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1. John O.
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   I know this questions is probably a bit too broad, but a nudge in the right direction would be great. I want to customize Duster by incorporating elements of another theme... perhaps a menu, header, or other basic element. Essentially borrowing features or bits and pieces of another theme and adding them to Duster.

   I'm assuming the best way to do this is with a child theme... I guess my question is..is it just a matter of adding the CSS for the elements i want to add into a child theme? (ensuring I override Duster's relevant default features, of course)

   P.S. I'm already aware this won't work in all scenarios, all features/elements, and all themes. Im just a beginner and looking for the best way to customize my site without going crazy doing custom CSS (hence borrowing already written code from other themes).

2. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   You can only use CSS to modify existing markup. You can't use CSS (alone) to add new markup.

   You'll likely need to be considerably more specific about what, exactly, you want to modify or to add to Duster, in order to get a more specific answer. Depending on your needed changes/additions, you might be able to use a Child Theme, or you might need to fork Duster, and create your own derivative Theme.

3. John O.
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   Thanks for your answer chip,

   I essentially just want to change the main menu (not its functionality, just how it looks.. perhaps this can be done just with an image).. also i want to add containers or text boxes around the posts on the homepage. I've seen these features in other themes.. is there general best practice for incorporating elements of other themes. Can I use a child theme to accomplish this?

4. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   Those changes sound like CSS-only changes, which absolutely can be accomplished via Child Theme.

5. John O.
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   So essentially just create a child theme out of my current Duster installation and add the necessary CSS to create the changes?

   Do you know of any plug ins to accomplish changing the main menu?

   I've had an extremely difficult time trying to figure out how to add a text box. I essentially want the posts on my homepage (and maybe sidebar items too) to be wrapped in a box like this-http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/suffusion

   I dont want to have to add it via HTML when editing posts. I'd rather have it in the CSS so it happens automatically, just as a part of the site's design. What do you think would be the best approach?

6. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   Your Child Theme will probably consist of just a style.css file, with proper header tags.

   You don't need to use any Plugins, or add any HTML; just CSS.

   I imagine that the Posts are wrapped in something like <div class="post...>, in which case, if you want to add a box around posts, simply define the border property for div.post.

7. John O.
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   Thanks Chip, i'll try that. One last question. Will that remove the page thats already defined. In other words... the Duster theme essentially has two backgrounds... the background you can set via admin.. and the page that posts sit on. I'd like to keep both the background and the page and add the text box on top. Will defining the text box like you've said override the page? Hope that makes sense.

8. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   CSS doesn't modify markup. You can't "override pages" with CSS. Beyond that, I really can't answer the question, because such answer depends entirely on what CSS style definitions you overwrite.

9. John O.
   Member
   Posted 11 months ago #

   Thanks Chip. You helped a lot.

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