[Resolved] Version of GP Premium to get rid of the Global Typography. . . .

[Robert Holland]

Folks:

Today, 10/13/22, I restored my WordPress website (www . RobertDeanHolland . com) to GP Premium (GPP) Version 2.1.2

I also learned that restoring my site back to the 06/25/22 backup, also took the GPP version back to 2.1.2. Unfortunately, I still have the new Global Typography setting that has essentially (at this time) rendered me unbale to get to the older controls for typography, and I’m still stick with the new color bar so I cannot even find out what color I my text is set to. Neither can I discover what font. If I cannot find this out and document it, I will never be able to move to the new Global Parameter Controls of Version of 3.1.3

How far back must I restore my website to, to get back to where the confusing Global Settings can be turned off [or are not present]? I will take the hit of lost content update to get back to the older paradigm until I can maybe test it on a model website. FYI — your mindless upgrade algorithm corrupted my public, online, company website just when I’m trying to get three novels of a trilogy published and in paperback, and do not have time to mess with an full shift in the development paradigm.

Lastly, I have squawked loud and louder about not getting any email or notifications that the upgrade would apply some mindless algorithm-of-transformation against my site. Surely you people knew it would/could mangle people’s websites and leave them confused about the paradigm because all of the trusted controls are gone. Communications ought to be improved.

[David]

Hi there,

the Global Typography system was introduced back in September 2021 in the GeneratePress Theme 3.1 update:

https://generatepress.com/generatepress-3-1-global-colors-dynamic-typography/

However, on existing websites that upgraded to 3.1, there would have been no change to the Typography system as the Dynamic Typography had to be opted in to by the user. The option was available in Customizer > General.

So you would need to restore a backup at a time before that option was selected in the customizer. Do you know when that was ?

Regarding the communication, as this major change was an Opt In, and not automatic we documented the change here:

https://docs.generatepress.com/article/dynamic-typography-overview/

And included this documentation along with the customizer screenshots to make it clear what could happen, and to check carefully before publishing the change:

https://docs.generatepress.com/article/switching-to-dynamic-typography/

We are sorry if this update has caused you issue and frustration, it was not our intent, and we believed the Opt In method we choose was the most effective way to ensure a seamless transition would occur.

[Robert Holland]

David, I restored www. RobertDeanHolland . com to a Boldgrid Total Upkeep backup (BU) from 06/25/22. It still had the global settings toggled on.

I then restored a BU from 05/25/22, and it wiped out my CSS and dashboard. I had to have InMotion Support restore the 06/25/22 BU last night at 9:00 PM because my WP dashboard was nothing but an outline. Fearing that the 05/25/22 backup restoration somehow got interrupted and was incomplete, I tried restoring it again today, 10/14/22, with the same results–CSS and dashboard wiped out. The only conclusion is the the 05/25/22 BU is corrupt.

Now I am forced to delete the 05/25/22 BU [from my InMotion directory] since I have proven it fails, then upload a BU via FTP from 12/22/21 (from my PC) to InMotion as the oldest backup I have, and hope it also does not wipe out the CSS and dashboard. As such, I’m down a rabbit hole and will be forced to have InMotion Support restore that old BU of 12/22/21. If this works, it means I lose about 9-month’s work. If it doesn’t, I’ll be forced to have InMotion restore the 06/25/22 BU just to restore an operational dashboard.
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Next, it’s not that I haven’t tried hacking into the global paradigm. I tried changing the global color for text from turquoise to purple for all Headers (just as an experiment)–published it–nothing changed. I set the color back, and still do not know if the color I see in the ‘color rectangle’ is the actual color from before the paradigm shift. Worse, I cannot find [in the global paradigm] where I can set a background picture unique to each webpage–and I have many such pages! I also have a global background picture for any page that does not have something unique that shows up as background behind all of the blocks and containers. I can’t find where any of this lives! Inside each page, all of my carefully built settings are gone.

