This user guide can be viewed online, printed and saved as a PDF or iBook. It is compatible with Reader in Safari 5. Go to www.themeflood.com and click on the support link. Choose Media from the user guide list.
Introduction
System And User Requirements
This theme is developed and tested to work with the latest version of RapidWeaver. The theme is also backwards compatible with RapidWeaver 3.6. You will need to already have a licensed version of RapidWeaver installed on your computer before installing Media. It’s assumed that users of this theme have a good understanding of how RapidWeaver works, in relation to aspects such as creating a new projects, changing theme settings, adding pages, changing website settings and publishing sites to the internet. Some third-party RapidWeaver plugins are mentioned in this user guide, but generally no extra plugins are required to build basic websites using this theme. Advanced features like search bars may require the purchase of additional plugins.
Theme Compatibility
Plugin Compatibility
Media has been extensively tested with all of the standard plugins (page styles) included with RapidWeaver. In addition, testing has also been done with a wide range of third party plugins by various developers including Loghound, Cosculture, Yourhead, YabDab, Weaverplugins and SymphonIP. It should be assumed that Media will work with other third-party plugins as well. However, some third-party plugins do not use valid XHTML or CSS code and may not be compatible with certain web browsers. In such instances, you will need to contact the plugin developer for updates or support or use alternative plugins. Demo versions of Media are available for free download, so you can test and fully evaluate specific plugins yourself before purchasing the theme. Plugin developers also have access to the demo version.
Theme Style Settings
Theme Colour Settings
Media has a wide range of theme colour settings, available for use under the style tab in the theme settings. Most main colour settings are listed under the 'Colors' disclosure tab. Other groups of theme settings may also include colour settings, relating to that particular element. Clicking on a coloured square reveals the Mac OS X colour picker window, where you can select new colours using a range of different palette tools.
Body Background Settings
These settings provide you with options to customise the body (page) background. You can choose between a solid colour fill (default), a PNG vertical gradient, coloured textures or one of ten custom background images. The gradient option is compatible with all web browsers, accept Internet Explorer 6 which will render the gradient with a solid grey colour. Ten placeholders exist for you to insert your own custom background images or textures. See details below on how to load custom images into the theme.
Body Padding Settings
Use these settings to control the amount of body padding. In the Media theme, body padding effects the amount of space between the header container and top of a screen. It also controls the space between the footer bar and bottom of a screen. Body padding is specified in pixel units of measurement, and increases in 10px increments up to 100px.
Header Background Settings
The large image container at the top of the theme is referred to as the header. This container hosts the site title, site slogan, optional logo images and the sidebar. You can customise the image background of this container using any one of the example images supplied with the theme. Or you can import your own images -- Media has 40 placeholders for standard JPG images and 10 placeholders for semi-transparent PNG images. You can either choose to have the same header image on every page, or have different header images across different pages to add some variety to your website. Alternatively there is a solid colour fill option or the possibility of using Flash (SWF) or a slideshow via another plugin. Example header images supplied with the theme were all produced by myself, and you are welcome to reuse any of them in your own web site.
Header Height Settings
Media gives you a broad range of header height settings, enabling you to carefully customise the header height. Some users prefer a smaller header container, whereas other may want a much taller container. Height settings available are specified in increments of 25px. If a smaller height is chosen, the site slogan or site title may be hidden. The height of the header container also includes the horizontal navigation bar - typically if this is set to semi-transparent the header background is visible from behind.
Title / Slogan Background Settings
New in version 3.0 of the Media theme is the option to apply a background fill to the site title and slogan. This can be used to improve the clarity of text (against a header background) and add some decoration to titles. Under the Title / Slogan Background settings disclosure you can opt to use gradients, lines, solid fills or transparency effects from the list of settings provided. It is possible to substitute one of the semi-transparent effects for your own colour. To do this, open the theme contents, open images and then open the editable_images folder. Replace one of the existing titleslogan-semi images with your own PNG tile.
Navigation Bar Background Settings
Use these settings to customise the background of the navigation bar. Using the provided settings you can opt for a solid colour fill, patterns or up to 5 of your own custom background images added to the theme contents. When using an opacity setting, it is wise to check that links retain clarify against a header background image. The navigation bar in this theme sits on top of the header container, so as opacity gets reduced, more of the header fades into view. Custom CSS could also be used if required, to add custom background images to the navigation bar and set their alignment.
