This article is one step from our All About Courses: A Master Help Guide. We recommend starting with the visual walkthrough video and examples inside the Master Help Guide before diving into the technical breakdown below.
Each Master Help Guide acts as your project plan, teaching you the feature, laying out the steps in the right order, and linking to every resource you'll need along the way.
Your course theme is made up of two separate pages, each with their own settings. The Product page controls the overall styling of your course portal (the part students see before entering a lesson), while the Lesson page controls how the actual lesson looks and feels once a student clicks into it. Customising both ensures a consistent, professional experience from start to finish.
This guide is perfect if you want to:
Customise your course to match your brand
Edit your course portal's colours, fonts and layout, right down to each individual lesson
Add an upsell offer to your course sidebar
Save your customised design as a reusable template for future courses
Before you can start styling, you'll need to open the theme editor for your course. We recommend the Neo Classic Theme, as it offers the most customisation options, though you're welcome to start from a simpler theme instead if you'd prefer. If you already have a saved template from a previous course, you can apply it directly rather than starting from scratch, see our Apply a Custom Course Theme guide for those steps.
From the ivorey main menu, go to Courses > then along the top menu bar, hover over Courses > and click Products
Find the course you want to customise, and click into it
Click the [Customize] tab, on the left-hand side
New courses are created with the Neo Classic Theme applied by default, shown under Current Theme with an Active tag. Click the [Customize] button on this card to jump straight into styling it
Note: if you'd rather start from a different theme, or one of your own saved templates, click the [Browse Templates] button at the top right instead, preview your options, and click [Apply] on the one you'd like to use before continuing
You'll now land in the theme editor. At the top left, you'll see a [Pages:] drop-down menu, this is where you'll switch between styling your Product page (Step 2) and your Lesson page (Step 3) below
The Product page controls the overall branded look of your course portal, the part your students see before they dive into an individual lesson.
From the ivorey main menu, go to Courses > then along the top menu bar, hover over Courses > and click Products
Find the course you want to customise, and click into it
Click the [Customize] tab, on the left-hand side
Select [Product] from the [Pages:] drop-down at the top left of your screen > work through each tab along the left-hand side:
Layout: sets the overall colours, fonts and background for your Product
Color Theme - set your Base Colors and Accent Colors
Text Theme - choose your Primary Font and Secondary Font, and their weight (e.g. Regular)
Background Image - upload a background image (recommended dimensions 1280x720px), or click [Remove] to delete it, and adjust its Transparency
Header: customise the navigation bar and search field at the top of your Product page
Color Theme - set the Base Color and Icon Color
Search - set the Base Color, Border Color and Icon Color of your search bar, and edit its Placeholder Text (up to 500 characters)
Hero: customise the banner section at the top of your Product page
Appearance - toggle Show Hero on or off, choose a Color or Image background (recommended image dimensions 1280x384px), and toggle Show Overlay with its own Overlay Color
Course Info - edit your Course Title and Course Description text (each with its own colour and character limit), your Button Text, and your Button Fill colour for both its Regular and Hover states
Body: customise how your course content and category listings display, and add extra content if needed
Your Category Block is included by default and can't be removed. Set its Background Color (Base, Border and Hover colours), edit the Text Editor colours for your Category Title, Lesson Title, Lesson Description and Sub Category Title, and adjust the Sub Category Margin
Click [+ Add Block] to add extra content to your Product page: choose from an Image Block, Text Block, Video Block or Custom Block
Note: any block you add yourself can be removed at any time. Your default Category Block can't be deleted, as it's a standard part of your Product page
Sidebar: customise the blocks that appear in the sidebar alongside your course content
Progress Block - toggle the progress bar to Show or Hide, set its Background color, Progress bar color and Progress bar text color, edit its description text (up to 500 characters), and upload a cover image (recommended dimensions 1280x720)
Instructor block - click [Sync data from other page] to pull in existing instructor details, toggle Visibility and Headshot to Show or Hide, upload a headshot image (recommended dimensions 100x100px), and select a Background Color
Click [+ Add Block] to add more to your sidebar: choose from an Image Block, Call To Action, Cross Sell or Custom Block
Note: You can use the Cross Sell block to promote one of your other offers directly in your course sidebar, a great way to add an upsell to your course
Once you're happy with your Product page, click the [Save Changes] button at the top right of your screen
The Lesson page controls how each individual lesson looks and feels once a student clicks into it.
