By skaha on

Hi All,

This is my first crack at drupal and was hoping to get some clarity on an issue i`m running into!

I was able to successfully install drupal and have started playing with it. I went through most of the cookbook for beginners and was able to grasp most of the content that was in there. I was able to create content, manage user roles, and work with menus etc. And I think I have a basic understanding of that part of the functionality. However I do seem to be drawing a blank (and unable to find documentation... although i may need to look harder :)
in regards to how to layout the content in a way for my liking.

I can create multiple pages, stories etc with information that i`ve provided, but i`m not sure where or even if i can arrange those pages or stories all onto one page.

I was thinking along the lines of having something like a welcome blurb that spans over 3 columns in the top half of my page, but then have 3 columns or boxes of content in the bottom half of my page.

I`d also like to look into having a different layout for different pages depending on the requirement.

I`m not sure if the above makes sense, but was hoping to get some guidance or even direction to documentation on this topic so i can fully grasp it.

I toyed with the blocks section but it doesnt seem to allow me to arrange content, and it seems like its more of a uniform layout editor.

I`m a little lost with this, so any direction would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

eojthebrave’s picture

eojthebrave
he/him
Primary language English
Location Minneapolis, MN
commented

I would recommend that you check out the Views module for creating lists of your different content. http://drupal.org/project/views

One possible solution would be to create block views for each of the three lists that you want to use and then place those blocks in the content region and style them appropriatly with CSS to get them to render as three columns.

Another option might be the panels module although I've never actually used it so I can't say for sure. I think a combination of panels and views would accomplish this nicely though. http://drupal.org/project/panels

As far as using different layouts for different pages/sections of the site. Depending on your theme you might be able to accomplish this with just CSS. Many themes include a class in the body that specifies the page/section of the site. Otherwise you could try using theme overrides for the specific pages that you want to modify. More details about this can be found in the theme guide. http://drupal.org/theme-guide/6

Specifically the section about overriding themable output. http://drupal.org/node/341628

grobemo’s picture

grobemo commented

The actual layout is handled through Drupal's "theming layer." (Separating the content of your site from the way it's presented makes it easier to collaborate with others and much easier to change your site's appearance in the future.)

So the Theming Guide, linked in the comment above, is a good place to start.

If you can't find a theme that you like, I'd recommend using the Genesis starter theme to create your own. It's well documented and has lots of pre-built layout options.