Dreamwidth Styles

How to create a theme layer for advanced customization

2009-12-03T11:07:45Z

Posted by: afuna

This entry is a basic how to; it's meant to answer the question "How do you create and use a theme layer" and (very briefly) "What are layers?", "Why use a theme layer?".

The basic settings to customize your theme can be accessed and modified via the Customize Journal Style page. However, if you're doing something more complicated, you may need to modify code snippets or manually set some variables. For these, you will need to know how to create a theme layer and attach it to your style.

First of all, a quick rundown of terms:

A style is what is applied to your journal, and it is made up of several layers. A layout layer is the basic structure or framework of the style. Customizations via the Customize Journal Style page will be saved as auto-generated customizations in a user layer. Any other modifications you make, you should do in a theme layer. A theme layer can contain system-provided default color settings; it can also contain any additional advanced customizations you wish to apply to your journal.

Technically, you can just modify a user layer, and it seems easier to do that, because it's already been created for you and you can skip the few steps required to create and attach a new theme layer to your style. However, this is a bad idea, because hand-edited changes to a user layer may be erased the next time you use the wizard. To be safe, always create a separate theme layer if you need to edit something manually.

( on with the how to )

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The Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating a Color Theme

2009-09-15T02:20:57Z

Posted by: zvi

The purpose of this guide is to help you change the colors on a style using only the wizard; then save the color settings in a way (as a theme layer) that allows you to re-use them; and, last but not least, share your color settings for other people to use. Remember, if your theme is accepted as an official theme, you get two months of paid time.

You do not have to know any HTML, CSS, S2, or programming to use this method. The most advanced technical skill involved is cut and paste.

NB: This procedure will not work with Zesty. Zesty has to be rewritten to be a real official style.

( On to the guide! )

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So you don't want to have to write your own sidebar code*

2009-04-17T15:15:43Z

Posted by: dani_the_girl

* Or header code or footer code....

And who can blame you! Fortunately, Core v2 is here to help :) Yes, you can now get a whole batch of juicy sidebar modules for free along with some EXTREMELY SHINY wizard options to go with them (and then you will bow down and kiss the ground under afunas feet). The process is simple, assuming you know the basics of what S2 is and what writing your own layout layer involves. If you do and you want to get in on the action, read on and I will explain it ( herein. )

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