Navigation Dropdown Background Settings
Much like the navigation bar background settings above, the dropdown background settings enable independent control of the drop-down backgrounds. You can either choose a solid colour fill or use the opacity controls provided. It is very important that links in the drop-downs retain clarity against the content container background. Custom CSS could also be used if required, to add custom background images to the drop-downs.
Navigation Height Settings
Introduced in version 3.0, the navigation height settings enable you to change the height of the navigation bar and each navigation link in the drop-downs below. Navigation heights are specified in pixel units of measurement and range between 25px and 50px in 5px increments. Smaller heights are useful for creating more compact drop-down menu's. Larger heights are excellent for creating more user-friendly navigation layouts.
Navigation Style Settings
This disclosure lists a range of colour settings relating to navigation links. The list covers links in the drop-down menu, navigation table, breadcrumb links and footer navigation links. Any of these colours can be changed to create your own custom colour schemes. Also under the navigation style settings are options to place the drop-down menu at either the top or bottom of the header container. You can also choose how wide each of the drop-down links is permitted to span.
Navigation Text Size
New in version 3.0 of the Media theme, the navigation text size options enable you to customise the text size of the navigation bar and drop-downs. This is very useful if you want to have a different text size to the rest of the text on a page. Text sizes are specified in percentage units of measurement and are relevant to the general text size settings in the theme. So if for example you were to set the navigation text size to 120%, this would be scaled to 120% based on whatever general text size you are using from the text size disclosure.
Functions
These are extra mini-plugins which will be displayed with the menu bar. A choice of different functions are provided, including Extra Content, a RapidSearch search bar, date, date and time and a logo. In addition, several colour settings are also provided, enabling you to customise various text colours. For more instructions on setting up Extra Content or the RapidSearch search box, see below.
Content Background Settings
These optional settings allow you to apply a solid colour fill or an image background to the content container and sidebar. When a solid colour fill is used (default) the content and sidebar container backgrounds are slightly different. When an image background is applied, the content and sidebar use the same background image fill. There are 5 placeholders available for you to embed your own custom content backgrounds. If creating your own custom background image, ensure there is plenty of clarity between the image and content. This is best achieved by using a washed-down or subtle background pattern, something quite light in appearance.
Content Padding Settings
These settings allow you to change the amount of padding surrounding the content and sidebar containers. Users of the Media theme have previously requested this feature in the past, because some wanted narrow borderless margins around content, whereas others wanted much wider margins to create whitespace. A range of padding settings are now provided.
Borderless Image Support
In conjunction with new content padding settings, support for borderless images has been introduced to Media. Any image which is set to float left or right in the content container or sidebar will become borderless. Borderless images work by taking the applied content or sidebar padding, and applying this as a negative margin on one side. This pulls the image to the right or left, so it is aligned on the edge of a page. In theory it is a relatively simple process which uses basic CSS - but it has not been featured in RapidWeaver themes before. An example of a borderless image in Media is shown on the right. To make and image float right or left, add a suitable image to your styled content area. In edit mode, click once to highlight the image. Then in the RapidWeaver menu, go Format > HTML > Align Image Left / Align Image Right. Nothing much will happen in edit mode, but when you switch to preview mode, you will see a borderless image, with text floating around.
Heading Font Settings
A choice of 20 web-safe and semi web-safe font face options are provided in the theme. Header font settings are applicable to the site title, site slogan, sidebar title, blog entry titles, photo album titles, video album titles and header tags. A font stack is used for each font setting, ensuring that if a person viewing a site does not have a particular font installed, their web browser will default to a close alternative. For example, if Palatino is not available, Times New Roman will be used instead.
Content Font Settings
A choice of 20 web-safe and semi web-safe font face options are provided in the theme. Content font settings are applicable to all elements of a page not covered by header font settings. Again, a font stack system is used for the font settings, ensuring that if a person viewing a site does not have a particular font installed, their web browser will default to a close alternative. For example, if Palatino is not available, Times New Roman will be used instead.
