With many members using Joomla 1.6 and Gantry having the ability to use 12 or 16 columns we are seeing more requests on how to set up 16 columns as the default. Please note the steps are different for Joomla 1.5 and this has been covered many times in the forums.
Here are the steps required.
In J!1.6 template values are stored in the database. This means that in J!1.6 changing a "hidden" value won't have an effect in the database.
So you have to add a field like the following to the template admin by editing the template-options.xml file that is in your template directory (e.g. rt_modulus_j16/template-options.xml)
The original code is...<field name="grid_system" type="hidden" default="12"/>
...and needs to be changed to this...
<field name="grid_system" type="text" default="16" />
There are some other little things you need to change in order for the template to work correctly when choosing layouts.
The changes are basically the following lines for each position (which must total 16 not 12)...
<words>2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10</words>
to
<words>2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13</words>
and
default="3,3,3,3"
to
default="4,4,4,4"
Some positions, such as mainbody, may have defaults set as "6,3,3" and this can be changed to "8,4,4" or anything else that adds up to 16.
Don't forget to clear J!1.6 cache after making these changes. If you go to template admin > layouts before clearing cache you will see incorrect displays. Clear cache and then go back to layouts and all will be well.
Now to activate the 16 columns you need to go to the template admin and type 16 into the columns text-field and SAVE it. (see attached image).
You now have your RocketTheme Gantry template set to 16 columns in Joomla 1.6.
Hope this helps