First off you should use always use a child theme. Second have you made sure you have targeted the correct element using a tool such as firebug? Third some themes when dependent on a parent themes css you will need to add !important declaration to overide the css. Example:
#example {
font-size: 14px !important;
}
It’s worth noting that !important should only be used when the ‘cascading nature’ isn’t being used in a theme. If you do find like shawn38 said you need to use it you should look at why not just use it. Often you will find you don’t have to use it if use a more direct call like:
Say you have:
`
`
Now.. h1 isn’t cutting it as there is a global h1 colour. But, you can try:
`.entry-title h1{
}`
You are basically saying ‘this one right here’ not ‘all of them’.
Often this works better for pin pointing things and avoids what we should all be trying to avoid which is !important. It really is bad practice to use in this case without it being your last resort as it breaks the entire point of CSS ie; cascading.
@newbie2011 first of all, congratulations on fixing alignment of your Members Directory page for Step 3 of the BP compatibility process 
The difference between members directory page from the activity page was that the div surrounding the content for members directory was `
` which had paddings and margins in your stylesheet while the div surrounding the activity was `
` which had no style associated with it at all.
So either you change the div in all the remaining BP template files from `
` to `
` or, just make the change in stylesheet
from
`.bpcontent {
margin: 0 0 10px;
padding: 10px;
}`
to
`#bpcontent,
.bpcontent {
margin: 0 0 10px;
padding: 10px;
}`
Btw, initial scan of your theme shows that you have the option of creating on two files, header-buddypress.php and sidebar-buddypress.php, to make your theme compatible with BP instead of revising the 16 BP template files transferred to your theme folder in server. FYI.
@shawn38, The site was using a blog from wordpress and the theme was well liked and buddypress was just a test at first. It seemed to work out pretty well for what the site needs. I will keep this in mind for any other future buddypress projects. The !important seemed to work. Thanks.
@karmatosed, Thanks for your input and will be using that as well.
@mercime, Thanks but, the way I aligned it isn’t proper. I added styles to each element because when I use the .bpcontent div it was only fixing the Members Directory page. The rest of the pages ended up still being out of alignment. Your post makes sense and I should have noticed that but, I didn’t. Thanks for that one. The sidebar-buddypress,php is no longer in use or shouldn’t be. I am using or planning on using my themes sidebar.php. This made it much easier when making the theme compatible. I am going to go back and fix the css and see if my alignment issue works out a little easier.
Thanks for everyones input, I am sure I’ll be back.
@newbie2011 just saying that it would be easier creating two files instead of changing 16 BP template files since you’re fortunate that your theme’s HTML structure allows it. See an example of how it was done for the Evolution Theme. The additions to the header-buddypress.php and sidebar-buddypress.php would be different in your case, but you get what I mean. Should you decide to go this route, backup your revisions.
@mercime, yes I understand you by being easier. I am going to take a peek at the Evolution Theme. Thanks
@newbie2011 we have a list of “template-packed” WordPress themes @ https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/#template-packed-wordpress-themes
If you need assistance for your current theme, open up your theme’s header.php, copy all code, paste in pastebin.com, click submit and post the generated URI here. Do the same for your theme’s index.php, page.php, sidebar.php and footer.php
Hi there,
I am also having problems with setting up my website correctly. I cannot seem to get the width of the members directory to fit inside the width of my page.
Would really appreciate any help possible. The page in question is: http://www.coveringthebasics.org/community/members/
Thanks in advance!
Cleaus
@cleaus please start a new topic for your own theme and I’ll help you there.
