Theme editing application / plugin?

[keith3 (Keith Stevens)]

Hi - Is there an application or plug in to help me edit themes
Theme minor appears in google search - is this still available & does it work with Rapidweaver 8 - Is there a better way? - Thanks for any help & suggestions.

[manofdogz (LJ)]

May be wrong but I think Theme Miner went out with Rapidweaver 2 or something back in the days of Noah and his ark. When you say ‘edit’ themes what exactly do you want to do?

Using the architecture of RW, a theme will give you a layout for your website in which you can add content. The most basic themes won’t offer much in the way of flexibility whereas more complex, 3rd party themes can offer a lot of flexibility built in. Nevertheless, there will be things that are rarely editable within the theme structure - particularly the Navigation style. To change these you would need to hack the theme and code changes yourself. Downside of this is that you need to know what you are doing, and any changes will be over-written in future theme updates from the vendor.

If you want full control, go with stacks and a blank theme - there are several on offer including: Joe Workman’s Foundation, Elixir’s Foundry, 1LD’s Pure, Weavers UI Kit and Blankstrap (Bootstrap 4) from InStacks. More recently we have 1LD’s Layouts and Nick Cates Depth which offer excellent layout solutions and come with a blank theme. Sorry if I have missed any other products!

Any of these will allow you a blank canvas on which to build a site laid out as you wish including several Navigation stacks that allow plenty of Navigation flexibility without coding it yourself. The blank themes do however still utilise the RW framework and will still give the quick multi page set up and navigation, logo, footer, breadcrumb, site title and slogan functionality along with page over-rides.

So the choice is, find an advanced theme which you like with enough flexibility built in, or get a blank theme solution.

[keith3 (Keith Stevens)]

Thanks for the info

My needs are pretty basic, I want to edit the theme banner height, simple things like that where the theme defaults don’t quite fit what we want. I’ve gone in and edited the css but I was hoping there was something to help me with this. Also, I want to learn more - I quite enjoyed digging in and tweaking - and hopefully not breaking anything

I’ll checkout your suggestions - Cheers
K

[zeebe (Robert Ziebol 🖖🏼)]

If you want to learn more about CSS and HTML, this is a great book to get
https://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1545066351&sr=8-3&keywords=CSS+HTML
There is also one on JavaScript and jQuery and a bundle with both books on Amazon if you want that as well. Great reads and good information.

[teefers (Doug Bennett)]

@manofdogz

and any changes will be over-written in future theme updates from the vendor.

Never edit the original theme - Make a duplicate first

• Right-Click the. theme

• Select `Duplicate Theme
  

• Name The Theme

1. Select "all Themes
2. Type part of the name you gave
3. Right-click the theme and select show in finder
   
   

Make the changes to the duplicate, That way if the Theme does get updated it won’t override your changes, and if you totally mess up you can go back to the original.

[manofdogz (LJ)]

Absolutely - should have mentioned that. However, if the vendor updates with some good stuff your duplicate theme misses out. Personally I don’t see the point in messing with a theme outside of the built-in capabilities and custom CSS added within the theme controls. Far better to build what you want with a blank theme if you can’t find something that fits the bill.