Modifying php bb forum

[realestate]

I created a phpbb forum: www.classical.biz

There are obvious problems: How do I change the looks of the site. I don't mean dowloading styles. I want to remove logo, and replace it with my own. Modify text, add links etc. It is not enough to do this for homepage.
( www.linkexchange.info/forum was screwed.. )

Someone on phpbb forum told me i need to change .tpl files. I don't know if I am competent enough to do it. Even if i can do it, it would take a lot of time.
There must be an easy way. How do others do it? Does everyone edit .tpl? I don't think so.

[imaginemn]

Modifying the template files is usually what you need to do unless you are adding a different style. The files are just html with some unique code embedded with the html. It usually looks like "{S_GROUPCP_ACTION}" or similar. You need to make sure you make a backup of your files and you keep these tags unless you don't need to display them. It's not as hard as it sounds.

If you are doing simple stuff most people should be able to do it. But it can get confusing if you don't know what you are looking for.

imaginemn

[fishfreek]

Changing the language of the text can usually be done by editing the lang_main.php file in the language/lang_english/ folder. But yes if you want to edit the 'look' then you must do it by editing the .tpl files. This is where 99% of the HTML code is located.

[realestate]

Thanks for responses. They were helpful. As you can see I was able to place a logo on www.classical.biz. But what I did: I deleted the file named "phpbb logo" and created another file with the same name. But now I want to be able to change file name also. I can't follow what refers to what. Ok, I see there are {..} type of commands. They are referencing to other files. But how can I know which file they are making references to. I need to see which files I need to modify. The rest should be easy.

[Pinyo]

usually editing overall_header.tpl and overall_footer.tpl in the templates > {template name} directory does it for me.

[fishfreek]

YOu will find the logo in the overall_header.tpl file. Just do a find for phpbb_logo or what ever the filename was then edit that image tag to reflect what ever graphic you want.

[Spiral]

One thing I suggest is to just play around with the tpl files before you post them. Make a small change, then upload it and see what you've done. Eventually you'll figure out what everything is and It becomes quite easy to edit.

I've managed to get all but one bug out of my custom template.

[Raybman]

I have found the phpBB.com web site very helpful on giving step by step instructions to customize the forum. Their Knowledge Base page is very easy to follow. To change the logo, go to the Styles section on that page. You will find many other instructions to change the look of the forum. If you use Dreamweaver, there are directions to give it the ability to edit the templates (.tpl files) that the forum uses. If you need to know what all the templates do, check out this list, it explains what each is used for. Be aware that the templates are not html files.

Good luck on your customization.
Ray

[robert adams]

check out this tutorial I wrote to change the logo, etc.
http://www.ezhostingexpress.com/support/phpbbhelp1.txt

luck,
robert

[Jonathan]

I just did the exact same thing, thanks for the help!

was so tired of the "logo here sign"