Free Template: Grayscale

This is a BETA version, so there will likely be a few tweaks that are needed. 

This is another wide menu template, and as the name suggests, it is mostly shades of gray with a small splash of color for links.  If you wonder what happened t the breadcrumb menu, it is set at display:none in top_menu.css .... it's unneeded in my opinion and just adds clutter and confuses navigation.  If you want it back, fine... do it yourself.

Temporary demo: http://houstonlively.com?skin=grayscale

Hover over 'VIDEOS' on the top menu to see a sub menu with some content added.  Content is added with language keys.  If you hover over the different top menu links, you will see the names of all the language keys.  Any content that can be added with a language key string, can be added to the sub menu.  As you can see on the 'VIDEOS' sub menus, there is a scrolling div, a Vimeo video, and a few lines below the menu buttons on  the left.  What content you put on the sub menus is limited only by your imagination.

Give it a try if you dare, and report any issues here.

What a great solution for boring standard menu! I tested on my website, but I introduced earlier a lot of changes that I would like to keep them. However, there is also a lot of interesting changes like menu in your template. So I have a question. Is it possible to add only menu to my template?

UPDATE:

The attached zip file contains a few css fixes where I forgot to add the gradients for browsers other than FF.  To update an existing installation, you only need to upload the following files from this packages css folder:

top_menu.css

default.css

common.css

general.css

Clear your sites /cache folder to see changes.  You may also have to clear your browsers cache.

 RE:

 Yes, of course it is.  It's a two step process:

1. Study how to do it.

2. Do it.

What a refreshing change.  Except for the bland color scheme that is! Sorry :(

Looks like a very powerful menu, nice work.

My two biggest peves about dolphin/dolpin templates - #1 zero responsiveness and #2 you need a magnifying glass to read anything on a handheld.  

Are you considering these issues for your new theme?

I'm considering that on the average, 4% of a Dolphin sites visitors will be viewing it with a smart phone browser.  I'm guessing they won't be viewing it for long.  It's not going to be a pleasant experience... I don't care how "responsive" the template is. 

I really don't give a shit how this template looks on an iPhone, but just to venture a guess... I'd guess it'll look really fckn small.  It looks half decent on my surface, my iPad, and my PCs.  Yayyy for the 96%!!!

Bland color scheme eh?  You probably think the photographic works of W. Eugene Smith are bland too.  Oh well, go get yourself a bright orange and green responsive template somewhere, because I don't think this one is for you.

I wrote handheld not iPhone.  Regardless, the iPhone still holds 50% of the mobile market share in 2014:

http://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-3rd-quarter-2007/

One has to consider the age and other demographics of the target user.  A few examples only - more women use iOS than men (Android) and most children use iOS (iPod).

But aside from Apple products...

There are lots of statistics regarding mobile internet use.  Most reports indicate that at least 90% of American adults have a cell phone and 63% of cell phone owners now use their phone to go online.  34% of THOSE people never really use a cpu at all, just their phone.  That number will of course grow.

These numbers do not include those using tablets.

I've always believed that one should aim to develop for the future, be on top of things rather than lagging behind.  It is the most professional approach.  The trend of using mobiles and tablets to browse the web will only continue to grow.

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/09/16/cell-internet-use-2013/

SO:

If you are developing your template for cpu's only, that's all you needed to say.  From your reaction it is clear that you took offence to my constructive criticism.

However I personally would never develop my website this way because regardless of the statistics (which prove the decline in cpu use for internet) most people that I know personally use their cell for internet browsing, either a lot or exclusively.  I'm a teacher and guess what many of our teachers do during recess... whip out their phones.  As well, at least half of our students own an iPod by age 10 and by age 12, many of them have cell phones (20% or more).

I have 2 young children (9 and 10) and 2 adult children.  NONE of the four use a computer anymore.  As well, my nieces and nephews tell me "No one uses a computer for the internet anymore Aunty!!"

