Saturday, October 31, 2009

SharePoint Themes

The easiest and fastest way to implement the same look and feel in any SharePoint site is the creation of a theme of the site. A SharePoint site theme basically consists theme.inf, theme.css, and image files. Theme.inf file basically represents the topic title. Theme.css is a stylesheet file that defines colors, header images and the layout of a site and image files can be referenced here to display on the page. When building a custom site theme, you can easily modify the style, but in fact, write and edit the style sheet can be chanllenging when more than one hundred items to try.
Here is a short procedure of creating a custom site theme named "Ghost":
  • Copy any theme folder in "C: Program Sharedweb extensions12TEMPLATETHEMES server FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft folder and paste with its name replaced with" Ghost ". In this example, copy GRANITE folder.
  • In Ghost folder, rename GRANITE.INF file for GHOST.INF capitalized.
  • GHOST.INF Open file with notepad.
  • Change the value of title under [Info] A Ghost.
  • Replace every word, Granite, under [titles] with Ghost.
  • Open "C: Program Sharedweb extensions12TEMPLATELAYOUTS1033SPTHEMES.XML server FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft" file with Notepad.
    • Add the following lines under <SPThemes> tag: <Templates> <TemplateID>Ghost</TemplateID> <DisplayName>Ghost</DisplayName> <Description>Ghost theme.</Description> <Thumbnail>images/thghost.gif</Thumbnail> <Preview>images/thghost.gif</Preview> </Templates>
  • For display thumbnail and preview correctly, you need to capture the screen and save the file "C: Program Sharedweb extensions12TEMPLATEIMAGES server FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft" folder named thghost.gif. You can change the file name. Gif if you change the image filenames in the preview label.
  • Make a iisrest for the server to recognize the new theme.
Fairly simple procedure. Now you are ready to test your new theme. In Site Settings, you can now choose Ghost theme, however, the issue is not different from the issue of granite. Now is the time for you to play with the theme.css file!

Posted by Rahul at 12:34 AM

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1 comments:

Lisa MacGregor said...

If you don't fancy playing with the theme.css file you could also look at the 3rd party themes available. There are several sites offering SharePoint Themes with notebook Styes worth a look. http://www.notebookStyles.co.uk
You can buy themes ready-to-use that can be deployed in as little as 15 minutes. You can also request the theme in your exact colours by telling them your HEX codes and they will create a custom theme for you. Worth a look !

February 23, 2010 7:29 AM

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