I noticed how on some WordPress blogs authors’ comments are styled differently from other people’s comments. I think this really makes it easier when users are scanning through your comments, looking for an actual moderator/author/admin’s response. Making your WordPress install style your author comments differently is quite a simple little coding modification where you only need to change a small piece of code in one file and add a style class to your CSS stylesheet.

This works only on WordPress 2.5.

Open up your themes comments.php file and look for line 27. Should look something like this…

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<?php echo get_avatar( $comment, 32 ); ?>
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?></cite> Says:
<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>
<?php endif; ?>
<br />

<small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?></a> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?></small>

<?php comment_text() ?>

</li>

All you need to do is add is a little if statement to check if your author is an admin, and then a few more things. Copy the code below and paste it over the code above.

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<?php if (1==$comment->user_id) { ?>
<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<div class="authorcomment"></div>

<small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?></a> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?></small>

<?php comment_text() ?>

</li>
<?php } else { ?>
<li <?php echo $oddcomment; ?>id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">
<?php echo get_avatar( $comment, 32 ); ?>
<cite><?php comment_author_link() ?></cite> Says:
<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>
<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>
<?php endif; ?>
<br />

<small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('F jS, Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?></a> <?php edit_comment_link('edit','&nbsp;&nbsp;',''); ?></small>

<?php comment_text() ?>

</li>
<?php } ?>

Then just add the “authorcomment” class to your CSS stylesheet and style it however you choose. Mine looks something like this.

.authorcomment {
background: url(images/bavota.png) no-repeat;
float: left;
width: 89px;
height: 97px;
}

See below how my comments have the “B” logo on the left. You can add a background color or place the image differently or do whatever you choose to have a custom style for your author comments.