Template Troubleshooting Tips
Things not looking the same on your site as they do in the screen shot displays? If you
have already read the accompanying Read Me notes for your theme, but do not see an
answer, check out the following pointers:
My navigation menu extends too far to the right of the page, falling outside
of the design area! How can I correct this?
All themes are designed for a particular width across the page. Horizontal navigation
menus are set up to fit appropriately within this width. If your menu spans too far to the
right of the page, or in other words, falls outside of the design area, this is because you
have more menu items than the template was intended for. You can do one of two things
to fix this - 1) decrease the space between the menu items (and possibly the font size)
until they all fit on the page, or 2) change your menu to a vertical orientation, positioning
it accordingly within the design layout.
Only some of my photos are appearing on a page. I have many more than
what is showing up in Preview. What is going on??
For aesthetic reasons, some templates are designed to display only a specific number of
thumbnails, but all of your photos will show up in the slideshow view. If you want all, or
more, of your thumbnails to show up, go into the Layout window and select the Photos
tab. Then adjust the number of rows to suit your needs - change the number to '0' to show
an unlimited number (all) of the thumbnails, or set the rows to a specific number for the
desired number of thumbnails to show.
I don't like the speed of my slideshow transitions. What can I do to change
this?
The ideal slideshow speed to accommodate all modern browsers properly, is 5 seconds.
All templates containing slideshows are set to 5 seconds in between fading or changing to
the next photo when on (auto)Play mode. If you would like to change this setting, go into
the Layout window, and select the Slideshow tab. Then click the Options sub-tab - you will
see the setting to increase or decrease the slideshow speed from 5 seconds.
My text content is overlapping onto the masthead and/or navigation menu.
What's up with that??
Some templates have the navigation menu and/or masthead positioned below the other
content on the page (text and photos). If your content extends past the height of the
original template design, it will overlap onto the masthead and navigation (these two
elements do not automatically adjust to accommodate the height of content). You will
need to go into the Layout window and move the menu and/or masthead down to the
appropriate position on the page. The footer will automatically adjust to the correct
position.
There are text columns and image boxes that are not aligned properly with
my text content. What should I do?
Some templates use xtra text boxes to create columns of text, and some also use xtra
image boxes for adding xtra images or graphics to a page. Xtra boxes do not
automatically adjust for height or position. If the height of your text content is taller than
the setting of the original template, your xtra text boxes may not align properly with the
main text box. You will need to go into the Layout window, and simply adjust the height of
any xtra text boxes to make them line up with the bottom of your main text content box.
Xtra images may need to be repositioned, but should not require any adjustments to width
and height.
I just changed the theme I'm using on my website but the new elements are
not showing up in the browser and my thumbnails are suddenly 'fuzzy'.
Everything was fine before. What did I do wrong?
If you have just uploaded your existing website with a new design, but the photos look
blurry and/or elements from the old design are still showing up, refresh your browser
until everything appears as it should. Blurry thumbnails can sometimes appear in the
browser upon first viewing - the browser just requires a few more refreshes until the
images are fully downloaded properly. Some browsers can take up to 3 or more refreshes
to get it right.
I've just uploaded my site with a new theme containing a contact form, but
the contact page is not working when I view through my browser. Why
doesn't it work?
Contact and email submission forms require a special php file to mail the information to
you. PHP can only be used with web hosts that support PHP. If your host does not support
php, then you cannot use the templates that contain contact and email submission forms
as your server does not contain the required functionality. This does not mean that you
can't use the theme, it only means you can't use the particular template that contains the
submission form. Every theme that contains contact and email submission forms comes
with Read Me notes outlining how to use the files, and with a bolded message advising
that you require a web host that supports php. Most modern web hosts do. If you are
unsure of whether or not your host supports php, contact them and ask them.
Wow, the dimensions of the slideshow view are gargantuan! Much larger
than what is shown in the screen shot for this template. Why is that?
If you have ShutterBug's Image Processing option (under Preferences) turned off, and
your original photos are larger in dimension than the template's slidehsow size setting,
then your photos will fall outside of the slideshow box, possibly overlapping everything
else on the page. If the slideshow view does not look right, this is probably the reason
why. Double-check your Preferences and make sure the Image Processing option is turned
on. If the maximum width and height are set to dimensions that are larger than the
slideshow box size, the photos will still size appropriately. If these dimensions are set to
be smaller than the slideshow box size, the photos will still display in the proper position,
but they will just be smaller than the slideshow box setting. If you want your photos to
display at their original size during the slideshow view, you will need to keep the Image
Processing option turned off, but will need to reposition elements from within the Layout
window in order to accommodate the larger slideshow size.
I've modified a theme and would like to save it out with my changes, but the
theme has external files associated with it - how do I save these files with
the theme?
Some of the themes come pre-packed with external files that are needed for the design
and in some cases for functionality where submission forms are used. If you modify one
of these themes and would like to save the changes, you will also need to save out the
external files along with the theme. You would do this as you normally do, but with one
added step: when you save the theme, and select 'Export' from the Tools menu, a new
menu will slide out from the top of the main application window. This menu asks you
which external files to save out with the theme. Simply select the check boxes beside the
folder(s) and file(s) that should be saved. Then hit OK. You can then proceed to the
normal process of saving out the theme. The files will be saved with it so each time you
import the theme in the future, the associated files will also be imported into the Files
interface of ShutterBug's Content window.