Highlighting Author Comments in WordPress: A Simple Guide
If you run a community type blog, highlighting author comments is a great way to make it easier for your readers to notice when the author has replied to their comments. This feature is especially useful if you are using a premium theme that allows you to customize the appearance of your comments section.
One of the cool features of the premium theme I am currently working on is that comments made by the author of the post will be a light blue as opposed to the default gray color. This not only makes it easier for readers to identify author comments but also adds a touch of personalization to your blog.
In this article, we will show you how to highlight author comments in WordPress using a simple CSS class. We will also provide you with an example of how this feature looks like in action.
Highlighting Author Comments Using CSS
WordPress by default includes custom classes for your comments that allow you to style them differently. One of these unique classes is “bypostauthor” which is a unique class added to all comments made by the author of the current post allowing you to style comments by the post author differently than comments by readers.
To highlight author comments in WordPress, you can use the following CSS code:
.bypostauthor {background: #ffff99;}
This code should be added in your style.css file (preferably a child theme if you are using a theme by another developer) or via a Custom CSS plugin. If you notice that nothing happens when you enter that code, then most likely your theme hasn’t been coded correctly and you will need to contact the author of the theme so they can fix and update their theme accordingly.
Here is an example of how author comments look like when highlighted using this CSS class:
As you can see, the author comments are now highlighted in blue, making them stand out from the rest of the comments.
Displaying User Badges in WordPress Comments
Another great way to highlight comments is to display the user type/role of the person leaving the comment (subscriber, contributor, author, administrator). This not only adds a personal touch to your comments section but also helps to identify the role of the person leaving the comment.
To add user badges to your WordPress comments, you can use our free Comment User Badge Plugin for WordPress. This plugin automatically adds badges to your comments based on the user role of the person leaving the comment. Here is an example of how it looks like:
As you can see, the user badges are displayed next to the name of the person leaving the comment, making it easier for readers to identify the role of the commenter.
Conclusion
Highlighting author comments and displaying user badges are great ways to personalize your comments section and make it easier for your readers to engage with your content. By using simple CSS classes and plugins, you can easily customize the appearance of your comments section and make it stand out from the rest of your website.
We hope this article has been helpful in showing you how to highlight author comments in WordPress. If you have any other tips or tricks for customizing your comments section, feel free to share them in the comments below!
