KELVIN SMITH LIBRARY

Entries in "Blog Branding"

Keith's Step-By-Step Departmental Blog Branding Guide

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Case Branding A Movable Type Blog

This page should provide all the information you will need to apply a Case branded template to your departmental or organizational blog. The primary incentive for branding your blog is to maintain consistency with the appearance of your departmental web site. The example I provide here uses the Advanced template but, I will provide notes along the way for the few considerations you will need to make when using the Normal template.

The process for blog branding is straight forward. In these steps you will actually make your blog easier to maintain and modify through the use of templates and modules you will create in the Movable Type administrative interface. Movable Type is well documented so any questions you have about the proprietary tags should be answered by the online help files via the link at the top of the administrative interface.

Outline

We will follow this outline for the major steps in this process.

• Backup existing source code
• Create several modules
  • Blog ID
  • Header Tags
  • Head Scripts
  • Links
  • Calendar
  • Main Menu
  • Footer
  • Masthead
  • Primary Navbar
• Create new page templates
  • All Media Stylesheet
  • Print Media Stylesheet
  • Screen Media Stylesheet
  • Index
  • Category Index
  • Date Archive Index
  • Category Archive
  • Individual Entry Archive
  • Monthly Archive

Continue reading "Keith's Step-By-Step Departmental Blog Branding Guide"

Draft "Branding Your Blog" Word Doc

Today's project was to organize the information in the last several posts into a single, coherent document.

Download file and submit your comments here. Be specific and identify document content specifically when commenting.

Roll Up Your Sleeves! It's Time ForThe Index Template!

If you've followed me this far you should now have all of the pieces in place to paste in your new Index template. Assuming you used the 'Advanced Cranberry' stylesheet, when we're done your blog will look just like mine only with 4 exceptions.

1. Your department name is used instead of 'Kelvin Smith Library'
2. Your choice of banner graphic appears behind your department name
3. Your BlogName appears instead of mine
4. You don't have 'Keith's Cubicle Cam' or the 'Current Terror Level' below your links

Continue reading "Roll Up Your Sleeves! It's Time ForThe Index Template!"

Blog Branding: The Footer

Creating the footer is virtually identical to creating the masthead. You'll be creating a module in your template config page. Once again, this code is an HTML fragment with none of the HEAD.../HEAD, yadda-yadda-yadda that a well formed document would have.

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Blog Branding: Sidebar Content

Sidebars can exist on both sides of the branded template. My Index template places my links block on the right along with some other stuff I've custom coded into it. Where you place specific content in each of your templates is up to you but the process for creating each block of content is the same. For this post I will be discussing two specific pieces of your existing Index template that are re-used all over your Blog@Case site.

You will be creating/updating two more items on your Templates page. One for your Links, the other for your Main Menu. My 'Main Menu' is done as a module but, my 'Links' block was done in the 'Index Templates' area. It makes more sense to me for both of these to be done as modules but they will work as either.

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Blog Branding: Loading The Stylesheets

Once you've built those first two modules you'll want to prepare the ground by installing your stylesheets. Being the cautious coder that I want to be I left the old stylesheet in place and made plans to work around it. That made it possible for me to discard a lot of stuff from the default template that just didn't map over to the new, branded template.

Working from the "Templates" page again, you'll be creating three new templates in the top-most set of files. These will be your general stylesheet and two media based stylesheets for print and screen.

Continue reading "Blog Branding: Loading The Stylesheets"

The Branded Masthead

To brand your blog, and keep it manageable... you are going to want to break certain parts of your template into separate Moveable Type "modules." The first of these is the page masthead.

I have broken the masthead into two files,

1. the grey bar that includes the Case logo and your department name, and everything above that grey bar
2. the colored navigation bar

Remember, I'm working with the Advanced template here so I'll be using that navigation bar.

Continue reading "The Branded Masthead"

Case Branding Your Blog : The Series

Part 1 - The Planning Phase

The first item in your 'To Do' list is to suffer through a bit of planning. There are some key decisions you will need to make that will make this entire process much less painful if you just do a bit of up front thinking.

You are going to need the following resources which I will discuss in more detail separately for the sake of keeping things organized. Your planning process may vary slightly but this should get you started. If you don't mind your main index getting a little whopperjawed for a little while you can update that MT template first. Otherwise, you will want to identify an alternate first template for branding and proceed accordingly. I did the main index template first because it uses just about all of the variable elements and makes the others into a copy+paste project.

1. Decide on a general color scheme for your blog. There are a limited number of Case brand approved color combinations and you should use one of them.
2. Decide on either a Basic or Advanced layout. Most people and/or departments will be able to use the Basic templates. Try to not add complexity where it is not needed.
3. Identify pieces of common code that can be separated out as MT modules for easier editing
4. Identify a reliable source for the core images for your template or upload them into your account.
5. Create/Modify your stylesheets. You will want a general stylesheet from the Case template you have selected plus the 'screen' and 'print' stylesheets.
6. Create certain files that will be used to construct your template and make it easier to edit.
7. Modify your MT template files!