How To Change the Width of the Forum List Columns

[Jake Bunce]

Possible applications:
Change the width of the columns.
If you have modified your templates so the forum categories are in separate tables, you can use this method to make the columns in each category the same width as every other category.


To adjust the column widths you need to account for 100% of the horrizontal space. If you don't account for 100% of the horrizontal space then the widths have a tendency to shift around.

Go to your:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> « » -> Forum Home Templates » -> FORUMHOME

Find this code. If your templates are modified in such a way so the forum categories are in separate tables, then you will probably find the below code in your forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost template:


<tr align="center">
<td class="thead">&nbsp;</td>
<td class="thead" width="100%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
<td class="thead" width="175">$vbphrase[last_post]</td>
<td class="thead">$vbphrase[threads]</td>
<td class="thead">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">
<td class="thead">$vbphrase[moderator]</td>
</if>
</tr>


Notice how not all of the table cells (<td> tags) have width attributes. You need to give each cell a width attribute, and the total widths need to equal 100% of the horrizontal space. Percentages work well for this. Here is an example of what you might use:


<tr align="center">
<td class="thead" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
<td class="thead" width="50%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
<td class="thead" width="25%">$vbphrase[last_post]</td>
<td class="thead" width="10%">$vbphrase[threads]</td>
<td class="thead" width="10%">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">
<td class="thead" width="0%">$vbphrase[moderator]</td>
</if>
</tr>


Notice how the total width is 100%. The above example assumes you are not using the Moderator column. If you have the moderator column enabled then you need to give it a piece of the pie.

You also need to make the same change to this template:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> « » -> Forum Display Templates » -> FORUMDISPLAY

[Jake Bunce]

Some people notice that the column widths still don't match up after applying this mod. This is sometimes caused by the last post titles being too long such that the Last Post column is stretched. You can shorten those titles by adjusted this option:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Forum Listings Display Options -> Last Thread Title Maximum Displayed Characters