Note: Some RapidWeaver plugins will force their own font settings into a page. Sometimes these may not match your preferred fonts. In such cases, you may need to change plugin settings or use custom CSS to obtain a more desirable style. Contact the plugin developer for further information. In addition, some web browsers do not permit elements like form fields or buttons to have their font face changed. This is more noticeable in PC web browsers.
@import Via GFD
This theme has support for embedding your own fonts using the Google Fonts Directory service, or your own custom code. Embedded fonts are supported in each set of font settings within the theme (e.g. header and content). Typically embedded fonts have an advantage of looking more attractive compared with some standard web fonts, and can really improve the professionalism of a website. Unlike image text, all lettering can be selected or printed as normal with no detrimental effects on search engines.
Setting up embedded fonts requires some minor modifications to the theme. To use embedded fonts in this theme, open the theme contents and open the css folder within. Open the desired font setting folder (e.g. header-font), depending which set of font settings you want to add an embedded font face to. Open the import.css file in your preferred code editor. You will need to refer to the Google Font Directory online, to choose a suitable font face. On the "Get Code" page, make a note of the font name (short name and full name).
The first stage is to import the font into the stylesheet using the @import CSS declaration. This is somewhat similar to the function in PlusKit, but is designed specifically for importing other stylesheets or fonts (as a result it does not use PlusKit). You can modify the example code already provided. Next you need to add your font name to the 'font-family' settings. Again you can use the existing code as a point of reference and modify it accordingly. Save changes to the import.css file when done. Select the '@import' theme setting to use your newly embedded font face. Please note that you often need to preview or export a website outside of RapidWeaver, to see the embedded font working. It should also be pointed out that using embedded fonts may slow down page rendering.
Line Height and General Text Size Settings
These settings allow you to carefully customise the appearance of text within the theme. This enables you to customise text in areas such as content or sidebar. Line height controls the distance between lines of text. Text size controls the height of lettering. Some web designs recommend that light text on a dark background should be presented in a slightly larger font size and line space than normal to help aid clarity. Larger text sizes can look particular effective in some designs.
Logo Settings
Logo images can be inserted into the site setup window as normal in RapidWeaver. Logo images will automatically link back to your homepage. The homepage address is the same address you provide in the ‘web address’ box within the Site Setup window. If you need a logo to link somewhere else, open the index.html file within the theme contents and find the logo tags. Change the ‘base_url’ tag to a URL of your choice. Media supports multiple logo placement options including fixed screen badges, header container and sidebar.
Note: In Internet Explorer 6, logo images which are placed using the ‘fixed’ options will instead behave as absolutely-positioned elements. This is because this browser has limited CSS support and does not support fixed placement for objects. In addition, semi-transparent PNG logo images are non-supported in IE6 and will be rendered with a solid grey background instead.
Rounded Corner Settings
Introduced in Media 3.0, rounded corner settings can be used to automatically apply CSS rounded corners to the top of the header container and bottom of the footer bar. CSS rounded corners can be used to add decoration to the theme. Rounded corners generated using CSS are only supported on CSS3 compliant web browsers - like Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 (hence the asterisk marks). In older web browsers, rounded corners will be ignored and safely degrade back to squared corners. The corner radius is specified in pixel units of measurement. If you opt to have the navigation bar displayed at the top of the header container, you should either leave rounded corners turned off or seek to apply rounded corners on the navigation bar using your own CSS code.
Sidebar Settings
The sidebar in Media can be positioned either left or right of the content container. In addition, the width of the sidebar can be changed, to suit the type or quantity of sidebar content to be displayed. All sidebar settings can be accessed under the theme settings. Care should be taken that any wide items inserted into a sidebar or extra content container do not extend outside the sidebar boundary -- which could potentially cause layout problems (container wrapping) in Internet Explorer.
Album Settings
Media is now supplied with a new set of Album settings which enable you to customise the appearance of iPhoto and Quicktime Album page styles supplied with RapidWeaver. Some of the settings may work across other third-party plugins like RapidAlbum as well. Thumbnail colour settings control the colours found in thumbnail (grid) pages. Photo and video page colour setting enable customisation of singular photos or videos - the ones which open when a user clicks a thumbnail. Colour settings denoted (CSS3*) are only compatible on web browsers which support CSS3 code, such as Safari, Firefox, Opera and Chrome. In other web browsers, these non-supported colours will be hidden. As a result there may be some minor differences in the appearance of video or photo albums across various web browsers.
