Other Customization: Customizing the Appearance of Individual Folders and Discussions

Changing the Appearance of Individual Folders
Changing the Appearance of Individual Discussions
Troubleshooting
Resources

Changing the Appearance of Individual Folders

You can not only change folders on a global basis but you can also change each individual folder, if you wish, by clicking Edit Folder within any folder. From there, you can edit the Theme settings for the folder, choose different page components such as message or folder view or a toolbar, or edit numerous other settings.

To edit theme settings, use the Theme Manager popup menu > Edit folder-level theme settings.
To choose components or edit component settings, use the Component Manager popup menu.
To choose or edit folder items (things which can be added inside this folder), user items or extensions, use the appropriate Manager menus. See the section on WCMS overview for more details on Themes, Components, or any of the Manager menus.
To edit the folder's banner or footer, threading or attachment settings, sort sequence, and a number of other settings, use the "Other Folder Settings" menu. That is what this page will focus on.

Sorting the items inside this folder

Sort Sequence
Lists of folders and discussions are ordered initially by the default choice you make in the Control Panel > Customizing > Folder > Folder Presentation. The options are:

oldest first
newest first
alphabetical
more active discussions toward the top

However, you can edit the sort order for the items inside any folder using the Other folder settings > sorting for items in this folder screen. You can either sort everything quickly using one of the Quick Sort buttons, or move things into exactly the order you want using Custom Sort. Any sorting you do on this page affects only the items currently inside the folder. If you add new items later, their position in the folder listing will depend on the default control panel order. If you want them to also sort according to the folder-specific rules, you will need to return to the folder sorting page to re-apply the sorting rules.

Fig 1

Folder Sorting Page

These rules are applied via the setting of a sort sequence number for each item in the folder. See the sysop documentation for documentation on using sort sequence numbers. See the Folder-Discussion page for more complete information and examples of setting individual sort sequence numbers manually.

Other Folder Settings > Basic Folder Appearance

Appearance changes are inherited - so if you change the appearance of a folder, all the folders and discussions nested within it will inherit those changes.

URL for Background pattern
This operates the same as the global setting under the Control Panel > Customizing > Banner, footer, background and top-level page, only it's specific to this folder. See Background/Links.

HTML for Folder Banner/Footer
If present, this banner replaces the banner and footer you specified in the Control Panel > Customizing > Banner, footer, background and top-level page. Same thing with the Footer. Any WCTL in local folder banners and footers is interpreted by default, unless you turn off this option in the Control Panel > Customizing > General Settings: "Treat all local banner and footer settings as WCTL templates."

Folder Page Elements
If you'd like to avoid listing the items within your folder at all, remove the backpath and make it a "virtual area", or omit the title, toolbar, etc. you can do all of that here by deselecting the right checkboxes. This allows you to serve a folder page as a "content page" without navigation, using the folder description as the content.. Note that if you choose to do this, you'll have to provide your users with some other way to get to your material, presumably links you create yourself within the folder description area.

Fig 1

Folder Page Elements

Template
Finally, if these changes aren't enough for you, you can build a whole separate Folder Macro in WCTL or WCJS. Once it's built, specify the name of your macro here in this field. See the sysop documentation.

Changing the Appearance of Individual Discussions

Discussions inherit the banner and footer of the folder that contains them unless you've built a special discussion macro to display your discussion.

Click on Edit Discussion on the discussion page you wish to adjust.

Sort Sequence
See Sort Sequence for folders, above.

Permanent Discussion
See Archiving.

Creation Date
If your folder display lists are ordered by creation date (i.e. newest first or newest last) you can change creation date of the discussion you're editing by changing this date. If oldest discussions show up at the top of the list, change this date so it's the earliest one of all the discussions listed.

Template
If you've built a special discussion macro for this discussion, here's where to tell Web Crossing its name. See the sysop documentation.

Troubleshooting

The items in the folder aren't in the right order.

Check the default settings in the Control Panel
Check the number given to each item in question.

My folder or discussion doesn't look right.

Check the settings under Edit Folder and any WCTL/WCJS macros that are assigned to the folder.
If you have macros, try turning off use of the webx.tpl file in the Control Panel to see if that helps.
If there are none, check the settings for the parent folder.

Web Crossing FAQ

How Do I Change the Order of Discussions in a Folder?

Sysop Control Panel

Customizing
- Folder > Folder presentation (default presentation order of items the folder contains)
- Banner, footer, background and top-level page (global banner, footer, and background changes)

Sysop Documentation