Ok, I have fallen in love with Thesis and its endless customization capabilities. Since installing and editing the theme over the weekend, I have learned quite a lot of customization techniques through experimentation and reading other tutorials online. So today, here’s a short tutorial on how to add a little spice to your dull reply button in thesis and also how to highlight your author comments on posts so that it stands out.
Here we go.
How to Edit the Reply Button
Thesis comes standard with a very dull reply button, that I have struggled to find when I first started using the theme. Especially since my eyesight is so poor. 
The code below will add a small yet bold background to your button.
Copy the code below to your custom.css file, which can be accessed easily within your dashboard through Thesis Options, then select Custom File Editor.
.custom dl#comment_list dd p.reply { margin: 1em 0 1.5em 0; }
.custom dl#comment_list dd p.reply a {background: #2f2c28; color: #FFF;font-size: 11px;font-weight: normal;padding: 4px 6px;text-transform: uppercase;}
.custom dl#comment_list dd p.reply a:hover {background:#46382d; border: 0;}
Once the code is copied, ensure that you click save and that’s it. Remember that you can change the background color and thickness of the button.
How to Add a Blue Background to Author Replies in Comments
Usually, the author of a post has some insight into what he has written, so when an author makes comments they should easily be found, especially when there are lots of comments. By default, all main author comments have a light blue line to differentiate them from reader comments. Unfortunately, if you were to reply to a reader’s comment, there is only a thin blue line to the left of your author comment.
The code below will give author replies a blue background, or whichever color you choose, that will highlight the author comments and replies.
Copy the code below to your custom.css file as well and click save.
.custom dl#comment_list dt.bypostauthor, .custom dl#comment_list dd.bypostauthor>div {background: #E7F8FB none repeat scroll 0 0; padding-top:20px;}
That’s it! Simple isn’t it?
Great stuff Robyn,
If I had the Thesis theme I would take advantage of your tips. I’ve heard so much good things about the Thesis theme.
Great post by the way,
Jarrod
Thanks for reading Jarrod.
You really should give the thesis theme a try, its working out great for me so far.
Also check out my new post on wordpress security here. Some very important facts.
Thanks again
Any chance of this code working for non-thesis?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Holy Power Outage Batman, Not Again! Yep, Another Two Days Shot to Hell… =-.
Hey Dennis.
Thanks for stopping by. This particular code may not work for another theme. I’ll make some changes, test it and e-mail it to you later.
.-= Sam´s last blog ..Have You Ever Been Hacked? Simple Mistakes to Avoid & How to Recover =-.
Thanks Sam, much appreciated.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Holy Power Outage Batman, Not Again! Yep, Another Two Days Shot to Hell… =-.
Hey Dennis,
Add the code below to your style.css file to highlight author comments. Simply change the HEX color code to match one of your choice.
.bypostauthor {
background-color: #7BB7E4 !important;
}
.-= Sam´s last blog ..Have You Ever Been Hacked? Simple Mistakes to Avoid & How to Recover =-.
is this the same as in the email you sent me?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Blog Comments and Blog Comment Contests – Lets Chat about Paying for Comments =-.
I admire that which you have done in this. I love the element in which you say you are doing this to give back again but I’d believe by all of the comments that this is working for you likewise.
Thanx for sharing these hacks. Good stuff.
Wow! Your blog here doesn’t look like having a thesis theme at all. Very impressive customization you did here.
I have been using Thesis for awhile now but haven’t figured out how to change the blue left-hand border for author comment replies… I have the background color changed but the border color is driving me crazy! Any ideas on how/where to change this? Thanks!
Will the highlight author comments code work for themes other than thesis too and I want to add reply button as shown in your comments. Can you help in adding code for that?