In addition to the colour settings, there are 3 style settings to control the layout of photo pages. Photo Data Vertical will arrange the photo page in a vertical format with content containers stacked vertically. The float right and float left options will put text and links on one side or a page, and the main image on the other side. Photo wrapper width settings control the width of the box containing your photograph, navigation links and EXIF data. This is only applicable to images being opened at full size. The width you elect to use should be dependant on the size of your photograph. So for example, if under the album settings you opt to scale photographs to a maximum size of 800px, you should use the 1000px or 1100px setting which would provide enough space for your photograph and EXIF data combined. By specifying a correct width, this will help to keep your photo page content nicely aligned in the centre of a screen. You can tell if a photo wrapper is not wide enough, because the image or EXIF data will be cropped and the content will not look centred on a page.
Width Settings
Several theme width settings exist in this theme, enabling you to customise the main container width. Some users prefer narrower widths, whereas others prefer wider page widths to fit more content in. Your choice of theme width should be governed by the type of content you wish to display and plugins you want to use (plugins such as WeaverPix and RapidAlbum require wider pages). When designing your website, remember that quite a large proportion of internet users have screen sizes of no more than 1024px by 768px. This is a trend which has stabilised since the introduction of new devices such as netbooks and tablet PC's. Theme width settings are specified in increments of 50px and a couple of other specialist widths are included for those familiar with the concept of grid systems. A custom theme width option is also included -- this can be edited in the css/width/ folder within the theme contents to include your own width setting.
Page Stripe (Miscellaneous Settings)
This setting will display an 8px horizontal border line at the top of a page. This line does not add an particular functionality, it is just an extra decorative feature. The colour of this border can be changed under the main colour settings within the theme.
Last Published Stamp (Miscellaneous Settings
This option will display the date a page was last updated. This is very useful for readers of your website to gauge when content was last updated and is an essential requirement in educational or informational websites. RapidWeaver will automatically write the date into the footer when this option is ticked. If you are using RapidWeaver 4.4 or less, the date will always be presented in mm/dd/yy format. In RapidWeaver 5.0 and later, the date will be localised to that of your computer. So for example outside of the US, the date may be shown as dd/mm/yy. If you need to change the 'Page last updated' text, this can be done by opening the theme contents and opening the index.html file in a code editor. Scroll down towards the bottom and make the necessary change.
Header Gradient (Miscellaneous Settings)
This setting applies a 600px wide horizontal gradient behind the site title and site slogan. This can improve the readability of title text against a background image and adds to the general appearance of the theme. In Internet Explorer 6, the header gradient will be rendered safely as a solid block (IE6 does not support semi-transparent PNG images). This setting is best used with static background images. Results when used in conjunction with Extra Content, Flash or slideshows may vary. The image used to achieve the gradient effect is called header-gradient.png and is located in the editable_images folder within the main theme images folder - this image can be edited or replaced with your own.
Disable Borderless Images (Miscellaneous Settings)
A clever feature in Media is that images which are set to float left or right in a content container will be flush with the edge of a page. This can look very modern and effective. However it may create problems in some plugins like Stacks. Ticking this option will switch off support for borderless images, and they will be displayed like standard left or right floating images in the theme.
Navigation Table (Miscellaneous Settings)
Ticking this option will display a navigation table (similar to a table of contents) at the bottom of a page. This is an ideal way to add an additional method of navigation to web pages for end users to use. Parent pages are displayed at the top in uppercase lettering. Sub pages are listed in columns underneath with dividing lines. The navigation table is automatically generated using the same links generated by RapidWeaver. The shape of your navigation table is determined by the structure of you website. It is not recommended the navigation table is used on sites with a large number of pages. Colour settings for the navigation table can be found under the main 'Navigation' settings. The navigation table can support static (deactivated) links.
Footer Navigation (Miscellaneous Settings)
Normally breadcrumb links will be placed in the bottom left of a footer container within Media. But on smaller websites, the use of breadcrumb links may seem rather pointless. Instead, this theme option can be used to replace the standard breadcrumb links with a list of your parent pages. In some websites this may be a more practical solution and give end users another method of navigation – particularly useful after they have scrolled down to the bottom of a page.
