A few Questions

[Blue!]

Ok, so in designing a template, I want to set column widths, that obviously only affect that template. So using the override system I would put the tpl_box_default_left.php file in the common folder withing templates. I got that bit easily enough. However, not being a whizz at php I don't quite know how to edit the page

<!--// bof: <?php echo $box_id; ?> //-->
<div class="leftBoxContainer" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id ); ?>" style="width: <?php echo $column_width; ?>">
<h3 class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></h3>
<?php echo $content; ?>
</div>
<!--// eof: <?php echo $box_id; ?> //-->

If I want a width of 150px how would I change the php to let me do that? Or is it as simple as to:

<!--// bof: <?php echo $box_id; ?> //-->
<div class="leftBoxContainer" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id ); ?>" style="width:150px">
<h3 class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></h3>
<?php echo $content; ?>
</div>
<!--// eof: <?php echo $box_id; ?> //-->

Secondly, I know to edit the tpl_header.php if I want to change the sitewide header. However I want to display a different header on different pages, is this done within the tpl_header.php file, or elsewhere. For example, I want a different header on the search pages, the cart pages, the checkout pages and the "account" pages. Is this possible? And how would I go about it?

That's all the questions I can think of for the moment :)

Thank you in advance

[Kim]

Set the box width in the Admin> Configuration> Layout settings, not in the code.

[Blue!]

Ah, but the thing is, I want it only to affect this template, so that when I switch templates it doesn't screw up with the widths being all wrong.

Basically my end aim is to have more than one template on the site, which users can switch between. However, some templates have different column widths than standard, so I want to override the defualt width on these skins only.

For example,
Template 1 has a left column width of 150
Template 2 has a left column width of 180

If I set the width in admin to 150, template 2 will not display properly, is I set it to 180 template 1 will no longer display correctly. So I want template 1 to override the default width to 150 and template 2 to override it too 180.

I was pretty sure this could be done by editing the tpl_box_default_left.php file as it reference the standard width:

<div class="leftBoxContainer" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id ); ?>" style="width: <?php echo $column_width; ?>">

I was thinking that I would simply remove the echo and input my own value...
Like so:

<div class="leftBoxContainer" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id ); ?>" style="width:180px">

(*have to scroll to the right to see what I mean*)

[DrByte]

For your column-width issue,
copy /includes/modules/column_left.php
to
/includes/modules/YOURTEMPLATE/column_left.php
and edit line 25:

$column_width = BOX_WIDTH_LEFT; 

becomes:

$column_width = '180px'; 

[DrByte]

I know to edit the tpl_header.php if I want to change the sitewide header. However I want to display a different header on different pages, is this done within the tpl_header.php file, or elsewhere. For example, I want a different header on the search pages, the cart pages, the checkout pages and the "account" pages. Is this possible? And how would I go about it?

all pages get their header content from:
includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/common/tpl_header.php
UNLESS you have an override like this:
includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/contact_us/tpl_header.php
includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/advanced_search_result/tpl_header.php
etc

Now, if you simply want a different GRAPHIC, I'd suggest simply enhancing the common/tpl_header.php with a list of images relevant to certain pages, and just display the correct one.
The key is to know that $current_page_base is the name from xxxxxxxxx in: "index.php?main_page=xxxxxxxxxx"

[Blue!]

Thank you very much DrByte.

Is there anyway to do this with the sidebox width also?
Im guessing it would be someting similar in the tpl_box_default_left.php file?

[DrByte]

Thank you very much DrByte.

Is there anyway to do this with the sidebox width also?
Im guessing it would be someting similar in the tpl_box_default_left.php file?

BOX_WIDTH_LEFT .... is the sidebox width.

[DrByte]

If you want to set the overall column width, you do that in common/tpl_main_page.php, approx line 82:

 <td id="navColumnOne" class="columnLeft" style="width: <?php echo COLUMN_WIDTH_LEFT; ?>">

[Blue!]

Ok, but forgive me for being a little bit confused

I want to set a new column width and a new side box width, both being the same value.

If I change the column width in includes/modules/column_left.php will this also change the sidebox width? Or do they need to be done seperately in different files?

Sorry if this is obvious

[DrByte]

tpl_main_page.php builds the column ... in a table-cell. It uses the COLUMN_WIDTH_LEFT value to set width.
It also sets the width of a containing DIV inside it (not mentioned above), using BOX_WIDTH_LEFT... which the boxes will all fit inside:

tpl_main_page.php then uses the modules/column_left.php to build all the individual sideboxes inside that column, with BOX_WIDTH_LEFT as the fixed width of each of those sideboxes. (tpl_box_default_left.php to draw the "actual" content, based on information collected and prepared by the column_left.php module)

So, really, there are three places in two files where you need to set this.