One of Big Medium's key strengths is the flexibility it provides in changing the look and feel of your website. By changing a site's design templates in Big Medium's section editor, you can quickly apply changes to the entire site. To do this, you can edit and create your own page templates. A faster alternative is to use the design of another site or one of Big Medium's pre-formatted "skins," which provide the look and structure for specific types of sites.

You can reconfigure an existing site by applying the templates of another site or skin, allowing you to overhaul the look and organization of an existing website with the click of a button. This process preserves all of the content of your site but puts it in a new design wrapper.

To give an existing site a new skin, click the "New Skin" link under "Templates" in the left-column menu of the Big Medium control panel. Big Medium presents a menu asking if you want to configure the site with the templates of a pre-formatted skin or (if there are other sites in the system) with the templates of another Big Medium site. Make a selection, and click the "Continue" button.

"How Would You Like To Apply the New Skin?"

The following page prompts you to "map" the new skin's sections to those of the current site. The left column displays the sections of the new skin. For each of these sections, a pulldown menu in the right column is provided for you to select which section of the current site should be replaced with the new skin section in the left column. After the new skin is applied, all of the articles for the sections you select in the right column will now be part of the section shown in the left column. After you make your selections, click "Continue."

"Confirm Your Section Mapping"

Before applying the new skin, Big Medium asks you to review your mapping one more time, displaying which section templates will be replaced by those of the new skin. If applicable, Big Medium also displays any new sections that will be added to the site from the skin and also any "surviving" sections from the current site. Surviving sections are sections from the current site that will not be changed; the templates of these sections will remain the same.

To confirm your section mapping, click the "Yes, Apply This Skin" button. To make changes, click the "No, I Want To Edit" button. Be careful! Clicking "Yes, Apply This Skin" will permanently replace the templates of your site with those of the new skin. This cannot be undone, so please check your section mapping carefully. (Note that only the design templates are replaced; all content of the current site remains intact).

Copy Content, Too?

If the skin or source site contains articles, Big Medium offers you the option to completely replace the current site's content with those articles. If you choose to copy the articles, all of the site's current articles will be deleted, and the skin's articles will be loaded in their place. Be careful! Copying the articles of the source site will delete and replace all of the current articles. If you want to save the current site's articles, do not copy the source articles.

After you make your selection, Big Medium will build all of the pages of the site. When you see the message "Finished Rebuilding Pages," the new skin is complete and your site is updated with its new look.

Need more help?

For further assistance and documentation, visit the website of Global Moxie, the developer behind Big Medium.