Tamsen, a Niagara Photographer, (Creative Clicks) has requested we do a quick tutorial on how to remove tags from displaying on the SLR Lounge wordpress theme for photographers.  We used the SLR theme to develop our photoblog101 class so we know it pretty well (more like the back of our hands).

Tamsen, here is your tutorial… (if you also find it useful, let us know and follow the blog here for more tips and tricks!).

Some people find the look of the post tags in their blog themes to be too cluttered.  The information displayed in your posts is set in a few easy-to-find php files within the theme files.

Here we go…

Step 1: ["We can have lots of fun ..." "Gonna get with you giiiiirrrrlll" - I'm SO sorry if I just put that in your head too lol!].

Use FTP to backup your wordpress theme files (JUST in case).  Hey, and if you don’t know HOW to do that, you should learn, like NOW.  Maybe that will be our next tutorial??

Step 2

Login to your wordpress dashboard.

Step 3:

On the left side menu, under “Appearance” -> choose “Editor”

Step 4:

On the file list on the right side, find Single Post or single.php and single click it to display the code in the big editing box in the center of your dashboard area.

Step 5:    (with us so far?  This is where it get’s more “complicated”… not hard, but your eyes will get a workout finding the right code to work with).

“Comment Out” the code that looks like this:

<?php the_tags( ‘<p>Tags: ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘</p>’); ?>

Ha!  You thought I was getting “geeky” didn’t you?  Nah, but we do want you to learn the proper terminology.  “Commenting out” code is just like adding ellipses to a sentence (like this).  The code is still there, but can be ignored by the browser (not used in other words).  You can use comments to help you remember stuff and make little notes OR to make what you put the comments around NOT show up without deleting it entirely, just in case you want to go back to what you had originally.

To “comment out” php code you can simple add a /* in front of and */ behind the “meat” of the php tag…  it will end up looking like this:

<?php /*the_tags( ‘<p>Tags: ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘</p>’);  */?>

When your browser sees this code is sees this now:

<?php ?>

which it reads as nothing.  Alternatively, you can just delete the ENTIRE php command (but then if you decide to put the tags back you’ll have to remember the code… so choose carefully).

Step 6:

Click the “Update File” button below the big editor box and view a SINGLE POST on your blog (because we just modified the single.php file, which controls how your posts look when only ONE SINGLE post is displayed).  Are you getting what I’m throwing down here?  If not, let me say it a different way… visit your blog in another tab and click on a post title to see only one post display at a time; the tags should be gone.  If they are still there, before you panic, make sure you’ve cleared your cache or else you might be working on a “remembered” version and might want to bang your head on the desk. (don’t do that… just breathe, this stuff is easy!)

Step 7:

Repeat steps 4 & 5 & 6 but this time do it in the Main Index Template file called index.php. When you view your blog to check this time, you can just go to the main page.

And, that should do it!  You can choose to do one or the other if you’d like too!  For example you can keep the tags on the single post view but get rid of them on the main index view.  YOU choose!  This is YOUR blog.

Be confident!  You just modified the structure of what your template posts look like.  Now that you’ve done that can you think of other places you might apply the lesson?  How about adding a graphic to the foot of each post now, like a cute signature or branding element?  How about changing up the order of how things display within your posts?  You know where to do that too!

If you have a tutorial request, email us at contact@photoblog101.com and we’ll see to it that your head never meets the desk.

Go forward and make it your own Tamsen, and everyone else please go and check out Tamsen’s Newborn Photography! She’s got the touch!  Just LOOK at this squishy sweetness!