Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2016 11:09:49 GMT -8
Seeing how I just helped someone else I figured I would share this here too in case anyone want to learn more about making themes with Proboards V. 5.
Admin > Themes > Color and Theme Creator:
More for making themes for beginners. You can pick a starting color scheme, however you don’t have to keep it and can play around with the colors all you want - I normally do this after I do a banner image.
Under Forum Banner is where you decide the height and width of the forum banner. Because to use more in images my banners at Reflection are 249px. Make sure to keep the px behind the number if you want it to look nice on a cell phone.
In Style Options you want to select how wide to make the forum. It will be in percent, but you don’t want that. Make sure to change the percent symbol to px. Reflection is 1013. Just play around with the numbers until you find a size you like. Normally once I know how long the forum is I can start working on the forum banner image.
All images I make in photoshop. Here are tutorials to help you. If you do not have photoshop on your PC here is a free program that works the same. GIMP. You can also use free font sites to give yourself more font options.
Keep in mind if you’re new to it some images might not turn out that great, but it’s always better to make your own graphics on a forum and give it its own look. It's the same with font choices. All the Reflection banners use the same font style to keep it the same. I have been making graphics since 2003 and I still consider myself a beginner.
In most graphic programs you create a new file and choose the height and width. I personally like to take colors from the finished banner and use them in the actual forum color scheme. To do that you want to use the ink dropper tool to collect the color and then go into the color settings/properties to see what the HTML numbers are. Once you have them you just want to drop them into the theme creator.
If you want to do more you can go into the Advanced Style and CSS. It will break down every little thing you can change on your forum. I normally just mess around in every section until I come up with something I like. After you mess around with the proboards maker so long it does get easier because you will begin to learn where everything is.
Here are some images telling you what is what in the creator.
Admin > Themes > Advanced Style and CSS
The Advanced CSS is set up in three different categories: FORUM, PAGES, and OBJECTS. I’ll try and break down each part that I know and normally mess with. Things that have ** and underlined are important when customizing. ^^
As you click on sections inside the creator area you will see a lot of drop downs. I’m making sure to add what sections and what the area is called so hopefully it won’t be too intimidating.
FORUM:
**Forum > Background
Much like the easy creator this area lets you change your forum background or add an image you want for it.
If you have already done this in the easy area you can skip it!
**Forum > Width
Just lets you change how long you want your forum to be. Again keep it in px not percent.
If you have already done this in the easy area you can skip it!
Forum >Text Styles
This is where you can change your text settings on the forum. You can change colors as well, add shadows, etc. I don’t really use it too much. If you used the Easy Creator beforehand it will just fill in whatever text you assigned there. There are 8 different categories in here. Again I don’t do much with them.
If you have already done this in the easy area you can skip it!
**Forum > Header (Top)
This is where your banner image, banner text, navigation, and navigation bar are located. You can change colors, add boarders, select button colors, etc. Those buttons are for the top bar only! It’s the one right below your banner.
**Forum > Body (Content)
This area is the most important! It has all all of these: Containers, Action Bars, Tabs (Are for the user profile pages), Lists (all your forum borders), New icon (the little new topic image).
Forum > Footer (Bottom)
This is the bottom area of the forum. I don’t mess in here at all. As long as you don’t mess with it will mimic all your previous color information.
PAGES:
Pages > Calendar
Again I don’t mess with this.
Pages > Members
Don’t touch it. :/
Pages > Categories
Lets you mess with the font and colors of the main forum boards. I don’t touch it.
Pages > Board
Let’s you align things like: Last post, creator, etc. I don’t really mess with it.
Pages > Inbox/Outbox
I don’t do anything here.
**Pages > Threads
The only thing I touch here is posts. You can do odd and even colorings. I also touch the post separator and post header boarder.
Pages > Conversations
I don’t touch here either.
OBJECTS:
Objects > Mirco-Profiles
I don’t touch these.
**Objects > Mini-Profiles
This is where you can add borders, different colors, etc to the person’s avatar area in a post. I used this in the Metal Gear Solid Theme. Keep in mind if you use it make sure you do both Alternate Colors, and the regular area. It may help to have a topic open in the visual area so that you can see the changes as you do them.
**Objects > Buttons
These are the little buttons inside the post. The Quote, Edit, Like, etc.
Objects > Labels
I don’t touch here at all.
**Objects > Quotes
This lets you customize how the quotes look on your forum in the skin. You can change background, text, and add borders here. You can also do sub-quotes too where if you have a quote within a quote it will be different.
**Objects > Info Centers
I only use this to remove borders. I’m not a huge fan of them. ^^
**Objects > Shoutbox
I only really mess with the shouts. I just change background colors and text colors.
Objects > Smilies
This is just where you can change the width of the pop-up smilie box in the posts. I never use it.