ActiveRain Customizer Tech Support and FAQs

The ActiveRain Customizer Project has been extremely successful. However, there are a few people who seem to have had a few problems successfully customizing their blog. With this in mind, I have written a quick FAQs post to hopefully clear up some issues. If you are interested in obtaining free technical support, please read through the questions below. It covers common problems and tells you how to obtain free support. If you are interested in Dakno Marketing assisting you with the design or implementation of your custom ActiveRain blog, please contact us. We will offer this service at our standard rate of $75/hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

I created a styled blog through ActiveRainCustomizer.com but my blog still looks the same! What am I doing wrong?
You still need to copy and paste the code from the AR Customizer website into the “Blog Description” of your ActiveRain blog. But keep in mind, you are only required to do this one time. If you want to make a change to the design of your Customized Active Rain Blog, you simply need to login to the Customizer Website and make the change. You do not have to paste the updated code into your blog. Your Active Rain blog will change automatically.

I decided to change the design of my blog. But it still shows the old header and background image.
This is probably due to your browser pulling from the cached version instead of downloading the new graphic. Try refreshing; hitting “control” + F5; or clearing your temporary internet files.

Why Is My Blog So Narrow? / Content is cut off in my blog!
With the new customized blog design, the blog now has a “fixed width.” If you include elements that are wider than the content area, about 670px in width, then it will create a horizontal scroll. If you wish to eliminate the horizontal scroll, make sure all your elements are less than 670px wide.

Will this make my site load slow?
Only if you have graphics that are large in file size. The code only adds a few lines of “style” into your blog, so it shouldn’t slow down the load time. Not nearly as much as all the widgets that some of you have in your side bar 🙂

My background image is like a checkerboard! Why?
We have set the background image to “tile”. This is so people can place repeating background images into their blog. If you want to avoid the tiling effect, simply upload a larger image. Perhaps in a later version, there will be the option of choosing more settings for the background.

The customization affects other portions of my ActiveRain blog post! Why?
This is due to a limitation in how ActiveRain coded the Web site. I have asked AR to tweak their code so I can adjust only the sidebar. They are going to do this but it will not happen until their programmer returns next week.

The Customizer broke my blog! / The Customizer broke another widget on my blog!
More than likely, it’s not the Customizer that broke your blog. It’s a conflict with something else in your ActiveRain blog. Try to find the culprit by process of elimination. Keep removing other widgets until your blog looks correct.

Will you add the option to include text in the header?
The Customizer works by dynamically overwriting specific areas of the existing Stylesheet. With this in mind, we can only edit elements that are already on the Blog. This means that we cannot add new elements such as header text, etc.

The Customizer Web site keeps logging me off. What’s going on?
We have confirmed a bug that automatically logs a visitor out of the website when you save your settings. We are working on a fix for this. Please note that your settings are still saved and you can simply log back in.

I have uploaded images, but they are not showing up in my ActiveRain blog
We have confirmed a bug in the ActiveRain Customizer site that “breaks” images if you do not select all color fields. To avoid this issue, simply make sure you select a color for all selections (background, header, menu background and menu text).

The Customizer has a bug! When will you fix it?
As of right now, the only known bugs in the Customizer are the two mentioned above. ActiveRain has recently partnered in this project. With that in mind, they will soon be taking over development. As of right now, we do not have a definitive date as to when these two bugs will be corrected.

I contacted Brad/Dakno and told them that I needed help setting up my blog. When will they help me?
We have been inundated with request to support the setup of Customized ActiveRain Blogs. Please note that this was simply a side project that we offered at no cost to ActiveRain users. With this in mind, we are extremely limited in the amount of free support that we can offer. If you are interested in Dakno assisting you with Design, Customization, etc., then please contact us. We will offer this service at our standard rate of $75/hour. If you are interested in obtaining free technical support, please see the next question.

My Question isn’t answered, where do I get Tech Support?
Since ActiveRain is such a great community of people helping others, I would suggest you contact a fellow AR member who has successfully setup their Customized Blog. If you are still having problems, please contact ActiveRain. They have agreed to offer basic support for the ActiveRain Customizer.

If you have another question/comment that you may find helpful for others, please leave a comment in this post. I will then add it to the FAQs.