G'day.

I've started building a new Joomla site. It's a photography site so I'm keen to get the image caption right: centred and different to the regular text (colour, size, font or whatever).

photooutback.southimage.net/

I've tried a couple of templates.

In one template I found the following lines which should be just what I want, but it seems to be overridden:



I tried putting these lines at the bottom of the current template but that didn't help, either.

I'm not real worried about what template I use so long as the site looks reasonable. Would the answer lie in a different template, perhaps a photography site template? I struggle with finding a suitable template.

I see among the free templates, they mainly seem to be so outrageous with unnecessary artwork half way down to the fold, so I keep away from these.

I'd sure be glad of a push in the right direction. I'm not worried whether that help is with fixing the styling or finding a suitable template.

Thanks.

Hm...well I see your CSS but when I look at the code you have:

<div class="img_caption null" > which is div.img_caption not div.caption
and
<img class="caption" ...> which is div.img_caption img.caption not div.caption img
and
<div class="img_caption null" ><p> which is div.imag_caption p not div.caption p

so perhaps herein lies your problem?

or maybe you changed all your code after you posted your msg?

Thanks for taking a look Dex.

I just now came back to post an update.

I've changed the template several times and found that ja_purity has the caption better.

Not real happy with the header, though. Still, can't complain. The price was right.

Where do regular Joomla users look for free templates? Yes, there are thousands available, but I just can't seem to find templates that are simple, attractive and practicle. Maybe I'm just too hard to please.

yes, agreed, it's always hard to find a good template, let alone a good free one.
JA are tops

Thanks. Just a response to be polite.

Didn't have a lot of luck at JA, remembering the keyword, "free." Some V1.0, others specialist sites such as shopping carts. Not what I need.

Downloaded several templates from around the web. Two had the caption just as promised in the css quoted above, but something else was up the spout.

Spent a lot of time on the css, getting one template how I wanted it, only to find that the top nav wouldn't behave properly.

Came back to ja-purity. Not real happy about the header but working on it. Being a photographer, I like the rotator but not the masks.

Do some people make their own template from a selection of standard templates? What do Joomla developers do?

Thanks,
Laurie.

Hi Laurie

Well I have just noticed that rockettheme afterburner free template has captions, if you switch on mootools in the template parameters. Did you try that?

perhaps that will work OK for you?
hope so

But yes, a bunch of us do code custom templates. But not for free!

Thanks Dex.

Mootools, huh? That sounds familiar. Mootools might be just the clue that I needed. Might be why the stuff in the css just wouldn't do anything.

Anyway, I fixed the header image in ja-purity by making my own header-mask.png. Much happier now. But I would be happier still with a plain/clean looking site. Don't like the heavily stylized top nav links all that much.

Maybe if I can work out mootools I'll be able to get a simpler template working right.

So, when you make a Joomla template, do you use the standard php template (index php, I guess)? You don't sit there in front of a blank page in a html editor and start typing, do ya?

I see it's possible to make a Joomla template using Photoshop. But it can't be as simple as just drawing up an arty design and clicking a button, surely?

So thanks, Mate! You've given me a couple of things to find out about.

OK! Success!

Downloaded yet another free template. Figured out what it's lacking to make the caption work and fixed it.

Very happy customer! Should now be able to fix the same thing in another Joomla site.

Thanks.

OK! Success!

Downloaded yet another free template. Figured out what it's lacking to make the caption work and fixed it.

Very happy customer! Should now be able to fix the same thing in another Joomla site.

Thanks.

Hi Laurie

Ok good.

You might (if you have PC, not Mac) try a template generator like www.artisteer.com/. This allows some very finetuned styling choices to be made and will create a Joomla template for you. I've tried it myself, from a custom graphic design. The result was a very robust template, worked all the time and across browsers. But the code was not written like 'normal' Joomla code, so was very voluble and also hard to customise. The style class names were not standard either. So although the result it produced was very functional, because I had a complex design to implement (OK, it's here: www.mmclub.com.au/) it took me quite a long time to finetune afterwards. For a simpler no-fiddling template I would have been pretty impressed.

When I code a custom template, I assemble some template elements I've already written (CSS skeleton, menus, basic index.php with the core functionality I need) and go from there. But it's hand-coded all the way, yes.

Which template have you used in the end? Can we look at your site?

Sounds like your ingenuity can fix most things! Well done.

Dex

Thanks for the encouragement, Dex, and the info, too.

Your millionaire's template looks great!

Site is photooutback.southimage.net/ A lot of work still to do. Just a bit of content to start working on getting indexed.

Template is Joomla Shack, Optimus.

If you wanted to be rude, you'd call it a MFA site, but I'd prefer to call it an information site carrying some advertising. Of course, you wouldn't be rude!

As I get to understand Joomla a bit, I'm impressed with it's inbuilt SEO attraction.

Ive set up this site with each category as a category blog with a RSS feed on each. This means in effect that each category is a stand alone blog. Heaps of links coming back in if I can get that sorted correctly. Have done the FeedBurner thing.

And just for fun, here's my camp way out in the outback, about 50km north east of Woomera in SA.

you are travelling by quad!!?!

A bit off topic!

Yeah, Mate! Some say I'm mad and the rest think I'm crazy.

I do take a drink of water and a spare tin of petrol. Oh, and a satellite phone.

Then I come home and sit in front of the computer for a couple of weeks.

Planning a major trip next April. From the Flinders Ranges in SA, around the south end of Lake Torrens, full length of the lake and up to Lake Eyre South, then back again.

Bikes are not registered so will have to walk into Andamooka for fuel.

Taking my grandson this trip, turning 11.

400km each way, mostly on station tracks. Some cross country and a few good outback dirt roads where you'd take a car.

Been striving for several years, now, to achieve success with it all on the web. Haven't achieved web success yet but I've had a good time trying in every respect.

Wow - I am quite envious. Trip looks fantastic