Table of Contents

  1. Content of the download pack
  2. Features
  3. CSS basics
  4. JavaScript basics
  5. Image sliders
  6. Tooltips and Image previews
  7. "Home" page
  8. "About" page
  9. "Portfolio" page
  10. "Blog" page
  11. "Contact" page
  12. Changing the skin
  13. Fonts
  14. Credits

  1. Content of the download pack - top

    You should find the following folders in the download pack:

    • 24 Carats - Silver Edition (PSD) - Contains the premium PSD version of the theme!
    • HTML Theme - Contains the main template: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP files.
    • Sliced PSD files - Contains PSD files for the CSS sprites.
    • Documentation - Contains instructions for the template.
  2. Features - top

    Key features of the template:

    • Design. Fullstop.
    • Clean, semantic, SEOptimized, valid, flexible, commented code.
    • Progressive enhancement thoroughly used.
    • Custom slider... actually two custom sliders!
    • Two portfolio layouts with a dynamic switcher.
    • Custom filter for portfolio categories.
    • Special portfolio page with custom image previewer.
    • Beautiful ajax contact form - working and ready for use.
    • Google Maps - easy to set-up.
    • Custom 404 page that makes feel users at home.
    • Two-level navigation.
    • Special attention to blog design - easily convert the template to to a blog platform.
    • Easy tooltips and image previews for everything.
    • Free additional skins included, ultra easy install.
    • Tested and working under: Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox 3.6+, IE7+
  3. CSS basics - top

    Files

    Stylesheet files are located inside the /css folder.

    • default.css - Main styling information
    • ie7.css - Fixes for Internet Explorer 7
    • jquery-ui.css - Styling for the jQuery UI plugin (included only on the Contact page)
    • theme-xxx.css - Style changes for the xxx skin

    Conventions

    For each CSS element styled (except those in the jquery-ui.css file), its properties are ordered following the alphabet convention. See example below:

    CSS alphabet convention example
    CSS alphabet convention example

    Exceptions: vendor-specific properties go right after the main property that they describe. See example below:

    CSS alphabet convention example
    CSS alphabet convention - an exception example

    Global classes

    Margins

    If you want to put margin on an HTML element but there is no need for a specific class to be added, you can use any of these:

    Margin classes example
    Margin classes example

    Buttons

    Adding a fancy button is easy - wrap some text in a span, then wrap the span in an anchor tag with one of the following classes: button-more, button-go, button-add, button-tag, button-read. Below is an exemplary HTML code for the button-more class:

    Button more code
    Button more example - HTML code

    Here is the outcome from the code above, for each of the classes:

    Buttons outcome
    Buttons examples. Remember that all fancy buttons are flexible and expand according to the text inside.

    Image shadows

    You can also use one of the predefined classes for image shadows - wrap the image inside a container (anchor, div, paragraph...) with one of the following classes .shadow-80, .shadow-290, .shadow-640, .shadow-940. The image width will be adjusted according to the class. Below is an example for the .shadow-290 class.

    Image shadows
    Image shadows example - HTML code and its output

    After you replace the logo , don't forget to change the width. No need to touch the height though:

    Logo width
    Logo width

    Left sidebar

    You can easily move the sidebar to the left - find the line starting with the comment /* Layer framework */. See the image below for what changes are needed - at the top is Before (right sidebar) and below is After (left sidebar).

    CSS code for right and left sidebar respectively
    CSS code for right and left sidebar respectively

    Font replacement

    The template uses Cufon for font replacement of some headings and titles via the Cufon.replace() method, called inside the /js/main.js file. The font used for font replacement is Vegur (refer to the Fonts section for fonts used in the template).

    If you don't want an h1, h3 or h4 heading to have its font replaced by Cufon, just add a nocufon class to it.

    Preventing Cufon from replacing a heading font
    Preventing Cufon from replacing a heading font
  4. JavaScript basics - top

    Files

    JavaScript code is located inside the /js folder.

