Design Overview

Designing your SNO site can involve a lot of trial and error as you aim to get just the right look for your site.

Start by looking at what other sites are doing with their design by checking out and following our SNO Sites Pinterest page, our Design Showcase, and our Design Example Reference Guide.

Once you know what you’re going for head to the SNO Design Options page (found under Appearance on the Dashboard) and see what you can do.

Backgrounds – Use the General Design and Layout --> General Appearance & Structure section to determine the color and of your sites background. The Inner Background is the area just behind all of the widget areas; for this area, you can choose a color and pattern. The Outer Background is the area beyond the center of the page; for this area, you can choose a color and pattern as well.

Custom Header – Under the Custom Header Graphic, you can choose whether you want to keep the text header that came with your site or upload an image header.

Widget Styles – In the Widget Styles section, you will see that one of the five widget styles is set to be the default style for your SNO widgets and one for your non-SNO widgets. This is the style of widget that will be used by default for all WordPress and Plugin widgets. All of the SNO widgets, though, have a style override option that allows you not only to set the widget to any of the five styles, but also to further customize any of the five variables. Any widgets that don’t have the name “SNO” in the title will always display in the default style.

Homepage Structure – The Homepage Widget Area Map section shows all of the different content areas you can have active on your homepage. Use this section to remind yourself what and where each area is, to see which areas are active and to toggle whether you want the three Home Bottom Widget Areas Active or Inactive. Your homepage also has four widget areas that can be configured in six different ways. To change the layout of these areas, use the Widget Area Configuration section.

Moving Widgets – Once you have your widget areas figured out, you can move widgets from one area to the next. Go to the Widgets page under Appearance on the Dashboard and click on any of the white widget area boxes (usually titled with Home Top ____). Once you click on one of these widget areas you will see all of the widgets in that area. To rearrange simply drag and drop widgets where you want them; if you’d like to swap between categories be sure both category areas are open before dragging and dropping.

Changing Layout of Stories Within a Widget – SNO Category Display widgets have lots of display options. Go to the Widgets page under Appearance on the Dashboard and click on any of the white widget area boxes (usually titled with Home Top ____). Once you click on one of these widget areas you will see all of the widgets in that area. Click on any widget to see what options are available. After changing the display settings, click Save in the bottom right corner and go back to the site to see the new look.