Customizing Joomla!'s Default Template

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Customizing Joomla!'s Default Template
The goal of this document is to instruct users on how to customize the default Joomla! 1.5 template: “rhuk_milkyway”. To perform some of the changes in this document you may need a File Transfer Protocol client (FTP client). While chances are this will not be required, many people find it to be a very valuable asset. Further more, you will need to haveSuper Administrative access to Joomla!'s administration panel. This document is rather basic, but it will show you how to change the Joomla! logo, change the template width, choose from existing color schemes, and remove the footer link that will take site visitors back to Joomla.org. Changing Rhuk_milkyway's Default Configurations: Note: Rhuk_milkyway's defalt template width is not set. It isactually 'fluid'. The idea behind this is that whatever size screen the user has, the template will fill the whole width. After logging into the Joomla! 1.5 administrative back end, go to: Extensions - > Template Manager (See Figure 1) Once you are in the Template Manager, select the template. There are two ways to do this. One is to click the little radio button, and then click 'edit' on the menuthat is at the top of the Template Manager screen. (See Figure 2 & 3)

Figure 2 Figure 1

Figure 3 The other way to open the template's configuration is to simply click on the title, shown in Figure 2. Before you change any of the settings in the Template Configuration, check to see if the parameters file is writable. You can do this by changing the file's permissions to 777 via FTP client, ora File Manager Component for Joomla! to do this. If you experience problems changing the file permissions, check the ownership settings. Refer to the Joomla! forum (http://forum.joomla.org) for more information.

Params.ini file is unwritable – Figure 4 After setting the params.in file to writable (777), the parameters writable setting will change from 'Unwritable' to 'Writable' (See Figures 4 &5)

Params.ini is writable – Figure 5

2 Once you've set set the params.ini file to writable, you can then change the template parameters. There are three different pre-built parameters. Each has a number of different options. They are: Color Variation – The color variation setting changes module outline colors and heading texts. Background Variation – The background variation settingchanges the background color of the template. Template Width – The template width setting changes the width of the template. Color Variation Settings: -Blue -Red -Green -Orange -Black -White Background Variation Settings: -Blue -Red -Green -Orange -Black -White Template Width Settings: -Fluid with Maximum -Medium (930px) -Small (750px) -Fluid (Varies with window size – Minimum Size is 750px) You canchose the settings that best suit your needs and wants. Customizing this template does not stop here, though. Because the rhuk_milkyway template is released under the GPL license, you can edit anything in it. This means you can get the template.css and literally change any part of the template you wish. Once you've selected a setting, you must click either save or apply for those settings to bereflected on the user end. (See Figure 6) Figure 6 How to Change The Joomla! Logo: The Joomla! logo is located at the top of the template to the left. (See Figure 7) Header Specs: File Name: mw_joomla_logo.png Location: /templates/rhuk_milkyway/images/ Size: 298x75px Type: Transparent PNG Figure 7 The logo is known to most web developers as a header. Its the heading of the website. It usually containsthe logo of the organization or company that the site represents. This image is in PNG format. The reason for this is because it is transparent.
Example of the Color Variation setting's effect on modules

3 If the background color behind this header image was changed, the change would be seen in all the areas of this logo that are not solid colors. This is done through CSS Z-Index settings....