Setting up a Web Site with the Privateer Theme

Here are the basic steps I use when I go to setup a new site with the Privateer theme in WordPress:

Step 1 : Choosing my starting point
Before doing anything else on a new site I choose the quickset that is closest to what I am looking for. This is because applying a quickset later will override any style related changes made so far.

Step 2 : Setting the site layout and basic background color / image
Next, I go to Privateer - General Display - Page Framing.
In there I note whether I want the site to be fluid or not and, if so, the minimum and maxim widths for the site.
You can also set the background of everything except for the outside right and left pieces with the "Layout Container Style" option.

Once that is done I go to Privateer - General Display - Text and Links
There, I set the overall styles for the site. The Body Style applies default styling to the entire site, so if you want a background color for _everything_, including the right and left side paddings (if any), then this is the place to do so.

Once that is finished, the default background colors, text colors, links, and link hover colors for the entire site are done.

Note: I will create a very basic quickset today that will provide a blank slate and put it up in the owners forum. That way, if one wants to do what I do for a site, they can do so without having to track down other settings that have been entered by a quickset.

Step 3: Setting up the site header
With the basics covered, I then get the site header the way I want it.

First, I go to Privateer - General Display - Header Setup
In there, I decide which bars to use ( The "Configure Header Area" option ) and then use the following menus to style those I use:
Privateer - General Display - Header Setup:

For the logo bar
For elements ( logo, title, rss, search) used by the image bar
For the static bars
For the content bars

Privateer - General Display - Header Image:

For the image bar

Privateer - General Display - Page Menu Bar

For the page menu bar

Privateer - General Display - Category Menu Bar

For the category menu bar

Privateer - General Display - RSS

For any rss related settings that I need

Once the bars I decide to use are done and styled, I then move on to the site footer.

Step 4 : Setting up the Site Footer
The options for styling and setting the content in the footer are located at:
Privateer - General Display - Footer

Step 5 : Setting up the Sidebars
If I want extra styling for the sidebars and/or widgets, I then go to:

Privateer - HTML Entities - Sidebars
You can setup various items for each sidebar including...

The width of each sidebar
Which pages you want each sidebar to display on
The colors for the sidebar itself
Which side you want the sidebar displayed on
Particular pages and categories you don't want a sidebar shown on

Privateer - HTML Entities - Widgets
Here you can setup widget level styles.

By default, atahualpa style widgets are used, but you can use the 'override' options to get normal looking widgets.

Step 6: Setting up the main content area
Now, with the layout, header, sidebars, and footer configured, I move to setting up the main content area.

The content area container can be styled via:
Privateer - General Display - Look and Info Items

You style the main content container here
You can give extra styles to the sticky post here

Privateer - General Display - More Tag
This is where you can style the read more tag, if used.

Privateer - Default Page - Page Styling
Here is where you set default styling for page level items that will be applied to all page types (templates) on the site.

This styling panel gives styles to the page level items ( wrapper, kicker, title, style, etc. )

Privateer - Default Page - Nav Styling
This panel contains options to give default styles to the different types of navigation menus used.

Privateer - Default Page - Post Styling
This panel contains options to style the different sections of posts ( wrapper, kicker, title, body, etc. )

Note 1: If you want all four archive pages to look different than your normal pages, you can style them via the Privateer - Archives menu...which will override the settings in Privateer - Default Page for the four archive types.

Note 2: If you want different styles for different page types, use the individual page menus to do that.

Step 7 : Tweaks for individual templates
I then go through the different template panels and setup anything extra that I want.
For example, if I want a title and some static content on the home page, I would go to Privateer - Home Page - Page Display and enter a title. Normally, static content above the posts would be placed in "Extra HTML Above Post Listing Area".

This is also where you would choose to make use of any custom display wanted. To use a custom display for a particular template, you would select "Custom Displays", select "Manage this custom display" for the display in question, load the options for the display, and then use the displays panels to set it up.

Step 8 : Configuring the comments
Comments can be configured via the Privateer - General Display - Comments menu.

Step 9 : Final touches
Finally, I would go through and specify a favicon ( Privateer - General Display - Favicon ), add any custom styles in via the html inserts option ( Privateer - General Display - CSS and JS Inserts ), and tweak the various html elements as desired.

From there, if I wanted to make other css changes, I would edit the core_css.php file located in the /privateer directory.

I'll post up a "clean" quickset ( one which has most styling stripped out of it ) along with more detailed instructions on doing the above later today.