Splash Screen Style (Miscellaneous Settings)
This theme setting will remove the page content, footer and navigation bar containers from the theme. This will leave just the header container and sidebar on display. Splash screens are particularly useful in some websites for creating an eye-catching welcome or introduction page. Alternatively the Splash screen style can be used to make a special announcement like the upcoming launch of a new website, product or service. Links from the splash page onto other pages would need to be created manually. Third-party plugins like PlusKit (not included) can be used to import content from other pages into the sidebar like contact forms or slideshows.
Preview Extra Content Containers (Miscellaneous Settings)
Media has support for several EC (Extra Content) containers. EC is becoming a popular method in third-party RapidWeaver themes for allowing the placement of content outside of the normal editable regions of a page. See details below for further information on how to use EC. This option to preview EC containers offers you an excellent insight into where EC containers will be rendered. The names and numbers of each EC container are displayed for easier reference.
Theme Configuration
Search Bar Setup
If you need to change the label on the search button, this can be done in the index.html file contained within the theme contents. Open this file in your preferred code editor and scroll down to the point commented 'Search Function'. The submit input label can be changed here. It is recommended you keep the search button label roughly the same size as it currently is, to avoid breakage of the search form field.
Disabling Page Links (Keeping Them Displayed In The Menu)
This is useful if you are creating drop-down menu layouts, and you want to disable parent links to prevent them being clicked. Please note that the method outlined here will only work in the Media theme, and will not work in other themes (because it relies on extra code which has been added to the theme).
For pages you wish to disable the links for, open the Page Inspector in RapidWeaver. Make sure that the Browser Title field contains a page name or brief description - this is a very important setting and should not be skipped. In the Page Title field, enter the following HTML code:
</a><p>Static Title</p><a>
The words "Static Title" can be changed to the text you want displayed. What this code does is to prematurely close the opening link tag and reopen it again after your static title to prevent validation errors. Text inside the span tags will be recognised as text you do not want linked, and the theme will automatically apply the necessary CSS and Javascript to disable the link, while retaining formatting like padding. This method of disabling links is completely safe to use across all web browsers and will not cause any XHTML validation errors. If the link previously acted as a trigger to display sub pages, the jQuery code in the theme will continue to support hover events. When a user hovers over a disabled link, the default mouse cursor will be shown in most web browsers.
Navigation Links Which Span Over 2 Or More Lines
If you have menu links whereby the text wraps onto two or more lines, line spacing can be reduced by putting the link text inside a pair of HTML span tags with a class name of 'multi' applied. This will reduce the line spacing down to 1.25em by default. This method can be used for both active links and links you have disabled using the method discussed above.
<span class="multi">Static Title</span>
Extra Content
Media includes basic support for EC (Extra Content). Eight EC containers are available in this theme -- their positions and placement can be seen by using the Preview Extra Content Containers option under the theme settings. To embed content within your EC containers, use the standard EC code snippet or the Stacks plugin. Text colour settings for all ten EC containers can be found under the theme colour settings. More information on using extra content (including free snippets and stacks) can be obtained from this website: http://extracontent.info/
Adding icons to external links
Adding Custom Header Images Using Finder
Header images used by the theme are stored inside the theme contents. This ensures that the images become an embedded part of the theme and can be selected for use under the theme settings. For example, you may want to have a different image displayed on different pages of your website to add some variety.
The theme contents can be accessed by CTRL + Clicking (or right clicking) on the theme preview icon in RapidWeaver (the small picture of Media which appears in your theme drawer). From the popup menu, select the 'Reveal theme contents in Finder' option. A new Finder window opens which contains a selection of files and folders. Open the folder marked 'images'. Then inside, open the folder marked 'editable_images'. This editable_images folder contains all of the images used by the theme, including placeholder images. Placeholder images are typically blank and named or numbered sequentially like header-01.jpg, header-02.jpg, header-3.jpg for example.
Any of these placeholder images can be replaced using your own images. When you add new custom images, name them so that they replace placeholder images. By replacing the placeholder images supplied in the theme, your custom images will be available for selection under the theme settings. When creating new images, it is advisable that these are optimised for the internet - typically this means they should not have any specific colour profiling applied and be of 72 DPI with a file size no greater that 75KB.
