Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content

Colorado SharePoint Users Group (COSPUG)

:

SharePoint Branding:MOSS 2007 - Customizing Site Actions button :FlatUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).Open MenuOpen Menu

Feel free to post any SharePoint branding discussions and Celina Baginski will respond as soon as possible. Thanks for participating!
  
Post
Started: 3/23/2010 6:51 AM
Picture Placeholder:
MOSS 2007 - Customizing Site Actions button

This is an issue I've been having that may or may not be easy to fix.  I created a custom master page with a custom navigation​ bar.  The Site Actions button contains the same styling as the navigation, which is a red bar with white font.  The page works well and looks good.  I overrode the css style that sets the font color to white for the navigation and Site Actions item.  Problem now is, when the user selects All Site Content, the page reverts back to the default masterpage (I think) but the font of the Site Actions button remains white, which basically renders it invisible except for the arrow.

 

What are my options to fix this?  One thing i did do was apply a site theme that had a darker background that caused the Site Actions font to stand out a little more, but this seems like a rookie solution.  (or maybe not, I don't know).  Any suggestions/direction would be appreciated.  Thank you!

Posted: 3/23/2010 1:26 PM
Picture Placeholder:
Hello -
 
View All Site content is an application page. You can tell this because its URL includes "/_layouts" in the address bar. So when a user selects View All Site Content, the user is sees an application page which inherited its look and feel from the master page titled application.master.
 
It's recommended not to modify the application master page. However, if you choose to do so, definitely create a backup copy.
 
Here are your options:
If you tie your brand styles only to your custom master page, when the user goes to any of the application pages, the look and feel will revert back to the out of the box styles and you won't have the issue of the page displaying a particular style which may not look well with the rest of the page.
 
The other option is to use a theme. Themes can affect the look and feel across application pages, site pages, and system pages.
 
If I'm designing a site and I know upfront that it's important to carry accross the custom look and feel throughout admin pages, I'll put all or most all of the custom styles in a custom theme to achieve the look I'm going for.
 
Where did you originally put your styles at? Was it in a separate file referenced from the master page? Or did you use a theme to begin with?
 
In summary, the "cleanest" thing to do would be to create a new theme versus using an existing theme to make your changes to. If you create a new theme, then you could literally only include the styles you need specifically for Site Actions (only a line or two) in the theme.css file (since that's the only style that you need to override). Or you could put all of the your top navigation styles (red bar with white font) in the theme file so that the look and feel is carried accross the entire site.
 
If you decide to create the custom theme, let me know if you need help. It's really super easy to do!
 
- Celina
 
Posted: 3/24/2010 7:37 AM
Picture Placeholder:
Thanks Celina!  To answer your question, the styles are in the master page - no theme was created.  I've never created a custom theme, so any direction (links, blog posts, etc) would be appreciated.  That sounds like what I want to do - carry the styles to the application pages.  Thanks again!


Posted: 7/8/2010 5:25 PM
Picture: Celina Moser Baginski
Celina Moser BaginskiNo presence information

Feel free to email directly regarding branding questions. cbaginski@go-planet.com. In the body, tell me that you're a COSPUG member so I have a point of reference.

 

 

Thanks!

 

- Celina