Change appearance of quotes

[modus]

Hi,

not sure if this is the correct place to ask, otherwise please guide me into the correct direction.

I set up a new forum a few days ago, and the users are pretty happy about it so far.

If possible I would like to do a few tweaks on how quotes work and on their appearance (I'm using the default theme, with only a few color adjustments, nothing fancy).

- Quotes are currently white background, and a grey outline to make it stand out from the other parts of the post.

How can I change the color of the outline (and/or have no outline at all), and how can I change the background color of quotes. I guess this requires some changes in the CSS code but I would not be able to tell where exactly.

- The 2nd question I have is: I noticed that quotes are by default "nested" twice, not sure how to say this in other words (you're seeing 2 "levels" of quotes). On a lot of other forums, when you quote a post, then only that post appears in your quote area. On the PB layout, it will show 2 quotes, when applicable. To me, this makes posts a bit "messy".

Would it be possible to change code in such a way that this "double nesting" does not appear anymore?

I think that would be a bit more complicated than my first question.

Thanks for any feedback provided.

[modus]

No one? Is this the correct place to ask?

Should it be in Templates maybe?

[Retread]

Apr 7, 2021 9:39:03 GMT -8 modus said:

Hi,

not sure if this is the correct place to ask, otherwise please guide me into the correct direction.

I set up a new forum a few days ago, and the users are pretty happy about it so far.

If possible I would like to do a few tweaks on how quotes work and on their appearance (I'm using the default theme, with only a few color adjustments, nothing fancy).

- Quotes are currently white background, and a grey outline to make it stand out from the other parts of the post.

How can I change the color of the outline (and/or have no outline at all), and how can I change the background color of quotes. I guess this requires some changes in the CSS code but I would not be able to tell where exactly.

Hi modus

The Themes board is as good a place as any to ask. Yes, what you want to accomplish will be done through CSS. But it won't be necessary to wade through the Style Sheet. You can use the Visual Editor.

From your Admin panel, navigate:
Admin Home> Themes> Advanced Styles & CSS and remain on the Visual Editor tab.
Select the desired theme in the dropdown to the right of Current Theme.

You may want to use the Preview Pane (on the right of a wide screen or at the bottom of a narrow screen) to navigate to a post or thread on your forum that has a quote or nested quotes. That way you can see the effect of any changes you make before you save them.

Under the heading: Objects click Quotes (that section will expand)
Here you will be able to change the border and background styling for all quotes, both first level and nested.

You will also see Sub Quotes. If you click that, you can apply a different styling for the border and background of nested quotes.

When you're happy with the changes you made, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page or the Save Theme button near the top.

Apr 7, 2021 9:39:03 GMT -8 modus said:

- The 2nd question I have is: I noticed that quotes are by default "nested" twice, not sure how to say this in other words (you're seeing 2 "levels" of quotes). On a lot of other forums, when you quote a post, then only that post appears in your quote area. On the PB layout, it will show 2 quotes, when applicable. To me, this makes posts a bit "messy".

Would it be possible to change code in such a way that this "double nesting" does not appear anymore?

I think that would be a bit more complicated than my first question.

Thanks for any feedback provided.

When you click the Quote button, by default the software grabs the BBCode of that person's post, wraps it in quote tags, and places it into the reply textarea on your posting page. This will include a maximum of one level nested beneath the quote (sub-quote).

It would be nice if it were possible to choose between sub-quotes or no sub-quotes in the Forum Settings of the Admin panel. Unfortunately, no such feature is currently available.

If you like, you could certainly make a thread on the Support Board and request that feature be added.

---

Clumsy workaround:

If you place this at the bottom of the Style Sheet (to affect only one theme):
/* Hide Sub-Quotes in Posts and PM Messages */
#content .content .quote div.quote div.quote_body {display:none}
/* End of Section */

Or this in your Global Header (to affect all themes):
<style>
/* Hide Sub-Quotes in Posts and PM Messages */
#content .content .quote div.quote div.quote_body {display:none}
<style>
/* End of Section */
That will hide all sub-quotes. Please be aware that this will not affect the BBCode that's placed in the textarea of your posting page, when you quote someone.

It will still look like you have sub-quote(s) being created in the reply. This could lead to a lot of confusion and questions from your members when they don't see the sub-quotes after they post the reply.

[modus]

Hi again Retread
thanks for helping me out again.

Apr 10, 2021 10:17:52 GMT -8 Retread said:

Hi modus

The Themes board is as good a place as any to ask. Yes, what you want to accomplish will be done through CSS. But it won't be necessary to wade through the Style Sheet. You can use the Visual Editor.

From your Admin panel, navigate:
Admin Home> Themes> Advanced Styles & CSS and remain on the Visual Editor tab.
Select the desired theme in the dropdown to the right of Current Theme.

You may want to use the Preview Pane (on the right of a wide screen or at the bottom of a narrow screen) to navigate to a post or thread on your forum that has a quote or nested quotes. That way you can see the effect of any changes you make before you save them.

Under the heading: Objects click Quotes (that section will expand)
Here you will be able to change the border and background styling for all quotes, both first level and nested.

You will also see Sub Quotes. If you click that, you can apply a different styling for the border and background of nested quotes.

When you're happy with the changes you made, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page or the Save Theme button near the top.

I feel a bit stupid now because I could have figured this out myself, as I've been playing around with the Visual Editor already. So I was able to make the desired changes on how quotes look, so that's solved for now, thanks.