Adding Custom Header Images Using RapidWeaver MultiTool
RapidWeaver MultiTool is a third party application which runs separate to RapidWeaver. Both a free and premium version of this software is available. When open, RapidWeaver MultiTool presents a list of themes installed on your computer. Themes which are compatible with RapidWeaver MultiTool store all of their images inside a folder called editable_images. RapidWeaver MultiTool enables you to edit any of these images. The original images are safely backed-up within the theme so they can be retrieved at a later date if required.
It is recommended you start by editing placeholder images. Placeholder images are typically blank and named or numbered sequentially like header-01.jpg, header-02.jpg, header-3.jpg for example. Using RapidWeaver MultiTool, you can drag and drop new images onto the canvases. Many basic image editing techniques can also be performed on these images and text can be applied. Use the save button in RapidWeaver MultiTool to apply the customised image to your theme. RapidWeaver MultiTool is developed by a separate software company and support documentation is provided on the website.
Adding Custom Header Images using Extra Content
Extra Content enables you to place content outside the normal editable regions of a RapidWeaver website. In this theme, you can add EC to the header container, making this perfect for adding custom images. Start by creating your images in an external editor and use a utility like PixelStick to measure the size of your header container. Create the custom images to this size of your header container. You will need to apply aspects of styling like rounded corners in your image editor. Images should be optimised for the internet - typically this means that should not have any specific colour profiling applied and be of 72 DPI with a file size no greater that 75KB. When ready, enter this HTML code into the sidebar or use an EC Stack:
<div id="myExtraContent2"> </div>
Drag and drop your image into the code, placing it between the opening and closing tag. When you website is previewed, the image will be added to the header. You may need to use the 'Preview Extra Content Containers' option under the theme settings to check you're using the correct EC container. EC also has some support for the @import function in PlusKit, so it may be possible to import images, Stacks or slideshows from other pages.
More information on using EC, including downloads of free Stacks and Snippets can be found here: http://extracontent.info/
Adding custom header images using plugins
If you are using plugins such as SYMimages or WeaverPix, there is an option to move generated content in EC containers. Similar, to the approach above, you should use the 'Preview Extra Content Containers' option under the theme settings to check you're using the correct EC container. Then in the plugin, select the correct EC container from the menu.
Adding custom header images from a warehouse
If your images are already scaled to size and stored on the internet, it is possible to import them into the theme using CSS or jQuery Javascript. To use CSS, copy and paste this code into the Custom CSS box in the page inspector:
#header {
background-image: url(http://www.example.com/image1.jpg);
}
Change the URL to point to your image stored on the internet. There are other CSS attributes you can add to this code to change image alignment and background repeat. Search on the internet for further details of this.
If you are using Stacks like the XML Randomiser Stack, this can be used to pull in warehoused images at random to display within a page. You would need to use the @import function in PlusKit (not included) to import the Randomiser Stack code into your header container using Extra Content. There are other Stacks and code snippets available for RapidWeaver to import images into a page.
Embedding Flash Banners Within The Header
The header container in Media can accept Flash banners generated using software such as Bannerzest. Bannerzest is arguably the best application available on Mac OS X for creating basic Flash slideshows and other animations made from images and text. After you have created and published a Flash banner from Bannerzest, copy the embed code and paste it into the designated Extra Content container. In the Media theme, you can preview where Extra Content containers are rendered (see the section on using Extra Content). The animation will then be shown within the header container. RapidWeaver needs to be listed as a trusted application before a Flash file can be previewed – this is an option found under the preferences in Bannerzest and similar software.
Note: The images inside an animation are an integral part of the Flash file and cannot be modified by RapidWeaver or a theme. You will need to make sure the images used in a Flash animation are already scaled to the correct size. You may also wish to apply rounded corners to your images and save them as PNG images if rounded corners are desired. If embedding Flash generated by another application, follow the same instructions as above, but use the standard HTML Flash embed code shown below:
<object width="550" height="400"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.example.com/somefilename.swf"> <embed src="http://www.example.com/somefilename.swf" width="550" height="400" wmode="transparent"> </embed> </object>
In this code above, the WMODE attribute has been added, which will enable other elements like a site title, slogan, logo or sidebar container to be layered over a Flash file. It is recommended that the Flash files are published separately to the RapidWeaver project, rather than trying to embed one within the other. The advantage of using Extra Content to embed you Flash is that you can have a different Flash animation of different pages if required.
