Changing CSS properties

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I'm new to Concrete5 and I'm still trying to figure out how things work. Right now I want to change some default text and header attributes on my newly-inherited web site, and I don't see how to access those properties. Where can I get a general guide for such things?

 
hutman replied on at Permalink Reply
hutman
Hello, each Theme is a little different in the way that it is built.

In general if you are dealing with the header of a purchased theme you can go into your stacks and update these things, if it is an older version of C5 it might be in the scrapbook.

If you are dealing with a homemade theme one of those options might work, otherwise you will most likely need to go into the files on the server and look in either /themes/theme_name/elements/header.php or /packages/package_name/theme/theme_name/elements/header.php

If you provide a link to the site that you are working with it would be easier to give direction.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
How do I get into the stacks, the scrapbook, or the server files?

my web site iswww.www.minervaareachristianschool.org/...
hutman replied on at Permalink Reply
hutman
If you have the website login information you can go herehttp://www.minervaareachristianschool.org/index.php/login/... then go into the Dashboard (there will be a button in the Toolbar that shows up once you are logged in).

In the Dashboard you should see both Scrapbook and Stacks. It looks like you are using Concrete 5.5.2 and the Innovation theme.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
OK, I went into Stacks, and all that was there was Global Areas, with subsets labeled Header Nav and Site Name. I can add another Stack, but I don't know what that means. In this particular context, what is a stack?
My immediate goal is simply to change the default text color from gray to black, and then probably to make it a point or two larger. But later I will want to access more CSS attributes, and it's a long way from being intuitive. Is there a guide or manual available?
hutman replied on at Permalink Reply
hutman
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to change the actual content of what was there, not the CSS. Unfortunately you can't change the CSS for the site through the site itself, you have to access the files on your host's server using FTP.

Once you have access to the site files you will find the CSS in /themes/innovation/main.css and /themes/innovation/typography.css
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
You might be able to access the dashboard->Pages&Themes->Themes and click the Customize button next to your theme. Depending on how the css was setup, you might be able to change some of the defaults there.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
Thank you. That seems to be what I want, but the change to black for body text didn't stick. Gotta go now, but I'll play with it some more later and let you know what I find.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
OK, a little uncertainty here. When I open the Themes dialog box the heading says that these are the Themes that are Currently Installed. At the top of the list is Plain Yogurt, which is described as concrete5's default theme. Under that are 4 other Themes. Each of them, including Plain Yogurt, has an Activate button and a Remove button, along with Preview, Inspect, and Customize. I've been adjusting the Plain Yogurt, but am I correct to assume that it's the one in play just because it is labeled as the default? If so, why doesn't my text color change when I change the Plain Yogurt text to black and then click on Save? What else must I do?
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
Would you mind attaching a screen shot of the themes page?
hutman replied on at Permalink Reply
hutman
The Theme that you want to use is the one where the Activate button looks different than the others, it will be a different blue and not clickable, that is the theme that is currently Active.

Not all themes can be customized through the Customize interface.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply 1 Attachment
OK, the bottom Theme is different and won't click. I changed it, and it STILL doesn't change the body text, though it swears it does. Now what?
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
Did you try clearing site cache?
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
How?
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
In the search box in the upper right hand (Intelligent Search Box) type in Clear Cache and it will give you the link to click on to take you where you need to go.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
Did that, didn't help.
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
Also it appears as though the body text color is being overridden by the typography.css file with the .col# class
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
No, wait. When I customized the Plain Yogurt theme, the text in the display page turned black although the text on the real page didn't. When I changed Innovation, the display text did NOT change. Why not?
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
And when I applied Plain Yogurt, I got my black text but the layout and graphics were destroyed. Fortunately, they came back when I reactivated Innovation.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
So how do I get at the typography file?
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
Do you have access through FTP or a web manager of some sore to get to the actual files that are on the server?

If so the main.css and typography.css files are located in the root/packages/cannonf700_innovation/themes/innovation/ folder maybe?
planist1 replied on at Permalink Reply
planist1
In your main.css file of the template, take a look at the css. You will notice each of the container classes (.col10, .col11, etc) all have the color property set and that overrides the font declared by the body.

.col0{color:#FFFFFF; background-color:#2A2B2F; border-top:5px solid #4A5155;}
.col1, .col1 a{color:#FFFFFF; background-color:#2A2B2F;}
.col2{color:#FFFFFF; /* customize_area_background_color */background-color:#02ACEE; /* customize_area_background_color */ padding:15px 0}
.col3{color:#666666; background-color:#FFFFFF;}
.col3 a{color:#02ACEE; }
.col4{color:#CCCCCC; background-color:#2A2B2F;}
.col4 a{color:#02ACEE; background-color:#2A2B2F;}
.col5, .col5 a{color:#666666; background-color:#1B1B1B;}
.col5 a:hover{color:#FFFFFF;}


You might want to consider modifying it to allow you to set the font color in the theme. using the following:

/* customize_area_font_color */background-color:#000000; /* customize_area_font_color */


Or you could modify the #container css like:

#container{
   padding:20px 0;
        color: #000000 !important;
   }


Although I believe the h1, h2, etc are controlled in specific classes
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
Thank you. I can follow all that, but I don't yet have access to the server. As I said, it's a newly-inherited site and some of the people originally involved are not easily accessible. I'll have to work on it a bit.
And with that I will sign off for now, but I appreciate the tutorial both of you have given me today.
Later.
fccmacs replied on at Permalink Reply
I'm back. Still don't have the logon information from the previous (and vanished) site manager, so I've just been doing things that I can do from the Edit screen. That mostly is working, but I can't figure out how to change the colors of the banner background. (It's athttp://www.minervaareachristianschool.org).... The charcoal and black obviously isn't built into the theme, so how do I get at it to change it?

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