RSSThe new face of SharePoint 2007, a first look at the new themes …
Sep 14
The following themese come standard out-of-the-box. I figured I would save you the hassle of applying every single one while looking for your favorite.
These should keep you occupied for awhile – I’ll have a v3 theme pack to release soon enough.
Belltown
Breeze
Cardinal
Citrus
Classic
Default Theme
Granite
Jet
Lacquer
Lichen
Obsidian
Petal
Plastic
Reflector
Simple
Verdant
Vintage
Wheat
Sep 14, 2006 @ 16:37:53
these themes look great, can’t wait really.
Thanks again for all the help & frequent posts.
Sep 20, 2006 @ 04:38:29
Hi
U have created cool themes, but I’d wanna know how to create themes not copy someone elses. I’d really need some tips how to customize/edit MOSS2007/WSS 3.0 sites with SP Designer 2007.
Sep 20, 2006 @ 06:52:53
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Sep 20, 2006 @ 09:27:57
Lauri,
A couple of things:
1) The themes listed above are not mine, they’re the out-of-the-box themes. (I have however created a free theme pack (v2) – which you can download at http://www.infotechcanada.com/teamtools)
2) You basically create your own themes “based on existing ones”. It’s simply MUCH faster to duplicate and existing theme and custmoize it as there are 100’s and 100’s of classes. It would be very counter-productive to go through a SharePoint site – identify every element that has a class and then do the CSS.
Don’t feel as though you are not being creative by using a starting point, it’s the best and recommended way.
Sep 21, 2006 @ 01:17:12
Actually I am dublicating and customizing the themes, but I really need some good tips etc…It is getting kinda frustrating when U don’t see that much results…
Sep 21, 2006 @ 04:33:51
Lauri,
I will create a post on “Tips for working with Themes” which should help a little. I will post it in the next day or so as a main blogpost rather than limit the audience to a single set of comments.
In the meantime “Patience” is your single best friend when working with themes.
There are 100’s and 100’s of classes spread across multiple style-sheets often times duplicated styles, missing properties etc. Hang in there once you get a single-solid starting point you’ll be cranking out themes in no time.
Sep 21, 2006 @ 05:14:23
Cheers mate that would be excellent…
Sep 26, 2006 @ 04:05:11
Hi,
As per Lauri’s reply, I too are duplicating a theme from an existing one.
My question is,
Once you have duplicated a theme (say the CLASSIC one) changed it’s name and also changed the colours etc.
How do you then get you new theme (save it) into the list of themes in site settings?
Thanks in advance
Jason
Sep 26, 2006 @ 05:27:42
Hi Guys,
I have not forgotten about this – I am a little slammed with work at the moment.
To quickly answer your question Jason, a couple of things:
1) Search this blog for Theme Setup and Creation, or Theme Setup – I have step by step instructions for setting up themes – it’s the same as the previous version.
2) Basically it’s the SPTHEMES.XML file + The .INF file within your THEME folder which work the magic for having it show up in the list. The quick steps:
1) rename the .INF inside your theme folder to read YOURTHEMENAME.INF
2) open the .INF and change the TITLE= line to read TITLE=YOURTHEMENAME
3) Locate the SPTHEMES.XML (Also hiding in the 12 HIVE) file and add a template entry – just copy/paste and existing one and change it to suit your new theme.
Sep 26, 2006 @ 05:48:47
Shane,
Fantastic. Thank you & thankyou again. It worked great.
Not something I would have known.
I will search your blog for the theme setup instructions.
Thanks for the quick response as well!!
All the best
J
Sep 28, 2006 @ 03:01:42
Thank you a lot = )
Oct 03, 2006 @ 21:47:01
can you tell sharepoint to choose set your theme as the default theme fro every site you create from that point forward??
I made a branding theme and now i want to have it be applied every time a site is created. Can this be done?
Oct 04, 2006 @ 01:36:01
Alex,
If you apply a theme to a site template (.STP) your site will have that theme when you create a new site based on your template.
For WSS … As far as “every site you create”, sites are provisioned using a site definition – each being different. All sites do start with a default stylesheet(s) OWS.CSS – however editing the default file-system files is not supported, or recommended. The site template route is your best option in my opinion.
In the case of SharePoint Server, you can set an alternate stylesheet to be applied to new sites.
Shane
Oct 04, 2006 @ 08:00:14
the only concern per se i had with this route, is that for my case i would have to make stp files for each site category we need (kinda like duplicates only difference being theme applied).
When you say OWS.CSS do you mean CORE.CSS? I want to keep out of file system modifications, but keep my customization deployable as possible…
In themes I see practical application of styles, but since they dont “trickle down” to subsites and new sites – they turn impractical pretty soon… In creating *.stp files, i found it hard to make portable from one box to another… everything was fine on the same server but i couldnt just pack up my stp and upload it easily to a new box (even if i uploaded the master pages and layout etc that i modified on the first box)
I spent a lot of time looking into guides that tell you “how to make *.stp and deploy them” but havent found anything monumentally great..
do you have any resources on this you recommend or found useful? have you done this?
Oct 23, 2006 @ 07:30:34
Shane,
Thanks for the blog entry. It has saved me quite a bit of time…
I have problem concerning the creation of my own themes. Modifying theme.css works very well. However, when applying this theme to a new site, only some of the modifications are shown. Could you explain the three css-files that Sharepoint uses:
theme.css
“numbers”.css
mossExtensions.css
Thanks!
Peter Arvidsson
Oct 23, 2006 @ 07:35:25
Peter,
1) Sorry for the terrible comment background if you are viewing via the web.
2) I’m pushed for time atm but to quickly cover your issue;
- when you apply a theme to a site what happens is the MOSSextension.css is appended to the bottom of your theme.css and a new file is formed 1011-65001.css which is then applied to your site. Search the 1011-65001.css file for ms-sbcell – that’s where the append takes place. Anything AFTER SBcell is going to overwrite/add to your theme.css styles should the same class appear.
It’s quite possible this also happens with numbers tho I have not researched that one.
Nov 29, 2006 @ 15:30:03
So how do i apply and STP file to a 2007 share point site? I have downloaded a few stp templates already, however, all the “read me” instruction are for 2003.
Dec 24, 2006 @ 23:53:46
I want to know if i want to create my customized site theme ..What is the process to do it?
Jan 30, 2007 @ 08:15:01
Shane,
You mentioned some months ago that you would have a v3 theme pack to release soon. Has this happened and I just missed it?
We used themes (both SharePoint and FrontPages) to create third party sites quickly in WSS V2. However, after beginning the development of our new template sites in WSS V3, I find that Designer no longer has themes available so our quick customization options have be cut dramatically.
Aug 06, 2007 @ 21:35:48
How to create our own themes for top level site and MySites as i have created branding template and i want same template as default template for all sites going to be created underneath.
Apr 28, 2008 @ 23:55:27
Hi Shane i have Problem with share point Home Page
i Changed the Banner of my Home Page(Share point site) using Share Point designer (Edit in Share point Designer) it is not displayed(my company banner) when administrator log in to the site but it is displayed when users log into the site what is the Reason..? Please help me…..iam trying for this problem since two days .
Oct 05, 2008 @ 01:22:51
hi Janardhan.
I think you may not have “checked in or published” the picture of your banner. may be it’s the reason !