How To Display Custom Message To Your Commentators : Customizing Comment Form In Thesis Theme

I was reading Matt Cutts blog today and while writing a comment I noticed that he has displayed a custom message in the comment box area just before we write the comment. This custom message really impressed me and inspired me to write this tutorial. First have a look at Matt Cutts thesis theme comment box:

Now, in my today’s article I’ll tell you how to display custom message to your readers and commentators if you are using Thesis theme. There are two methods to display this custom message:

1. Editing comments.php page
2. Installing OpenHook plugin and making changes in it

I’ll explain all the two methods in detail.

Editing comments.php file

• In your Thesis theme, open comments.php file and search for <p class=”comment_box”>
• Now, write your message just above it and save your work and you’re done!
• View your blog, and the message will be displayed above the comment box, same as the screenshot above.
• If you want, you can add font color and style to your text.

Drawback : The main drawback of this method is that when you’ll update your Thesis Theme, you will loose all the changes made in comments.php file. So, I recommend you to follow the alternate method below.

Displaying message using Open Hook Plugin

• To use this method, first you need to install Open Hook Plugin for Thesis theme.
• Now, log into WordPress dashboard and in the left hand side under Appearance, click on Thesis OpenHook.
• After opening OpenHook page, you will see a drop down box at right bottom, click on the arrow and select thesis_hook_comment_field. Have a look:

• In comment_field textbox, type your message that you want to display and click on save button and you’re done!
• View your blog and the message will be displayed above the comment box and if you want you can add font color and style to your text.

Screenshot

This is how the new comment box will look like after editing:

I think that every blog must display such kind of custom message to its users, I am going to make changes in my theme what about you?

Tagged as: Thesis Theme