I’ve been with Tom Usborne since the beginning. When he was first starting, I bought the big license out to 2035 (on faith) just to help him out. At the time, I knew nothing–it was pure faith. It seems to me that you guys could easily give your long-time users a ‘GeneratePress Premium Lite’ theme version that harks back to before the pre-global paradigm for us old codgers till we can get back up to speed on an unpublished website.

So it seems–you have not considered this.
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I will push through this next BU restoration from 12/27/21, and we shall see how it goes. It’s likely to blow everything up again. If that happens, that’s the bottom of this rabbit hole, because I’ll be forced to have InMotion restore the 06/25/22 BU again. You folks can defend yourselves and be as righteous as you have been with me, but–even to date–not one of you has explained to me how to find my old colors or my old Fonts?
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As Director of Information Services for many years, an AIX/UNIX Admin., and an Oracle Master DBA for 20-years, I trained my support people with this as their mantra: As IT Support, you must see past the whining, anger, and complaints to how you can answer questions that may not be obvious, but are implicit. Many times the users don’t know what to ask. They are thrashing, and they only know they are angry and under pressure to get their jobs done. I’m trying to get three novels edited and published, and this loss of time is killing me. I’m exhausted. So far, I have lost over 50-hours fighting with this, pounding InMotion Support, and asking for help from you folks. The best support I’ve gotten so far is to restore old backups. Really?

[Tom]

Hi Robert,

I’ve taken a look through your posts here but I’m not 100% sure if we’re talking about the new Typography system (which was something you would have had to opt-in to), or the Global Colors feature. Can you clarify?

There’s no need to use the Global Colors feature. Existing sites didn’t change during this update, either. You can completely ignore them and set your colors as you always have within Customize > Colors.

Right now your text is turquoise because you have the Content text color set to that color in “Customize > Colors > Content”.

As for changing your Header colors – can you clarify which Header we’re talking about here? A screenshot with an arrow might be helpful so we don’t have to guess which text you’re trying to modify.

We’re more than happy to help, we just need to know exactly what the issue is so we can save time on offering a solution.

At this point I wouldn’t waste too much time with backups – that doesn’t seem to be working. Let’s just pinpoint the problems and find quick solutions for them so you can get back to work 🙂

[Robert Holland]

Hello Tom, it’s been years. I created an admin user for you.

I’ll respond point-by-point.

Tom: I’ve taken a look through your posts here but I’m not 100% sure if we’re talking about the new Typography system (which was something you would have had to opt-in to), or the Global Colors feature. Can you clarify?

Robert: Both. I’m lost and thrashing. If there was some way to undo the opt-in, I would! You and your team have bludgeoned me with the fact I opted in over and over. How is that helpful?

Tom said: Right now your text is turquoise because you have the Content text color set to that color in “Customize – Colors – Content”.

Robert: Thanks, I found the “Customize – Colors – Content”. Using dark background images on the pages (art) and as a sitewide background (more art) lets the font color be turquoise. This is an art website and being visually pleasing is paramount and supports the theme of the novels.

Tom: As for changing your Header colors – can you clarify which Header we’re talking about here?

Robert: Not trying to change Header colors. What I really need is some way to set the font and sitewide font sizes for Headline, H1, and H2, and maybe H3, as well as paragraphs(!), so I don’t have to set these on every page. Is that done using GPP Elements? I have never used Elements because I seem unable to understand the concept. (cussword here!) Or, should I use the Add to Reusable blocks from the kebab-menu (three dots) under the List View?

And about fonts, Vicki recognized the font known as ‘Papyrus’ on the page: https://robertdeanholland.com/dramatis-personae/
So, we right clicked to inspect the page source, hit ctrl-f, and searched font in the source-code. We found Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, and Kreon, but Papyrus was not to be found. We searched for Papyrus as well–not found. How is that possible?

And now I will make a point about you and your support team, both. I’ve been asking how to find out what fonts I originally used since the get-go. Why didn’t somebody simply instruct us to use View page source and ctrl-f to search the html code? That’s what I meant about implicit questions–but this one about what fonts I have was actually an explicit question. It must be trivial to you folks–totally under the radar.

