I’m relatively new to RapidWeaver, and have been trying to get my head around Stacks and Frameworks.
I would like to be able to build a site that utilises the modern trend of full window colour banding to delineate sections on a single page - that is, a ‘full bleed’ approach.
From my research it seems I will need to add either Foundry or Foundation to achieve this.
Can anybody confirm that yes, I will need Foundry or Foundation (i.e. RapidWeaver itself can’t do it, being theme based)?
Secondly, do both of these Frameworks make it easy create banded sites? My pre-purchase research led me to ProStyles by Big White Duck as well, which seems to mention Foundation as a requirement?
I think I’m getting myself confused - so would appreciate clarification as to what is the best set of tools to build a banded site.
This is an overly short response, but wanted to give you some quick responses.
You can likely get the “full bleed” approach using other tools than Foundry or Foundation, but they are likely still the best choices and the most flexible.
Foundry makes it super simple to do what you want. The Realmac Software site was created with Foundry. For example peruse this page:
Foundation will also do what you want. I prefer Foundry as I find it better suits my approach and I find it simpler/faster to use. But others (i.e. Foundation users) will disagree with me! Needless to say, it’s wonderful that there are two such great options for users. (In fact there are other non-theme themes available such as UI Kit, Pure, and others for RW. F & F are simply the best-known and most popular.)
Prostyles will work in any theme - it merely allows you to define page and site wide layouts, styles and backgrounds etc for supported stacks such as Sections Pro, Sections Box and other forthcoming BWD stacks.
Your response might be short - but it is very helpful. I had actually been wondering if the RapidWeaver site was built using vanilla RW - or with something else. Now I know!
I have also done some further reading in the minutes since I posted, and it does seem like Foundry’s Jumbotron is probably a useful tool to get this format.
I agree that it is great that such a healthy ecosystem exists.
Now I just have to convince my wife that spending the money for Stacks and Foundry is a worthwhile use of a chunk of money for a ‘hobby’!
You can make banded sites using the default Foundation stacks. Nothing else is really required. Here are a few examples of banded sites and are built using the default Foundation column stacks. Obviously other stacks are used to make the site. However, the banding is all done with Foundation.
In our house there’s a “my” card, a “her” card (or “partner” card), and an “our” card. What gets charged on “my” card need not be discussed!
You NEED to buy stacks. That’s not an option. RW on its own won’t take you far (or far enough). The advantage of Foundry or Foundation is they come with a very nice set of stacks. This means there’s a good chance you won’t need to buy even additional stacks unless you have very particular needs.
The standard Jumbotron stack in Foundry will do exactly what you want with just one stack, so will be easy to learn and use. It also does large text and adjustable angle colour gradient backgrounds which can look really good. Foundation needs additional stacks to do this type of layout but you can find all the additional stacks you would need at BWD.
I have bought Stacks tonight, and it has already allowed me to make some changes for the better to my site.
I have also already discovered a few limitations of just using Stacks (unless it’s operator error) and can see why building from a blank slate with a Framework will be even better.
