Adding Right Hand column to 'Contemporary'?

[bill_wheeler]

Greetings folks!

New here and new to Actinic in general! I did a search in the knowledge base, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so here goes:

How do you add a right hand column to the 'Contemporary' theme?

Ideally, this is what I'd like to see:

Left hand column:
Product Sections

Middle:
Title
Products/Subsections

Right hand column:
View cart
Checkeout
New products


Can this be done, and if so, how challenging is it?

Thanks and I'm glad to have found this wonderful forum!

Bill

[RuralWeb]

What version are you using - if its v9 then your best bet is to use the design wizard. If its v8 then its not so easy and yu may be better starting with one of the themes that already has 3 cols. There are several threads explaining the various methods of doing what you want by code changes.

[bill_wheeler]

Thanks for the quick response - I'm using Business V8.5.2.1

[RuralWeb]

try this for starters http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=36372 - there are others if you search.

If you dont understand then consider changing themes

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey Guys,

This is exactly the design issue I'm trying to solve, I'm also working with Business V8.5.2.1. I really love the layout of the Contemporary theme as a starting place to work from, it's just getting that right hand side column in thats hard work. I did try switching to a theme that already had 3 columns, but it just didn't have the impact that I feel the contemporary theme has.
I've been battling this task for a while and have seen some people that have achieved adding the 3rd column successfully.
So yeah, any hints and tips would be most appreciated

Thanks
Steph

[leehack]

If you are going to tackle it yourself Steph, get yourself a html and css book so you understand the basics in these areas. You simply must have a knowledge of these areas to pull this off. It would probably take me 10 minutes just to understand the way the site is laid out and the styles used (not an area of strength this part in Actinic), so with little html experience, you really do have an uphill battle.

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey,

I'm pretty good with html and css, it's just understanding how to implement things into actinic effectively. I've bought books previously in the past, but to be honest I found the best way to teach myself was to simply learn things from trial and error. The advice Jont gave me in the advised thread is really helpful, so its a good starting point for anyone wanting to look into the area of adding a 3rd column.

Thanks
Steph

[leehack]

What have you got so far then? you are well on the way there if you know html - scoop. You need to be working in the outer layout, the top level template in other words, usually called 'Works best with...." i think. However if you know html and css, why mess around with an actinic template at all? create your own, design it better and more suited to what you want and just copy what you like from the actinic theme. It's really easy to do, it's what most designers do day in, day out.

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey,

I was planning to design my own to begin with, however this is my first time using Actinic to build a site, so I decided to work with the themes this time, until I get used to the software. I've just managed to get the 3rd column in place, looks good, however I've encountered the firefox issue. The site looks fine when viewed in IE but when you check it out in firefox, the main content has been knocked to the bottom of the page. I've been trying to upload a few images, however the forum doesn't want to let me post them! Will try again now

Steph

[leehack]

Usually your image sizes the issue, just provide a URL instead, much easier, if you don't have one, get one.

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey,

Yeah the upload facility keeps giving me a bad request error, so got some URL's here:

http://www.skiwear4less.com/internetexplorer.jpg
http://www.skiwear4less.com/firefox.jpg

You can see from the internet explorer that its looking okay, size may need tweaking for new right hand side column, however on the firefox image you can see that the page content has dissappeared to the bottom of the page, so just going to look into this now.

Steph

[leehack]

Without seeing the code, my first 2 ports of call would be to check the valign setting on the middle cell, however i think to be that affected your column is not coded in quite right, probably very close to correct and IE is just being kind. You need to be using Firebug on firefox, will make it very easy to find.

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey

Thanks for the advice! Will get onto checking that now

EDIT - Altered the width of the original right column (content area) and everything seems to be okay.

Thanks for your help

Steph

[bill_wheeler]

Thanks to you all for your help! I was able to get a right hand column, and I think it looks excellent!

[dyingtosaythis]

Hey!

Cool, post up a pic so we can see how it looks

Steph