How to put logo, menus on a left side bar?

redcrown@mchsi.com

Can someone give me a brief description of how to create a custom site like these:

http://www.jarboedoggart.com/
http://www.cynthiamerzerphotography.com/
http://www.labrophotography.com/

They have a non-scrolling region on the left with their logo and menus, then all content on the right.

I've been sandboxing for days and have figured out a lot of tricks, but this one evades me. But then, my "intuition" was build in the sixties and clearly does not match the Smugmug designers' concept of intuitive.

OffTopic

Use the Arrow theme

CynthiaM

redcrown@mchsi.com wrote: »

Can someone give me a brief description of how to create a custom site like these:

http://www.jarboedoggart.com/
http://www.cynthiamerzerphotography.com/
http://www.labrophotography.com/

They have a non-scrolling region on the left with their logo and menus, then all content on the right.

I've been sandboxing for days and have figured out a lot of tricks, but this one evades me. But then, my "intuition" was build in the sixties and clearly does not match the Smugmug designers' concept of intuitive.

Having gone through many different prototypes to get where I ended up, its easiest if you start with a theme that is halfway theme. If you want a site with a solo photo on the homepage, then start with a theme like arrow. If you want to add multiple photos then start with a theme like dina or nyx. I started with nyx then changed the color scheme and added a little space to the left of the navigation.

hope that helps!

leftquark

There are also options in there to "pin" a certain section so it stays still. You can pin the left sidebar so it doesn't move

redcrown@mchsi.com

Thanks all, but confusion increases. You recommend using a theme like Arrow or Nyx. I'm pretty sure those are not "Themes" but rather "Designs".

But Ok, I see that the Arrow and Nyx designs do what I asked about. However, it looks like shifting to a new design loses all the customizations (CSS hacks, colors, fonts, etc.) I've made to my current design. And it appears there is no way to automatically transfer those customizations from an old design to a new design. Not a big problem, things like CSS hacks took hours to discover, but only minutes to enter, so they could be re-done easily.

Maybe I'm naive, but I assumed that in "customize site" you could achieve any aspect of any design by adding or subtracting content blocks, moving them around, sizing them, formating them, etc. Is that not the case? When you start with a certain design, do you inherit certain aspects that are not available in other designs?

I think my current "sandbox" site started with the Willow design. It has a logo block and a menu block on the top, spanning the entire screen. Homepage, folders, galleries are below. If I grab the logo or menu block and try to move it, I'm only offered locations on the top of the screen. No way I can find to position it on the side, like in the Arrow or Nyx design.

So, do I really have to change the entire site to one of those designs and then re-do all my CSS and other customizations?

CynthiaM

redcrown@mchsi.com wrote: »

Thanks all, but confusion increases. You recommend using a theme like Arrow or Nyx. I'm pretty sure those are not "Themes" but rather "Designs".

But Ok, I see that the Arrow and Nyx designs do what I asked about. However, it looks like shifting to a new design loses all the customizations (CSS hacks, colors, fonts, etc.) I've made to my current design. And it appears there is no way to automatically transfer those customizations from an old design to a new design. Not a big problem, things like CSS hacks took hours to discover, but only minutes to enter, so they could be re-done easily.

Maybe I'm naive, but I assumed that in "customize site" you could achieve any aspect of any design by adding or subtracting content blocks, moving them around, sizing them, formating them, etc. Is that not the case? When you start with a certain design, do you inherit certain aspects that are not available in other designs?

I think my current "sandbox" site started with the Willow design. It has a logo block and a menu block on the top, spanning the entire screen. Homepage, folders, galleries are below. If I grab the logo or menu block and try to move it, I'm only offered locations on the top of the screen. No way I can find to position it on the side, like in the Arrow or Nyx design.

So, do I really have to change the entire site to one of those designs and then re-do all my CSS and other customizations?

You probably don't need to change the design but for me, I couldn't figure it out so it was easier to just start over. You can always copy your CSS to a text editor and then paste it into a new design. One of the strengths of the new system is that there is not that much to customize with CSS. I found it helpful to start a new design, try to lay out the homepage with my own photos and if I got that far, then move on to the menu and logo.

Jtring

redcrown@mchsi.com wrote: »

Thanks all, but confusion increases. You recommend using a theme like Arrow or Nyx. I'm pretty sure those are not "Themes" but rather "Designs".

But Ok, I see that the Arrow and Nyx designs do what I asked about. However, it looks like shifting to a new design loses all the customizations (CSS hacks, colors, fonts, etc.) I've made to my current design. And it appears there is no way to automatically transfer those customizations from an old design to a new design. Not a big problem, things like CSS hacks took hours to discover, but only minutes to enter, so they could be re-done easily.

