If you don’t know this theme yet, you should check it out at Graph Paper Press.
Modularity Lite is Thad Allender’s freebie version of a larger framework. I was customising this theme for Jerry Hyde’s site recently, and thought I’d take some notes to share with you.
UPDATE January 2011: This article gained a lot of attention since it came out in January 2010. Code changes dramatically with each release, which is why I’ve written an updated version for Modularity Lite 1.3. This article is about version 1.2. Tweaks may NOT work in later versions.
How to add your own Background Image
The background image gets loaded via the style.css file in the following line of code:
/************************* GLOBAL STYLES ***************************/
body {color:#eee;background: #111 url(images/bg.jpg) no-repeat center fixed;}
The full path to the default background image is wp-content/themes/modularity-lite/images/bg.jpg. Change it to your heart’s contempt!
How to add your own Logo or Header
have a look at the header.php file and find the following section:
<!-- Begin Masthead -->
<div id="masthead">
<h4><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ? rel="nofollow">/" title="Home"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a> <span><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></span></h4>
</div>
Delete the <h4> and <span> tags and replace them with a link to your logo like this:
<div id="masthead">
<img src="http://yourdomain.com/yourlogo.jpg">
</div>
If you’d like that logo to link to your home page, wrap it in a link like this:
<div id="masthead">
<a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ? rel="nofollow">/" title="Home">
<img src="http://yourdomain.com/yourlogo.jpg">
</a>
</div>
Image Sizes
If you’re hosting images in places other than your website (say Flickr) you may find that those images are too big for your layout. Rather than fiddle with that, let’s have imgaes automatically resize when they’re wider than your theme.
Have a look at the style.css file and find the /* Floats & Images */ section, under which you’ll find these three declarations:
img.centered...
img.alignright...
img.alignleft...
The last value on each line ends with
max-width:950px
Change that to a smaller value and your images will be resized automatically. You may also want to add
heigh:auto
to each line so your images don’t get squashed. I don’t know which image alignment you’re using when you embed an image, so for safe measure, amend all three of them. As an example, here’s the first line of code in its entirety changed to 500px width:
img.centered{display: block;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;max-width:500px; height: auto;}
Slowing Down the Slideshow
The slideshow is generated in Java Script. Have a look in your functions.php file and look for a code block under the heading // Load Dom Ready Javascripts – it looks like this:
jQuery("#slideshow").cycle({
speed: '2500',
timeout: '500',
pause: 1
In it, you’ll find two parameters:
- SPEED which is in fact the cross fade duration,
- and TIMEOUT which is the duration of each slide.
1000 is about 1 second, 2000 is 2 seconds, and so forth. Play with those and see what happens. If you’d like cuts instead of corss fades, change the SPEED parameter to 1. The PAUSE parameter doesn’t seem to do anything so leave it alone.
Hi photonovice,
I think the Theme Option to adjust the Slideshow Height has been removed in Version 1.2. Instead, have a look at the style.css file and find the following line of code at the bottom of the file:
#slideshow {padding:0;list-style:none;margin:0 0 3em 0;overflow:hidden;min-height:425px}The min-height parameter is the height of the slideshow, no matter what size your images are. Set it to something like 225px and see the results.
Hope this helps 😉
Hey there jay i dont mean to be rude posting here a whole nother question but how do i add a logo to the main page of the Modularity Theme , if you could help , i would appreciate it very much .
Cheers
Not a bother at all, I think we had this question a while back (which reminds me that it’s time I re-write this article) 😉
have a look at the header.php file and find the following section:
<!-- Begin Masthead --><div id="masthead">
<h4><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ? rel="nofollow">/" title="Home"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a> <span><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></span></h4>
</div>
Delete the <h4> and <span> tags and replace them with a link to your logo like this:
<div id="masthead"><img src="http://yourdomain.com/yourlogo.jpg">
</div>
If you’d like that logo to link to your home page, wrap it in a link like this:
<div id="masthead"><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ? rel="nofollow">/" title="Home">
<img src="http://yourdomain.com/yourlogo.jpg">
</a>
</div>
Hope this helps 😉
Hi Jay!
I've changed out the images in my slideshow by keeping the new files the same name and replacing them on my server. Now, I'm trying to make that entire slideshow box a hotlink to go to the home page — any suggestions?
Also, I'd like to replace the 'category' link in the nav bar to be a home link.
Any help you could give me is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Billy
Hi Jay
Thanks for your reply and sorry in my delay in responding back to you. I had not received a mail advising me of your reply!
Anyway, you are right my background has updated. This browser cache delay has caught me out a couple of times now! I'll watch out for it in future.
Sadly the slideshow is still not functioning, despite amending and re-uploading the pixel dimensions to 950×425. I guess if I cannot get it to work properly, i'll just have to load one picture to remain static on the home page.
If you have any brain waves and realise what it is, then please let me know. Alternatively, thanks again for all your help so far.
Cheers.
YBB