J1.5:Customising the Milky Way template

The "J1.5" namespace is an archived namespace. This page contains information for a Joomla! version which is no longer supported. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.

If you would like any sections added to this page, please directly edit this page. Please make sure your entry follows some logical order though.

This is intended to be a living document and be updated as new (and hopefully simpler) techniques are found by the Joomla! community. Please feel free to contribute. If you do, please make sure you explain in a way which newbies will understand. Keep in mind that many web portal managers out there, particularly in the not-for profit organisations who use Joomla! are simply kind people who are willing to give it a go.

Sections

• Understanding the Milky Way template
• Replacing the logo image in the Milky Way template
• Creating a split menu in the Milky Way template
• Replacing the Joomla! logo
• Creating a copy of the MilkyWay Template > With Dreamweaver, create a copy of the MilkyWay template and replace the Joomla! logo Alessandro Rancati, 5 June 2008
• Adding new parameters
• Adjusting the width of the page
• Changing the width of the left and right-hand columns
• Changing the background colour of columns
• Changing the colour and positioning of the buttons in the top menu
• Customising the look of the module titles
• Editing the footer text

Suggestions

• Adjust colors and other attributes for various parts of a page display, such as:
  1. Color of the page heading.
  2. Color of the menu links, and behaviors when hover, or active, or visited
  3. Input boxes.
  4. The search box background and text colors.
• Modify footer content. Add or remove parts. Move footer outside of the main area (adjust the background so it appears separate from the main body).
• Here's one I haven't figured out yet: How to move or modify the Copyright statement that appear just below the page content. It appears to be part of the page content but really isn't. I'd prefer to move this into the footer section, or at a minimum have a horizontal rule just above it. Any ideas???

  You can edit the footer statment (the one which says Copyright © 2009 Your Site Name. All Rights Reserved. Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.) by going to the /public_html/language/en-GB/en-GB.mod_footer.ini file

• How to create a new style attribute and make it available within the administrator's edit content page. This would be used so one section of text in the middle of a paragraph could be easily highlighted without just picking a different font/bold/italic/underline/color, and could also include a different size, something that is not available within the editor menus. (Note, I tried utilising the various heading controls (h3, h4, h5) for this, except they each forced the associated text to a new line. Maybe, an inline parameter will resolve this. Still need to give this a try.)
• Another discussion that might be helpful as a separate or extended article is a discussion of moving or removing certain content items. This can be done in the template, or it can be done within Joomla just by selecting a different "position" for the module. For the newbies, understanding the options would be a great help.
• Also, a discussion on the images that make up the various components, such as the rounded corner borders around the menus. Maybe someone wants square corners, or maybe they want very narrow (or simply lines) along the left, right, and bottom, and want a wider border along the top. A discussion of the images used to create the border and how to edit them would be interesting. (Note: In the "how to edit", I suggest only recommendations that the size of each image be maintained, or a discussion that if the size is changed what might need to be altered in the template for the new sizes to work properly.) This may appear to be outside the direct scope of Joomla, but can be helpful for those wanting a different look and feel, especially where the CSS and template updates are necessary.
• I know I should back everything up before I start, but I just made this little tweak (which I was sure to remember) and.... Perhaps I haven't found it yet, but would it be possible to have a listing of the original .css and .html files that come in the template, so that I could compare them with the changes I've made, and if necessary cut and paste things back in?