Tom: At this point I wouldn’t waste too much time with backups – that doesn’t seem to be working.

Robert: Jeez, really? We restored the site to the BU taken on 05/25/22 (the second time), and it wiped the CSS and dashboard out again. InMotion Support got it working, then told my theme engine had stopped serving CSS. My theme is GPP Child. Whatever he did got the CSS working again, and we’ve stopped restoring backups.

Lastly, I’d be happy to send you screenshots. How? I tried.

[Tom]

Robert: Not trying to change Header colors. What I really need is some way to set the font and sitewide font sizes for Headline, H1, and H2, and maybe H3, as well as paragraphs(!), so I don’t have to set these on every page. Is that done using GPP Elements? I have never used Elements because I seem unable to understand the concept. (cussword here!) Or, should I use the Add to Reusable blocks from the kebab-menu (three dots) under the List View?

You can use the new Typography system to do this easily: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/dynamic-typography-overview/#typography-manager

Here’s a quick video: https://www.screencast.com/t/v7slVHlxnb

And about fonts, Vicki recognized the font known as ‘Papyrus’ on the page: https://robertdeanholland.com/dramatis-personae/
So, we right clicked to inspect the page source, hit ctrl-f, and searched font in the source-code. We found Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, and Kreon, but Papyrus was not to be found. We searched for Papyrus as well–not found. How is that possible?

This font is set to the gb-container element, which comes from our GenerateBlocks plugin. If you edit this page and select the Container block, you will see the font family set in the “Typography” panel: https://www.screencast.com/t/NRmA2hSVT

It’s best to keep typography stuff “global” in the Customizer and only adjust it when absolutely needed within individual blocks.

And now I will make a point about you and your support team, both. I’ve been asking how to find out what fonts I originally used since the get-go. Why didn’t somebody simply instruct us to use View page source and ctrl-f to search the html code? That’s what I meant about implicit questions–but this one about what fonts I have was actually an explicit question. It must be trivial to you folks–totally under the radar.

I can’t speak for my team members, but this wasn’t super obvious for me as I read through the topic. We’re certainly not perfect, and sometimes it can take some discussion until we’re able to pinpoint exactly what the issue is and how we can help. I believe what I’ve highlighted above should set things right for you so you can get back to work instead of fighting with your website.

Let me know 🙂

[Robert Holland]

Tom:

So grateful for the support and patience. I’m sorry I came to this GPP update so late, then panicked. I looked, and I bought GP Premium on 05/21/15. I’ve been using GPP for 7-years. I don’t know if you caught the temporary admin login I created for (you or other GPP support folks) on the previous support thread, and I didn’t realize that the box below is just for that. Anyway, I reset the password.

Next, I’m trying to use buttons instead paragraphs with links. On the desktop, all buttons work for the three pages listed below, which are the heart and purpose of the website–to sell books. I have all three novels of the “Stolen Man Trilogy” written. Book 1 is already on Amazon for EPUB presales. Paperback and EPUB will release 12/01/22. Books 2 and 3 and almost completely edited, and those pages will be updated when they go up on Amazon KDP in early 2023.

https://robertdeanholland.com
https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3/
https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3-4/

Question 1: Should the Homepage of the website be labeled as the homepage? As you can see, I did that. Please take a look at each page one-by-one and test up-and-down the button choices. Also, my new Amazon button works fine.

Should there be a return <Home> button on each successive page, like it is? Here’s a mobile-app problem: On the https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3/ and https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3-4/ of the mobile app, the <Home> button does not transport the user back to the homepage. Does this somehow get disabled? I have been unable to figure out whether I can have buttons that appear on the desktop and tablet choices, but do not appear on the mobile device? Should this <Home> button even be on the https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3/ and https://robertdeanholland.com/home-3-4/ pages of the mobile app webserver? In other words, can I (or should I) drop the <Home> button on every page, or can I cause the mobile app display to show different buttons than the desktop or tablet.