General RapidWeaver Theming Techniques
Styling Header Tags
The header tags can be styled using CSS. You can ether style individual levels of headers, or style them all collectively as a group. To style individual headers, the CSS code you would use would look like this:
h3 {
text-transform: lowercase;
font: 200% "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;
color: #5e5e5e;
}
This code above would convert all h3 tags to lowercase, increase the font size to 200% and convert the font face to a Helvetica font family with an iron grey colour. If you wanted to style all of your header tags the same, multiple selector names can be used in the CSS code, separated by commas like this:
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
text-transform: lowercase;
font: 200% "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;
color: #5e5e5e;
}
The text size of header tags will still vary in size, depending on the specific header tag used. But all header tags would have lowercase lettering, a standardised font face and the same colour throughout. This custom CSS code can either go into the custom.css file within the theme contents, or you can enter it in the normal custom CSS box within the page inspector in RapidWeaver.
Duplicating Themes
If you are planning on making any modifications to the Media theme, it is highly recommended that you duplicate the theme -- that means making a copy of the theme to customise, leaving an original version in RapidWeaver unedited. Working from a duplicated theme ensures you can always return back to an original version at anytime. Themes can be easily duplicated by right-clicking (or control and clicking) the theme preview icon in RapidWeaver and selecting 'Duplicate' from the popup menu. Give the duplicated theme a new name and work from that version. Duplicated themes will not be effected by future theme updates.
Saving Styles
Theme Contents
Code, settings, files and graphics required by a theme live inside a package called Media.rwtheme or similar. If you are planning to modify the theme or add new elements to it, the 'theme contents' (package) is where you normally need to go. RapidWeaver themes are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/RapidWeaver/ where "~" is the name of your home directory. But you can also easily access the theme contents from within RapidWeaver. Just right-click (or control and click) the theme preview icon and select 'Reveal theme contents in Finder' from the pup window. The theme contents is revealed in a Finder window, from where you can access all the files which make-up the theme.
Making Theme Customisations Using CSS
All elements in the Media theme have either class or ID names. These names can be used as selectors, to apply custom CSS code to. The best method is to preview your website in a web browser such as Firefox or Safari. With developer tools installed or enabled, right click a particular element and choose to open or inspect it. This will give details of the element such as its selector name and and CSS code already applied to it. From this point, you can use the selector name and custom CSS code to change the style or appearance of an item. For example, padding can be changed, borders applied or background images added onto element. CSS gives you the potential to make many style changes to a theme. Media has been designed and structured to make this as easy as possible. Some third-party RapidWeaver plugins also come supplied with details on how to modify styles using CSS. A lot of information regarding CSS can be sourced from the internet.
Applying Custom CSS
This theme features a very useful 'custom.css' file within the theme contents. Into this file, you can enter custom CSS code. Unlike the Custom CSS box under the Page Inspector in RapidWeaver, code entered into the custom.css file gets applied to all pages and enables you to edit CSS using a preferred editor like CSSedit or Text Wrangler. These types of editors often feature useful features like syntax colouring, auto-completion and validation, which combined make CSS editing much easier and safer. There are many free resources on the internet which cover CSS in detail. To open the custom.css file, right click (or CTRL + Click) the theme preview icon in RapidWeaver and select 'Reveal Theme Contents in Finder'. Open the custom.css file in your preferred code editor. If you only need to apply custom CSS code to a single page, enter this code under the Page Inspector custom CSS box as normal.
Support
Customer Support
You can find links to various resources on the ThemeFlood website. Official RapidWeaver support resources such as the user manual, help desk and forums are available under the help menu in RapidWeaver. For issues relating to this theme or other problems, please don't hesitate to get in contact via the ThemeFlood website. Unlike some other theme companies, customer support is free and is extended to cover themes which have been customised or modified. Facilities are available for you to upload customised themes and RapidWeaver sandwich (project) files. A custom theme and modification service is also available on request.
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