Custom Panels Layouts

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    Custom Panel Layouts
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    Building Websites Using the Panels Module
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    with Jen Lampton
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    Hello, and welcome back to Drupal and Panels.
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    Now that you've learned how to use panels to create layouts for custom
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    pages on your site, and how to use Page Manager to take over
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    the display of existing content on your site,
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    we're going to go one step further, and teach you
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    how to build your own layouts using panel's
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    built in layout designer tool.
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    We're going to start by changing the display of a blog post.
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    Instead of trying to display the blog post the way it looks
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    by default, or trying to make it display like an article, where we
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    divided the center content area of the page into two equal columns,
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    our designer has given us a new wire frame--
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    one that has a special right hand column
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    that's about 210 pixels wide.
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    As we walk through the panel's interface,
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    you'll notice that this layer doesn't exist,
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    and we'll have to build this one ourselves.
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    So we're going to start taking over the display of this blog post
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    the same way we started overriding the display of an article,
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    by going to the page manager interface.
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    That's located under Structure, Pages,
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    and here we're going to edit the template that's provided for notes.
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    We're going to go ahead and click, Edit.
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    And now we'll need to add a new variant that
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    will only affect our blog posts.
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    The one we have currently affects articles,
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    and we don't want to change that one.
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    So we'll add a new variant, using the link at the top.
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    And we'll give it the name of Blog.
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    Our variant type will be panel, and we're
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    going to add some selection rules that will make this variant only
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    apply to the content type blog.
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    On the first step, we'll define our selection
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    criteria for note type blog.
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    On the second step, we'll choose a layout.
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    Instinctively, we'd want to go to the Columns 2 category.
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    But you'll notice that there's no two
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    column layout provided that matches what our designer would
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    like us to build.
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    So instead of using the Columns 2 categories, what we're going to do
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    is leave it on the builders category,
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    and select the flexible layout provided by panels.
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    This will allow us to build our own layout later on in the process.
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    We're going to continue to step three,
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    where we have the option to turn off the sidebars,
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    or change the renderer.
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    But in this case, we'll do neither, and continue to step four.
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    On the fourth step, where we'd usually just add content
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    to our panel, we now have some new options on this page, that
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    let us show the layout designer.
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    So we'll start by creating our new layout.
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    If you click the Show Layout Designer button
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    in the middle of the page, you'll be able to see
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    how layouts are created.
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    In panels, all of your content panes, or panel panes,
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    need to be placed into a region.
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    All of your regions need to be inside a row, all of your rows
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    need to be inside a column, and all of that happens on your canvas.
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    We want to start by adding a new column on the right hand side.
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    So we're going to start by clicking the canvas link.
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    Add a column to the right.
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    And here, it's going to ask us if we'd like to add a CSS
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    class to the column, and how we'd like the width
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    of that column to be determined.
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    We know the width of this column needs to be 210 pixels.
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    So from this drop down, we'll choose fixed.
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    The next step is to add a row into our column.
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    So we'll click on the link for column, and add a row.
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    Again, we have the option to add a CSS class.
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    And here, we have the choice to decide
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    whether our row should contain regions,
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    where we should put our content.
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    Or this row could also contain columns,
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    where we could put more rows, where we could put more regions.
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    In this case, we have a very simple requirement, so we're
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    going to leave regions in this row.
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    And the last step is to add a region into the row.
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    You do that by clicking on row, and adding a region.
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    This region needs a title.
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    We're going to call it, sidebar.
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    We can add a CSS class to the region,
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    and we could also decide how we'd like the width
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    of this item to be decided.
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    Here, we're going to leave it as fluid.
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    So now, we have two columns-- a center column, and a sidebar.
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    You'll also notice there's a little slider.
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    And this is how we get to set the width of that sidebar.
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    We can grab it, and drag it to the left,
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    until our column is exactly the right width.
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    In this case, it's 210 pixels.
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    And don't worry if this doesn't look exactly right now,
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    because as soon as you hit Create Variant,
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    everything will straighten out.
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    Now we have a column in the middle, called center,
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    and a column on the right, called sidebar.
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    What I'm going to do next is go ahead
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    and add content into my panel.
