Hi Calin, thanks again for a prompt response.
I have disabled my hosting cache plug-in (SG optimizer), and installed WP super cache as recommended, with all the recommended settings. There is a small REDUCTION in the speed score (from 18 to 15). It is clear that the cache plugin I was using before is at least as good, in fact slightly better than WP Super cache. The issue is ENTIRELY the TDC template loading. If you go to the site http://www.ethical-intelligence.com you can see the header does not load immediately, but the rest of the site, including the footer, loads more or less instantly. The TDC template takes a further 1-2 seconds to load. The issue is ENTIRELY with the header template, and not with the rest of the site, or the footer, or the caching. Switch to the old header (the Theme Panel version) and loading is MUCH faster. It is very frustrating that the TDC header template problem is not being addressed. Can you look specifically at the TDC header performance on this site?

Hi, I am using pretty much everything suggested in the guide, via the Siteground (hosting service) “SG optimizer” plugin,including dynamic cache, image optimization and the following: Minify the HTML Output, Minify JavaScript Files, Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously, Combine CSS Files, Disable Emojis.
Note: I tried to use minify CSS also, and that screwed up the headers in the TDC mobile menus.

The Page speed analysis shows an very poor result of 17-18, and the following info: Most of the problem seems to be in the CSS. I don’t know how to do this for the complex CSS used in the Newspaper theme and headers.

OPPORTUNITY – Estimated Savings

Eliminate render-blocking resources
4.68 s
Defer unused CSS
3.75 s
Reduce server response times (TTFB)
1.3 s
Serve images in next-gen formats
0.6 s
Minify CSS
0.45 s
Defer offscreen images
0.15 s

DIAGNOSTICS
More information about the performance of your application.
1 Ensure text remains visible during webfont load
2 Minimize main-thread work 10.2 s
3 Avoid an excessive DOM size 2,442 nodes
4 Serve static assets with an efficient cache policy 81 resources found
5 Reduce JavaScript execution time 3.8 s
6 Avoid enormous network payloads Total size was 3,433 KB
7 Minimize Critical Requests Depth 47 chains found

Calin

That fixed it – many thanks! Only remaining problem is that the TDC template header is extremely slow to load (like 1-2 seconds) compared to the identical Theme Panel header. It’s massively more functional, but it is only borderline usable at the moment.
You can look at http://www.ethical-intelligence.com site to see how slow it is (you can also switch back and forward between the two headers with the login ID I already gave you). . Any idea how I can speed the header up?

Calin

Thanks for the detailed reply. However, in my TD composer panel the options to change font and font size are blanked out. There is no ability to change them, although fonts can easily be changed from the font options in the Theme panel. I will send you screenshots, and login details for this proble,, as well as for the other one I have raised.

Calin, will do, and will include screenshots for my other query also.

Calin
Thank you for your response. I used the Envato plug-in to automatically carry out the 9.5 update, and then ensured that all the theme plugins were also updated. This is exactly as the instructions in your update link (item C. “Update the theme automatically”) recommend. One thing I noticed is that in the first two methods of updating the theme you recommend deleting the old theme first. However for the Envato auto update method you do not require the old theme to be deleted and so I did not delete it. I don’t know if that has any impact on the current problem.

I understand that the old header should turn off automatically when you set a new cloud header. However as I made clear in my post, that has not happened. The cloud header was set from the theme panel and doing that made the theme panel header options disappear so I would have expected that the theme panel header would have been disabled. However as I described I am getting both headers appearing in the TD composer page.

I would have provided screenshots in my first post but I cannot see any facility to be able to upload screenshots through this forum. If you let me know how that can be done I will send you screenshots of the current setup.

Calin

Thank you for that response. However my main query was how to change the colour of the “Ajax category filter” text. You absolutely can not change the colour or size of that font or the typeface of the font from the TD composer style tab area. The only thing that the TD composer style options give you is some very minimal ability to change the font weight or to italicise the text. As I pointed out above, the only place that you can change the Ajax category text font and font size is from the theme panel. But the theme panel provides no capability that I can find of changing the colour of the Ajax font.

While your CSS code is helpful for the “read more” Ajax element colour, it does not help me with changing the font or font size of that item, or the colour of the “Ajax category” text.

So to summarise I still need an answer to the question of a) how to change the Ajax category text colour and b) how to change the Ajax “read more” font and font size.

Thanks in advance…