Template Instructions

What's Needed

We offer templates in several flavors including Expression Web and generic HTML. You will need to have the appropriate software, Expression Web V4, Dreamweaver CS3+, or a modern web editor, depending on the template version you purchase.

*Not all CSS3 elements will display accurately in Design View (gradients, some fonts, etc.) We recommend you check your edits by previewing in your browser(s).

Development

Templates are also designed to be flexible. You can add more pages, delete the pages you do not need, or even rename existing pages. Your template package will contain all of the pages and images seen in this preview.

By using your own photos in place of our sample images, you make the template unique to your business. We recommend you be familiar with the basics of CSS and HTML.

What's Included

This is a multi-page web template, containing sample pages. Expression Web and Dreamweaver versions contain a Dynamic Web Template (main.dwt) page for the header and footer area of your pages.

This templates offers a variety of page samples. You should choose the pages that best suit your needs and use those consistently.


Responsive Design:

This template is designed to expand and contract depending on the viewing device. This is done through "media queries" that detects the viewport of the visitor. As the screen becomes smaller, several things happen:

  • The horizontal drop-down menu changes to a vertical drop-down menu. This is "touch friendly" on mobile devices.
  • Some items such as blockquotes and slideshow captions (if applicable) may be hidden at smaller screen sizes.
  • Large product photos are scaled down to fit the screen.

The media queries are located at the bottom of the default.css file; however, we recommend that you take care when editing these parameters unless you are familiar with how any changes will affect your site. If you need to make adjustments, we will be happy to help.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):

This template relies on an external CSS file that consists of "rules" to tell the browser how to render the pages. The CSS file sets the fonts and colors for all of the text on the page, will position items on the page such as the sidebar and content areas, and much more. You can easily modify font colors (links, headings, and text). Most elements that make up the template are controlled through the CSS file, including the gradient colors. We recommend you look through the CSS file taking note of the comments for areas you want to change to suit your web site needs.

Note: Occasionally when adding your own text and images to your pages, the page may suddenly seem to lose the formatting. Don't panic. Continue adding your content, then Save the page (Control + S). Now Refresh the page (F5) and you will see your page "snap" back into position. Continue editing your pages. If the page loses formatting again, just Save and Refresh the page.

All of our templates are designed to meet current web standards to ensure that your web site will work in today's web browsers.

Editing Pages [and .dwt Templates]*:

All template packages allow you to delete the pages you do not need, create new pages, and rename existing pages if necessary. You can delete our sample content then type your own text and add any additional photos.

*Expression Web and Dreamweaver versions rely on the main.dwt and inside.dwt templates for the header and footer content (site name, navigation links, copyright statement, social media icons, etc.). DWT template pages contain editable and non-editable regions. You edit these regions, save the page, and the changes are then applied to the .html pages. Note that you will not be able to edit any “non-editable” regions on the .html pages.

Creating New Pages: The easiest way is to copy an existing page by going to File > Save As. Give your new page a unique name and save the page.and then rename it. Expression Web and Dreamweaver users can also create a new, blank page (empty content area) based on the main.dwt. Go to File > New. From the dialog box that appears, choose Page From Template. Navigate to the Templates folder of you web to choose the main.dwt page template.

Directions A - Z

Accordion Content:

We have added an accordion content block on the FAQ page and on the sample product page. This allows for content to be displayed in a relatively small space. Each section will expand when you click on it and will contract when you click on it again. This accordion block uses a Definition List <dl> that is styled with a bit of css. When editing the page in Design View, the content will appear expanded for easy editing.

html
  1. <dl id="acc"> <!-- begins definition list -->
  2. <dt>First Topic</dt> <!-- first topic -->
  3. <dd> <!-- begins expandable area -->
  4. <p>Wisi e nim admin im veniam, quis nostrud. In atsvulpate velt esse meleste at semper manet sola. Ut lacreet dolore
    magna. Wisi e nim admin im veniam, quis nostrud.</p>
  5. <p>Ut lacreet dolore magna. Wisi e nim admin im veniam, quis nostrud. In atsvulpate velt esse meleste at semper
    manet sola.</p>
  6. </dd> <!-- ends expandable area -->
  7. <dt>Second Topic</dt> <!-- next topic -->
  8. <dd><p>content goes here.</p></dd>
  9. ...add more items...
  10. </dl> <!-- ends definition list -->

Adding Your Site Name:

