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Styling FAQ Question

The FAQ Question toolbar allows you to style only your questions.

This includes adding a border around all the questions (or just below them), giving them a different background color, and fine-tuning their position.

Below is a screenshot of the FAQ Question toolbar.

If you're ever unsure what a button does, hover over it for a second. Its function will appear as a tooltip.

Text

With the Text tools, you can customize the following for all of your FAQ questions...

• font type

• font size

• bold and italic

• text color

• text alignment

You can also customize other options by opening the Advanced Styles overlay.

Font Picker

Click on the A button to change the font of your questions. An overlay window opens on top of your template.

Click on a tab to see the fonts in that type of font. Be sure to scroll down to see the entire list.

Preview each font by hovering over its name and viewing the preview text.

Select the font you want to use. It will now have a red border.

Click on Set Font to save your selection.

The overlay window will close and the FAQ questions will immediately appear with the selected font.

Font Size

While it's important to make the font size big enough for your target audience to read, it could be slightly smaller than the main text.

Or, if you want to make it seem more important, make it slightly bigger than the main text size.

Click on the + button to make the text larger, or click on the – button to make it smaller.

The FAQ question text will immediately appear in a different size (one pixel bigger or smaller, per click) in the template. The size indicator will also change to the current pixel size.

Click on that button again to continue increasing or decreasing the font size. The size indicator will continue to change.

You can also click on the current size number (in the screenshot below, 15). This opens a small edit box. Double-click on the number to highlight it, then type in the size you want.

Click anywhere in the toolbar to close the box. You'll see your new number there, and the text will display in that new size.

Bold and Italic

You may decide to bold or italicize the questions, to make them stand out from the answers.

Keep in mind, however, that if you have all the answers closed (a setting in BB2), there will be a lot of bold on the page, and almost nothing that's not bold.

If you plan to have all the answers open all the time, or one answer open at a time, then bolding the question(s) will help them stand out.

Text Color

The color of your questions should suit the overall look of your template.

But, more importantly, it needs to provide a good user experience for your readers. That means making it a high contrast color.

Black text on a white background is by far the easiest to read online, as that's what we're accustomed to reading offline. Dark gray on white is almost as good.

Using a dark shade of a color on a lighter shade of the same color will make your content hard to read.

White on black tends to be harder to read as well, although many sites directed towards younger audiences use this to good effect.

The most important factor here is readability. Choose a font color that your audience can read easily. If that means selecting black over a color that might fit the color scheme of your site, go with black.

Click on the Color Palette button. This opens an overlay window with the color picker.

Select the color you want from the palette, enter a 6-character hex value, or select a color from Your Custom Colors.

You can also go back to the original color in your template by clicking on Reset to Template Default.

Click on Set Text Color to save your selection. The overlay window will close. You'll see the FAQ questions with this color change.

Tips

• The color inside the small circle is indicated in the hex value box. Alternately, entering a 6-character hex value changes the location of the small circle inside the palette.

• Dragging the slider in the rainbow column leaves the small circle in the same position on the palette, as the colors change beneath it.

• As you set colors in the various color pickers (text, border, background), those colors are added to the "crayon box" (called Your Custom Colors) for easy access when editing other parts of your template. Use Your Custom Colors to create a color scheme for your site.

Alignment

The default alignment for the answers is left-aligned. That alignment makes for the easiest on-screen reading.

Why? Because it gives readers a standard left edge while also providing useful "end-of-line" cues to help them move from one line to the next.

Advanced Styles

Advanced Styles for text allow you to change various options for how the FAQ questions appear on your pages.

Letter Spacing lets you add or remove space between the letters in every word in every FAQ question on any page of your site.

Click on the + button to add space, and the – button to remove space. Or click on the Revert button to go back to the default spacing.

Word Spacing lets you add or remove space between every word in every FAQ question on any page of your site.

Click on the + button to add space, and the – button to remove space. Or click on the Revert button to go back to the default spacing.

Line Height lets you add or remove space between every line in every FAQ question on any page of your site.

Click on the + button to increase the line height, and the – button to decrease it. Or click on the Revert button to go back to the default line height.

Font Variant lets you switch to an ALL CAPS version of your font. Any letter that would normally be capitalized has a slightly larger height than the "lowercase" letters.

Text Transform lets you set each word to start with a Capitalized Letter, or have every word start with a lower text letter, or make every letter a CAPITAL.

When you're done, click on the x in the top left corner of the overlay to close it and return to the Site Designer main toolbar.

Border

You can add (or remove) a border or parts of a border around the FAQ questions, change its width and color, and add rounded corners to one, some or all of the borders.

Border Width

If you want a border around each question, add one here.

If you didn't add a border to the bottom of the Q/A Container, you may want to add one to the top of the questions. This will separate the question/answer pairs visually.

Do not use more than one horizontal border if you plan to have all the answers closed.

You can decrease the width to 0, effectively making the borders disappear. You'll see no borders next to the red dashed lines outlining the two questions.

Click on the + button to increase the width of the border. This affects all the sides that have a border. You cannot increase the width of an individual border.

Click on the – button to decrease the width of the border.

