The side columns

The columns on either side of the main body of the site are called sidebars. There is a left sidebar and a right sidebar.

Currently, on the county sites only the left sidebar shows for users who are not logged in. The right sidebar appears once you're logged in. It contains the Navigation menu and the administer menu.

Since the right sidebar is text heavy, it is set to have the white background. The left sidebar has no background, so you instead see the background of the web site.

All of the information in the two sidebars are "blocks." You can access the blocks under the administer menu (/admin/build/block).

You can control where the blocks will show. Most often you're going to use the left or right sidebars.

You can also control in what order the blocks show up in based on their weight -- smaller items float to the top.

You can use the blocks already created for you (such as search, log-in, etc.), or you can create ones of your own.

Choosing when/where the blocks show up

You can also control when/where the blocks will show up. This is handy for when you want an item to show up only on specific pages, such as a table of contents for your monthly newsletter.

Click configure next to the block you want to edit, Scroll down. Towards the bottom are "Page specific visibility settings" where you can choose when and where the block shows up.

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Making your main content use up more of the page

The above tip is also a good option when you have a page that needs to be wide and you don't want the left-hand column to show. You can turn the blocks off for those specific pages, which allow the page to fill the entire area underneath the banner and menu.

Because of the way the right-hand sidebar is formatted, the above tip only works when hiding the left sidebar, not the right.

All of the county sites, except Washington and Yamhill, have a block set up that is called "full-page css." This block adds css to the page that allows the main content area to stretch across the entire area under the banner/menu.

It is currently set up to be used on one admin page and the calendar page.

Please note: Before you click configure on this block item, click on "my account" in the left-hand column. Then click edit. Scroll down to where the tinymce options are displayed (they'll be minimized). Click on the name to expand it. Set it to false. Submit the page. This is extremely important, as the WYSIWYG editor will eat the code in this block if you open it with the editor turned on. You can turn it back on after you edit this block.

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To add it to additional pages, click configure to the right of the block name and then add those page URL addresses to the bottom section:

Save the block.

You'll also need to go to the blocks you currently have set to show up in the left-hand column and turn them off for the page(s) you want to show at full width as well. You'd do it the same way shown above.