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Spectral Textpattern Template Instructions
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This is the Spectral Textpattern Theme.  It is designed to go over your default Textpattern installation with no editing necessary.  It also has a large amount of added functionality if you choose to do some editing.  You may choose to do the "Default Install" or the "Optional Install" based on your preference.

You can find a working example of the default install at http://www.6footdesign.com/spectral
The demo is running on the same Textpattern install as the company's website and blog, so some functionality will be a little different.  Feel free to contact us with help at
info@6footdesign.com

More templates can be found at http://www.textplates.com

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Features of Spectral
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Since it has become common for people to toot their own horns on the features of their templates, I will attempt to do so here.  Some features:

1. Totally valid code that is as simple or complex as you would like it to be.
2. Total customizability as well as easy to read code that means that you have a pattern to follow when you decide to make your own changes to the theme.
3. More than 25 hand picked headers to fit many styles and tastes so that your Textpattern theme doesn't necessarily look like everyone esle's.
4. An about section for you to fill in any relevant information.  Done via form, even!
5. Gravatar support.  I left this out of the "Prayer Garden" theme because I thought it was already too complex.  With this theme, complexity is for you to decide.
6. Ridiculously beefed-up comments that support alternating styles as well as a seperate owner style.  This makes comments easier to read and navigate.
7. CSS laid out for easy customization.  Even if you aren't a code warrior, the few places where the CSS most affects the layout and display of the page are at the top of the stylesheet so you don't have to dig deep for what you want to change.
8. Nifty corners.  You get that rounded corner effect without having the image (and extra div) weight all over your page.  The function calls are IN the javascripts themselves, but you have a commented pattern to follow if you decide to nifty somewhere else (or nifty pages on another site).

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Contents of Spectral.zip
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/images				- all of the images
/css				- default style replacements
footer.txt			- suggested footer links
instructions.txt	- these instructions
/page				- optional page with added features
/forms				- optional forms to feed those optional page
/plugins			- optional plugins to feed those optional forms

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Customizability
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The visual aspects of this template are very basic but designed to accentuate color.  Several header images are supplied with the theme, but any image can be substitued.  Several base CSS files are provided as well.  To make changing colors and header as easy as possible, there is a "Customization" section at the top of the CSS file that contains all of the entries to play with.

If you want to customize the comment colors, it will be a little more difficult (as there are several classes involved).  The comments section is at the bottom of the stylesheet and the relevant classes are .odd, .even, and .mycmnt .

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Install Instructions
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We will be replacing the default stylesheet.  Don't fret.  If you want to go back, all of the original forms and pages can be found in the TextBook at http://www.textpattern.net (Getting Started has all of the defaults).  

If you have already altered this default, you should back it up before you continue.

If you would rather not alter the default, follow the instructions as normal, but create a new entry (titled whatever you like) for the default provided CSS.  Then make sure to go to the "Sections" tab and set the default page (and any other pages you like) to use the new style.

If you would like the added optional pages, skip directly to the "Optional Install" section.

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Default Install
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1. UPLOAD FILES
-!DO NOT USE THE TEXTPATTERN INTERFACE FOR THIS PART OF THE INSTALL!
-Use an FTP client of some kind to find the images directory on your textpattern installation.
-Upload the CONTENTS of the images folder to your host/images directory.
-You will be overwriting the "1.gif" file.

2. HTML
-Although no editing of defaults is required, I would appreciate it if you would include the footer content provided in this file (at least the "designed by..." content.  To do so... 
-!LOG ONTO TEXTPATTERN NOW!
-Within Textpattern, go to the "Presentation" tab, then the "Pages" subtab.
-Select the "default" page.
-Copy the contents from the footer.txt file and past it into the "foot" div on the default page (it is the one that contains "&nbsp;" by default).
-Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.

3. CSS
-If you skipped 2, !LOG ONTO TEXTPATTERN NOW!
-Go to the "Styles" subtab.
-Select the "default" syle (annoyingly, but appropriately, it should be selected by default).
-Choose a style you would like (for reference, see the demo page), copy the contents of the appropriate txt file and past it into the the default css.
-If you don't want to overwrite the default, make a new stylesheet to copy the txt file contents into.
-Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.
-If you didn't overwrite the default, go to the "Sections" tab and set the default page (and any other pages you like) to use the new style.

4. CUSTOMIZE
-When you are comfortable with the layout, switch in different colors and different images (keep in mind the placement and color of the h1 and h2 elements may need adjusting).

5. CLEANUP
-There are several header images included in this file.  If you don't plan on utilizing some of them, there is no point in keeping them on your server.

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Optional Install
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1. UPLOAD FILES
-!DO NOT USE THE TEXTPATTERN INTERFACE FOR THIS PART OF THE INSTALL!
-Use an FTP client of some kind to find the images directory on your textpattern installation.
-Upload the CONTENTS of the images folder to your host/images directory.
-You will be overwriting the "1.gif" file.

