Caribou customization

TheMacGuy

First things first, I'm brand new to RW and web development in general. I've dabbled in HTML but by no means am I proficient. I have been evaluating RW in hopes that I don't have to spend a lot of time learning CSS and HTML.

Major goals for the site I am trying to design is to have a menu with floating drop down items (Caribou supports this) with a company banner and picture. So far so good. What I am struggling with is the theme appears to draw a fixed box (about the size of a normal web browser). When I add content to the page, it doesn't extend the size of the box, but just overflows at the bottom. (BTW I chose the styled Text page as the basis for the home page)

Simple question: How do I customize the theme to control the size of the box that is drawn so that my content fits within it? Also, is it possible to supply my own images instead of using the canned images provided by the theme (for the Banner Design)?

I like a lot of aspects of this program, but I am worried about purchasing only to find out I have to spend $100's more purchasing plugins themes etc to accomplish what I really want (given my web authoring novice status).

Any suggestions / help would be greatly appreciated.

mitchellm

What you describe is not normal behavior. My wild guess is you've unintentionally put in some code that creates the problem. But it's virtually impossible to even make a decent guess without you providing a link to the problematic webpage.

TheMacGuy

www.myapplesoft.com

I haven't entered any code. Just been working in WYSIWYG mode so far.

In regards to the custom graphic question: I just want to change the banner graphic that shows up under the Banner Design pull down for page style. The only choices that are present are pre-defined graphics for the theme.

In regards to the box question: The theme defines a box centered in the window which contains the menu, banner and provides a small area for text / graphics. it then fades down to the footer. What I wanted to do was control the size of the box that is drawn (vertically). I want all my text / graphics to be within the box not just extending down into faded area.

mitchellm

Re: box question. I'm seeing 3 pages on your website. 2 are empty. The third page seems to have all text/graphics within the box. Not seeing what the problem is.

TheMacGuy

Yes that is correct (since I am in evaluation mode I can only create 3 pages). Anyway, let me be clear. What there aren't any problems with the rendering, just questions about how to customize the theme...

1. I want to change the graphic that is displayed behind the SilkyMac Software logo (I don't like any of the provided alternatives that are selectable in the page Info-> Styles -> Banner Design selection box.

2. The theme draws a large box which contains the menu, banner graphics and then fades into the footer. I want to be able to control the size of the box so that I can extend it vertically.

I hope that helps clarify things.

mitchellm

Still not sure what you mean by Pt. 2. If you add more "stuff" that box will extend vertically automatically. It's fluid and adapts automatically based on the amount of "stuff" on each page.

So is what you want a set vertical size for each page? So there's a lot of extra white space if not much text? Problems rendering if a lot of text? Not sure what you're really after here. (Not trying to be unkind, but hard to imagine what you're trying to accomplish.)

TheMacGuy

Since the 'box' in question blends to the background halfway down the page, I suppose this point is less important to me. However Pt 1 is extremely important. Is there a way to customize the images provided by the theme (specifically for the banner)? The SilkyMac Software image is what I provided in the company logo under the setup dialog.

mitchellm

Yes, there is a way to customize images. Some themes make this very easy. Others make it less easy. Unfortunately Caribou fits into the "less easy" category. And, unfortunately, I'm very busy and don't have the time to write out detailed instructions. Someone else may be able to do this.

What would really help is if RapidWeaver came with a manual. But, alas, it doesn't! Paul Bradforth (sp???) has an e-book on RapidWeaver (search forums). This may explain exactly what you want as it is a common question. You also may find the answer by searching the forum (there certainly have been answers to this question before, and I'm assuming those answers are still on this current forum somewhere).

Regarding the box, I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding RW and how templates work. But, that again, would be a longer explanation. If only there were a manual available to new users . . . .

TheMacGuy

Ok thanks.. this does make sense. I will search for the answer in the forums.

Paul Bradforth

You might find my tutorial on swapping header images useful. And, as mitchellm says, what you're seeing with the vertical size is not normal behaviour; the Caribou theme will stretch downwards automatically as you add content. If it's not, then you have a problem it would probably be best to contact Realmac about.

emel

Hi TheMacGuy,

I had a question about modifying headers in RW themes, and came across your posting here.

I’m wondering if the problem you describe with the box size is the same one that I recently encountered. A short while ago I upgraded to RW5 and was checking out the various themes. In the Caribou theme, no matter what kind of page I created, when I toggled the mode button at the bottom of the window to switch from “edit mode” into “preview mode”, the white background extended only part way down the page then became a gray, linen-textured background; everything I had put into the page appeared, but as I scrolled, partway down, the background became that grey linen. (It’s the same texture that appears as the window is in the midst of switching between edit / preview modes.) However, if I went to the little gear button in the lower left corner of the window and chose “Preview “ then chose a browser from the popup menu, the page appeared as I expected it to: the white extended all the way to the bottom of the page as backing of all of my inputted material. (The Manitoba theme was also quirky: instead of the expected white background, the background appeared entirely as that gray linen.)

As I couldn’t find a mention of this on the forums, I wondered if perhaps my copy of RW was odd and ended up sending an email to RW support. I got a quick, wonderfully helpful response. The gist was that it’s an issue they’re working hard to fix: in RW5 that gray background appears in these two themes in the toggled “Preview mode”, but the site will export fine to the web, with the white background extending behind the entire length of the content. If I want to see how it will actually look before I publish, they affirmed that the method of previewing a page in a browser via that little gear button will give me an accurate picture.

If what you were experiencing is the same thing, I hope this helps.

With best wishes,

Emel

peglomaniac

I am using the Manitoba theme and rather like the grey linen background, which I no longer have when the site is published to the web. Is there a way to actually keep it?

peterblazejewicz

@peglomaniac
Hi,
can you share how you've achieved that background - that is what were your settings in Page Inspector>Style for that theme.
I believe that specific theme has small bug in it which effect page background color during preview and publish (it has not translated to value "background-color: %colour_page_background%" in generated code),
best,
Peter

peglomaniac

@peterblazejewicz
I wish I had gotten a notice of your question back in January - I just picked it up now. I have chosen a different theme to work with for that project and have very likely undone any edits .