access to your files, LOL). Just check out what says under the text filed where you see your files.
And it doesn't have an Undo button!

Do yourself a favour and download the file via FTP; edit it in a plain text editor like Notepad; upload it and you are done.

WARNING! Don't forget to make a backup copy before messing around with it... just in case!

I am not sure whose post you understand "fully"...

With FTP you don't "extract" - you download the files from the server and upload them.
FTP = File Transfer Protocol; a way to move files between your computer and the host server (another computer, basically).
[go, search on youtube; you will find zillion basic tutorials about how to ftp]

If any hostgator rep told you that you cannot access your files via FTP... you either asked the wrong question or the person was drunk.

Use Filezilla for FTP in combo with your editor of choice, such as Notepad++, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc. Make certain you setup your default editor in Filezilla.

This way you can right click to edit the file and when you save the file in your editor, Filezilla automatically prompts you to upload the changes. Simple as pie.

For your WordPress sidebar issues...

Text Widgets allow you to add ads, text, etc. to your sidebar. There are other widgets such as calendar, categories, tags, etc. that can all be added to the sidebar from the "Widgets" link located in the "Appearance" section of the WP Admin panel.

You will need to modify the CSS code if you want to change the colors for the sidebar.

If you want to add more sidebars or remove sidebars, then you will need to modify the PHP code for site.

If you can't figure out FTP or basic hosting tasks, then just go to YouTube and you can find plenty of people demonstrating this very task.

If you don't quite understand wordpress then you can check out WordPress.tv... or YouTube.

Hope that helps.

Dennis

UPDATE:

The .sql file you have is just a copy of the database for the WordPress blog. You need to be a little more specific about the exact problem you are having, so we can better help you.

That's a database file - what are you trying to do with it? And HG might be right: the .sql files are NOT uploaded/downloaded via FTP.

Why the heck are you messing with the database if you want to edit your sidebar?

He was referring to sidebar.php. Please specify what you are trying to accomplish... so we can help you.

I said to download the sidebar.php - which should be in the public_html/wp-content/themes/YOUR-ACTIVE-THEME/ folder on your server, when accessed via FTP.

I second jjp's suggestion: you should watch a few youtube videos on FTP (and WP) basics.

1. Is the page where you enable the sidbars, is that where you put text into?
Answer: Adding text to sidebar is usually done with widgets. Go to Appearance>Widgets
Then you choose the text widget and drag and drop it into a widget area.

2. Is the page where you enable the sidbars, is that where you put text into?
Answer: Why do you need to enable a sidebar? Are you creating a new theme, adding an extra sidebar to an existing theme, or something like that?

3. And do I need a editor to acomplish.
Answer: What you you want to accomplish?

I think you need something like this:

I am impressed that some of you know how to answer Power User's question, because I am not at all sure what Power User is asking and wants to do? I tried to decipher it and answer as best as I could.

An editor to do what exactly?

I just marvel at the tech knowledge you guys have! Whilst I don't understand much about the issue (in fact I can't work even out what the issue is) the help you guys are giving amazes me. Here was I thinking that Wordpress is a teddy bear when it seems its a grizzly! But then, my blogs are pretty basic.

Veronica

One other thing that I have seen on some themes is that if you use widgets the code in the sidebar does not get displayed. It's an either or - either you have the widgets or you have the code in the sidebar.

If this is the case with your theme, and you have widgets, then nothing you do to sidebar.php will show up.

I don't know if it is the case, just mentioning it.

But why wouldn't you just use a widget anyway? Why go messing around in sidebar.php unless you are decent programmer? You can really screw your site up.

Lee

admin panel > Appearance > Widgets: drag the "Search" widget to your sidebar. Save changes. Done.

poweruser i think this is quite a learning curve for you man. Also remember the wordpress.org forum has tons of how tos on it

Basically anything you wish to add or take away from a theme can get a little bit sticky if your not familiar with html or editing

wordpress blogs are made up of parts, sidebar, header, etc. They must be writable, you can make them writable by logging into your site using a ftp client like coreftp ( free ) then right clicking on the files and setting to like 644

edit them and then set them back to what they were ( honestly you wont get hacked in between doing it, thats only for the paranoid )

Go under appearances, into sidebar.php now depending on the theme some have 2 side bars make sure your in the right one, some themes have 1 sidebar file but both sidebar left and right are in it.

as for widgets not all themes are setup for them.

what is is you wish to add, show us your site

Power User, I checked out your blog. It is using a theme called
Suffusion. I've never used it so I don't how much about it. From I read, it has extensive widget area functionality, so it really doesn't seem that there would be any need to edit sidebars with notepad.