Changing looks and options
In our third “how to” we will have a look at some other options that are accessible with Yclas. In the previous two posts, we have discussed how we can create our first classifieds website, how to change the theme of our website, how to create categories, and how to post our first advertisement. Now it is time for the next steps and added some new options.
Step 1 - Change the theme color
Last time we changed the theme from the Ocean theme to the Responsive theme. The standard color of the theme is red, but we are going to change it to green.
To do this go to “Appearance” and then to “Theme Options”. Here we can change the color to green on the “change the color scheme and style of the theme” selector. We select green here and save our changes by clicking on the blue “update” button at the bottom of the page.
Our site will now look like this:
Step 2 - Add widgets
To add more functionalities to our website we can also add the so-called widgets. These are very small applications that can be installed easily on a certain part of your website. For example in the sidebar, header, or footer.
Let's go to “Appearance” and then “Widgets”. Here we will find an overview of all the available widgets.
To install a widget we simply click on the blue “create” button of the preferred widget. We will install the “categories” widget first. After having clicked on the create button of the “categories” widget, we will see this window. Here we can select where we want to locate the widget. We choose to display the categories on the sidebar. We click the blue “save changes” button and our widget will be installed.
We do the same for the “contact” widget.
After having installed both widgets we will see that both widgets are installed on the sidebar. This can be seen on the right side of our screen.
Then when you go to our website, clicking on one of the advertisements you will see the categories and contact widgets displayed on the right side of the sidebar.
With the categories widget,t we can see which category we are currently in. In our case, that is “complete bicycles”. Next to that, we can navigate to other available categories from this widget.
Also, there is a contact form. With this form we can contact the advertiser. Filling in a subject, a message and the correct captcha will send an email to the person who posted the ad. Is it as simple as that!
Customizing your marketplace in 2026: Nova theme options and widget areas
The steps above were written for older themes and an older admin panel. The Ocean theme is no longer offered, and every new Yclas site now starts on the Nova theme. The menu that used to be called "Appearance" is now Design, with five entries: Themes, Theme Options, Widgets, Menu and Custom CSS. The ideas haven't changed, but some settings have moved.
Colors: one accent color instead of preset schemes
Older themes such as Responsive Listings (still available with red, pink and green skins) let you pick from a fixed list of colors. Nova works differently. Under Design › Theme Options › Color you choose a single accent color for buttons, links and highlights. As the Yclas features page puts it, that one color restyles the whole site. Leave it blank to keep Nova's green. A second field sets the hover color, and if you leave it blank Nova darkens your accent color automatically.
Nova shows white text on accent-colored buttons, so pick a color that is dark enough. The W3C's WCAG 2.2 contrast guideline (SC 1.4.3) asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text, which it defines as at least 18 point, or 14 point bold. Pale yellows, light greens and light pinks usually fail against white. Check your color in a contrast checker before you save it.
The other look-and-feel settings in Nova
| What you want to change | What you can set in Design › Theme Options |
|---|---|
| Logo | Upload a PNG, recommended size 250 × 40 px. Without a logo you can show a Font Awesome icon next to the site name. |
| Home page hero | Background image (recommended 1920 × 640 px), headline and the text under it |
| "How it works" band | Show or hide it, and edit the three steps for sellers and the three for buyers |
| Font | Nova's Plus Jakarta Sans, or the visitor's system font |
| Layout | Sidebar position (or no sidebar), breadcrumbs, infinite scroll on listing pages, and right-to-left text |
For anything Theme Options doesn't cover, use Design › Custom CSS.
Widgets in Nova
The Categories and Contact widgets from this guide still exist, along with Text (HTML), Image, Pages, Share, Follow, Search, Locations and Featured Ads. Nova has three widget areas: Sidebar, Footer and Post a listing (the page where users post). It has no header area. Drag widgets into Inactive to hide them and keep their settings.
One thing to know before you add sidebar widgets: when the sidebar is empty, Nova shows its own filters on category pages (keyword, category, location, price and custom fields). Once you add any widget to the sidebar, those filters no longer show on category pages. The search results page still shows them. If you only want an extra box, such as a contact or text widget, add a Search widget to the sidebar too so visitors can still filter. You can also turn Nova's filters off completely in Theme Options.
As you have seen it is very easy to change your website and add extra functionalities. Also, technical knowledge is not needed. Next time we will discover some other options that Yclas offers!
