OMB I FINALLY HAVE ACCESS! I've been haunting this board as a guest for days, cause my original confirmation never showed, not even in my spam box. Anyway...
I am new to website design but not a total noob to css and html I've been customizing runboards for a few years. I've been having real issues with customizing the skins. I really just wanted a stripped down basic 3 column skin that I could easily customize, I think I went through every skin I had access to as a guest. *grumbles*
I've gone back and forth on several and I have to say the code for the Shuriken is well thought out and includes all sorts of comments, which was great, it just wasn't the format I wanted, however, if the other author's of skins would take a look at that and pay attention to the comments they would make customizing their skins much easier.
Sorry if this doesn't belong here, move and slap my wrists, I would deserve it. But I've been spinning my wheels for ages.
*stalks off to check out the skins I didn't have accesss to with hope in my heart*
It would be great if there was just a really basic form for the noob, not the default, I checked that. Like I said I'm looking for a 3 column page.
Oh and eFiction itself is Brill. I'm not bashing. I had no troubles making the settings uploading and installing. Talk about ease of use!
What do you mean by 'basic' 3-column? Fixed width container? Fixed with columns? Min-width? Max-width? Header in center column? Header above all columns?
If you can make a regular html 3-column layout, you can easily kidnap some block/listings/etc css from the skins that come with eFiction and start patching it in. Then it's just a matter of splitting it into the header/index/footer files.
Skins made by Kali are no longer supported!
Kali, I guess I didn't make myself clear. But for an example...
Take simple_machine, which has the basic layout I would like, in that it has a column for site info etc..., then the Welcome, catagories, news and then a third, what I am calling collumns, perhaps I am not saying this right, featured random etc...; That's exactly the base layout I want, I don't want, however all the other stuff. I want my own header, though I like the menus, I hate the blue and want to customise my own background and I don't want all the little icons all over the place. But, for me, who I have said is a noob to website design and has only done runboard customization, looking at the code for this is impossible for me to customize. The Css is hardly a factor and all the hard coding is so difficult to interpret, for the non-expert, that it frustrates.
Does that make sense?
I guess the problem is that most of the skins aren't meant to be customized as much as you're thinking of. The skins for download aren't 'basic' skins, they're usually themed a specific way. We just don't have what you're looking for right now (although I'll put some thought into making some very basic templates).
I suggest you go through the default tpls and see what does what around the template before you do anything. Or strip out all the cosmetic css out of a skin and see what does what. Most of what you're describing is a simple matter of changing the css files and ALL skins you find here will require you to have the know how to dissect style.css.
Skins made by Kali are no longer supported!
Clabby, you might take a look at the following wiki entries. They explain skinning for 3.0 and will probably be of help. They won't really help too much with stylesheet, stuff, unfortunately, as that can vary wildly by skin.
https://efiction.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Creating_Skins_for_3.0
https://efiction.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Category:Skinning (The category for everything skinning-related)
The style.css entry, which has a list of the hardcoded ids/classes: https://efiction.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Style.css
Kali, I have done, I'm starting to get the hang of it, but I do think really basic skins would be a boon to eFiction.
Lyndsie, they've been my bible while I struggle with customizing.
I've been working a lot on the skin stuff in the wiki, so let me know if there's anything that can be improved/added. : )
Lyndsie, the wiki has been most helpful!
Question, not sure if there is where I should post so feel free to move, I have an opportunity to post published author teasers on my site. I have set up a category for them, what I want to do is post them on the front page, can I pick off categories? Please mind I'm a noobie to this, so be kind in your replies.
Could you explain more thoroughly what you mean? I'm not clear on "pick off categories." I know some people have integrated a random quotes kind of generator with their eFic, which might be like what you're talking about.
I've got an individual who represents published author of adult fiction. She want's to promote those authors on an adult fiction/fanfiction website. I've set up a category on my website for published authors. What I'd like to do is feature just the published authors on the front page, yet also keep my featured story, as The Rabid Reader, my website, will feature original unpublished fics and fanfics. Am I making sense?
You can code an area into index.tpl. Use the CSS classes that correspond to the title and content areas of the blocks, and it should work out.
