Website themes determine the overall look of Wild Apricot sites. A default website theme is assigned when you create your Wild Apricot account. You can customize your theme in a variety of ways.
To switch to a different theme, click the Theme menu option within the Website module. To access the Website module from the main admin menu, click the Website menu.
What does a theme control?
Website themes control the following elements of your website:
- Default colors, shapes, and shades
- Default site background and background image library
- Text style choices in the content editor (e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2)
- ArtText choices in the content editor (e.g. Site title 1, Page heading 1)
- Customization options that appear on the Colors and Styles screen
- Menu location (vertical or horizontal) and whether the menu is static or dynamic (flyout)
- Orientation of the log in form gadget (horizontal or vertical)
- Matching visual styles in online forms
- Master layouts
Available themes
The following website themes are available:
- Bookshelf
- Building Blocks
- Casefile
- Fiesta
- Firma
- Homestead
- Kaleidoscope
- Showcase
- Skyline
- Terra
- Tinted Tiles
- Whiteboard
Switching themes
When you first create your Wild Apricot account, a default website theme is assigned to your site based on the organization type you chose on the signup form. You can, at any time, switch to a different theme.
For tips and inspiration on switching website themes, see this blog post.
You can choose from a number of professionally designed themes in a variety of styles and colors.
When you switch to a different theme, permanent changes are made to your web pages. As well, a different set of master layouts and page templates becomes available as the basis for individual site pages. As a result, layouts and gadgets may change position within your pages. Also, all theme overrides and any customizations made on the Colors and styles screen will be discarded. Switching back to the previous theme may not restore your site to its previous appearance. You might consider asking Wild Apricot Support to create a clone of your current site so you can test your changes on the clone site.
To change your website theme, click the Theme menu option within the Website module. Within the theme gallery that appears, click the theme you want to use then click the Apply selected theme button. The themes are grouped into theme packs according to their layout and design.
You should carefully review your site before making your decision. After you make the theme change permanent, switching back to the previous theme may not restore your site to its previous appearance.
When you switch themes, one or more pages may be added to your site to illustrate various theme-specific content and styles.
Testing themes using a cloned site
If you want to explore a different website theme without altering your current site, you can ask Wild Apricot Support to create a clone of your current site.
The cloned site functions as a sandbox where you can evaluate a theme and run tests, but it is not an exact copy of your site, and any changes you make to the cloned site cannot be copied over to your existing site.
There are a number of differences between your existing site and the cloned site:
- Only one full administrator is copied.
- Events are not copied.
- Financial data, email logs etc. will not be copied.
- The SiteAlbums folder is not copied
- The cloned site is set as a free Trial account for 30 days so you may encounter different restrictions from your existing site.
Remember: Any changes you make to the cloned site will not be automatically applied to the original site; you will need to manually recreate these changes on your existing site.
Customizing themes
After selecting and applying a website theme, you can customize your theme in a number of ways.
- From the Colors and Styles screen, you can change the colors and fonts of elements within the theme. For example, you can change the appearance of menus, links, headings, body text, and forms, among other elements.
- Using CSS customizations, you can change the styles that determine the appearance of text elements within your theme.
- Using theme overrides, you can replace or override the theme files that control the appearance of the current theme. Typically, your override files will include code to customize a feature or element of your theme.
Theme overrides are only available for paid billing plans.
Themes, master layouts, and page templates
Each website theme contains a number of different master layouts which can form the basis of any number of different page templates.
A master layout provides a broad outline of the page, which the page template can refine. Master layouts and page templates can also contain graphical elements. All master layouts within a theme share the same look and feel, including color scheme. Different master layouts are available depending on the currently selected theme.
Master layouts are not accessible through a graphical interface but can be modified through theme overrides.
Mobile friendly themes
Wild Apricot's newest theme sets are fully responsive and mobile friendly. Sites that use these themes automatically adjust their contents to fit properly on different sized screens, including mobile devices.
When you switch to a different website theme, all theme overrides and any customizations made on the Colors and styles screen will be replaced by the defaults for the new theme. Your overrides and customizations will be restored if you switch back to the previous theme.
Themes that are responsive will appear on the Themes screen with both desktop and mobile thumbnails.
For more information on responsiveness, see Designing responsive pages.
Theme-specific options
The following theme-specific options are available only for certain themes.
Site layout styles
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Full width placeholder | Casefile |
| Sidebar | Casefile |
| Static site background | Firma, Homestead, Skyline |
| Sticky placeholder | Fiesta, Homestead |
Gadgets
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Headline gadget | Casefile, Kaleidoscope |
| Secondary menu gadget | Bookshelf, Building Blocks, Casefile, Fiesta, Firma, Homestead, Kaleidoscope, Showcase, Skyline, Terra, Tinted Tiles, Whiteboard |
Gadget styles
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Alignment option for vertical menu gadgets | Building Blocks, Casefile, Kaleidoscope, Tinted Tiles |
| Alignment option for secondary menu gadgets | Firma, Homestead, Terra |
| Fixed position for social profile gadget | Firma, Terra |
| Gallery photo album style | Casefile |
| Round donation goal styles | Skyline |
| Round featured member styles | Skyline |
| Round link button styles | Fiesta, Firma, Terra |
| Slide gadget style | Casefile |
| Transparent gadget backgrounds | Firma, Terra |
| Sticky menu style | Casefile, Firma, Terra |
Login options
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Alignment option for log in gadgets | Building Blocks, Casefile, Firma, Homestead, Kaleidoscope, Showcase, Terra, Tinted Tiles, Treehouse |
| Control whether the email and password labels appear within the log in form gadget fields | All except Business Casual, Building Blocks, Firma, Kaleidoscope, Showcase, Skyline, Terra, Tinted Tiles |
| Drop-down login form | Building Blocks, Firma, Kaleidoscope, Showcase, Skyline, Terra, Tinted Tiles |
| Hide the Remember me and Forgot password labels within log in form gadgets | All except Business Casual |
| Orientation option for log in form gadgets | All except Business Casual, Granite |
Text
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Font Awesome iconic fonts | Building Blocks, Casefile, Fiesta, Firma, Homestead, Kaleidoscope, Showcase, Skyline, Terra, Tinted Tiles, Treehouse |
| Transparent text styles | Firma, Homestead, Showcase, Skyline, Terra |
Mobile features
| Option | Themes |
|---|---|
| Mobile panel | Building Blocks, Casefile, Firma, Kaleidoscope, Terra, Tinted Tiles |
| Hide pictures in mobile view option | Firma, Terra |
Support for older themes
Wild Apricot is no longer supporting a number of older website themes, allowing us to focus our development and testing efforts on newer, more responsive themes.
The older themes that we are no longer supporting are:
- Aurora horizontal/hybrid
- Basic
- Blueprint
- Classic
- Clean Lines
- Clouds
- Dark
- Dark Impact
- Glass
- Granite
- Keynote
- Modern
- Memo
- Nature
- Notebook
- Transparent
- Treehouse
- White Space
What do we mean by not supporting?
We mean:
- We won’t be testing new features to make sure they work properly with these themes
- These themes will longer appear as options within the website theme gallery
- If you switch from an older theme that is no longer supported, you will not be able to switch back to it later
If you are currently using one of these themes, your site will continue to function as before, although new gadgets – or new features for existing gadgets – may not work as expected with these themes. Within the theme selection screen, your theme will appear as deprecated if it is no longer supported.