Maybe I'm naive, but I assumed that in "customize site" you could achieve any aspect of any design by adding or subtracting content blocks, moving them around, sizing them, formating them, etc. Is that not the case? When you start with a certain design, do you inherit certain aspects that are not available in other designs?

I think you can do what you want by via the customize button, selecting "Entire Site" and then going to the layout tab. Turning the left or right sidebars on will introduce those persistent bars on the left or right side of your current design. You can then populate them. What I don't believe you can do is drag the logo content block (or any other content block) from the main body into one of those sidebars. You have to drop a new copy of the logo (or whatever) into the sidebar and remove the one in the the main body. If you just want a sidebar on the homepage, do the same but select "Homepage" at the first step. I think your expectation is quite correct: judicious manipulation of the various layout, theme, and content controls can reconstruct any part of any of the potted designs except perhaps for SM's supplied background images. Does that help?

Jim Ringland

redcrown@mchsi.com

Jim, your explanation helps but does not work. At least not for me on my sandbox site. I can turn on the left sidebar, see it show up on the page, but I can't drag any content into it.

If I preview and customize a canned design that already has a left side bar (with existing content), I can drag new content into it. But even on that design, if I add a new right side bar I can't drag any new content into it.

So I'm begnning to suspect that what I said earlier is true, there are secret, hidden aspects of the Smugmug provided designs. Either that or there are bugs in the customization code.

Would appreciate it if someone would confirm. If you don't have any side bars, add one and try to drag some content into it. Then revert, of course. Tell me if it works.

Hikin' Mike

redcrown@mchsi.com wrote: »

Jim, your explanation helps but does not work. At least not for me on my sandbox site. I can turn on the left sidebar, see it show up on the page, but I can't drag any content into it.

If I preview and customize a canned design that already has a left side bar (with existing content), I can drag new content into it. But even on that design, if I add a new right side bar I can't drag any new content into it.

So I'm begnning to suspect that what I said earlier is true, there are secret, hidden aspects of the Smugmug provided designs. Either that or there are bugs in the customization code.

Would appreciate it if someone would confirm. If you don't have any side bars, add one and try to drag some content into it. Then revert, of course. Tell me if it works.

I tried to add a sidebar on my test page. I couldn't add content on that sidebar.

EDIT: Never mind. I was able to add a picture, text navigation etc in the sidebar.

Jtring

redcrown@mchsi.com wrote: »

Jim, your explanation helps but does not work. At least not for me on my sandbox site. I can turn on the left sidebar, see it show up on the page, but I can't drag any content into it.

If I preview and customize a canned design that already has a left side bar (with existing content), I can drag new content into it. But even on that design, if I add a new right side bar I can't drag any new content into it.

So I'm begnning to suspect that what I said earlier is true, there are secret, hidden aspects of the Smugmug provided designs. Either that or there are bugs in the customization code.

Would appreciate it if someone would confirm. If you don't have any side bars, add one and try to drag some content into it. Then revert, of course. Tell me if it works.

I've run some more experiments. I've made it work but have indeed found some buggy behavior. First the bug. When I start with a fresh theme that does not have any sidebars and then create a new sidebar for the Entire Site, I find I cannot add anything to it. Presumably the same happened on your site. However, if I then publish with the sidebar control ON but with nothing in the sidebar, and then return to customization, I find I can add content. Second, a gotcha. When you come back into customization, by default you are editing the home page, not the entire site. You have to move back to Entire Site to edit that new sidebar which is attached to the Entire Site. Sounds obvious, but if you caught that the first time around, you are doing better than I did. In any case, here's the check: highlight "Entire Site", make sure LEFT SIDEBAR shows highlighted ON in the layout tab, then go to content tab and start trying to drag things to thee sidebar. Somewhat confusingly, even if Homepage is highlighted, you can edit any Entire Site content block that are present in a sidebar. You just can't add or move anything. Also, somewhat confusingly, you can add a left or right sidebar to the content part of the homepage in addition to having a sidebar on the entire site. Again, I don't know if that helps, but it gives you a few more things to poke at. Suffice to say, I have made it work.

Jim Ringland

redcrown@mchsi.com

Mr. Ringland,

You are a crafty devil. Your suggestion worked for me. Add sidebar, publish, come back to customization, now the side bar is accessible and you can add content to it. Go figure, most likely a bug (#3,412).
Thanks.

Jtring

Glad it worked. I'll write this up for the Bug Report forum later today. -- Jim Ringland

MomaZunk

I tried to add the sidebar, then published, then went back to customize, and now my top row spacing is all messed up.
I recommend not trying this until the bug is fixed.