[Forum] Build a basic style editor!!!

[elektrobank]

Why can't there be a very easy way to customize the overall style without having to use the style variables? It's nice to be able to customize every little thing, but many of us don't always need all that. What if we simply want to change the color scheme to use gray/black? It's a tremendous effort to do something as simple as that right now. The overall color scheme can really be summed up by 3 or 4 different colors. There needs to be a simple way to just choose these colors and have them be applied to everything. And there should also be defaults for all the standard colors, such as a red theme, green theme, black, ect. It took me hours to turn mine black, and I'm still having lots of trouble finding certain elements, which are still coming out as blue. This really needs to be MUCH easier!!!

[MiG Slayer]

It would be nice if there was a quick and easy way to do this. However, you can't give people an incredible amount of control without taking away some of the simplicity inherent in the existing vb 3 editor. I think the tradeoff is worth it, as we've needed something that gives us more control over styling for some time now. I've also found that once the new editor has been 'learned' you can still do a color change fairly quickly. The first one I did - a black one, see sig block - took a while to figure out since I didn't know what any of the variables were and needed to do a lot of experimentation. But the second try was a lot faster.

What I have found lacking is that not every entry has what it needs, such as border and padding controls, and many entries appear to be missing altogether, which is a serious omission.

[elektrobank]

I'm not saying to take away any of the functionality that's there now. I'm saying to add a very simple style editor that will allow you to customize the colors with 4 simple color boxes, instead of having to hunt through hundreds of style variables. And then add a way to change the font, size and some of the overall graphics. This will satisfy the majority of users out there, and for those who need more, then can dig deeper using the stylevars.

It would be nice if there was a quick and easy way to do this. However, you can't give people an incredible amount of control without taking away some of the simplicity inherent in the existing vb 3 editor. I think the tradeoff is worth it, as we've needed something that gives us more control over styling for some time now. I've also found that once the new editor has been 'learned' you can still do a color change fairly quickly. The first one I did - a black one, see sig block - took a while to figure out since I didn't know what any of the variables were and needed to do a lot of experimentation. But the second try was a lot faster.

What I have found lacking is that not every entry has what it needs, such as border and padding controls, and many entries appear to be missing altogether, which is a serious omission.

[highlander_RD]

I'm with elektro.
It's a mess for a skilled programmer to hunt for variables put "randomly" without any logical sense.
It's absurd that one has to "guess" which could be the variable name of a section (border, bg, font padding, margin etc) ... or, worst, a specific name to which part corresponds...
:X

[TronHoward]

I'm with elektro.
It's a mess for a skilled programmer to hunt for variables put "randomly" without any logical sense.
It's absurd that one has to "guess" which could be the variable name of a section (border, bg, font padding, margin etc) ... or, worst, a specific name to which part corresponds...
:X

I'm going through this right now, and although it is awesome being able to change the color of every little thing... I can't find where to go to change everything I need to change. I have parts of the site stuck on the old color, and I can't find where to change them...

Has someone made a cheat sheet yet that I have overlooked?

[vlastanovak]

I've basically eliminated the StyleVars system altogether from my custom styles. Every change I make now is hard coded into my CSS files, with no StyleVars references.

StyleVars would be ok if every single possible css field was covered, but unfortunately there are HEAPS of things not included, and you end up having to edit the raw css files anyway.

[Ted S]

StyleVars would be ok if every single possible css field was covered, but unfortunately there are HEAPS of things not included, and you end up having to edit the raw css files anyway.

Great point here. The stylevar editor is pretty straight forward and does color popups and what not for the less experienced user but it's not functional unless it covers all of the classes used rather than just the ones they customized in the main skin. Hopefully it's a work in progress!

[S1OPP]

Has someone made a cheat sheet yet that I have overlooked?

Have a look through the blog posts.

There are Visual Dictionary PDFs that list each stylevar and show (screen shots) where they apply.

I have found them invaluable, unless you like experimenting a lot.

[Bounce]

There are Visual Dictionary PDFs that list each stylevar and show (screen shots) where they apply.

They are good yes but in no way cover all the stylevars.

[Archaic]

This thread's a bit stale now, but since there doesn't appear to be a newer one with the same message, I figured it's probably better to bump something less than a month old rather than creating a new one.

This has to be my #1 desire for vB4, even above being able to put the CMS in the root directory. I have a good number of styles on my vB3, all of which would use 4-5 colours tops (not including link and text colours). The fact that I can't convert them easily is the main thing keeping me from upgrading. I just don't have the time to spend hours trying to figure out this system.