NOTE: This section is a work in progress! We are in the process of moving a lot of pages that are currently spread across different sections of the user manual, into a single spot. Note that tutorials will still be located in the tutorial section, but other information about the design we will move to this new section.

This section of the user manual is here to help designers, or anyone interested in altering the design of the software, to better understand the ins and outs of how the design and template sets work in the software. We here at Geo strive to be “Designer friendly”:

• We have created a set of tutorials designed specifically as a "starting point" for getting to know how the design works, and how to start making changes to it. You can find the tutorials at Tutorials > Design Basics. Don't be fooled by the name "design basics" though, think of them more as "getting started", they are geared toward anyone new to Geodesic design and template sets. <
• We also have a great number of tutorials for performing various "advanced tasks", in the user manual at Tutorials > Design - Advanced. Before going over those, we recommend to first read over the getting started tutorials mentioned in the point above, as most of the "advanced" tutorials build on top of the concepts outlined in the design basics. <
• The software uses Smarty Template Engine which many designers are already familiar with. <
• The default design is fully W3C Compliant. <
• The system uses what we call Template Sets. These template sets use a fully portable, cascading template set system:
  • Portable: With just a few clicks, any template set can be downloaded in a zip format, and used on any other website. As long as the tips are followed on Creating Portable Template Set¹⁾ any designer can sell or give away a custom design they have created. <
  • Cascading template set model: Several template sets can be active and basically "stacked" on top of each other, allowing for some very powerful options. You can read more about that in How a template set is chosen. <
  • Safe software updates: The software comes with a default template set, which you should never edit. Instead, you generate your own template set using Create Main Template Set in the admin panel in Design > Template Sets. Once it generates my_templates, when you update the "default" template set is over-written but not your custom one. <

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• Many more reasons that we will add later! (This page is a work in progress) <