/*
custom.css sample file
======================
It is assumed that you are familiar with html and cascading stylesheets already. It is completely unreasonable for me to create a html and css tutorial here.
If you are not familiar with either, I highly recommend that you start by reading a tutorial. The ones on w3schools.org are accessible to beginners.
Before we go through examples, two points are worth a mention: how the theme works, and the document canvas.
Notice
------
This file is mostly out of date.
Moreover, the feature is slated to get dropped with Semiologic 6 (which will feature a new template, and new skins).
Outline of Semiologic
---------------------
Cascading stylesheets are all too often misunderstood as stylesheets. Semiologic makes advanced use of the 'cascading' aspect of css.
The body tag has a few classes, and the bulk of the theme's features are managed from there. Let's go through a body tag:
- 'mse' stands for 'main, sidebar, external' and allows to define the layout
- 'narrow_mse' stands for 3 column, main, sidebar, external', and allows to define the widths
- 'narrow3' is obsolete and stands for '3 column narrow' and used to allow to define the widths
- 'bookman' refers to the 'bookman old style' font and defines the font scheme
- 'sky_gold' is a normalized version of the skin's directory; its purpose is to let you create cross-skin custom.css files
- 'skin' and 'custom' are generic classes that allow you to override context-sensitive defaults (see below)
Three css files are included:
- style.css (in the theme folder) defines a generic canvas and layout
- skin.css (in the skin folder) defines skin specific skinning
- custom.css (in the skin folder, when it exists) lets you override the two previous without needing to edit them
If you go through them, you'll notice things like:
.header h1
{
...
}
The above stands for "h1 in the context of the 'header' class". As a result:
this h1 tag is not affected
Note that the stronger the context, the stickier the css. To override styling that seems a bit sticky, it is sometimes useful to precede your css declaration with a .custom:
.header h1
{
this applies to h1 tags in the header
}
h1
{
this does not override what you just defined for the header
}
.custom h1
{
this overrides what you just defined for the header
}
Customizing the sales letter template works much the same. Just use .letter instead of .custom.
You're 80% proficient with Semiologic customization once you've understood the above. Familiarity with the document canvas ensures full proficiency.
Blank Skin
----------
The blank skin's skin.css file highlights css identifiers and classes that are most frequently asked for during skin creation and tweaking tasks. You'll find it here:
wp-content/themes/semiologic/skins/blank/skin.css
Document canvas
---------------
Please open the sem-canvas.png file in the custom-samples folder before reading any further.
The hierarchical ids/classes defined by the canvas are the following:
ids classes notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
#ext_wrapper
#shadow_top empty div, not used
#shadow not used
#wrapper
#header .header
#tagline
h2
#sitename
h1
#navbar .navbar
#header_nav
#search_form
#body .body
#ext_main used for the sms layout
#main .main
#sidebar .sidebar
#sidebar2 .sidebar
#footer .footer
#copyright_notice
#footer_nav
#ext_sidebar .sidebar
#shadow_bottom empty div, not used
The hierarchical classes and tags used by entries are the following:
class/tag notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
.entry
.entry_header
h2 date
h1 title
.entry_content
.entry_nav entry navigation
.entry_meta filed under...
.entry_tags
.entry_author
.entry_date used in article template only
.entry_trackback_uri
.comments
h1 number of comments
.comment
.comment_header
h2 comment date
h3 comment author
.comment_body
.comment_actions permalink...
.comment_form
Sidebars use the same structure as most WordPress themes:
class/tag notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
ul
li
.widget
h2 widget title
ul
li
Other useful classes to know include:
class/tag notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
.inline_menu wrapper for inline nav menus
.gallery image gallery style
centered, with a 1px border
.letter wraps the entry in the sales letter
template, for customizations
.marker fluorescent marker style
.order_form order form style for use in sales
letter pages
.testimonial, testimonial styles, for use
.testimonials, in sales letter pages
.side_testimonials
.ad ghost white ad style
.spacer use this class to clear:both; in
floating div layouts, i.e.:
.pad used to pad the content without
bugs in FF in the header, the
footer, the main content area and
each sidebar
Other classes and ids exist, e.g. .widget_calendar, .sem_subscribe_me. They are typically created by WordPress and/or the various plugins. They are not mentionned here because they have little or no importance when it comes to creating or customizing a skin.
Time for an example... Drop this file into the sky gold skin folder to see it transform the skin.
*/
/*
For Ordnance Survey Open Data maps
*/
div#map img {
max-width: none!important;
margin: 0;
}