Again, a lot depends on the demographics of your target user.

Perhaps the fact that dolphin does not display well on mobiles and tablets might be a deterrent to potential dolphin clients as compared to other community software.  The same would apply for any templates or modules.

You're right, this template is not for me.  And anyway, that's not the reason I looked at it or (tried) to provide constructive criticism.

Will a moderator please delete the above babble?  This topic is about a free template I am providing, and I have no desire to take it way off topic like the above post does.

JUST TO BE CLEAR: My position is that to try and make a single template look good on smart phones will require a little more than just a "responsive" template.  Responsive seems to be the latest, coolest buzzwor these days.  Well, in my lowly opinion, you need to detect the user agent, and if it is a smartphone, you need to switch to a different template altogether, which will involve changes to the templates script files. It's a ton of work... I know this for a fact because I did one for D 7.0.x

I hope that clears thing up, and that posts to this thread will focus on the matter at hand.... THIS template.

Yes, it may be a 'bland color scheme', but did you know gray scale themes are often better for the visually impaired, such as people with color blindness. 

Beta 3 Version

• Template now uses a Google font as the primary
• Template now uses Font Awesome icons for bullets where possible
• Various CSS tweaks and fixes
• Added ability to turn off drop down menu via CSS for any Top Menu item (See demo - menu turned off for 'Search' & 'About')
•  Each drop down now has its own unique class name, which allows the drop down to be turned off per Top Menu item, and this also makes it possible to completely restyle the drop down for individual top menu items. 

Latest download is attached.  Install as usual..... to upgrade just overwrite ALL previous files.

Temporary Demo: http://houstonlively.com?skin=grayscale

Grayscale 2

This version fixes a fundamental flaw where I mistakenly assigned divs on the various top menu item drop downs, the same id and different classes, instead of the other way around..... OOPS.

Now, every div on  every drop down has its unique id, with  common classes.  Every drop down ul has it's own unique class identifiers, which will allow you to completely restyle individual drop downs.

Just a sneak preview of a color variant of this template: http://houstonlively.com/index.php?skin=ivory

There will probably be about 4 or 5 different colors of this wide menu template... all free of course.

HL - thanks for posting this template.

I especially love the top navigation, however, can you assist me and point out the coding for the navigation functionality?  Ideally, if you could upload another template with the nav changes, while retaining the default uni template look and feel, that would be fantastic. 

Cheers - Jethro

Nevermind...I was able to figure out what files needed to be applied just for the navigation scheme.

can you assist me and point out the coding for the navigation functionality?  

Most of the top menu layout changes are done in the templates  /scripts/BxTemplMenu.php file ans also /css/top_menu.css

If you just moved those two files to the uni template, you'd be most of the way there

Ideally, if you could upload another template with the nav changes, while retaining the default uni template look and feel, that would be fantastic.

Yeah sure..... I'll get right on that.

HL - I love this template and it all works fine except the sub-navigation doesn't respond when rolling-over the menu icon using Chrome browser.

I checked this on two different computers and OS, and Chrome browser is the only one that's not .  Any suggestions?  Thanks - appreciate your guidance

 Ordinarily I would, however this template doesn't have a "menu icon" that you say you are rolling over. 

 Good grief HL - ok, mouseover, or hover - whatever term that is TC (technically correct) for the behavior on the sub-navigation level (the image looks like a menu of lines).  See attached screenshot of correct behavior that works on all browsers except Chrome.

 Don't get testy with me.  This topic is about the 'Grayscale' template, and the screen shot you posted IS NOT one of the Grayscale template.  It is a screenshot of the ivoryII template which has it's own topic.  SO... can you understand how your problem with a menu icon might leave me wondering wtf you're talking about?

This is what the Grayscale template looks like: http://houstonlively.com/?skin=grayscale

In the mean time. I'll have a look at the ivoryII template

Crap!  My bad!  Not sure how I jacked this up and got my original post into this forum...my apologies HL