Theme Installation Instructions - General

In order to make the themes as flexible as possible, yet still easy to update, we use a couple "internal" standards on all our themes. These instructions are based on Concrete5 5.4.x, but similar steps apply to 5.5.x. Just interchange the word "scrapbook" with "stacks". All our themes are 5.5 compatible and will automatically use the "stacks" feature if available, otherwise fallback to the "scrapbook".

The first time you install and use a theme, it is recommended you follow these extra steps:

1) Add a scrapbook item called "My_Site_Name", which is used for the logo area (often at the top of the page). The template will automatically fallback and just show the site name (in text) if it can't find this scrapbook item. But a nice logo image will give your website a more professional feel. Typically this would be done with a "content" block, but you can use just about any block you wish. You can access the Scrapbook from the left side of the Dashboard.

2) Add a scrapbook item called "My_Site_Footer", which is used for the footer area (at the bottom of the page). The template will automatically fallback and just show the site name, copyright symbol and current year (in text) if it can't find this scrapbook item. Again, this can be any type of block. If you use a "PHP" block, you can make the content (in particular, the year) dynamic. But a "content" block will do the job as well.

3) It is best practice to add your navigation menu to your Scrapbook for easy re-use on each page. If your template includes drop-down menus in the navigation and you wisht to take advantage of that, please use the "Auto-Nav" block. The drop-down effect is achieved using a custom block template (called "Drop Down Menu"). You can set the custom block template from the Scrapbook page by clicking "Custom Template" (see screenshot below).