Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
14
The Arclite Theme Settings page handles many common design aspects, and more than a few not-
so-common ones. M. Popovici of Digital Nature, the Arclite Developer, does a pretty good job on this
page of explaining what each setting does in limited space, but there is more to say about them.
This is also good guidance for creating your own themes.
•
Imageless Layout
—Instead of placing an image in the background, the theme uses the standard
color options to create a background. This is something to consider if your page is often
accessed by mobile devices, where Wi-Fi might be slow. This might be less pretty, but your page
will load fast in any environment.
•
Enable 3
rd
Column on All Pages
—This setting gives you the option to have three columns (more
precisely, two sidebars) throughout your site. This promotes a consistent look, but your static
pages might not need all the sidebar material.
•
Sidebar Position
—Would you like your sidebar(s) on the left or right of your content?
•
Top Navigation Shows
—This header includes some navigation buttons. Click here to show sta-
tic pages (covered in Chapter 10, “Adding Upgrades, Audio, and Video”) or your categories
(covered in Chapter 4, Creating Your First Post”).
•
Exclude from Main Navigation
—This setting is good for when you're drafting a static page, but
it's not ready for visitors just yet. Perhaps there was a category you used to post heavily to, but
have lost interest in. Keep these items out of the navigation bar by adding them here (page
names and category IDs) separated by commas. Note that items excluded here are still part of
your blog, and visible to search engines (including any search boxes on your site).
•
Footer
—Do you want to include some information at the bottom of each page on your site? Use
the edit box provided to add copyright or trademark notices, a link to one (or all) of your other
sites, a favorite quotation—whatever fits.
•
Logo Image
—If you have a logo for your blog (or the sponsoring organization), upload that here.
•
Show Search
—This setting lets visitors find what they are looking for on your site. The default is
yes; we recommend keeping it there.
•
Show Theme-Default Category Block
—If you don't like the way the categories look in the
theme, turn this off. You can then choose a plug-in or code your own way of displaying your
categories.
•
Header Background
—Use this drop-down menu to change the header. Choose from one of the
many textures, upload your own image (with the option to have one primary, centered image of
the size 960 x 190 pixels over a repeating, tiled image; that is, you can display a small photo of a
patch of grass that stretches across the header, and then add another big graphic of your
favorite animal strolling on this grassy field), or define your own plain background color.
•
Widget Title Background
—Arclite supports widgets and highlights them with a pink title cell
by default. The drop-down menu lets you choose Green, Blue, or Gray instead.
•
Content Background
—Here M. Popovici of Digital Nature (the Arclite Developer) gives you a
couple of options for changing the background of the theme. For a more radical revision, you'll
have to go into the theme template and change it yourself.
