Ground ^

[Otisbum]

Let's say I want to make a new guild layout, graphics and all, from the ground up.

What all would I need to do? If there's too much internal coding involved for me to just spontaneously make something, would I need to design the layout then arrange everything how I would like it to be and post it here?

[Sensational]

Originally Posted by Otisbum

Let's say I want to make a new guild layout, graphics and all, from the ground up.

What all would I need to do? If there's too much internal coding involved for me to just spontaneously make something, would I need to design the layout then arrange everything how I would like it to be and post it here?

Afaik that's currently not an option, perhaps in future guild hosting. As of right now you can only change what is available with your currently selected theme, and you can switch around beetween them to find the right one for your guild.

[Zel]

Originally Posted by Otisbum

Let's say I want to make a new guild layout, graphics and all, from the ground up.

What all would I need to do? If there's too much internal coding involved for me to just spontaneously make something, would I need to design the layout then arrange everything how I would like it to be and post it here?

I would love to see us allow the advanced customization options for web designers that you find on something like cafepress... which lets you edit both your html and your css... or even just provide an option in advanced theme settings that lets you supply a link to your own css. But there have been security concerns with allowing linking to outside coding. I'll keep trying for this possibility, but for now this forum section is our answer to providing more design freedom, since it allows me to meet you halfway on your designs.

So please do create the kind of design you want for your guild and post it here. No need to make it into a functioning website, just show us what you have in mind in a flat image. If I get the ok on it, I'll work with you to get your layered PSD or seperate graphic pieces from you and impliment it into our css for you.

I've been needing to post some specs here about that too. /sheepish. But here's just some quick notes. I'll repost these as a sticky with illustrations when time allows.

All our themes are going to be "stretchy" horizontally into the future. The minimum width of the page is 960 pix. I design the themes at this width and just plan on allowing it to stretch to fit the browser window beyond that. So keep this in mind and try to create graphics that can seamlessly tile horizontally to fill the space if needed.

Keeping the navigation as a vertical menu is set in stone since we allow the addition of many more custom pages to your guild site and you can give these pages pretty long names... all of these will appear as links on the menu so horizontal navigation could get cut off. I like to use the phrase "Extra Long Page Name" as one of the links on my menu - that's the max length for our custom page titles so it will let you check your font size.

Please keep the heading area 200 px tall or less. Roxianna has to reign me in when I start making the space at the top of these themes too big.

Try to keep the left panel in the 190px-250px wide range. Actually I'd like to just tell you to make it 235px wide and be done with it so I don't have to keep fiddling with this width on every theme... but I have not been nice to myself about that so far, lol. The left panel stays this fixed width on our themes and the right panel stretches.

Please do not use copywrited graphics for your layout. I have used things like screenshots and cut out character artwork for our themes, but these can be swapped out in the advanced settings so they are not a fixed part of the theme and they could be replaced if we need to change this for legal reasons... so ideally please try to avoid this issue.

[Otisbum]

Thanks to the both of you for your responses.

@Zel: At the moment I'm messing around with my guild: http://portal.guildcafe.com/
So far I've found 1010 width to be a solid size for backgrounds, but that's just trivial stuff.

For now I'll just follow your Onyx theme for a basic map, with the slight adjustments to the left panel you mentioned. Thanks for the help, I'll let you know when I've put something together.

[Zel]

Originally Posted by Otisbum

Thanks to the both of you for your responses.

@Zel: At the moment I'm messing around with my guild: http://portal.guildcafe.com/
So far I've found 1010 width to be a solid size for backgrounds, but that's just trivial stuff.

For now I'll just follow your Onyx theme for a basic map, with the slight adjustments to the left panel you mentioned. Thanks for the help, I'll let you know when I've put something together.

actually silkroad, shaiya, and the new wow theme are set to minimum width of 1000px since we discovered a lovely IE bug that made some of the content dissappear momentarily when you resized the window small enough for the floating divs to touch... so feel free to make your bg size that extra 40 - 50 px wider =)

[Otisbum]

Lucky me.

[Zel]

ok just had a peek at your portal page, The onyx theme comes pretty close to letting you replace everything actually... so if you do want to keep the same layout more or less I could probably tweak onyx to make it customizable the rest of the way.

[Otisbum]

I'll keep working with it and let you know if I find anything.

Under the color settings though, the headers like "Logo Typeface" and "Outer Page Frames" are in black, making it impossible to see without highlighting the text. Do you have the power to change that?

[Otisbum]

What is the main font used on the guild pages, and what sizes are used for the sections (headers, navigation links, etc.)?

EDIT: And if we could be allowed to change the color of the shoutbox input border and the nav button borders and arrow that'd be great. At least a few choices aside from blue, like a white border. Gracias.