The site name and slogan is plain text. The size, color, and font are set within the CSS file. To add your own business name and tag line, open the main.dwt template and look for the following:

html
  1. <div id="logo">
  2. <div class="brand"><img alt="" src="<img alt="" src="../images/logo.png"> Your Business Name</div>
  3. <div class="slogan">Slogan or Tag Line Goes Here</div>
  4. </div>

To change the font, size, color, or other settings, open the default.css file and look for the following:

css
  1. .brand {
  2. font: normal 2.0em 'Font Name', "Century Gothic", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff;
  3. . . .
  4. }

Calendar:

We have included a very simple javascript calendar that shows the current month and highlights the current date. This not a dynamic or XML events calendar. Note that the calendar is not visible in Design View, but is visible when previewed in the browser. [Hint: calendar01.js is for black or dark backgrounds and calendar02.js is for white or light backgrounds.]

html
  1. <p class="center">
  2. <script src="javascripts/calendar02.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  3. </p>

Contact Form:

We have implemented a very basic contact form. Your visitors can fill out the form and you will receive the results by email. In order to receive the results, you will need to edit a few lines on the send_form_email.php script (located in the javascripts folder) to set your email address where the form results should be sent and to set a subject line for the emails.

javascript
  1. // EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED
  2. $email_to = "yourname@yourdomain.com";
  3. $email_subject = "Your email subject line";

Once the form has been submitted, you can redirect the user to your "thankyou.html" page. On the php script, near the bottom of the page, you will need to set the absolute file path to your Thank You page:

javascript
  1. <!-- include your own success html here -->
  2. <script type="text/javascript">
  3. <!--
  4. window.location = "http://www.yourdomain.com/thankyou.html"
  5. //-->
  6. </script>

You also need to change a bit of code on the contact.html page.

HTML Code
  1. Change from this:
  2. <form class="contactform" name="contactform" method="post"
  3.    action="#" onSubmit="alert('The submission feature has been disabled for this example'); return false;">
  4. To this:
  5. <form class="contactform" name="contactform" method="post"
  6.    action="javascripts/send_form_email.php">

Important: This contact form works on a wide variety of web hosting platforms, but we cannot guarantee it will work on all of them. If you have confiquired the form according to the instructions above but have problems, your web hosting's support team should be able to help with any server-side settings that may need to be made.

Drop-Down Navigation Menu:

The navigation menu can hold a main topic and one or more sub-topic levels. The sub-topic level will expand on mouseover and will contract when you move the mouse off the menu item. On mobile devices, you can also expand and contract menu levels by tapping on the "plus sign".

You can delete main topics (and any associated sub-topics), add new ones, and change the text and links on the existing menu. You will edit the drop-down menu on the main.dwt page template. Note that you edit the menu in code view. If you look at the coding, it should be relatively easy to make your changes.

For a main topic (top link) only, your code will look something like this:

html
  1. <li><a href="../index.html">Home</a></li>

For a main topic that contains sub-topics, your code will look something like this:

html
  1. <li><a href="../page.html">Main Topic</a>
  2.    <ul>
  3.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 1</a></li>
  4.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 2</a></li>
  5.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 3</a></li>
  6.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 4</a></li>
  7.    </ul>
  8.  </li>

Once you have your menu completed, save the main.dwt page and allow the changes to update on the .html pages. Font sizes and colors, background colors, margins, paddings, etc. are all controlled in the default.css page.

You can set the size where the menu changes to the mobile version. We have preset the width to 1024 pixels. If your menu uses fewer main topics, you may want to reduce this size. Edit the code located at the bottom of the .dwt template pages:

javascript
  1. <script>
  2. $('ul.slimmenu').slimmenu(
  3. {
  4.     resizeWidth: '1024',
  5. ...
  6. </script>

Font Awesome Icons:

Font Awesome gives you over 600 scalable vector icons that can instantly be customized — size, color, drop shadow, and anything that can be done with the power of CSS. Our favorite place to learn how to use these icons is at the W3Schools site.

You can also learn more about Font Awesome on their site. They also have a handy "Cheatsheet" you can print for easy reference.

html
  1. <i class='fa fa-briefcase'></i>

To use an icon as a bullet or similar:

css
  1. .newsDate {
  2.    position: relative;
  3.    color: #666;
  4.    text-align: right;
  5.    font-size: 0.90em;
  6.    letter-spacing: 1px;
  7.    padding: 0 20px 10px 0;
  8.    margin-top: -2px;}
    .newsDate:before {
  9.    position: absolute;
  10.    font-family: 'FontAwesome';
  11.    content: "\f073";
  12.    top: 0;
  13.    right: 0;}

NOTE: You will not see the Font Awesome icons when in design view. It will be seen when you preview the site in your browser.

