A strength of NeatClubs is its ability to allow you to build libraries of color schemes and easily change color schemes or color scheme definitions that apply to all pages on the site.
Advanced readers will appreciate that color schemes can be changed without the need to manually edit CSS style sheet definitions. NeatClubs looks after building a CSS style sheet automatically that reflects the active color scheme and font preferences. ( located in ./css/layout.css).
By “Applying” a color scheme, you are instructing the system to dynamically rebuild the CSS file. Advanced website administrators familiar with CSS, may want to examine the file http://mysitename.com/css/template.css to see how the various color definitions are used in determine with the website look and feel.
The color scheme setup is found under the "Appearance" section of the Preferences under System Setup
After clicking on appearance, you can view or updates color schemes by clicking on the convenience link to the Color Scheme Setup as shown below.
Administrators will see an alternate link to the color scheme setup (represented by an artists color palette) that always appears across the top of the website.
NeatClubs allows approximately 100 individual color choices to be customized, and these choices are grouped into a single color scheme definition.
Multiple definitions can be stored and applied at any time. You may elect to maintain a few different color schemes that make sense in the context of your sites custom graphics & header logos so that you can change the color schemes periodically to keep your site looking fresh and current.
The names of the color schemes available on your site may vary. The active color scheme will be indicated with a "star". Mousing over any of the icons in the list below will explain what the icons do. The icons on the left allow you to Edit, Delete or Apply color schemes (apply meaning re-generate the CSS file).
Color schemes may be system supplied (in which case they may not be edited or deleted) however in most cases they will be user-defined. The option on the right hand side of the list allows you to save a color scheme definition in XML format.
This ability to save as XML makes it possible to move color schemes (which are often time consuming and tedious to develop) between different instances of NeatClubs sites. This is a useful feature for a governing body who may want to impose some standards or branding over site look and feel, by having all of their constituent member clubs adopt a similar base color scheme.
When an administrator opts to "Edit" a color scheme, the color scheme editor shown below will appear. This screen allows the RGB colors associated with each label in the CSS template file to be individually customized. It is often much easier to start with an existing color scheme and modify it than it is to create new color schemes from scratch, so the NeatClubs color scheme interface allows new color schemes to be created based on color schemes already in the database.
There is no such thing as a "system wide" color scheme that applies to all NeatClubs sites. For security reasons each NeatClubs.COM instance has their own MySQL database completely isolated from other NeatClubs instances.
Choosing color schemes needs to be done with care, and obviously the colors selected need to work with graphics elements such as the web-page header and any side panel graphics included in the site design. Normally the color scheme will be setup prior to an administrator taking over responsibility for the site.