Trouble with 4-column posts layout

[Khulke]

Hi

I searched hundreds of themes, page-builder plugins but can't figure out a simple 4-column posts layout with a narrow sidebar. Most themes & plugin allow 3-4 wide column featured-posts (in full width), but have zero settings for reducing the column-widths a bit to throw in a narrow sidebar.

I zeroed on the layout of a site I like and found it fits my bill. I want to replicate it.

I used Visual Composer plugin, but most themes clip its functionality: remove Posts-grid option. Else, the twitter bootstrap layout wastes precious screen-estate. Which means if somehow I get the posts-grid option going, the limited width spoils the layout (Red lines show wasted space. Firebug shows nothing hence can't figure out what to change!)

I just don't know how to proceed! Can anyone help me out? Thanks

[edited by: lorax at 3:19 pm (utc) on Jan 22, 2014]
[edit reason] No example URLs please [/edit]

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Kulke. If you can't find a theme that does exactly what you want, you'll need to modify one that is close to what you're looking for.

Create a child theme and then you can port the files you want to modify into the Child Theme directory and modify them there. See: [codex.wordpress.org...]

[Khulke]

Agreed. But the problem is that even Firebug shows nothing when I select the post-columns that I create or for the sidebar. If some hint is got, I can proceed. In responsive themes, there are many files interconnected (inclusing CSS files). I am not that expert and hence landed here.

[lorax]

Firebug can only show you what is rendered after the PHP engine has processed the theme files. Not the raw PHP files. You'll need to do some research to determine how the theme is assembled. There may even be a sidebars.php file included in the directory. Open the file and begin exploring how it's built.

[Khulke]

OK. I never knew this part. I manipulated the columns and reduced the sidebar width. But can't figure which file controls the gutter between columns. BTW, do you have any idea why a Posts Grid can only display 2/4/6 columns?

[edited by: lorax at 2:46 pm (utc) on Jan 23, 2014]