    • cufon-yui.js - The Cufon font replacement core and Vegur font information (see Fonts section for fonts used)
    • jquery-1.6.2.min.js - Local copy of the jQuery library
    • jquery-ui.js - The jQuery UI plugin (used for the budget slider on the Contact page)
    • main.js - Contains custom functions, write your code here
    • plugins.js - jQuery plugins used (see below for more information)

    Plugins

    The template uses the jQuery JavaScript library.
    Below are listed plugins used. Most of them are located inside the /js/plugins.js file, except for /js/jquery-ui.js (included only on the Contact page) and /js/cufon-yui.js (too crowded file for most text editors).

    Twitter

    At the beginning of the /js/main.js file there is the Twitter section. Change the value of the twiterName variable and that is all you need to do.

    Twitter stream outcome at the top of the page footer
    Twitter stream outcome at the top of the page footer
  5. Image sliders - top

    Both sliders are programmed to stop the slideshow whenever a users hovers a slide or the slider controls.

    Coin slider

    The index.html page contains the Coin slider from CMT Studio. For each slide you only need to setup the heading text, description (can be a list like in the demo) and image source - the slider controls are automatically added. Unlike the Paper slider, the Coin slider needs images with exact dimensions of 380x260px.

    Coin slider html
    Coin slider - single slide HTML

    Just like the Paper slider, you can also edit the slideshow speed or decide how long a transition takes.

    Coin slider options
    Coin slider options - /js/main.js

    Paper slider

    The index_alt.html page contains the Paper slider from CMT Studio. For each slide you only need to setup the image source and the text - the slider thumbnails are automatically added. The image can overflow the slider in both height and width without a problem.

    Paper slider html
    Paper slider - single slide HTML

    Inside the /js/main.js file you can edit some of the options for the slider, such as the slideshow speed or the transition method (choose between "hide" or "fade" for the last one):

    Paper slider options
    Paper slider options - /js/main.js

    Note that you can change the height of the thumbnails inside the /css/default.css file. Just remember to set #p-carousel li height to be 6px larger than the #p-carousel a height.


  6. Tooltips and Image previews - top

    Buy the template to view this section

  7. "Home" page - top

    For the image sliders refer to the Image sliders section.

    For the services tooltips refer to the Tooltips and image previews section.

    Services tabs


    Service tabs

    The services tabs use anchors which link to the id of a li element - the same way the Table of Contents links on this page work. See the image below.

    Homepage Service tabs code
    Homepage Service tabs code - each anchor href corresponds to a list id

    The first tab is set as active with JavaScript, so no additional work is required: just change the anchor href and list id attribute per your needs - the tabs also work with JavaScript disabled.

  8. "About" page - top

    "How we work" numbers

    Each item in the list is labeled with numbers - for that purpose the list items contain span tags with classes from numb-1 to numb-9, plus numb-0 if you need it for some reason.


    Number one, followed by number two - html example code
  9. "Portfolio" page - top

    Buy the template to view this section

  10. "Blog" page - top

    For dialog image previews (at the beginning and end of the single blog post) see Image previews in the Tooltips and image previews section.

    For fancy buttons (at the end of the single blog post) and image shadows see Global classes in the CSS Basics section.

    Single blog page - nesting blog comments

    Each blog comment can be nested, to visualize which comment is a reply to which. For this purpose blog comments are wrapped in lists, which could have a class of nest1, nest2, nest3... to nest8.


    A zero-level comment and a following first-level (nested) comment, replying to the zero-level
  11. "Contact" page - top

    Buy the template to view this section

  12. Changing the skin - top

    Using included skins

    Just add a link to the theme stylesheet file after the link to default.css and it's done!

    Adding a ready-made skin
    Adding a ready-made skin

    The /css/theme-xxx.css files use images that are included inside the /images/theme-xxx/ folder.

    Creating and using your own skins

    Buy the template to view this section

  13. Fonts - top

    The colored numbers in the About page use the Adobe Garamond font. All numbers (0-9) can be found in the _Colored Elements.psd file, located inside the 24 Carats - Silver Edition (PSD) folder.

    In case of not having the Adobe Garamond font you can use the Times New Roman font instead, but changing the colors does not require editing the type - see the Changing the skin » Creating and using your own skins section, step 2.

  14. Credits - top

    Icons and textures:

    Live demo images:

    For JavaScript (jQuery) plugins used see the JavaScript basics section.