Google Fonts:

By linking to a particular font stored on Google’s servers (save on bandwidth + caching benefits), you now have access to a wide variety of custom fonts. This offers a lot of flexibility for using more decorative fonts by adding just a touch of code. Quite literally, you can add these fonts into your site in under a minute. NOTE: You will not see the Google font when in design view. It will be seen when you preview the site in your browser. Learn more about Google fonts.

It’s extremely simple. First there is a link to the particular Google font that goes in the head area of each page:

html
  1. <link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Font+Name" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

Next the font name is added to the CSS file:

css
  1. h1 {font: normal 30px 'Font Name', "Century Gothic", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  2. color: #996000;
  3. margin: .3em 0;
  4. letter-spacing: 1px;}

Lightbox:

Your template contains a JavaScript Lightbox script. You can use the lightbox feature on any photo in your site; it is not limited to only the product or gallery pages. The Lightbox JavaScript consists of several files. We recommend that you do not move or edit any of these files.

The Lightbox allows you to click on a small photo and have a larger image appear in a semi-transparent overlay that will appear on top of the page. The script will automatically size itself, so your images can be varying sizes. On mobile devices, the lightbox resizes the images to fit the screen.

First insert your small photo onto the page. Create a hyperlink to the larger photo. Switch to code view and add class="lightbox" which activates the JavaScript. If you wish to have a title appear, add the title attribute as shown in the example.

html
  1. <a href="images/gallery/product1lg.jpg" class="lightbox" title="Your product description goes here">
  2. <img alt="sample photo" src="images/gallery/product1.jpg"></a>

To click through a group of images, add a group name: data-lightbox-gallery="groupname". The "Previous" and "Next" buttons will now automatically appear.

html
  1. <a href="images/gallery/product1lg.jpg" class="lightbox" data-lightbox-gallery="gallery1"
  2. title="Your product description goes here">
  3. <img alt="sample photo" src="images/gallery/product1.jpg"></a>

[Credit for this application: http://dev7studios.com/plugins/nivo-lightbox/.]

Pagination:

Because you may have the need for multiple catalog, gallery, or portfolio pages, we have included a simple "pagination" block you can insert on any page or remove the block if you do not need it. Remember that because this is a static site and not a database driven one, you will have to manually add the appropriate page links.

html
  1. <div class="pagination">
  2.    <span class="disabled_pagination">Prev</span> <!-- the disabled class gives the faded out appearance -->
  3.    <span class="active_link">1</span> <!-- the active_link class highlights the current page -->
  4.    <a href="#2">2</a>
  5.    <a href="#3">3</a>
  6.    <a href="#4">4</a>
  7.    <a href="#5">5</a>
  8.    <a href="#0">Next</a>
  9. </div>

Portfolio:

Our portfolio images are sized at 300px x 300px. We would recommend keeping this size unless you want to dive into the CSS to change things. It is very simple to edit in code view:

  • Add the file path to your image.
  • Add a caption that will appear when you mouse over the image. (Note: since you cannot mouse over an image on a mobile device, you will only see the image and not the effect.)
  • You can choose to have an icon. If you don't want it, delete the code line.
  • You can choose to link to a different page. If you do not want the link, delete the code line.
html
  1.  <figure class="portfolio img-portfolio">
  2. <img src="images/samples/photo1a.jpg" alt=""> <!-- this is the image -->
  3. <div>
  4. <h2>My life needs a <span>rewind/erase</span> button</h2> <!-- this is the caption -->
  5. <i class="fa fa-info-circle"></i> <!-- this is an optional icon -->
  6. <div class="curl"></div>
  7. <a href="#"></a> <!-- this is an optional link to another page -->
  8. </div>
  9. </figure>

Slideshow*:

*Slideshow may not be available in all templates.