From the ivorey main menu, go to Courses > then along the top menu bar, hover over Courses > and click Products
Find the course you want to customise, and click into it
Click the [Customize] tab, on the left-hand side
Select [Lesson] from the [Pages:] drop-down at the top left of your screen > work through each tab along the left-hand side:
Layout: set your Color Theme (Base Colors and Accent Colors) and Text Theme (Primary Font and Secondary Font)
Breadcrumb: toggle the navigation trail that leads students back to your course homepage to Show or Hide, and set its Breadcrumb Color and Breadcrumb Active Color
Player: set the Background Color that displays behind your lesson video/audio player
Body: customise your lesson's text content and the buttons students interact with
Text: - set the Background Color, and edit your Lesson Title text (with its own colour)
Call To Action - customise the Lesson Incomplete button (shown before a student marks a lesson done) and the Lesson Completed button (shown after). For each, edit the Button Text, choose a Button Type (Solid Button or Link), and set the Button Fill, Button Border and Button Text colours for both the Regular and Hover states
Next Lesson Card Content - customise the prompt card shown after a student completes a lesson. Set the Card Background Color and Card Border Color, edit the Message Content text (e.g. "Great Job! Keep Going!") and its colour, and edit the Button Text (e.g. "Next lesson") along with its colour and the Next Lesson Title Color
Comments: customise the comment section shown underneath each lesson
Text - set the Background Color, edit the Heading text (e.g. "Comments") with its own colour, and customise the Comment text colors
Call To Action - customise the Comment Button. Edit the Button Text (e.g. "Comment"), choose a Button Type (Solid Button or Link), and set the Button Fill, Button Border and Button Text colours for both the Regular and Hover states
Sidebar - customise the blocks that appear in the sidebar alongside your lesson content
Course Content: set the Background Color, edit the Course Content Heading text (e.g. "Course Contents") with its own colour, and set the colours for Number Of Lessons, Item hover color, Item text color, Item border color, Sub category title and Sub category background
Instructor - click [Sync data from other page] to pull in existing instructor details, toggle Visibility and Headshot to Show or Hide, and upload a headshot image (recommended dimensions 100x100px)
Downloads - edit the Download Section Heading text (e.g. "Attached Files") with its own colour, and set the Background Color and Link Color
Click [+ Add Block] to add more to your sidebar: choose from an Image Block, Call To Action, Cross Sell or Custom Block. Use the Cross Sell block to promote one of your other offers directly in your course sidebar
Once you're happy with your Lesson page, click the [Save Changes] button at the top right of your screen
Once you're happy with both pages, you can preview your course portal before locking in your design.
Click the [Preview] button at the top right of your screen, to see how your course portal is looking. Click into a few of your lessons too, to check your styling looks right throughout your course, not just on your main portal page
You can rename your theme at any time by clicking the ✏ pencil icon next to its name, at the top of the editor
When you're happy with your design, click the [Save Changes] button at the top right of your screen > then click [← Back] at the top left of your screen, to return to the main Customize Theme screen
Your course will now use your customised theme, shown as Active under Current Theme. To make further edits at any time, click the [Customize] button on this card
If you'd like to reuse this design on future courses, without having to rebrand from scratch each time, click [Save as Template] instead. You can always tweak a saved template's colours, fonts or content for each individual course later. You'll find any saved templates listed under My Templates, ready to apply to future courses
If all of your modules, sub-modules or lessons are set to Draft, they won't display while you're customising your theme. Set at least one to [Published] first, so you can see and style your content properly. You can always switch it back to Draft once you've finished.
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