[Xerte] Re: Background colour

Tue Aug 13 16:24:02 BST 2013

If you apply a local stylesheet and wish to use the builtin buttons then your paths to the images need to be absolute. - ie the full url to the image on the xerte server...

I've had plans to make one of those css creators for the wiki but not gotten around to it yet...

Regards

John Smith
Learning Technologist
School of Health and Life Sciences

Sent from Samsung Galaxy SII

Paul Swanson <Paul.Swanson at harlandfs.com> wrote:

If the navigation buttons are in elements that use CSS class styles for positioning, replacing the stylesheet would affect their position.

Paul Swanson
Internal Business Systems Analyst
Internal Business Intelligence
Harland Financial Solutions
(800) 274-7280 Ext. 2462
Paul.Swanson at harlandfs.com

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Alistair McNaught
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 8:06 AM
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Definitely so, and of the two of those the users choice is the most important - which is why there may be mileage in adding your own cascading style sheet via the browser. There used to be a website that allowed you to click on different colours in order to automatically assemble a CSS file to load into a browser but I haven't found it this afternoon. What puzzles me is how the navigation buttons (which I think are PNG's) become invisible when I add my own stylesheet.

A

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
Sent: 13 August 2013 15:41
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Aren’t there two things at issue here:

The author’s ability to choose a colour scheme for users;
The user’s ability to choose for themselves;

?

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Alistair McNaught
Sent: 13 August 2013 15:31
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

An alternative is to use your own CSS in the browser.
Here’s an annotated example of a style sheet from http://www.commercetuned.co.uk/accessibility/user-style-sheets.php - add it to the browser using the instructions at the aforementioned site - it’s a three click job in IE to do this.

Here’s a screenshot of my LO http://vle.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte/play_418#<http://vle.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte/play_418> with this switched on – The problem is that the navigation buttons disappear so you’ll maybe need advice from someone else on how to get round that

[cid:image001.png at 01CE97FD.1E301230]

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Sarah Wolfenden
Sent: 13 August 2013 14:35
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Thanks ever so much for all your help. I haven’t used CSS in years but I’ll have a play and try not to break it!

Sarah

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
Sent: 13 August 2013 14:29
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Take a look at the file custom.css in

/modules/xerte/parent_templates/Nottingham/common_html5/css

There’s not too much to it. The buttons are the hardest part as you’ll have to rebuild the .png files, but if you don’t move the images around in the pngs (the CSS uses coordinates to fish out the correct state for the buttons from one graphic file) it should be easy enough. If you can install toolkits locally on xampp, you can safely play around to your heart’s content.

[cid:image002.png at 01CE97FD.1E301230]

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
Sent: 13 August 2013 14:23
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

> Word of warning though, don’t ask Julian to design your living room décor – too Sixties by far :)

If you want me to dig out the CSS settings I changed to achieve that, let me know. You might want to use some other colours though (!)

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Alistair McNaught
Sent: 13 August 2013 14:19
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Hi Sarah
If you have a problem on the techdis sandpit email the helpdesk (helpdesk at techdis.ac.uk<mailto:helpdesk at techdis.ac.uk>) and we’ll sort it out.

The key things about the new version which have excited TechDis are
1) enhanced accessibility for all users (for example using Chrome browser and a couple of free plugins I can get all the text to speak to me, change colours to suit my needs or tastes etc)
2) enhanced accessibility for screenreader users
3) mobile friendliness

We’re also working up a project proposal  to see if we can get a simple colour changer created but this is early days

Finally – as Julian’s posting shows – there are ways techie authors can change the colour schemes.

Word of warning though, don’t ask Julian to design your living room décor – too Sixties by far :)

Alistair

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Sarah Wolfenden
Sent: 13 August 2013 14:02
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

Thank you for the quick reply – I don’t really see users changing it but at the moment it is just black and white which doesn’t look good and is not very accessible. I’m happy for it to be one colour and stay like that – I just don’t want it to be black and white.

Overall, it does seem much better though – I can tell a lot of thought, hard-work and effort has gone in to it.

I’ll have a further play round (if I can get back in!) and see what I can do.

Thanks again

From: Julian Tenney [mailto:Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk]
Sent: 13 August 2013 13:53
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Background colour

We’ve been giving this some thought. The reason we kept the controls out of the new version is that, as far as accessibility goes, it is much, much better if it is handled by the browser, and that is possible now with the html5 output. The reasons we put those controls in there in the first place was to make up for the Flash player’s lack of accessible features. We don’t have that problem anymore.

What is interesting is that folk have evidently got to like the fact that you can change the colours even if there isn’t a direct ‘accessibility’ need, and perceive the new runtime to be less accessible than the old one, when in fact the reverse is true. You’re not the first to bring it up.

Is this something that you want to do – or is it something you see your users actually doing as they use the content? I’ve not seen many users take advantage of the different colour schemes to be honest, but maybe that’s just me. There are some ways you can change the look and feel - a background image is an obvious one.

I’m afraid I don’t look after the techDis install, so I can’t help you with the username issue. These things notwithstanding, the new toolkits is loads better than the old one for loads of reasons.

Julian

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Sarah Wolfenden
Sent: 13 August 2013 13:42
To: 'xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk'
Subject: [Xerte] FW: Background colour

Thanks for your replies Julian and Alistair,

Previously when I used Xerte, it looked like the example below in blue – colours were easy to change from the colour scheme tab at the bottom of the page. Now it is just black and white with no colour scheme tab – I now can’t get in to provide a screenshot as what I thought was my username evidently isn’t and I can’t see an option to reset it. Thanks for your help  – but I may call it a day as I’m getting so frustrated with even the basics now which is such a shame as I used to love it.

[cid:image003.jpg at 01CE97FD.1E301230]

Kind regards
Sarah

From: Sarah Wolfenden
Sent: 12 August 2013 15:05
To: 'xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk'
Subject: Background colour

Hello all,

We don’t have Xerte at my institution but I used it at my last and it was great. I’ve signed up to it for personal use so I can create guides and put them in Blackboard  but only have a black and white screen. Does anyone know how I can change this?

Thanks
Sarah

*******************************************************
Sarah Wolfenden  BA (Hons) MA (Lond) MCLIP
Subject Liaison Librarian - School of Social Sciences
@BSSLibrarian

Brunel University Library
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/services/library

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