What is a style?

Tasks that you can perform on a style are determined by your style privileges. See below for more information.

Be careful when changing a style since your changes will be reflected in all folders or navigation bars where the style is applied. Also, if you delete a style, all folders and navigation bars using the style will default to the initial default style.

A style is a template which controls the look and feel of the content area home page (root folder), folder area, banners, and navigation bar. This template governs the colors, font properties, size, background images, banners, and other graphical elements that are common across the content area.

Default and custom styles

When a content area is created, two default styles are provided with the product. One is applied to the folders in the content area, the other is applied to the navigation bar in the content area. As an authorized user with the "Manage Style" privilege, you can apply the default styles, or you can create custom styles to suit your own needs. One style can be used for your entire content area (the home page and each folder), or you can assign different styles to give each folder a distinct look and feel. Typically, you will want to either edit these default styles or create your own styles.

How styles are applied

In addition to being highly customizable, styles can also be applied in many ways depending on how you want your content area to look. For example, if you want your navigation bar and folder area to have the same color schemes and link text properties, then you might want to apply the same style. However, if you want the navigation bar to have a completely different color scheme, then you should apply a different style to the navigation bar. You can create as many styles as you want for a content area and apply whichever style you want to any folder or navigation bar. You can see a list of all your styles for each content area from the Navigator by navigating to Path: Content Areas > Name of Content Area > Styles.

Style elements

Style elements that you can set include the main banner, sub banner, region banner, group by banner, item attributes, style elements, and navigation bar style elements. When you choose the style element's color, font properties, and other settings, the results of your choices are immediately reflected in the style previews. Style previews are available for both the folder and the navigation bar which are shown below.

Arrangement of Items

Oracle Portal supplies five default folder layouts that define how the different regions of the folder can be arranged. The folder region layout determines the overall flow of items and sub-folders as well as how items are arranged in the folder area when the folder is rendered.

Note: Item attributes such as Author, Description, Expiration Date, Image, New Item Indicator, and so on are displayed in the folder area only if they were chosen to display. For more information, see Choosing item attributes to display in a folder region.

Style Privileges

Tasks that you can perform on a style are determined by your style privileges:

The content area administrator or style administrators with Manage Style privilege, or creator of the style are authorized to perform all actions on styles in the content area including create, delete, and edit style properties.

By default, folder owners can assign the "Edit Style" privilege at the folder level to users who are not style administrators. Users with this privilege can choose another style to apply to a given folder. For more information, see Granting access privileges to your folder.

By default, folder owners are authorized to apply another style to the given folder. However, the content area administrator may choose to revoke style privileges from folder owners to enforce a consistent appearance across the content area. In this case, folder owners and authorized users with the "Edit Style" privilege can create a new style but they cannot apply the new style to the folder. Only the style administrator or content area administrator can apply the new style to the folder.

Accessing the Style Manager

All style settings for the folder, banner, and navigation bar are configured entirely in the Style Manager. The Style Manager allows you to customize any style element regardless of how you access it. The access methods are listed below:

Click the Folder Style link on the folder dashboard.

Click the Style tab in the Folder Manager.

Click the Nav Bar Style link on the navigation bar.

Note

You can apply a different style to each folder or navigation bar. However, every folder must use the same content area page. See What is a page style? and What is a page layout?

Note
You can apply a different style to each folder or navigation bar. However, every folder must use the same content area page. See What is a page style? and What is a page layout?