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    I do that by clicking on the cogwheel on the left, and choosing,
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    add content.
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    On the left hand side, we're going to add the content of our node.
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    So that'll be in the node category.
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    We're going to grab the node content pane, and drop that in.
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    Since we've done this before, we know we need to override
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    the title so that won't show up.
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    We know we need to uncheck the Link title to node check box.
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    We're going to leave our links displaying on our node,
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    and this time, we're also going to leave the extras.
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    We're also going to change the build mode down to full content,
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    here at the bottom of this form.
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    We're going to go ahead and update and save.
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    And then we're going to add some content to the sidebar.
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    Our designer has pointed out that the information
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    we should show in this sidebar is the author
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    and the date of this post.
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    Those two things can also be added.
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    They're located in the node category.
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    The author is called node author.
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    We can drop that in.
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    And the date, it's added in the same way-- node category,
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    node created date.
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    And there's an option here if you wanted to change the format.
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    Now we're going to update and save.
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    And we'll go take a look at our content.
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    Great, so now we have two columns.
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    The one on the right hand side is 210 pixels wide.
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    And the one on the left has the majority of our content in it.
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    There's a couple other things we should
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    change for this content pane.
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    We talked about making sure that the panel page title was
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    that to pull from the pane title.
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    We can change that here, too.
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    But we also have this, submitted by information being displayed twice.
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    It's displayed once in the node, and once again in the panel.
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    If we wanted to turn off the display in the node,
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    that's just a setting for the content type.
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    And it's located under structure, content types, blog post.
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    So we're going to edit the blog post.
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    On the bottom of this form in the vertical tabs,
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    there's a setting here for display settings.
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    We can turn off the display of the author and the date here.
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    So now, if we go back and check out our blog post,
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    you'll see we've got no submitted by information in the left hand side.
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    But we do have it on the right hand side.
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    I'm going to go and edit my panel, and make that page
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    title pull from the content pane.
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    So here at the top, we have title type.
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    We're going to change that to, from pane.
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    And we're going to make sure that our center pane is
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    providing the title for the page.
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    Now, if we really liked the way this new custom layout is working,
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    and we'd like to use this elsewhere around our site,
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    we don't need to build it from scratch every time.
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    One of things you might have noticed when we were first to designing
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    our layout was the reuse layout button,
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    also in the middle of the page.
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    If we go ahead and click that button,
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    we'll be able to save information about this layout,
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    so it'll be easily available the next time we're building a panel.
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    I'm going to call this one sidebar right.
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    And we'll put it into the category, Columns 2.
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    That way, the next time someone's looking for a two column layout,
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    they'll see this one, as well as the others.
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    I'm going to update and save my panel.
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    And just for fun, we'll go and try and change the layout.
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    If you click on the layout tab, just above content,
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    and now look in the Columns 2 category,
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    you can see our sidebar right layout appears here in this list, also.
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    One thing to note, that the graphic that
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    comes with the sidebar right layout will never look exactly
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    like the layout you've designed.
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    That's because this is the graphic that goes with the flexible layout
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    found in the builders category.
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    Just keep in mind that you can't always trust the graphic,
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    but the name there should be correct.
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    Another thing to keep in mind about using the layout designer tool
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    is that it lets you build new layouts really quickly,
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    but it's not necessarily the most performant.
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    If you wanted to deploy this layout on a live website,
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    it would be much better to build this as a panels layout
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    in code, which we'll talk about a little bit later on.
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    Now that you know how to use the page manager and panels module
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    to take over layouts and build your own custom layouts for existing
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    content on your site, we're going to talk about some quick ways
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    that you can change the style of the panes and regions
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    in those layouts in the next clip.
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    So stay tuned.

Building Websites in Drupal 7 Using Panels

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Custom Panels Layouts

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8 minutes 40 seconds // Drupal 7 // HDCC //

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Though Panels comes with several built-in layouts for you to choose from, you’ll find that these don’t always suit your needs. Fortunately, there’s also a layout designer that anyone can use to create a new layout with Panels. In this lesson you will learn how to use the Panels layout designer for rapid prototyping.

Additional resources: 

Panels at Drupal.org

Average review

5
Average: 5 (2 votes)

Reviews

Posted on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 8:06am by beades48
5

Can't wait for the next session on panels!

Posted on Friday, January 23, 2015 - 1:51pm by MaximumHormone
5

This was exactly what I needed to start!, just after a few hours of playing around with the basics I feel like an all-star.