Newbie needs design help - really simple

[soulja90]

First I want to say CMS Made Simple KICKS ASS!

I've never seen any cms that was so easy and so versatile - joomla and mambo and all them are just CRAP! they are so complicated.

Anyways

I think this is a stylesheet or css related question.

Can someone visit:

http://www.wdclub.com/cmsmadesimple/

and tell me how I can move my page to the center - like get rid of the sidebar side for good. I have removed the code for it but the alignment shows that it needs to be adjusted.

THANK YOU

for creating such a great CMS

I hope you are making good money from this.

SIncerely,

JB

[heatherfeuer]

I looked at the source code for your front page.  I think your problem is the template.  The basic template is laid out like this:


 
     
     
       
       
     

So there is the basic structure.  In your template, look for this:

Code: Select all

<!-- Start Navigation -->
      <div id="menu_vert">
         <h2 class="accessibility">Navigation</h2>
         <div id="menuwrapper">

It looks to me like the template code for the vertical (sidebar) menu is still there, just not showing.  It would help if you could post the template code for the template you are using.
 
As for centering, once you've cleared out the stuff that's in the way, in your stylesheet, look for div#main.  Set the margin like this:

Code: Select all

margin: 0 auto;

That will center the div on the page.

[soulja90]

Hello Heather,

Here is the template code. Which style sheet should I change? I see the following:

Thanks for your reply:)

ccessibility and cross-browser tools
Handheld
Layout: Left sidebar + 1 column
Layout: Top menu + 2 columns
Module: News
Navigation: CSSMenu - Horizontal
Navigation: CSSMenu - Vertical
Navigation: Simple - Horizontal
Navigation: Simple - Vertical
Print

#################################







{sitename} - {title}


{metadata}


{stylesheet}


{cms_selflink dir="start" rellink=1}
{cms_selflink dir="prev" rellink=1}
{cms_selflink dir="next" rellink=1}



{literal}

=b){nw=b+"px";}if(w



#pagewrapper {width:expression(P7_MinMaxW(720,950));}
#container {height: 1%;}


{/literal}














   
   
      {anchor anchor='menu_vert' title='Skip to navigation' accesskey='n' text='Skip to navigation'}
      {anchor anchor='main' title='Skip to content' accesskey='s' text='Skip to content'}
   
   


   
   


 
 
          {cms_selflink dir="start" text="$sitename"}
 
 
 


     
     
        Navigation
        {menu template='cssmenu.tpl'}
     
     
     


 
 
        {breadcrumbs starttext='You are here' root='Home' delimiter='»'}
 
 
 






     
     
       
        {content}


       


     
 


 
 


 
 
      {global_content name='footer'}
   
 





#############################

[soulja90]

Solved it - from the stylesheet i removed everything that had to do with the sidebar

Thanks!

JB

[heatherfeuer]

Yeah, I was looking at that, and that was the problem.  On the default install, there is a list of all the tags and such in the templates.  I would highly recommend that you read all the pages from the default install -- it's better than any other documentation in some cases.  What helped me learn how to use CMSms was to first read every page of the default install to learn what I could then I took one of the stylesheets and the list of tags and built my own template from the ground up and added/deleted/modified the styles as I needed.

One of the best things about CMSms is that once you figure out all the tags and parameters, you have limitless creative possibilities.  Just check out the show off forum to see some of the spectacular work that's been done.  And good luck with your own site!

[soulja90]

Hey Heather!

I tried what u said on the first padding option but it moves everything including the header to the right.

So i'm posting my stylesheet - please let me know. Thank you for your help. Just this thing and I'm up up and away!

/*****************
browsers interpret margin and padding a little differently,
we'll remove all default padding and margins and
set them later on
******************/
* {
margin:0;
padding:0em;
}

/*
Set initial font styles
*/
body {
  text-align: left;
  font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 75.01%;
  line-height: 1em;
}

/*
set font size for all divs,
this overrides some body rules
*/
div {
  font-size: 1em;
}

/*
if img is inside "a" it would have
borders, we don't want that
*/
img {
  border: 0;
}

/*
default link styles
*/
/* set all links to have underline and bluish color */
a,
a:link
a:active {
  text-decoration: underline;
/* css validation will give a warning if color is set without background color. this will explicitly tell this element to inherit bg colour from parent element */
  background-color: inherit;
  color: #18507C;
}

a:visited {
  text-decoration: underline;
  background-color: inherit;
  color: #18507C;                /* a different color can be used for visited links */
}


/* remove underline on hover and change color */
a:hover {
  text-decoration: none;
  background-color: #C3D4DF;
  color: #385C72;
}

/*****************
basic layout
*****************/
body {
  background-color: #ccc;
  color: #333;
  margin:1em; /* gives some air for the pagewrapper */
}

/* center wrapper, min max width */
div#pagewrapper {
  border: 1px solid black;
  margin: 0 auto;    /* this centers wrapper */
  max-width: 75em; /* IE wont understand these, so we will use javascript magick */
  min-width: 60em;
  background-color: #fff;;
  color: black;
}


