Hi -- I'm really impressed by the quality of XOOPS and its modules. My main concern is that while XOOPS does a GREAT job of providing 'edge of page' content, the available blocks are (mostly) only suitable to 'edge of page'. I want to build a top page with goodies from news, agenda-x, gallery, pools, etc. It comes out looking pretty awful (www.redkiln.com), some of which is my fault for not building a decent theme, but for instance I want the 'recent pictures' block to have pictures, not just text. Is this the sort of thing that mostly doesn't exist yet due to priorities of development effort, or am I missing something fundamental? I'm willing (planning) to write some blocks, if necessary, as time permits.

Assuming you dont want News as your startup module you could include a custom block at the top centre-center with your own HTML in it, and have an intro there with anything you wish, including graphics.

Underneath that the choice is your's recent news, recent topics from forum. top news etc. Place them centre centre, or right or left.

A module called "Spotlight" (do a search) exists, which you can use to feature news articles etc. The new "Topics" module for News is very good, allows you to single out categories, topics etc.

Wfsections is a great content manager, which comes with a variety of blocks for articles.

Xcgallery (integrated from coppermine) has the ability to show pictures from gallery, with almost unlimited choices for picture presentation through blocks, including actual pictures, "static" shows latest pictures in a block, you choose how many, and/or "Scrolling" block shows random pics.

If you wish have a look at the site I am building (for ages, might get time to finish it someday) athttp://macambridge.com and click on Mac Gallery to see what I mean.

Xoops unlimited blocks power and simplicity is excellent, I dont think any CMS can compare that I know I about. I could not go back to any other CMS after being spoilt by Xoops..:)

I should not worry about the theme, because there are many themes you can choose from.
First find a theme that you like (regarding colours, lettertype and so on), then you can finetune it to your needs.

Aloha

Thanks for the xcgallery tip, I checked it out and have already switched over to it! Not sure about admin integration yet but the blocks are way superior.

I will look into wfsections.

i use the spotlight module (http://wellwine.net/ ) on front page, it takes care of news. i wanted to use a newsletter, but mods do not support html yet. so in my search i came accross bopcomments (http://finalgear.s33.xrea.com:8080/xoops/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=26 ). I use it as a whats new link (main nav bar) but could also be front page. you can control content with permissions. you can see both modules in use on my site.

BopComments looks like a great module, tjnemez! I just downloaded it and I'm going to add it to one of my sites. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the pointers. I am amazed at the variety of modules out there! I was just looking at your site, very professional and elegant... like the art too. How do you get that nice horizontal menu up by the banner? Do you have to do that by hand?

hey gmong
if you are responding to me, thanks.
i use blue_ipb theme which comes with horizontal nav bar and block controls. then i modified the css.
i got the theme from:http://www.bbpixel.com/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=7

hey cblue,

yah its a cool mod. thanks for your note.