Styles

Styles in ILIAS

Styles in ILIAS - Introduction

In ILIAS the content and its appearance are separated. With styles, you can design the appearance of your content. You can change fonts, colors, frames, spacing, icons, and navigation elements. The information needed for this is stored in so-called "stylesheets".

A standard stylesheet is always preset and is used on your entire platform. Other styles available for your ILIAS installation can be quickly activated in a selection menu. Otherwise, it is worth investing some time in the design of a style. Because only with a nice style your content comes into its own.

If you want to change the look of your content, you have three options:

• You can quickly select a style created for you in the administration (or that you created there yourself). This can be done with a few clicks.
• You can use a which you can reuse in different contexts. You can quickly adjust some fonts or colors this way. Larger changes, however, will take some time.
• If you have administrator rights, you can create a style that will be available via the Current Style drop-down menu. The advantage: You can give all authors of your ILIAS platform access to it. They can then use the style sheet you prepared without effort - as explained in the first point.

Use existing style to change the appearance quickly

You want to change the style of your content quickly and easily without having to determine the details of the appearance yourself.

Prerequisites:

• Styles have already been created in the ILIAS administration.
• Your ILIAS installation has not activated a forced style. Your technical management may predefine this to prevent styles from being changed.
• So if you cannot select styles, contact your technical lead if necessary.

1. Open the tab Settings > Style or Settings (in the SCORM editor).
2. ILIAS displays the current style.
3. Select the desired style from the Current Style drop-down menu.
   Note: If you cannot select another style from the menu, you may need to delete your custom style sheet first.
   If no other styles have been created in the administration of your ILIAS platform, ILIAS will only show Standard as a selection option.
4. Click on the Save button.
5. ILIAS applies the corresponding style and reports "Changes saved".

Why can't I select or create a style sheet?

You want to change the style of your content, but you can't select or create another stylesheet in the Settings > Style tab.

There can be two reasons for this:

• Your ILIAS installation has a forced style enabled. Your technical management can predefine this to prevent your style. If you cannot use your styles, please get in touch with your technology management.
• You have already created/imported/copied a custom stylesheet and are currently using it for your content. You will see the Edit Style and Delete Style buttons in the Settings > Style tab. You must now first delete the current stylesheet to select a new one. If you want to save the data of your current style sheet, you can export it. Only after deleting will you be shown the selection menu again.

Styles for advanced users

Individual stylesheets - introduction

Individual stylesheets are edited the same way as styles in the ILIAS administration. However, there are some significant limitations:

• You can only create and use one individual stylesheet per object (e.g., per wiki, portfolio, or SCORM learning module) at a time.
• You can only use the stylesheets for other objects in a roundabout way (by exporting them and importing them for another object).
• You can share the stylesheets with other users only in a roundabout way (again: by exporting them and the other user importing them).

So, if you want to use styles system-wide and make them available to other users, you should always create them in the administration. However, individual stylesheets can be a good alternative if you don't have administrator rights.

Creating a stylesheet

You want to create an individual stylesheet.

1. Open the Settings > Style or Preferences tab (in the SCORM editor).
2. Click on the button Create individual stylesheet.
3. ILIAS opens a new page.
4. Enter a title and, if necessary, a short description.
5. Click on the Save button.
6. ILIAS opens the editing view of your style. There you can make changes to the fonts, colors, etc. In doing so, you can experiment as you wish.

Import stylesheet

You want to import a stylesheet.

1. Open the Settings > Style or Preferences tab (in the SCORM editor).
2. Click on the Create individual stylesheet button.
3. ILIAS opens a new page.
4. Click on Option 2: Import stylesheet.
5. Click the Browse button.
6. Select the desired file and click the Import button.
   Note: You can only import stylesheets that were created in ILIAS. The file must be in zip or XML format.
7. ILIAS will import the desired stylesheet.

Copy stylesheet

You want to copy a stylesheet that is already on your ILIAS installation. This can be useful, for example, to develop a variant of a style without changing the original style.

1. In the desired portfolio, open the Settings > Style or Preferences tab (in the SCORM editor).
2. Click the Create individual stylesheet button.
3. ILIAS opens a new page.
4. Click on Option 3: Copy the stylesheet from the local source.
5. Select the desired stylesheet from the drop-down menu.
   Note: You can only copy stylesheets from objects for which you also have editing rights. Other stylesheets will not be offered to you.
6. Click on the Copy button.
7. ILIAS creates a copy of the stylesheet. You can now make changes based on it.

Edit current stylesheet

You want to edit an individual stylesheet that is currently activated.

1. Open the Settings > Style tab in the desired portfolio.
2. Click on the Edit Style button.
3. ILIAS opens the stylesheet in the style editor.
4. In the style editor, you can define the appearance of the content:
   In the Style class tab, you can define how the texts should be displayed and how the included accordions, questions, and so on should look. Click on the links below the tab to style the corresponding area. For each class, you will be shown its name, usage (type), and a display example. To change the class, click the Edit link.
   You can create color schemes in the Colors tab and make them available to your authors. Predefined color schemes make it easy to reuse colors for different application purposes. Refer to a predefined color by using its name preceded by "!" for all color gradations. To use a gradation, specify the value for the gradation in parentheses after the color name, for example !MyColor(20).
   In the Images tab, you can change the images used in the screen elements or add new ones. For example, you can give accordions a new arrow to open them or swap the question mark image in the background of test questions for another graphic.
   You can define new templates for tables and accordions in the Templates tab. You can then easily apply these templates when creating the corresponding element in the page editor. This saves a lot of work.
   In the Settings tab, you can, among other things, export your style to reuse it in other contexts.

Export stylesheet

You have created an individual stylesheet and want to export it.

1. Open the tab Settings > Style or Settings (in the SCORM editor).
2. Click on the Edit Style button.
3. ILIAS opens the edit view of the style.
4. Open the Settings tab.
5. Click on the Export button.
6. ILIAS generates an export file and offers it for download. You can save this file on your computer.

Delete stylesheet

You want to delete your stylesheet. This is necessary to be able to select a global stylesheet again. To save your custom stylesheet, you can export it before deleting it.

1. Open the Settings > Style or Preferences tab (in the SCORM editor).
2. Click on the Delete Style button.
3. ILIAS will ask you to confirm the deletion.
4. Click on the Confirm button.
5. ILIAS deletes the corresponding style and then displays Default as the current style.

Why can't I create, copy or import a style sheet?

You want to change the style of your content, but you cannot create, copy or import another style sheet in the Settings > Style tab.

There can be two reasons for this:

• Your ILIAS installation has a forced style enabled. Your technical management may predefine this to prevent your style. So if you cannot use your styles, please get in touch with your technology management.
• You have already created/imported/copied a custom stylesheet and are currently using it for your content. You will see the Edit Style and Delete Style buttons in the Settings > Style tab. You must now first delete the current stylesheet to select a new one. If you want to save the data of your current style sheet, you can export it. Only after deleting will you be shown the selection menu again.