JoomlaJunkie - Joomla Template Provider Bringing color to the Joomla community

To make sure your template is setup correctly, please make sure you read through the template guide thoroughly. We have made the template as customisable as possible and all our css is fully commented.

Before You Start:

Once you have successfully downloaded your template, you will need to extract the zip archive to your local computer, using a free archive utility like 7zip (PC) or MacZip (Mac), extract the contents on the zip "absolute-redux-unzipfirst.zip" onto your computer.

First of all, lets start by explaining whats included in your download and how we have structured the files. In the main folder that you have just extracted to, you should have the following:

• FOLDER: Source Files (These are the Fireworks source files that we designed the template in. If you dont have a copy of Fireworks, you can always download a trial version from the Macromedia site here.)
• FILE: absoluteredux-1.0.x.zip (for Joomla 1.0.x)
• FILE: absoluteredux-1.5.x.zip (for Joomla 1.5.x)
• FILE: CHANGELOG.txt
• FILE: IMPORTANT_READ-ME.txt

Step 1.) Installing the Template and setting the Template Configuration

1. Now go to "Installers > Template Site"
2. Browse for the template zip file in the Template folder.
3. Click "Upload File and Install".
4. Click "Continue..."
5. In the Template Manager, select the new template's radio box and click on the "Default" button (top right).

The template will now be successfully installed, so you can proceed to the template config below...

Joomla 1.5.x users can edit template changes from the backend.

Joomla 1.0.x users can follow the instructions below.

Open the template index.php file (in your template install folder on your server) with a web file editor (such as dreamweaver or notepad) or by logging into your Joomla Admin and selecting site-templatemanager-sitetemplates from the top menu, then select the template and click on the edit html from the top menu. Make sure that this file is writeable as you will be saving any changes to this file.

You can edit this file with the following settings below to customise your site defaults:

Set the top menu to the suckerfish menu or a module position:
$menu_type = "suckerfish"; // suckerfish | module
Set which menu to use for the suckerfish:
$menu_name = "mainmenu"; // mainmenu by default, can be any Joomla menu name
Set to use the built in instant search or Joomla! standard search. (J1.0.xx only):
$use_instantsearch = 'yes'; // yes | no Set the top menu to the suckerfish menu or a module position:
Set the front end color switcher on or off:
$use_colorswitcher = 'yes'; // yes | no This sets displaying of the color switcher in the front end.
Set the default color of the site // blue | red | green | pink | orange:
$default_color = "green";
Set the default width of the site // wide | narrow:
$default_width = 'narrow';
Show or hide the width resizer from the front end:
$show_widthresizer = 'yes';
Set the default font size of the site // mediumText | largeText | xLargeText:
$default_fontsize = "mediumText";
Set to show / hide the font resizer from the front end:
$show_fontresizer = 'yes';
Set the main column position of the site // left | right:
$default_sidebarposition = 'left';
Show or hide the sidebar left switcher from the front end:
$show_sidebarswitcher = 'yes';
Show or hide the help icon:
$show_helpicon = 'yes';
Show options toggle:
$show_optionstoggle = 'yes';
Show or hide the display options:
$show_displayoptions = 'yes';

Lastly, In order for the live-search module (Joomla 1.0.x only) to function without any notice errors, open up your site global configuration and select the server tab. Set the error reporting level to simple.

The template will now be successfully installed, so you can proceed to Step Two to setup your modules.

Step 2.) Setting the module options.

We have setup the entire template to pretty much work "out the box", so there isn't much you need to do.

1. Left Sidebar Menu - To get your sidebar menu displaying the same as on the demo site all you need to do is set the main menu module to a "flat list". You can also leave it set to "Vertical" (which will also allow you have submenu items as in the demo), but keep in mind the vertical output is using tables, which is not good for SEO (with a menu).
2. Site Footer Menu - We are using the "Other Menu" module to act as the footer, as there isn't a footer menu by default in Joomla!. All you need for this to work properly, is open the "Other Menu" module, set a module and menu suffix
   of "-footer", choose Menu Type: "Flat List" and assign it to the "Footer" module positon.
   

Top Site Header Settings and Info

Install the Simple Image Rotator module from the modules folder in your template download by going to installers/modules from your site administration and uploading the package file.

Open up the installed module, publish it and set it to the header position - Set the paramaters as required - just make sure your header images are 1000px by 200px and stored in images/stories/headers. Also make sure these images are readable, read more about the simple image rotator at the JoomlaWorks site.

If using standard CSS simple header images (a single header image for each color) - then as Absolute Redux has multiple widths, make sure that your header image is 1000px wide and is saved in the relevant template images color folder (templatename/images/color/).

TIP: Setting up your menu's drop down (child) items.

The built in Suckerfish menu sucks in the Joomla "Main Menu" by default. This can easily be changed to another menu by changing the configuration option in the templates index.php file (right at the top).

In the Menu Manager, you will notice by default the "Main Menu" does not have any child items assign. All top level menu items will be displayed as the primary "tabs", then any child menu items will automatically be displayed as the drop down options when you hover over the top "tabs". To setup the child items for a particular tab do the following:

1. In your Joomla Admin area, from the top menu, navigate to Menu > Main Menu (or which ever menu you chose to use in the previous step).
2. The menu manager will list all the menu items that are set in any of the particular menus. All the top level menu items are displayed flush against the side in the list and all child menu items are indented from the parent menu item. This may sound overly complicated, but once you see the structure it will instantly make sense which menu items are parent menu items and which are the "children".
3. To assign a child menu item, first create a new menu item as usual, then in the options for that menu item, select which of the existing menu items you would like to be the parent. Again you will notice in the menu's options, the existing menu items that you can choose from are also structured in a hierarchial way, so it will be easy to see which is the parent and which is the child.

TIP: How to "Collapse" either the Left or Right Sidebar..

To collapse or "hide" the left or right sidebar on certain pages, all you need to do is make sure that no modules are assigned to that particular menu link (page). The easiest way to do this, is go to your modules manager and choose the module position filter drop down (top right) and select the module position to filter by. All that this is doing is setting the modules page to only show all modules that are assigned to the "left" (or right) module postion. For example, if you wanted not have the sidebar shown on the wrapper page, as you wanted to utilize the full width of the template, you would make sure that all modules assigned to the left + right position were set NOT to display on the wrapper menu link. This can be done by opening each of the published modules that are assigned to that position and checking that the page/menu link is deselected in the " Pages / Items" Menu Item box (right hand side of the module options).

TIP: Setting the "Blog" View Contents to display as 1 column not 2.

By default, when linking to category or section of content items, Joomla sets the "blog view" to display in 2 columns. If you would like to change this so that they display one underneath the other, simply open up the menu link for that category/section and from the right hand side "parameters" options, set the options as follows:

• Leading: 1
• Intro: 0
• Columns: 1 (this is the important part)

TIP: Getting TinyMCE Editor to display properly.

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is how to get the default Joomla editor to display properly when editing content. The problem that occurs with the way the editor works. By default, it will automatically pull the styling from the published template, which means if there is a background color or graphic set on the templates frontend, this will be used as the editors background. This makes editing content really difficult. To get this to display a normal white background all you need to do is login to your Joomla! admin, go to the Mambots Manager, click on the "TinyMCE WYSIWYG Editor" to edit its properties. From the modules parameters on the right, make sure that "Template CSS classes" is set to No. This will then revert the editor to use its own default styling, giving you a nice white background to edit your content in.