Omega

Omega Theme: Withering Heights?

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 18:51 -- James Sinkiewicz

Screen Shot

Force Equal Height For All Child Elements

The first time I saw the setting in the configuration section of a Zone to 'Force equal height for all child elements.', I thought to myself that this would be a pretty useful selection box. I mean, why wouldn't anyone want all the 'blocks' in a zone to be the same height? It would make the page look professional and polished. So, without hesitation, I checked the box, reloaded the page, and waited with anticipation to see my Heathcliff and Catherine blocks together again with equal heights (shameless play on Wuthering Heights).

Omega StarterKit CSS Files

Thu, 06/30/2011 - 11:57 -- James Sinkiewicz

Screen Shot

If you've watched any of the Omega Theme videos available on the Internet (see Jake Strawn (aka himerus) Introduction), you will hear the Omega Theme described as being built from 'mobile to desktop", instead of from desktop down to mobile. The basic idea is that the 'default style' of a website should be one that looks good on mobile devices and that stylesheets should change as the browser window's size is changed or pages are displayed on different sized devices. There are so many stylesheets associated with the Omega theme that I was easily overwhelmed and confused. This article attempts to describe how some of the various CSS stylesheets that are involved in that process are configured.

Starterkit CSS Files

After you've create a custom theme from the Omega base theme using one of the starterkit folders provided with the theme, you will find 5 files in your custom_theme/css folder. Most of these files are named after the starterkit you chose. The list below are those files included in the omega-html5 starterkit as of this writing:

Omega's Grid Layout Settings

Fri, 06/24/2011 - 09:29 -- James Sinkiewicz

Screen Shot

One Newbie's Understanding:

For the last few days I have been trying to get my head around the Omega 3.x theme's grid layout settings. This article attempts to describe my understanding of these settings. I am not a Drupal or Omega theme expert by any means, but someday I would like to become one and I believe that writing these articles helps me achieve that goal. This confession should also be interpreted as a disclaimer or warning to those reading this. I probably have misunderstood a thing or two, and in any event, the Omega 3.x theme is in Beta 1 as of this writing and is changing often, so use this information with caution.

Enabling the Responsive Grid

Near the very top of the Grid Settings section is a check box to "Enable the responsive grid". This is the heart of the Omega theme.

Context and Omega: User Zone

Thu, 06/16/2011 - 07:32 -- James Sinkiewicz

Screen ShotHaving made the commitment to use the Omega theme and Delta module, of course the Context module is the place to start when creating a new website. I've come to think of Context as a replacement for the Drupal Core Blocks system. Previously, when I wanted a block to show up on one page, but not one or two others, I had to create settings for the block's visibility to "Show block on specific pages ~ All pages except those listed" and then list the individual pages that I did not want the block to appear. If there was some kind of taxonomy or URL pattern that could be discerned, then I could use that, but mostly it came down to listing the individual page exceptions. The biggest problem with that was when you created a new page, you might forget to add that page to the list of exceptions.

Omega Theme and Delta Module

Tue, 06/14/2011 - 05:24 -- James Sinkiewicz

ScreenshotYesterday, I watched several video tutorials on the new Omega theme for Dupal 7. It was created by Jake Strawn who also created the Delta module. I am convinced this is the base theme for my website and together with the Delta module and the required Context and CTools modules, it will provide everything I need. I am not happy with the "box" look that he 960 grid system seems to impose on the layout of the webpage, but I am determined to see if I can think outside the "box".

The Omega theme is unlike any I have used before. One look at the omega.info file will show that this is not your ordinary Drupal theme. I am intimidated just scanning through that file! How do I add my own CSS? Whay are there some many different CSS files?

Subscribe to RSS - Omega