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Basic site formatting

Sun, 07/11/2010 - 13:48 — corine

I am using the Salamander theme as I was told it was the most flexible. I do not really mind which theme I use as I am going to change its format anyway.

I want to divide the content in 3 columns with 3 to 4 blocks/pages in each column and am trying to purely use the standard Drupal content management so it can be user maintained.

What is the best way to do this? I have looked at blocks but there seems to be limited blocks available (top content, bottom content, User 1 block etc). How can I create blocks in three columns and decide the size of each block etc without adding html in every page?

Thank you very much for any help.

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Tue, 09/11/2010 - 12:22 — Mark Dalton

Options

  1. You could set up new blocks and output them to the left or right sidebar.... & change the order via drag n' drop on the block page 
  2. set up a new region in yourtheme.info with an entry such as
          regions[newblock] = New Block

     flush caches etc & then you should be able to attach a block to "New Block" & print in your page.tpl via
    print $newblock;
  3. You could look at the Panels Module here http://drupal.org/project/panels

Hope that helpsSmile

Mark

Sun, 14/11/2010 - 12:49 — corine

Basic site formatting

Thank you very much for your answers. At the moment am just using blocks and will graduate to panels later.

Another two questions please:

1. How do I change the banner? I have found out how to change the logo, but I really want to change the whole banner and can't find where it is defined in CSS?

2. I want to modify the way primary links are displayed - i..e I want them aligned in the centre, not the left, and also I want to change the tab format. Could you please tell me in what CSS file this is defined, I can't find any 'primary link' id?

Thank you very much!!!

Corine.

Sun, 14/11/2010 - 17:26 — Mark Dalton

Finding CSS

Hi Corine,

drupal tends to insert classes & id's to allow you to easily override default css, note: there aren't necessarily any css declaration for all classes & id's.... Without knowing your website any answer would be a pure guess....

I would recommend you use a web development plug-in for your browser where when activated you can click on a part of your web page & it will return any active css.

  • In FF I use the "web developer" add on
  • In IE8 I think there is a pre-installed development tool (if I remember correctly)

Mark

Fri, 12/11/2010 - 20:08 — websesame
websesame's picture

panels

Panels looks like the easiest way to go on this one.

Sun, 14/11/2010 - 22:01 — willhallonline

Firebug within FF and Panels styling

I would suggest using firebug inside firefox to see the css. You can actively override css or reqrite as you see fit which can be a great development tool.

Panels is pretty good if you want to give it a try. By using the styliser you can insert css, from a wysiwyg style interface, into your panels, which gives a great way to simply style.