Style Your Paper.li! 15 Easy CSS Changes to Customize Your Paper

A couple of weeks back we buffed up our Pro package with new features and CSS customization was one them.

Since then, we’ve been seeing some amazing papers rolling off the presses. From slightly modified to completely customized and seamlessly integrated into an existing website we’re are really excited to see so many of you putting Pro to work!

In fact, the papers are so inspiring that I started this List.ly to capturing some of my favorites. (Please feel free to add your customized paper to the list!)

Some of you may be thinking “That’s great, but I can’t code”! Well, neither can I. So I have also created a list of 15 really easy CSS changes that anyone can make. I’ve tested them myself here and they work like a charm! I’ve included modifications such as

  • hiding the title to replace it with just a banner
  • modifying the featured image background
  • removing the powered by Paper.li at the bottom

The first step to customizing your CSS is signing up for Paper.li Pro. Once you’ve done that, configure your custom domain and then you can get started styling your paper.

If you have questions, Tweet me @paper_li or leave a comment here. I look forward to seeing your papers and hearing how Pro is working for you.

Kelly Hungerford
Kelly's a Digital Operations Specialist and Social Brand Strategist. She helps Startups and SMBs build lean marketing operations leveraging Social Media to support business goals and connect with the people who matter most. As former Head of Community and Communications for Paper.li, she was responsible for building community-centric operations to support Paper.li's rapidly growing user-base and founding #BizHeroes, Paper.li's Brand Twitter Chat that takes place Tuesdays at 2pm ET.

9 thoughts on “Style Your Paper.li! 15 Easy CSS Changes to Customize Your Paper”

  1. I tried typing some of the codes into the CSS box (It doesnt seem to let me paste into that field using my iPad) it saves the changes, but doesn’t apply them to the newspaper. What could I be doing wrong?

  2. Hi Kelly, This isn’t a customization issue, but I’m having trouble getting the paper to draw content from diverse sources. It seems like whatever I make the third source in my list ends up filling the whole business and stories categories. And unfortunately, I can’t clip stories for these sections. Do you have a work-around that you can share? Thanks!

    1. Hi Maria,

      Without seeing your paper or sources it’s tough to put a finger on what may be happening. Drop us a line at support@paper.li with your paper url and a brief explanation. We’ll take a look and help you sort out the issue. Sound good? We look forward to hearing from you!

    2. Hi Maria,

      I’m having the same issues with my paper as Kelly. The paper seems to pull my sources randomly, and/or none of the sources I choose. My paper’s custom URL is http://PromotedPress.com – I hope you can help me fix this.

    3. Kelly, I am having the same problem as others seem to also be having with my paper only drawing content from just a few sources, even though I have added other sources, very frustrating… makes me want to scrap the paper altogether.
      I am a developer who knows CSS and other programming, and so I can imagine lots of people are having a difficult time. My paper is located at http://PromotedPress.com

    4. Hi John,

      I think the issue may be source prioritization. We first look to populate headline and featured articles from your first source then move down the list. If you have a source that is carries a lot of content, it is possible for that source, or the first couple, to flood your paper not leaving room for presentation of content from other sources.

      I can recommend a couple of things –

      1. moving the more niche sources to the top moving your heavy hitting sources down the list

      2. If you keep a source such as USA today in first position, then try adding a filter to narrow the focus of what we pick up

      3. Try curating from a Twitter list. Lists are a great way to ensure that content is even more focused across a paper and are really helping in focusing on your topic.

      Let me know if any of those tips help.
      Kelly

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