Your template contains a JQuery JavaScript on the home page that will rotate through two or more images. You can set your own text for the image captions by editing the title tag shown in the example. [Note: In some templates, we might use only one image in the slideshow. That gives the appearance that only the caption changes.] You can, of course, add more images, but take note that more images will increase the load time of the page and could have a negative impact on mobile users depending on their data plans.

html
  1. <div id="slider" class="nivoSlider">
  2. <img src="../images/mainimage1.jpg" alt="Image description goes here" title="#htmlcaption1">
  3. <img src="../images/mainimage2.jpg" alt="Image description goes here" title="#htmlcaption2">
  4. <img src="../images/mainimage3.jpg" alt="Image description goes here" title="#htmlcaption3">
  5. </div>
  6. <div id="htmlcaption1" style="display:none">
  7. <div class="nivo-caption1">
  8. <p>What does your web site say about your business?</p>
  9. <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ex rationibus efficiendi ius.</p>
  10. </div>
  11. </div>
  12. <div id="htmlcaption2" style="display:none">
  13. <div class="nivo-caption2">
  14. <p>Easily replace our sample images with your own.</p>
  15. <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ex rationibus efficiendi ius.</p>
  16. </div>
  17. </div>
  18. <div id="htmlcaption3" style="display:none">
  19. <div class="nivo-caption3">
  20. <p>This text is easy to change. Be creative.</p>
  21. <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ex rationibus efficiendi ius.</p>
  22. </div>
  23. </div>

[Credit for this application: Released by http://nivo.dev7studios.com/. There are a lot of settings/effects for this script. For more information on adjusting the speed and transition effects, visit our Help Center topic.

Text Animations:

We're added some text animations for a bit of extra visual fun. On the home page, several areas will slide or zoom into position. You can adjust the effect, the direction, and the timed delay as shown below. You can apply the "wow" effect to any element, or you can delete it if you decide you do not want an animated effect applied to a certain item.

html
  1. For the page title text:
  2. <h1 class="wow fadeInLeft">Page Title Text Here</h1>
  3. For the paragraph text:
  4. <p class="wow fadeInRight" data-wow-delay=".8s">Page Title Text Here</h1>
  5. To animate a block to slide in, apply the class to the div:
  6. <div class="contentBox3a wow fadeInLeft" data-wow-delay=".2s">

[Credit for this application: Animate.css from http://daneden.me/animate, Copyright 2014 Daniel Eden]

Ticker Content:

We have included a fun content "ticker" that fades in and out to show blocks of text. This ticker block uses an unordered list <ul> that is styled with a bit of css. When editing the page in Design View, the content will appear expanded for easy editing. We have used it for announcements on the News & Events page. You can adjust the speed by editing the ticker.js file located in the javascripts folder.

html
  1. <ul id="ticker">
  2. <li>
  3. <section class="content">
  4. <h6>Topic Title:</h6>
  5. <p class="newsAuthor">Author Name</p>
  6. <p>Since 1998 we've been focusing on the one thing we do best.</p>
  7. <p>We make templates that work for you. They are easy to use, flexible, and are designed with clean coding,
  8. HTML5, some great CSS3, and are cross-browser tested.</p>
  9. </section>
  10. </li>
  11. ...more list items...
  12. </ul>

The javascript for the ticker has been added to every page; however, you can only have one ticker block per page.

Template Use:

This template comes with a site license, not a user or computer license. This template is licensed for use on one site only. Other terms and conditions may apply. Our full End User License Agreement is available on our sites.

If you wish to use this template for subsequent sites, you must purchase a license for each additional site. We offer additional licenses at a discounted rate. All images and source files included within the template are licensed for use with this template only. All royalty-free image vendors have their own terms of use in how their images may be used and in what context. Please check with the listed vendor(s) if you have questions.

A Checklist:

There always seems to be a rush to publish a new site. Before going live with your site, take a minute and review our list of items that should be completed first!

  • Change the page title on all pages as appropriate.
  • Preview all pages by going to File > Preview in Browser. It's a good idea to check your site in more than one browser.
  • Modify the description meta tags on each page.
  • Change or add alt text to each photo used on your site. In the template, we typically have "sample" as the alternate text or it is left blank.
  • Spell check each page.
  • Check each page in Code View. If you see embedded styles that are caused by using the formatting toolbar (.style1, .style2, .autostyle1, autostyle2), note that these embedded styles may conflict with our external css file. You can find details on how to clean up these styles by visiting our Help Center.
  • You may remove our logo and any links to our site from the template.
  • Upload your new site to your web hosting space. You do NOT need to upload the Templates folder.
  • Important! Remember that it is against our Terms of Use to upload pages that contain our demo text. Edit first, then upload! You should also replace any watermarked images with your own to avoid any possible copyright infringement issues with stock photo vendors.
Need Help Fast?

Need more? We also offer a variety of helpful resources as well as design services. Please visit our web site at RTBWizards.com.