The four buttons that indicate the left, right, top and bottom (discussed below) will also change. The dark edge around each button will disappear, indicating that the border has been turned off.

Border Color

You can make the border stand out more by changing its color. Use a color that's part of your template's overall color scheme.

If your template is mostly green, or brown, choosing a brown or green will likely suit your colors. But hot pink or bright red would not.

Click on the Color Palette button to open the color picker overlay.

Select a color from the palette by clicking anywhere on the palette, or by dragging the small circle.

To reach the palette's color base you want (e.g., red, purple, green, etc.), click on and drag the rainbow slider.

The palette color you select appears in the square on the right.

If you know the exact color you want for the border, type in the 6-character hex value in the text box next to the # symbol. Enter only letters and/or numbers -- don't add the # symbol. The color you want will then appear in the square on the right, above the hex value.

If you've selected at least one custom color, you'll be able to select a color from Your Custom Colors as well.

If, after a few color selections, you decide that you don't like any of them, you can start over again by clicking on Reset to Template Default. This will give the border the original color specified in the template's CSS file.

Once you're satisfied with the border color, click Set Border Color to save that selection. Or click Cancel to leave the tool without making any changes to the border color.

Borders On and Off

You can have borders around all four sides of each FAQ answer, around just one, or around two or three.

Again, we recommend adding it only to the top, and only if you didn't add one to the bottom of the Q/A Container.

Turn on a border, or turn an existing border off, by clicking on its button.

Advanced Styles

You can add rounded corners to the four corners of your answers using the Border advanced styles options.

You can also select the type of border you want (solid, dotted, etc.).

Rounded Corners

Your boxes do not need borders to round the corners, although visitors will only see the corners if you apply a border or a background color (see the Background section, below).

Click on the gears button to open the Advanced Styles overlay.

Click on any of the four rounded corner buttons to apply rounded corners to that particular corner. Or click on the + button to apply rounded corners to all of them.

Click on the + button to increase the radius (the curve) of the rounded corner(s). Click on the – button to decrease the radius.

Continue clicking on the – button to remove all the rounded corners. Or use the Revert button to remove them in one click and restore your FAQ questions style to their last saved state.

Border Style

You can also choose the type of border you'd like to have around your FAQ questions. There are four styles to choose from, plus no border (the first button).

1. A regular solid border.

2. A dashed (broken) border.

3. A dotted border.

4. A two-line border. Note that the space between the lines is "hollow" and will show part of any color or background image beneath it.

Background

You have several options for the background of your questions.

You can select a color from the color palette. You can also keep the background as is, with no changes, or revert to the default for your template.

Background Color

Select a background color that suits your template's overall color scheme.

For example, if your template's color scheme is various shades of green, you may want to choose another shade of green. Or perhaps a brown color would work.

But a pink or a bright orange would not likely be a good choice.

Click on the color palette button to open the color picker.

Select your color by clicking on the palette or dragging the small circle around the palette. Click on the rainbow slider to reach the desired palette of colors.

Or you can enter a 6-character hex value for the color you want to use.

You can also choose from a color in Your Custom Colors, which is available after you've selected at least one custom color in any of the color pickers. Hover over any color to see where else in your design that you've used that color.

Another option is to choose Transparent. This will make the background beneath your questions and answers the same color as the page where you put the FAQ Block.

Click on Set Background Color to save your change. The overlay window will close and your new background color will appear.

Upload Background Image

If you would like your questions to sit on something more than just a background color, you can upload an image.

Most background images are small images that are then "tiled," that is, they're repeated from left to right, or from top to bottom, or both.

So ensure that you have an image that looks good when repeated multiple times across and down the page, especially since each question can have a different length.

You may have to experiment with different image widths and heights until you find the right image size that looks good when tiled.

Click on the Upload Image button (second from the left in the toolbar). This will open an overlay window...

Click on Browse (Choose File if you're using Safari) to locate the file. Click to select it.

Click on Upload New Background Image to upload it.

The overlay window will close. You'll see the answers with your new background image.

Remove Background Image

If you uploaded a background image, but decide you'd like to have no image, you can remove it.

The background image appearing behind each question will disappear, leaving you with the current background color.

Reset

You can also reset the background image changes you made. This resets only the background image settings.

It does not affect the text settings you made (above) or any other changes to your template.

Position

You can fine tune the position of your questions with the Position options of Margin and Padding.

The Margin Left and Right make the space for the questions narrower (+ button) or wider (– button).

You can also click on the number and type in the margin you want.

The Margin Top and Bottom increase the amount of white space (+ button) above and below the questions, or decrease the amount of space (– button).

You can also click on the number and type in the margin you want.

Padding Left and Right add space to the left or right of the questions (+ button) or remove space (– button).

You can also click on the number and type in the padding you want.

Padding Top and Bottom add space above and below the questions (+ button) or remove space (– button).

You can also click on the number and type in the padding you want.

You can also switch from pixels (px) to percentages (%). Click on px and select % from the small menu. To switch back to pixels, repeat the process.

Click on any of the buttons or a combination to position the questions exactly where you want them.