/*** header ***
we will hide text and replace it with a image
we need to assign a height for it
*/

div#header {
  height: 80px; /* adjust according your image size */
  background: #85C247;         
}

div#header h1 a {
/* you can set your own image here */
  background: #85C247 url(images/cms/logo1.gif) no-repeat 0 12px;
  display: block;
  height: 80px;            /* adjust according your image size */
  text-indent: -999em;  /* this hides the text */
  text-decoration:none; /* old firefox would have shown underline for the link, this explicitly hides it */
}

div#search {
  float: right;
  width: 23em;    /* enough width for the search input box */
  text-align: right;
  padding: 0.6em 0 0.2em 0;
  margin: 0 1em;
}

div.breadcrumbs {
  padding: 1em 0 1.2em 0; /* CSS short hand rule first value is top then right, bottom and left */
  font-size: 90%;            /* its good to set fontsizes to be relative, this way viewer can change his/her fontsize */
  margin: 0 1em;              /* css shorthand rule will be opened to be "0 1em 0 1em" */
  border-bottom: 1px dotted #000;
}

div#content {
  margin: 1.5em auto 2em 0; /* some air above and under menu and content */
}



div#footer {
  clear:both;      /* keep footer below content and menu */
  color: #fff;
  background-color: #85C247; /* same bg color as in header */
}

div#footer p {
  font-size: 0.8em;
  padding: 1.0em;      /* some air for footer */
  text-align: center; /* centered text */
  margin:0;
}

div#footer p a {
  color: #fff; /* needed becouse footer link would be same color as background otherwise */
}

/* as we hid all hr for accessibility we create new hr with extra div element */
div.hr {
  height: 1px;
  margin: 1em;
  border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
}

/* relational links under content */
div.left49 {
  float: left;
  width: 49%;  /* 50% for both left and right might lead to rounding error on some browser */
}

div.right49 {
  float: right;
  width: 49%;
  text-align: right;
}




/********************
CONTENT STYLING
*********************/
div#content {

}

/* HEADINGS */
div#content h1 {
  font-size: 2em;  /* font size for h1 */
  line-height: 1em;
  margin: 0;
}
div#content h2 {
  color: #294B5F;
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: left;
/* some air around the text */
  padding-left: 0.5em;
  padding-bottom: 1px;
/* set borders around header */
  border-bottom: 1px solid #e7ab0b;
  border-left: 1.1em solid #e7ab0b;
  line-height: 1.5em;
/* and some air under the border */
  margin: 0 0 0.5em 0;
}
div#content h3 {
  color: #294B5F;
  font-size: 1.3em;
  line-height: 1.3em;
  margin: 0 0 0.5em 0;
}
div#content h4 {
  color: #294B5F;
  font-size: 1.2em;
  line-height: 1.3em;
  margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
div#content h5 {
  font-size: 1.1em;
  line-height: 1.3em;
  margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
h6 {
  font-size: 1em;
  line-height: 1.3em;
  margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
/* END HEADINGS */

/* TEXT */
p {
  font-size: 1em;
  margin: 0 0 5em 0;  /* some air around p elements */
  line-height:1.4em;
  padding: 0;
}
blockquote {
  border-left: 10px solid #ddd;
  margin-left: 10px;
}
pre {
  font-family: monospace;
  font-size: 1.0em;
}
strong, b {
/* explicit setting for these */
  font-weight: bold;
}
em, i {
/* explicit setting for these */
  font-style:italic;
}

/* Wrapping text in tags. Makes CSS not validate */
code, pre {
white-space: pre-wrap;      /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap;  /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap;      /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap;    /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word;      /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1em;
}

pre {
  border: 1px solid #000;  /* black border for pre blocks */
  background-color: #ddd;
  margin: 0 1em 1em 1em;
  padding: 0.5em;
  line-height: 1.5em;
  font-size: 90%;  /* smaller font size, as these are usually not so important data */
}

/* END TEXT */

/* LISTS */
div#main ul,
div#main ol,
div#main dl {
  font-size: 1.0em;
  line-height:1.4em;
  margin: 0 0 1.5em 0;
}
div#main ul li,
div#main ol li {
  margin: 0 0 0.25em 3em;
}

div#dl dt {
  font-weight: bold;
  margin: 0 0 0.25em 3em;
}
div#dl dd {
  margin: 0 0 0 3em;
}
/* END LISTS */

[heatherfeuer]

Well.  It looks like you took a little TOO much out of your stylesheet!    That's why the main content is showing like it does.  An easy fix, though.

In your stylesheet, right after the div#content block, paste in this:

Code: Select all

div#main {
   margin: 2%; /* this will give some room around the text in the main content area */
}

Also, in your template, where you have the page title thusly:

Code: Select all

<strong>about us</strong><br />
<br />

I would highly recommend you make it:

Code: Select all

<h2>{page_title}</h2>