Layout of themes ...

[Champion of the Force]

:: checks out new Jedi theme ::

Although having the poster info on the the right of the post is annoying as hell, that theme is sweet Ogre. :)

Anyway, to the real query - I've just rechecked all the themes again and I noticed that all barring the Basic and Text Based themes have their PM section listed in a little section up the top of the forum, as well as have their Forum Stats and Who's Online section seperated from the main table at the bottom.

If you're not too busy, could those of us (all 3 of us :D) using the aforementioned Text/Basic themes have the templates set at in a similar fashion (rather than stuck at the end of the main table). I've been attempting to do this myself actually but I've only had limited success (I managed to get the PM section up the top but it wasn't aligning properly so I ended up putting it back the way it originally was). :\

I also think it would be good in regards to the overall layout of the themes - they would all be fairly similar in their standard design. :)

And once again - that Jedi theme rocks. :) Are you planning on using that template as the standard for the other SW based themes (Sith, Imperial, Rebel, Ep. 2 etc) as well? We could then have 4 official templates set up with various settings. :)

[Champion of the Force]

BTW, I've also switched the Basic - Deafult theme from the basic template (renamed Original Basic) to the White and Gray template (renamed Basic), since they are both near identical to one another and the other 2 basic themes are using it.

So now the Original Basic template is not in use by any theme (as far as I'm aware of), but I left it there just in case. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks for the kind words in regards to the Jedi Theme. I spent a great deal of time doing Javascript and working small elements into as many of the table aspects as I could.

As for basing other styles on the Jedi Template; its not very feasible as a great deal of the changes I made to the theme are hard coded into the templates without any room for flexibility. Like the rounded white borders on every single table element I could find. There may be a couple I missed somewhere, and I am keeping an eye out for any so that I can add my rounded tops and bottoms. I also hard-coded quite a few table colors into the templates so that the brown background that the page is actually based on, wouldn't show through in any of the tables.

If I could find a way to make the Jedi Theme the "default" theme for our forums, other than removing all the customizations I made to the already existing Default templates, I would. I am very pleased with the work I did and think its pretty cool stuff, which actually appears correctly in versions of Netscape less than version 6, which amazes me I was able to do.

I'll work on making the "White Gray/Basic" and "Text Based" templates a little more similar in regards to placement of the PM Box, here in a while. The way vBulletin does their table bordering is a tricky thing, but very effective in making Netscape have the colored border effect as well. It shouldn't take me all too long.

As for switching the "Basic" Theme to the newly renamed "Basic" template set, I'm not really sure I like that. I wanted to keep one theme that was very close, if not exactly like vBulletin Default, just for any vBulletin users that may prefer it and in homage to the creators of this awesome software, but I can deal with it. :)

[Champion of the Force]

As for switching the "Basic" Theme to the newly renamed "Basic" template set, I'm not really sure I like that.
I'll go change it back then :). I merely assumed the reason for having the 2 different templates was because you set one up for me specifically to muck around with before.

I'll give both templates Basic titles so that their purpose is clearly obvious. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

"Basic - Light and Dark" is now switched to be similar to the Default style in layout. :)

Now on to "Text Based".

[Champion of the Force]

Hmmm, there's a problem in the Basic - Dark theme - you can't see the 'Mark Forums Read' or 'Log Out' links at the bottom, since they have a font colour similar to the table background. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

Yep, I just caught that and the problem with the Text Based light style. Fixing them both now.

[Champion of the Force]

Nice. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Not wishing to be a pain, but is it possible to have the PM section aligned on the right like the Jedi theme? On the Basic themes there's an empty gap there that could probably be better exploited.

I've tried to do it myself but I must have forgotten to edit a certain template or put in a certain code since I can't get it past the centre of the page. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

Okies, give me a bit of time and experimentation. I think there may be a couple errors somewhere in my table code in some of those templates anyways.

Points at the black line under the Login links in the Text Based - Light style and then shrugs cause its at least working in Netscape and IE.

[TheHolo.Net]

Is that how you wanted it? Or would you rather it be closer to the main content table with some of the other text currently under it moved around?

[Champion of the Force]

Now that you've suggested it, that way might look better. It does seem to stick out like a sore thumb at the moment. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, I did that and also set it up like it used to be, with the total text in the first row.

[Champion of the Force]

Ahhh, that looks better. :)

:: checks PM code ::

>_<

I realise now - I should have ended the table off after the first row instead of messing with all the tr/td nonsense.

[TheHolo.Net]

Embedding tables is something I have a lot of practice with.

Remembers all the table sigs he used to make for RPers

Even more so thanks to vBulletin.

[Champion of the Force]

:)

You going to do the same with the Text based themes as well or just leave them? After seeing the Basic themes the PM section does look better underneath the 'Welcome' message on the right IMHO.

[TheHolo.Net]

Its moved now. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Testing for Jeseth's Script errors after looking at the new reply template, finding and removing a small syntax error.

[TheHolo.Net]

Second test...:\

[TheHolo.Net]

Test using basic style (the one without spellcheck)

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, basic doesn't have the error, so it must have something to do with the spellcheck modificatios.

Keeps talking to himself, and using different style's to see if he can track down the error line number and get clues.

[TheHolo.Net]

Looks to be related to the maximum characters per post maybe. :\

Experiments with settings

[TheHolo.Net]

fiddles with the placement of the spellcheck script

[TheHolo.Net]

Another experiment with script placement.

[TheHolo.Net]

test again. :(

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay. Whew...It looks to have been a conflict between post character validation and spellcheck. I removed the " onSubmit="return validate(this)"" addition to the form action in the new reply and new thread templates in all templates that contained spellcheck and the error appears to be gone.

[Champion of the Force]

With your permission, I'd like to go back and rename the Basic - Default theme as vBulletin Standard (or something similar). With the recent adjustments of all the themes it is really a loner even from the other Basic themes so the new name would probably be more approproate. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Sounds good. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Tis done. I also renamed the Template and Replacement Variables as vBulletin Standard as well for ease of recognition. :)

Whilst I was at it, I also added in the links to Who's Online, Statistics etc. at the top of the Basic and Text themes (underneath time and newest member) so it matches with the Defualt themes.

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks. :) I am a fan of redundancy and multiple ways to do the same thing. :D

[Champion of the Force]

So I've noticed with the latest feature - Post New Threads in Forum from the main page.

Nifty yes, but I think most would want to actually visit and see what's *IN* the forum before they post anything. :p

[TheHolo.Net]

But it saves a click for those that know exactly what they want to do, :p and looks damn nifty. :D

[Champion of the Force]

Has visions of newbies using feature to post 'Is Sidious really Palpatine?' threads without realising the querstion has been asked 10,000 times before in that very forum and they would have had their answer if they actually bothered to look. :verymad

:p

[TheHolo.Net]

:lol

[Champion of the Force]

Well if that scenario occurs, we know who will be cleaning up all the redundant threads don't we? ;)

[TheHolo.Net]

I seriously doubt there will be that many, but sure. :p