Subsites can be made to inherit the main or parent site theme to ensure that the site's looks are similar. (Learn more about subsites).

Controlling a subsite theme

1. From your Control Panel, select Appearance

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Altering the Styling of a Page Element

1. Find the element that you'd like to change. Example: an H2 tag ("Quick Links")

2. Use your browsers developer tool panel to inspect the element and find the correct selector

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Other Themes in OpenScholar are older themes with limited mobile friendliness. These means that the "Other Themes" may not behave desirably on mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.). These theme also do not follow Harvard branding.

Featured Themes are recommended for the best user experience for your site visitors.

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"Featured themes" are newly developed themes that are mobile- friendly (responsive).

Updated: 11Jan18

The Accordion Widget can display other widgets added in like a accordion, which means the widgets can be shown or hidden by expanding or shrinking their area.

Add a New Accordion Widget

To create an accordion widget:

1. Go to your Control Panel, click to expand Appearance, and select Layout.
2. Select the green "Add new widget" tab
3. Select the Accordion widget...

The Columns widget is essentially a layout tool that provides a way to display content within columns on your web page. Similar to the Tabs widget, it displays content from other widgets in an organized way.

Tip: You need to create the content widgets before setting up a columns widget.

Add a Columns Widget

To add a columns widget:

1. Go to your Control Panel, click to expand Appearance, and select Layout.
2. Select the green "Add new widget" tab
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Themes

You'll want to set a "Theme" from a number of choices. Themes provide a consistent visual presentation for your site. You may choose from one of many themes included with your site, or have a custom theme developed for you by an outside designer.

Clicking on the Appearance button in the Control Panel lets you select a Theme. Changing the theme only effects the look and feel of your site, but not the content you've created. Your site's theme can be changed at any time.

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The layout is an area in the OpenScholar interface where you can manage the location of posts and widgets on a page or collection of pages...

Take a short few minutes to watch these videos for the quickest way to become familiar with the layout on OpenScholar. 

For more information, you can read the written documentation below.

The Featured Posts widget displays a list of links or short teasers of selected posts. You can choose posts of any content type, arrange them in any order, and configure display options.

Creating a Featured Posts Widget

To add a featured posts widget:

1. Go to your Control Panel, click to expand Appearance, and select Layout.
2. Select the green "Add new widget" tab
3. Select the featured posts widget

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The List of Posts widget displays an automatically generated list of posts from your site.

Add a New List of Posts Widget

To add a list of posts widget:

1. Go to your Control Panel, click to expand Appearance, and select Layout.
2. Select the green "Add new widget" tab
3. Select the List of Posts posts widget

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The Tabs Widget displays multiple widgets in clickable tabs.

Tabs Widget Example

Example of three widgets that were used to create this Tabs Widget.

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Responsive web design allows a site to be presented with an optimal viewing experience across a variety of screen sizes, such as mobile phones and tablets. Using a Featured Theme or a One...