We are pleased to announce the developer has now released a new theme (visual style) for Making Music Platforms called Mercury. If you want to give your Platform a new look, you can adopt this new theme in a few short steps. It would be a bit like having a new/redesigned website, but with all your existing content – you don’t have to do this, as the existing themes will remain active indefinitely. However, if your Making Music Platform is still using one of the older themes (NextElement, Sparta or BHA), we would recommend that you switch to one of the newer themes (Mercury or Stockholm), as the older ones are not mobile-friendly.
To see what the new theme looks like, check out our Demo Site using this new theme: demo.makingmusicplatform.com
You are welcome to log into the Members area (Username: demo Password: Platform1234!) to see what that looks like with the new styling. Please note that the demo site will be reverted back to the Stockholm theme on the 19 May.
Benefits of this new theme (compared to Stockholm)
- It's visually bolder, and more impressive.
- The photos in the Home page slideshow now don't need to be exact sizes. The size recommendations are more flexible and forgiving.
- When editing the Home page, the content in the page-editing window now looks almost exactly like the actual Home page. This is an improvement on the page-editing window in the Stockholm theme. This will make editing the Home page easier and less prone to causing errors.
- Your site will be a little faster to load.
- [Future Update] The developer has a plan to include a simple one-click ‘dark mode’ - so each site visitor can choose whether they want to see the site in ‘dark mode’ or the default ‘light mode’ (only affecting them, not anyone else). The developer may also be introducing a simple one-click ‘make the font-size bigger/smaller’, so that each visitor can choose their own font size. We will keep you updated about if and when these features have been implemented
Drawbacks of using the new theme
- As with the existing Stockholm theme with the full screen slideshow layout, your slideshow photos that have been created by graphic designers (i.e. not plain photos) will seldom show in their entirety. The portion of the graphic that's show in the slideshow will vary based on the visitor's browser window size and aspect ratio, and therefore parts of the graphic may be cropped out on the left/right sides.
To switch to this new theme you will need:
- A version of your logo suitable for a dark background. It should typically be a PNG or GIF file and have a transparent background. You may already have a logo for a dark background. If you're using our existing Stockholm theme and are using the full screen layout for the Home page slideshow, then you likely already have a suitable logo. That logo will need to replace your existing logo for white backgrounds.
- New photos for your slideshow. Most current Making Music Platforms require that the slideshow photos be exactly 1150 x 448 pixels. This new theme does not require exact sizes for slideshow photos - instead they should be approximately 1200 x 800 pixels. They will be shown full screen (as you see in the Demo site). Unless you're already using a full-screen slideshow, then your existing slideshow photos might be cropped off or may look pixelated.
- Some basic working knowledge of HTML, and about 30-60 minutes to make the change. If you don't have such knowledge, or don't have the inclination to do the change yourselves, we can do it for you, for a £30 + VAT one-time fee.
To help make this change take a look at the step-by-step help guide: What is the Mercury theme and how do we adopt it?
Please keep in mind that this theme is brand new and may have some minor issues to begin with. If anything in your Making Music Platform doesn't look right with the new theme, simply report this to platform@makingmusic.org.uk, and we'll fix it.
