A utility class is a class that defines a set of methods that perform common, often re-used functions. Your template includes a number of helpful utility classes to help style your content. In Joomla there is a number of different methods of adding a class name to an element..

Inline Styling

The most basic method is inline directly in to the HTML of your document. Note that this method is only used when your are viewing the HTML source of your document either via the CodeMirror editor or the source/HTML option available in most other editors. An example would look something like the following....

<h2 class="padding-bottom-40">
    A Sample Heading
</h2>

The above class name of padding-bottom-40 will add a padding (space) of 40px to the bottom of the text.

Module Class Suffix (Module)

This method is specific to modules. If you click in to the settings of any module and select the 'Advanced' tab you will notice a 'Module Class Suffix' field. Simply add the utility class to apply the CSS of this class to the enitre module. An popular example would be the utility class 'text-light' which will convert all the text within a module to white which you will find useful if you have a dark background image or color set for the module area background. Note you can add as many classes as you like by simply separating them with a space.

text-light

Link CSS Style (Menu Items)

This final method is specific to menu items. Clicking in to the settings of any menu item (Menus -> [YourMenu] -> [YourMenuItem]) and selecting the 'Link Type' you will notice a 'Link CSS Style' field. This will allow you to apply a class to that particular menu item.


Text/Icons Color Classes

Class
text-light
text-dark

Padding & Margin Classes

Class
padding-top-0
padding-top-5
padding-top-10
padding-top-15
padding-top-20
padding-top-30
padding-top-40
padding-top-60
padding-bottom-0
padding-bottom-5
padding-bottom-10
padding-bottom-15
padding-bottom-20
padding-bottom-30
padding-bottom-40
padding-bottom-60
padding-horiz-10
padding-horiz-20
padding-horiz-30
padding-horiz-40
padding-horiz-60
padding-vert-10
padding-vert-20
padding-vert-30
padding-vert-40
padding-vert-60
Class
margin-top-0
margin-top-5
margin-top-10
margin-top-15
margin-top-20
margin-top-30
margin-top-40
margin-top-60
margin-bottom-0
margin-bottom-5
margin-bottom-10
margin-bottom-15
margin-bottom-20
margin-bottom-30
margin-bottom-40
margin-bottom-60
margin-horiz-10
margin-horiz-20
margin-horiz-30
margin-horiz-40
margin-horiz-60
margin-vert-10
margin-vert-20
margin-vert-30
margin-vert-40
margin-vert-60

Background Color Classes

ClassColor
background-white  
background-black  
background-gray  
ClassColor
background-gray-dark  
background-gray-light  
background-gray-lighter  

It is worth noting that we have not used !important with any of these classes, therefore if you apply a utility class to an element that has !important CSS styling applied to it then this styling will not be overridden.

If you like this feature please let us know in our forums and we will extend on this in future template releases!