section line layout - automatically change colour/template.

[bangers]

Title is a bit confusing.
Probably best if you look at the attached jpg which shows what I want to do with my section layout.

What I'd like to know is if it possible automatically display categories using a different colour or theme for each without having to apply the different layout manually to each category in actinic.

I want to create 4 different colours/themes which display in 3 rows so that when displayed it looks a little bit random.

As I say probably best to view the attached jpg,
Help welcome,
regards
Bangers

[jont]

The "easy" option wold be to create the sections links as a complete GIF file - text and all and then edit out the superfluous text sction name etc from the Section template.

The other option would be to create a customvar for the colours and try specifying these in the section level properties - I am not at a Actinic PC at the moment so not able to check the CMV is carried over.

[bangers]

First option definetly isn't a goer, just using images is where I'm moving away from.

The second option could have legs as long as I can use a customvar in a css file but still there is the problem of having to change to colour manually within each section layout. Ultimately I'm tryin to avoid this.

What I probably need to do is (if possible) produce a custom sectionline template which includes the 4 colours, then fix it so that it wraps after every third entry.

Does anyone know what happens if the section line html looked like this:

<TABLE width="200" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left" CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="0" VALIGN="TOP" class="description">
  <TR> 
    <TD width="150" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <div align="center"> <A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK" >NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONIMAGE</A><br clear="all" />
      </div></TD>
    <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><div align="justify"><b><a href="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK">NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</a></b><br />
        NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONTEXT</div></TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE><br>
NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT<TABLE width="200" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left" CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="0" VALIGN="TOP" class="description">
  <TR> 
    <TD width="150" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <div align="center"> <A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK" >NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONIMAGE</A><br clear="all" />
      </div></TD>
    <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><div align="justify"><b><a href="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK">NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</a></b><br />
        NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONTEXT</div></TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE><br>
NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT <TABLE width="200" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left" CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="0" VALIGN="TOP" class="description">
  <TR> 
    <TD width="150" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <div align="center"> <A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK" >NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONIMAGE</A><br clear="all" />
      </div></TD>
    <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><div align="justify"><b><a href="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK">NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</a></b><br />
        NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONTEXT</div></TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE><br>
NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT

Would it take a unique section in each table or would it duplicate the same section 3 times?

regards
Bangers

[cdicken]

Would it take a unique section in each table or would it duplicate the same section 3 times?

Using NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT as you have done would mean that a block of three sections would be laid out correctly with the one sectionline template.

In other words, it should have the desired effect.

[bangers]

That's great, couple more questions though:
1. To avoid the colours appearing as 3 long columns of the same colour I would like to use 4 colours to break up the pattern a bit. Does anyone know how I could do this?

2. If I do use the format what happens if the sections aren't divisble by 3, what would happen to the last column and what would I have to do if the last coloumn had only 1 or 2 sections in it?

Thanks for the help so far.
Regards
Bangers

[cdicken]

1. To avoid the colours appearing as 3 long columns of the same colour I would like to use 4 colours to break up the pattern a bit. Does anyone know how I could do this?

Can you not just add another...

<TABLE width="200" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left" CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="0" VALIGN="TOP" class="description">
  <TR> 
    <TD width="150" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> <div align="center"> <A HREF="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK" >NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONIMAGE</A><br clear="all" />
      </div></TD>
    <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><div align="justify"><b><a href="NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLINK">NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONNAME</a></b><br />
        NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONTEXT</div></TD>
  </TR>
</TABLE><br>
NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT

... block to the bottom of the file in order to create a fourth colour?

2. If I do use the format what happens if the sections aren't divisble by 3, what would happen to the last column and what would I have to do if the last coloumn had only 1 or 2 sections in it?

It will be fine. Try it and see.

[bangers]

This all seems great.
I'll give it ago in a minute.
I'm assuming the 4th section will just wrap to another row? But hey I'll see when I test it.

regards
bangers