The only thing is... using the VE, the names are not always clear to which part of the forum they actually refer, but I can use the preview to figure things out obviously.

F.e. I can't figure out the following item:

-in the mini profile I would like to have the username stand out more (slightly bigger font, bold maybe, stuff like this). This doesn't seem possible in the VE under mini profile options. Everything else in this area looks customizable. Should this be done via the Style Sheet code panel?

When you click the Quote button, by default the software grabs the BBCode of that person's post, wraps it in quote tags, and places it into the reply textarea on your posting page. This will include a maximum of one level nested beneath the quote (sub-quote).

It would be nice if it were possible to choose between sub-quotes or no sub-quotes in the Forum Settings of the Admin panel. Unfortunately, no such feature is currently available.

If you like, you could certainly make a thread on the Support Board and request that feature be added.

---

Clumsy workaround:

If you place this at the bottom of the Style Sheet (to affect only one theme):
/* Hide Sub-Quotes in Posts and PM Messages */
#content .content .quote div.quote div.quote_body {display:none}
/* End of Section */
Or this in your Global Header (to affect all themes):
<style>
/* Hide Sub-Quotes in Posts and PM Messages */
#content .content .quote div.quote div.quote_body {display:none}
<style>
/* End of Section */
That will hide all sub-quotes. Please be aware that this will not affect the BBCode that's placed in the textarea of your posting page, when you quote someone.

It will still look like you have sub-quote(s) being created in the reply. This could lead to a lot of confusion and questions from your members when they don't see the sub-quotes after they post the reply.

I see what you mean. In threads, the subquotes will not be shown anymore, but they still will when quoting a quote (or subquote).

I think for now we can live with this solution, this is what I had in mind. Makes posts & threads less messy in my opinion. Many thanks for providing this solution.

Finally: unfortunately both changes I made (appearance & hiding subquotes) don't seem to come into the mobile layout, but there's not a lot we can do about that I guess...

[Retread]

Apr 11, 2021 3:43:24 GMT -8 modus said:

I feel a bit stupid now because I could have figured this out myself, as I've been playing around with the Visual Editor already. So I was able to make the desired changes on how quotes look, so that's solved for now, thanks.

The only thing is... using the VE, the names are not always clear to which part of the forum they actually refer, but I can use the preview to figure things out obviously.

F.e. I can't figure out the following item:

-in the mini profile I would like to have the username stand out more (slightly bigger font, bold maybe, stuff like this). This doesn't seem possible in the VE under mini profile options. Everything else in this area looks customizable. Should this be done via the Style Sheet code panel?

You're welcome and don't beat yourself up about things you might have been able to figure out. Whoever created the VE did an amazing job but without tooltips, a few things aren't so intuitive. It does require a bit of familiarization to learn how to target exactly what you want.

The member's Display Name at the top of the mini-profile is generally the only link in a mini-profile.

So under
Mini-Profiles> Text> Links>
You could try using Bold Font Weight, and/or type in 18px for the Font Size and or change the Font Family, to make the display names in the MP stand out.

Apr 11, 2021 3:43:24 GMT -8 modus said:

I see what you mean. In threads, the subquotes will not be shown anymore, but they still will when quoting a quote (or subquote).

I think for now we can live with this solution, this is what I had in mind. Makes posts & threads less messy in my opinion. Many thanks for providing this solution.

Finally: unfortunately both changes I made (appearance & hiding subquotes) don't seem to come into the mobile layout, but there's not a lot we can do about that I guess...

Yeah, not much at this time. The Mobile version will pickup the changes made through the Colors & Theme Creator but not much else. It's stripped down so it displays well on tiny screens.

You could disable the Mobile version through
Admin Home> Upgrades> Experiments
in your Admin panel. But that would be unwise unless you have a theme or themes on your forum specifically designed to work well on small screens. The typical ProBoards theme uses tables with several columns. On a very narrow viewport, that causes the text to become very small and difficult to read.

[modus]

Mini-Profiles> Text> Links>

Now that you explain it, it makes sense to put it there - another question solved.

Regarding the mobile layout. I simply already accepted that I can't do a lot about it. It does what it needs to do - showing posts and being able to reply/quote. Although we are a very small forum, lots of users are very used to browse on their mobiles so I got quite a few answers on using it.

Thanks again for your quick support, much appreciated.

[Retread]

Apr 11, 2021 7:09:22 GMT -8 modus said:

Now that you explain it...

As I said before, some of this comes down to familiarity. The more you do, the more nuances you'll find.

You're welcome and don't be shy about asking if something isn't obvious. There are lots of members on the Support forum who are glad to help.

[modus]

Wait.... if I also change the color of the usernames, so via Mini-Profiles > Text > Links >, it only works for every other post... ??

[Retread]

Apr 11, 2021 7:54:47 GMT -8 modus said:

Wait.... if I also change the color of the usernames, so via Mini-Profiles > Text > Links >, it only works for every other post... ??

Hmm. Yeah that looks bugged to me. Whenever you don't declare the Alternate Colors, they should default to the normal selections.

Rather than have you use the Visual Editor and change the setting under
Mini-Profiles> Alternate Colors> Text> Links> Text Color to match, I think we should fix the CSS in the Style Sheet.

On or about line 1150, find this:
@mini_even_links_color: @container_links_color;

Change that to:
@mini_even_links_color: @mini_links_color;

[modus]

That does the trick indeed, thanks again