Question 2: Throughout the past, your support team helped me with custom CSS on the main menu. See <Simple CSS and <Additional CSS of the Customize menu. I need to have the text of the dropdowns somewhat bigger. I think the main menu choices should also be bigger. Are both of these Additional CSS choices embedded in the code your guys gave me? It’s been too long for me to remember.

Thanks. . . .

[Fernando]

Hi Robert,

Let’s tackle #1 first, then address #2 afterwards.

1. No, you can label/name it anything you prefer.

It’s not working because it’s under the Menu Bar Icon toggle on Mobile. How are you adding the Mobile Menu/Nav? Are you using a third Party plugin? If so, why not use the Off canvas feature of GeneratePress to prevent this issue? Reference:https://docs.generatepress.com/article/off-canvas-panel-overview/

Usually, the Home button is the logo as well but there’s no logo on you’re mobile view.

[Robert Holland]

Fernando: I studied the link you gave me for the GPP off-canvas-panel-overview. As you said, I was using a free plugin for mobile menu. I disabled it and got the mobile GPP menu working, chose my sight icon, and it’s now operational. Do most people know to touch the site icon to go back to the home page? And thanks. Fewer plugins is better for performance, right?

Next, (per my previous message) my dropdown menu bars in the off-panel-menu of the mobile menu are too slim for a finger to activate. These are also too slim on the desktop. Your support team helped me with custom CSS on the main menu, but after the GPP upgrade, they all became too slim. See <Simple CSS and <Additional CSS of the Customize menu for the code snippets you folks gave me. I am not certain the Custom CSS is where this is controlled, but I need to have the menu item bars and text larger by some factor that I have control of.

I made an admin login for your team. Did you get it? And please thank Tom Usborne for helping me through a complex upgrade. I was lost.

[Robert Holland]

Fernando: I dropped the <Home Page of the Stolen Man> choice from my mobile menu, then saved it, but it persists.

Right now I’m at GPP 2.1.2 when I tried to get back to the version that did not have global, but that failed and Tom helped me through, you too. Now GenerateBlocks wants to update. Will this blow my website up? And should I just go ahead and let GPP update to 3.1.3?

[Fernando]

1. Yes, setting the logo as the Home button has been conventional thing in websites, and most users I think know about this.
2. Yes, fewer plugins may result in a better performing website.
3. I tried viewing your site, and it seems that the Off Canvas menu panel isn’t turned on yet. The one showing now is the default Nav system. If you want a Off canvas panel, you’ll need to turn it on in Appearance > Customize > Layout > Off Canvas Panel: https://share.getcloudapp.com/DOurLj5q
4. GeneratePress Premium Plugin is currently at 2.1.2. The one at 3.1.3 is GeneratePress Theme. You’re plugin version should be good. What version of GeneratePress theme do you have?

[Robert Holland]

Folks: I am running Generate Press Premium (GPP) 2.20. I ended up back at this older version of GPP due to a panic when my website shifted to the new global paradigm of GPP 3.1.3 and innocently accepted the Typography modification. After several restores of my website, InMotion got it operational again, then Tom Usborne stepped in and helped me wade into and through a great many of the changes. All of this is recorded in this very support thread.

Nowadays, I seem to be getting a moderate grip on managing the new paradigm on the old GPP 2.20, but this raises a pointed question. Am I already using the new global paradigm and typography such that if I update to the latest GPP 3.1.3 I will see very few changes to my webmaster technique (albeit clunky, no doubt) and my website won’t blow up again?

[Leo]

Nothing should break when you update the theme and premium plugin – we work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.

It’s always worth making a backup of the file before updating though 🙂

[Robert Holland]

Next topic. I have built a new home page that displays all three novels of the trilogy. I found a class called container-border on other GPP support pages, and placed the call to the class in the Additional CSS class(es) of each column on the new home page

https://robertdeanholland.com

Here is the code snippet of the class:

.container-border { border: 2px solid #40E0D0; box-sizing: border-box; }

Is there some additional code snippet that will give me the ability to control the radii of the corners this class creates?

[Ying]

Hi Robert,

This topic is not related to the original topic anymore, any chance you can open a new topic?

Thanks!

[Author]

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