2. HTML
-!LOG ONTO TEXTPATTERN NOW!
-Within Textpattern, go to the "Presentation" tab, then the "Pages" subtab.
-Select the "default" page.
-Copy the contents from the html.txt file and past it into the default page.
-Edit the javascript call (where it says "COLOR.js" to the color you've chosen: blue.js, green.js, gold.js, orange.js, pink.js, red.js, or white.js.
-Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.
-Select the "archive" page.
-Copy the contents from the archive.txt file and past it into the archive page.

3. CSS
-Go to the "Styles" subtab.
-Select the "default" syle (annoyingly, but appropriately, it should be selected by default).
-Choose a style you would like (for reference, see the demo page), copy the contents of the appropriate txt file and past it into the the default css.
-If you don't want to overwrite the default, make a new stylesheet to copy the txt file contents into.
-Now copy the contents of the appropriate "optional" css file and paste at the bottom of your stylesheet.
-Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.
-If you didn't overwrite the default, go to the "Sections" tab and set the default page (and any other pages you like) to use the new style.

4. FORMS
-Go to the "forms" subtab.
-For each form in the /forms subdirectory of the zip EXCEPT the comments forms, create a form in Textpattern.  You do this by clicking the "Create New Form" link in the top right corner.
!REMEMBER TO GIVE THE FORM A NAME AND TYPE!
Then names should match those in the zip, and the type is as follows:
	article:
		spectral_article
		spectral_list
	misc:
		spectral_footer
		left_sidebar
		right_sidebar
-Copy the contents of "comments" into the already existing "comments" form.
-Copy the contents of "comment_form" into the already existing "comment_form" form.

5. EDITING FORMS
 A.Spectral_article
	-This controls how individual articles are displayed.
	-There are a large number of links for submitting your articles to various social linking sites.  The sheer number for them is mostly intended to be a joke...so if you want to take them out, you should.  I would suggest keeping the delicious link, though.

 B.Comments
	-This contains the comment output form that controls how your comments section displays.
	-Change the "Owner_name1,Owner_name2" with whatever name is to identify a site owner in the comments section.  If you are the only owner, delete the comma and Owner_name2.
	!IT IS VITAL THAT THERE BE NO SPACE AFTER THE COMMA!
	-Do the same for "Owner_email1,Owner_email2".
	
 C.Comment_Form
	-This contains the comment invitation and input form.
	-Between the <h3> tags, place the header for your comment invitation.  Something like "Add Your Comment!".
	-Between the <p> tages, place the text of your comment invitation.  It would be good to include any rules for commenting (vulgarity, asshattery, etc).
	-I would NOT recommend removing any of the input fields.  Do so at your own risk.
	
 D.footer
	-This contains the footer links in the default page.  
	-Add or take away from them as you see fit.
	-At the very least, you should remove the "sitemap" link, or replace the "#" with the path to your sitemeap.
	
 F.left_sidebar, right_sidebar
	-This contains the navigation links on the left and right sides of the page.  This form contains code for virtually any kind of linkage you would like in the sidebar.  
	-The layout starts identical to the default TXP install.
	-Several categories are commented out.  You should remove anything you don't want to display so that the page-weight will be low.
	-Since I can't tell you which side to put your links on, the two sides are mirrors of each other.  Hopefully, you will not decide to duplicate content.  The point is, if you uncomment "Categories" on the left side, try to make sure that "Categories" isn't showing up on the right side too.
	-The beginning section on each side is the search form.
	!DO NOT REMOVE THE SEARCH FUNCTION.  MAKE SURE ITS EXISTS ON ONE SIDE OF YOUR PAGE!
	It is important to the usability of your site as well as to the layout of the page.  
	-If you would like a listing of recent entries, remove the HTML comments (<!-- and -->) surrounding the "Recent Entries" section.  Otherwise, remove the section.
	-If you would like a listing of recent comments, remove the HTML comments (<!-- and -->) surrounding the "Recent Comments" section.  Otherwise, remove the section.
	-If you would like a listing of post categories, remove the HTML comments (<!-- and -->) surrounding the "Categories" section.  Otherwise, remove the section.
	-If you would like a listing of links to RSS and ATOM feeds, remove the HTML comments (<!-- and -->) surrounding the "Feeds" section.  Otherwise, remove the section.
	-If you would NOT like a Tags, Archives, or Links section, remove those sections.
	
6. PLUGINS
-Click on the "Admin" tab.
-Click on the "Plugins" subtab.
-Install all of the plugins in the /plugins folder of the zip file.  
-You do this by copying the contents of the plugin's txt file and pasting it into the text-field at the top of the page and clicking upload.  It will give you a preview of the PHP you are about to enter.
-Click "Install" to actually istall the plugin.
-Now activate the plugins by clicking on the "no" link in the active column.  If done correctly, it should now display a "yes" link.
!YOU MUST ACTIVATE THE PLUGIN.  IT DOES NOTHING IF NOT ACTIVATED!

Good Luck and Enjoy!  Again, feel free to email us with any questions at info@6footdesign.com .