CSS Themes saving/changing

As noted, I really liked aspects of your St. Pat's theme. How do they work exactly?

I copied the code from your theme url:  <link href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.lefora.com/site/3/theme/style-fc2f8441387adddfa19006d991ba33b7.css" media="screen, projection" title="Theme" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"/>  into my practice forum, and for the first time, I got the CSS to work!

Can you tell me:

1. Will that theme code stay there permanently at the amazon site? 

2. If I use the graphics from it, and it changes or gets deleted - what happens to my layout? (like graphics - e.g. )  Hmmm.  I didn't know the graphic would show instead of the url.  But generally, I mean the graphics for the buttons and tabs and the clover pic etc.

3. Can I store the them somewhere else here at lefora and just change the url in the css code?

4. Or, can I store the them at some other site - like my personal domain?

Thanks.  In order to change the theme on support, I did just two simple things (i didn't edit the css).

1. Uploaded a header graphic image.  I found mind by searching flickr.com, I then cropped the image, you can use a service like http://snipshot.com/ to do this (i use the software www.sketch.com)

To upload a header graphic, click 'Forum Admin' -> Appearances -> Colors & Images

2. Then I changed the color of the forum from blue to green, I did this on the same Colors & Images screen by dragging the color slider bar.

Once you get comfortable with the Admin Panel theme editor, I bet you could do this all under 2 minutes. 

Oh. 

Now I feel even dumber than I thought I was.  I didn't see a theme that seemed "like this one". 

I like the 'Simple' themes, but it has a lot of limitations.

I like some aspects of the theme you use here, but not the dark bgs around the edges and in the sidebar, nor the look of the tabs/buttons.

I wanted to use a logo graphic and maybe also some subtle bg graphics and/or colors.  It seems that with the existing themes, you can have one or the other - and until I understand how to edit stuff, I can't have both.

So someday, I have to figure out how to create my own hybrid with colors and graphics I like, but can't understand how to do that without seeing all the code - ideally in a css authoring tool.

here's a little tutorial on how to change your theme like i mentioned above:

http://support.lefora.com/2009/03/18/how-to-change-your-theme/

AHA!  That's the rub.  Here's the pic from the custom css you "added"

My problem is I don't know where to look for bits of code that do something.  That's assuming I would even recognize what any snippet of code did when I saw it.  Working with firebug is like looking for a needle in a haystack to this old crow.

What I need is the whole code and an authoring tool to put it in that will allow viewing and testing of the code changes along the way.  Are there any free or really cheap WYSISYG CSS authoring tools out there?

So here's my next Q: 

The theme css applied to anyone's forum - is that the code, the whole code and nothing but the code for the parts of the page that we are allowed to access for customization?
In other words. is there any other bits of code in the other sections of the header information that can be customized by us?  I mean the items like these in the attached pic:

Well that's the thing - no piece-meal please.

 I ran huge projects designing web-based front-end computer applications before I took sick.  There is no way in the world I can comprehend this bits and pieces stuff.  There is no way I would stand for it from suppliers or staff either!  Give me the code, the whole code, and the full documentation for the code.  Ideally, we used a CASE tool or something like Rational Rose to develop the CSS.

Around here (and other forums too I notice) It all seems like the way oriental carpets are made - bazillions of guys with yarn behind the rug sewing away, and only one guy in the front who can see what is going on.

I want to see what the guy in the front sees, please.  I just wish someone could

Attached are a few sets of css files that are saved when a forum is saved as a "complete" web page. 

The style-403c4ee86862fa39ab5885abc4e086c7.css is what I've been editing.

But then there is the base_post.css and the site.css which I assumed couldn't be edited.  But maybe they CAN be edited.changed/overriden???

Can you ask the tekkies what bits can be edited in which of the files, and what parts get ignored.  I have discovered a lot of changes I've made get ignored... so it would be nice to know what not to try to change...

Attachment: style-403c4ee86862fa39ab5885abc4e086c7.css (30.0KB)

Attachment: base_post.css (0.0KB)

Attachment: site.css (6.0KB)

This post has some examples:
http://support.lefora.com/2008/12/17/custom-css-advanced/page1/

You don't want to change any css files.  What you want to do is add CSS overrides to your forum that will change the style.  This is indeed an advanced feature, that's why hackyour.lefora.com provides many resources for beginners.

For instance, to change your body background color to white, you would just add this one line of code to your CSS tab.
#page {background-color: #FFFFFF;}

I have copied over the entire code from the style-etcetcetc.css file and pasted it into the CSS editor in the admin panel.  Then I made the changes.  (They seem to appear as overrides when you look at the code in firebug.)  So I the end is the same.  Only the way I am tracking my changes differs from the way you do it.

I'm sorry if you don't think that my top-down approach is advanced enough. This old IT development hand needs to understand how the "whole" hangs together in order to know where I am and what I am doing. You guys can do yours shotgun blast style - more power to ya.  I need to do mine "top down" style, thank you.

However, I still want to know if the code that resides in the other 2 files can also be changed/overridden, as there seem to be things in them too that need to change.  So if you look at the contents of the other 2 files, can you tell me if we can override the items in them too?

I also do know yet know what things CAN'T be changed.  I understand that you can't change the text color in messages from what I have read here. (Although it seems you can when copy/pasting something that is colored).  I don't know what other things can't be changed.  It would be nice to know so I don't waste time trying to change things that can't be changed.  I am looking for help in that area too.

And I HAVE changed my body bg color - to ddffdd - and there's only a wee thin bit of it around the edge so I was pretty unimpressed.  I haven't figured out yet how to change more of the great white expanses to that color too....yet.  Perhaps you can help with that too?

We'll have more tutorials around CSS editing in lefora on this support forum in the future, but hackyour.lefora.com is the best place to ask some of these questions, the admins over there are very involved and have a close ear on new lefora developments.

I asked over there.  They didn't know. They sent me over here.

wow this all makes my head hurt!

Yeah, there's a lot of that going around...

It's probably best not to copy the lefora forum CSS just to paste it back.  It would be better to make incremental CSS changes in the posting box (for instance, if you want to change the background image, you just need to add one line of CSS, you don't need to add anything else).

So it would be good to experiment on the CSS with different parts of the site, one at a time.  If you have any specific questions, please post them.  I use 'firebug' to help me understand the CSS that's currently on the page, and test out making small, incremental changes in my browser first, before copying and pasting them into the CSS editor.

Hmmm.  OK, here's some specific questions:

A.  How can I change the hard-to-see light grey text in the following areas to 006600? I have been able to change it on the sidebar, but no luck on the rest of the page.

1. descriptions under the Category titles (forum tab)
2. the who-posted-when info under the message thread titles (when viewing the message list in a category)
3. The date at the bottom of each message in a thread

B.  How can I get ALL the section titles on the sidebar to be in bold weight?  I got the Forum Categories and Recent Posts to change, but the rest didn't change.

C.  How can get the white font color for the Forum name and the "start a topic" changed to EFEFEF?  I have been able to get the white text on the rest of the page changed, but not those two sections.

Ack!  I don't know why the last half of the text in my post above is that nasty light grey - but that's the color I want changed to 006600!

i started a new topic over at:
http://support.lefora.com/2009/03/26/some-css-questions/page1/