Executive Pro Possible Inflexibilities & Suggestion for Another Pls?

[Catherine_B]

Greetings - I've written so much below to describe the issue, I apologize; I'm trying to help someone help me by being specific - and I don't know where else to turn to for help under this pressure of a site being due. I'm bogged down, and nothing is making sense by now.

I'm under a fast looming deadline and having an awful time with Exec Pro (a beautiful design). (Experience-wise, I've done 3-4 genesis SP templates in the past + an ithemes one; also do regular html websites, so I'm not exactly new but am feeling somewhat clueless on this one.) I think reading the theme setup 'first' might be smart next time.

I may have picked the wrong template and need advice. My draft looks terrible, and if I understand correctly from the setup, there are unforeseen template limitations I won't be able to overcome. I need help badly and any suggestions to dig out of this hole, please and thank you in advance!

This is for a law firm, so must be tasteful (grays-neutrals, white, blue). I need to remove all 'blog text': dates, edit, comments, typical blog stuff, etc. (The only reason for choosing a CMS in the first place is because one attorney wishes the option to update her news page.)

What I want is - basically like Flex, but responsive:

1--A menu for pages with firm links above ...

2-... a full-width header (if it's responsible, otherwise an 'easy' right+left header logo/left + text - or text image); in other words, I get to choose what goes in the left and right header block. Not giant that fills the screen. Option to use a tag line.

3--Another menu below the header for their practice areas, with drop-down sublevels for the sub-specialties of each practice area.

4--A right sidebar that 'I' can pick what goes in; such as a vertical page list, text boxes, clickable images I can code inside text boxes, a video, definitely a contact 7 form, etc. Don't need the sidebar on the first page if I can get a big call to action bar on there; that's important. But I need the right sidebar everywhere else. Unless there is no call to action bar, then I need that sidebar on the home page.

5--I don't think I need a slider.

6--Below the above-header top menu, header, below-header menu, I must have 3 main feature+short content columns with a featured picture for each that 'I' can choose the photo & text content for; ie, photos that are not required to be pulled from featured page images + the text I want. *Is that even possible in a cms site?*

7--A big call to action bar like in ExecPro would be really great - that's what got me interested in ExecPro in the first place. *Can I get one with another template?

8--Usual footer, 3 columns, that I can choose the content for.

>>In other words, basically like Flex, an old favorite I've used - but responsive, and more flexible like Daily Dish Pro, which I did a few months ago.

*What I'm noticing in ExecPro - if I'm reading things correctly - are roadblocks to what I need, such as:

a--The header logo left side is forced small; the right header side is inflexible; The template allows a custom menu in the right-header block only; you can't choose where to put that custom menu. I need to put the company nap in the right-header block. Then it appears that particular custom header menu is the only choice of menu for the in the right sidebar. So header and menu are limited. And it won't let you use a tag line.

b--The 3 featured columns on the ExecPro home page requires a featured pic first be on the actual page + pulls text snippets those pages. Choice of number of words for text below those column pics on the home page, or no text. I guess it's impossible to have custom text?

c--Need more freedom in the right sidebar; seems to be limited to certain home page widgets only that don't allow what I need.

d--I'm having trouble adding wide text across the page, under the 3 featured column section. That may be me not knowing how to code the div for it, but that still leaves all the other roadblocks (as I see them).

e--And I can't seem to get rid of the sidebar on the home page, either. If it's empty, the box and generic text still show.

f--I need to be able to insert my own html code in sidebar text boxes.

g--An after-entry widget area (like lifestyle) could be useful. *Do only certain ones have that?

SO - I've wasted more than 2 days slogging around; I'm sure my viewpoint and perceptions are in the way because I'm so bogged down, and the light bulb is flickering but won't come on. I need a responsive SP theme (not 3rd party; I need the forum support).

Templates that look promising the second time around are:

magazine pro
news pro
lifestyle pro
streamline pro
focus pro (but don't see the 3 featured picture columns, + the colors don't suit)

Thoughts from anyone please? I'm standing by, studying the tuts & setups.

THANK YOU!

--------------------------------
I did this html site, it has the look I want:

This simple daily dish pro theme I did was so easy: http://www.provocativethinking.com/

[Victor Font]

You can change anything you want in any StudioPress template. The Genesis Framework provides a lot of flexibility. Most of the functionality may be changed by editing the theme's functions.php or style.css. There are many code snippets here: http://my.studiopress.com/snippets/. They will teach you a little about hooks and filters. Everything you are asking is doable in Executive Pro if you understand the framework. Take a look at http://yellowwoodgroup.com and http://cobinlaw.com/. Both of these sites are built from Executive Pro.

---

Regards,

Victor
https://victorfont.com/
Call us toll free: 844-VIC-FONT (842-3668)
Have you requested your free website audit yet?

[Catherine_B]

Hi Victor - Thank you for writing.

The Yellowwoodgroup site in particular has the components I'm looking for, but it looks very complex. Very nice job. I remember from reading your posts before that you have a ton of experience. I did not know about the helpful snippets and have reviewed them, thanks! I don't see the particular ones I need this time, though. Sadly there isn't time by this weekend (!) to get up to speed sufficiently on the framework and php coding for a lot of style revisions.

With time short, I may need a template design that's more 'ready out of the box' than many code customizations.

[Catherine_B]

UPDATE - I switched to streamline pro, which is working out a lot better. Thanks!

[Author]

Posts