Drupal Basics - Continued
The first thing we want to do is to choose a new
"Theme" for our Drupal installation. Do you really
want your site to look like every basic installation out
there? While Drupal provides you with several basic "Themes"
right from the installation process, there are many, many
more available at the Drupal site itself. When you begin to
look around, you'll find there are many sites that sell
professional Themes for Drupal, with the option to
exclusively buy it, usually for several hundred dollars, to
just buying the theme without exclusivity, usually for $30 -
$70. I found one I liked at Template Monster. Once I purchased the
Theme, I was able to download it to my local PC at that
point I unzipped it, then all that was required was for me
to move it over to my server using FTP, into the Drupal
/themes directory. Then go to your site, and go to the
Administor page, then Themes, you are able to select the
theme you just uploaded. You can make it the default theme,
or just one of many that users are able to select. So I made
the one I bought the default theme, and here is how the same
page looks:
Click here for larger image
Here's how my page is shaping up altogether:
Click here for larger image
Now I need to add some basic info, such as my site's name,
my contact email address, etc. You do that through the
Administration page, specifically in the Site configuration
section -> in the Site Information section, as shown here:
Click here for larger image
Once you've done all of the above, you have a basic Drupal
installation and you're ready to start getting into the real
meat of Drupal. The CMS comes with so many Modules
available, you'll want to spend some time getting
comfortable with those that are included. But that's not
all! Just take a second to check out the additional modules
that are available at the Drupal site's Module section!
They have modules, themes, projects, theme engines,
translations--more free additions to Drupal, so many so, it
would take many hours to look through them all And for the
most part, they are as easy to install as Drupal itself!
In our next look at Drupal we'll get into the Modules and
other available features that Drupal provides and show you
how to move blocks (which affect how your site looks),
create Roles, so certain users see one thing, others see an
entirely different site/look, and then we'll get into some
"must have" modules you'll be sure to want to install in
your Drupal installation. See you then!
Drupal Basics
Drupal Basics
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