Introduction

The Panels module is, at its heart, a visual tool for layout design. Layered on top of this core is a sometimes overwhelming myriad of features and suite of modules that give a new meaning to flexibility and ease of use. In this chapter, we will be concentrating on the layout and theming aspects of this module.

Panels are useful for everything from creating complex landing pages such as the front page of a site, to overriding system pages and replacing them with a custom layout. Besides being used to lay out the content of a page, they can just as easily be embedded within nodes or even within other panels. This enables us to design and implement complex layouts virtually at the click of a few buttons.

The previous screenshot illustrates a typical panel layout. In the screenshot, Top, Left side, and Right side represent regions within the panel. Each region can contain an unlimited number of panes which are not restricted in what they can contain. For example, the Top region contains...