How to Get Started with PageLines

Revision as of 02:47, 15 February 2012

Welcome to PageLines!

I'm going to show you how easy it is to start building a great looking webpage use the PageLines Framework. In the following tutorial, I will configure a brand new installation of PageLines to have an "outer space" look & feel. However feel free to use your own settings & creativity as you read along.

Please Note

This guide is starting out assuming you have already done the following tasks:

1. Installed WordPress
2. Set a static page as your "Home" page
3. Installed & Activated PageLines

If you need help with any of these things, check out the Before You Get Started with PageLines guide first.

Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to get started with PageLines!

Pick your default Layout

First, let's decide on the layout that you want your site to have. You can choose to have just a main content area, main content with one or two side bars on the right or left, or main content in between two sidebars.

Default Layout Mode

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Settings"
2. Select the "Layout Editor" tab
3. Go to the "Default Layout Mode." Change the layout from a single right sidebar single left sidebar
4. Now go to the "Layout Dimensions Editor." Click on the "left sidebar" layout
5. Change the "Content Area" width to 960px & the sidebar (SB1) to 300px
   • This is done by dragging the blue edges of the layout windows to the desired width
6. Click "Save Options"

• You can also change the Layout Handling. Refer to this tutorial for more detailed information about the Layout Editor

Layout

Setup Your Custom Logo (Branding/Header Image)

Your website logo is the first thing a visitor sees upon arrival, so you want it to instantly make a positive impression. PageLines Framework comes preinstalled with its own logo, however you can easily install your own logo that will really make your website yours.

To upload your custom logo

Upload Custom Logo

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the PageLines panel, then Settings
2. Select the "Website Setup" tab
3. Under the "Custom Header Image" section, click "Upload Image"
   • Browse your computer & select the image you want uploaded
   • You can use .png, .jpg, or .gif
   • If you do not have a custom logo yet, select Header-Image.png that is included in resources.zip
4. Click "Save Options"

If you already uploaded a custom logo to your server, simply type the full URL of the image & click "Save Options."

Setup Background Image/ Text Color

The background of you site can be configured using Color Control. A more detailed tutorial on using Color Control can be found here, but for now, lets change a few settings.

Background Image/Color

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Settings"
2. Select the "Color Control" tab.
3. Under "Basic Layout Colors" & Page Text Colors", enter the hex color number for the following items:
   1. Content Background - Change from blank (transparent) to #000000
   2. Primary Text - Change from #000000 (black) to #ffffff (white)
   3. Text Headers - Change from #000000 (black) to #ffffff (white)
4. Under the "Site Background Image" section, click "Upload Image"
   • Browse your computer & select the image you want to upload
   • You can use .png, .jpg, or .gif
   • If you do not have a custom background yet, select Background.png that is included in resources.zip
5. Click "Save Options"

Header & Background Image

Using Custom Code

PageLines has a lot of great options for customizing your site. However we don't want make an option for absolutely everything. This is because doing so would potentially lead to having thousands of options for you to sort through. Obviously, this would severely over-complicate the framework. To compensate we've made it extremely easy to add your own custom code to your site. Click on How to Add Customization for more information.

Insert Custom CSS

I like having the black Content Background, but I don't like that it covers up so much of my site's background image. I can use a CSS rule to give the Content Background a slight transparency so we can still see the background image underneath.

Custom CSS

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Settings"
2. Select the "Custom Code" tab
3. Under "Custom CSS Rules," enter the following css:
page .content {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .6);}
4. Click "Save Options"

Header And Footer Options

You can easily click or unclick "checkboxes" to hide or show different elements on your site. For example:

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the PageLines panel, then Settings
2. Select the "Header And Footer" tab
3. Check the "Hide Search Field?" box
4. Uncheck the "Display the Blog RSS icon and link?" box
5. Click "Save Options

Custom CSS

Add Sections to a Page

This is where the true beauty of the PageLines Framework comes into play. You can customize any page by adding, removing, & rearranging Sections that will display whatever content you choose. Let's start by adding some Features & Boxes.

Add Features

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Templates"
2. Select the "Content Area" and make sure you have the
   Template | Default selected as well
   • This is because the "Template | Default" is what was assigned when we created the "Home" page in the Before You Get Started with PageLines doc
3. Drag the "Features" section from the "Available / Disabled Sections" over to the "Active Sections"
4. For this example, lets also remove the "Comments" section
5. The Section Order will save automatically

Add Boxes

1. Select the "Morefoot" Template Area
2. Drag the "Boxes" section from the "Available / Disabled Sections" over to the "Active Sections"
3. The Section Order will save automatically

Add Features & Boxes

Configure the Sections

Now you should see some default Features & Boxes on your page. To find out more on how to add your own customer Features & Boxes, check out the following Tutorials:

• How to Use the Features Section
• How to Use the Boxes Section

For this example, I setup my page to show some "Space" related Features & Boxes

Configure the Sections

The PageLines Store

The Last thing I want to show you is how to download & install a section from the PageLines Store. In this example, we will be placing a free section called "Twitter Profile into the Sidebar." This section will visitors to view the three most recent updates from a Twitter account.

Install Twitter Profile

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Store"
2. Select the "Sections" tab, then "Add Sections"
   • If you haven't already, you will first need to install & activate the "PageLines Sections" plugin
3. Select the "Top Free" tab
4. Locate the "Twitter Profile" section and click "Install"
5. Under the "Added" tab, you will find your newly installed section
6. If not already, click "Activate"

Place Twitter Profile in your sidebar

Now you will need to tell PageLines where you want the Twitter Profile section to appear on your site.

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "Pages" panel, then "All Pages"
2. Click to edit the "Home" page
3. On the "Meta Panel," click the "Twitter Profile" tab
4. Enter a Twitter username
   • In this example, I'm going to choose "PageLines"
5. Do the same thing for the clone
   • For the clone, I'm choosing "WordPress"
6. Click "Save Options"

1. Select the "PageLines" panel, then "Templates"
2. Select the "SB1" (sidebar) Template Area
3. Drag the "Twitter Profile" section from the "Available / Disabled Sections" over to the "Active Sections"
   • The Section Order will save automatically

Sometimes we may want to have the same section displayed more than once on a page. With PageLines, it's very easy to duplicate a section

4. Click "Options"
5. Click "Clone"
   • Now you will see that a "Twitter Profile #2" has appeared
   • The Section Order will save automatically

Activate Twitter Profile

Configure Twitter Profile

You will now see placeholders for the two sections. This is because You still need to specify a Twitter Username for these two sections. This is done in the PageLines Meta Settings. You can either click on the placeholder link & skip to step 4, or:

From your WordPress Administration Panel:

1. Select the "Pages" panel, then "All Pages"

Click to edit the page that you wish to hide the Features section On the "Meta Panel," click the "Page Setup" tab

Have at it!

Now that we've shown you a little bit on how to get your website going, it's time to start building! Please checkout our other docs as we dive deeper into the PageLines framework.