Posted by 
michal frackowiak on 1155986981|%e %b %Y|agohover, last edited by 
Max Fernandes on 1241667630|%e %b %Y at %H:%M |agohover
This document is a work-in-progress. Please contribute if you wish!
This is a howto that describes a way to create your own appearance for your site.
Introduction
A theme is a structured template, written in a markup language called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), that controls the appearance and graphical layout of a page. The theme defines the font to be used, its size, the location of text, colors, and background images. However, themes are independent from the actual informational content of the page, so they make it possible to change the visual presentation without having to re-enter the actual text or other data.
Wikidot.com already offers a several basic CSS themes to choose from. But it is certainly never a bad idea to create your very own look for your site. The whole trick is to write new CSS code that is placed upon the existing themes so you do not have to write everything from scratch. E.g. to just change most of the colors you need to produce as much as 20 lines of code. And this HOWTO will tell you how.
There are collections of user-created CSS-themes on open wikis:
Before you start your own theme you should have a look about possible and existing layouts!
Basics
When creating a new theme you will have to extend already existing themes. Custom themes are created per site and are available only within a given site.
To create new themes you will certainly need some CSS and design skills. You can learn a lot at sites like the following:
- w3schools - css
- tutorial and reference documents.
- Web 2.0 Design Guide - Why it works
- "It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Zen Garden - The Beauty of CSS Design
- A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.
- css/edge
- A rejection of what's practical in favor of what's possible. complexspiral example
- ColorBlender
- makes it very quick and easy to create a color scheme for e.g. a website.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Manage the Site's Appearance
Go to the Site Manager (by default available at the page admin:manage). There should be a link on the side bar of your pages.
Click on Appearance » Custom Theme.
Of course you will need an administrator role within the Site.
Step 2: Create a Custom Theme
If you already have some custom themes defined you should see them listed. In order to create a new one:
- click create a new theme
- choose a name for the theme
- choose a theme you want to extend…
You can basically extend any theme available. However if you want to start from a plain look as much as possible than you should choose Base theme. Every theme on Wikidot.com extends the Base theme. This theme contains basic layout for pages, dialogs, forum etc. We will come back to it later.
But if you just want to change e.g. colors in an already available theme, then choose this theme (e.g. change colors in the Cappuccino theme).
At the moment suppose you want to extend the Base theme.
Choose an editing method
The box with the title 'CSS code' shows the CSS in your custom theme. It begins blank (it doesn't display the CSS from the theme you are extending, only the additional CSS you build on top of this. The additional code will appear after the end of the original theme and override existing definitions).
There are 2 ways to manage your CSS code: put it directly into the box or (which we recommend) keep all the CSS code in a separate special page on your wiki, and use the 'import' button to import it to the box. This way you can easily keep revisions of your theme as you do with wiki pages. The CSS is extracted from the first [[code]] … [[/code]] block in the specified page. The process of taking code from the 'sync' page isn't an automatic one - so each time you change it you have to use the custom theme administration controls and click "import" and "save theme".
So we recommend here to open a new window in your browser and create a (empty) page called css:mytheme (or any other that suits you). Put this name in the theme form.
The “save theme” function will not export the code back in your CSS wiki-page but record the content of the box as a custom theme. If you use this method you must:
- Edit and save your custom CSS code in your css:mytheme wiki page ( this is not an active CSS but just text data)
- Create or select your custom theme from manage site / Appearance / custom themes
- "import" the CSS data from css:mytheme wiki page
- "Save theme" in order to save CSS data in the real custom theme.
Select navigation elements
Decide if you want to use side/top navigation (menu) elements. Select whether your theme will use it or not?
Save the theme
Even if you do not have CSS ready yet - you will write it later.
Step 3: Write CSS for the Theme
This is the most important step. To do this properly you will have to learn first how the theme you are about to extend is implemented.
For the Base theme look at the CSS file: http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/style.css
As you can see this CSS imports a few other styles too:
| http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/odialog.css | used for dialogs (window pop-ups) |
| http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/forum.css | basic forum look definitions |
| http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/editor.css | wiki editor |
| http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/autocomplete.css | used for autocomplete element - leave this alone |
| http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/text_highlighter.css | defines colors for code highlighting (within [[code]] … [[/code]] blocks) |
If you aren't sure of the address of the CSS for the theme you are already using just check the source code on one or your pages (look for 'style type="text/css" id="internal-style")'.
Most probably you will only be interested in forum.css and odialog.css. But not too much anyway.
Structure of the page
Most likely you will need to know the DOM structure of the page i.e. what elements are there, what classes and ids etc. Each of the pages has more or less the same layout. You can learn this by:
- looking at the HTML source code (in your browser) for a page
- reading the Layout Reference document
- using the Web Developer extension for Firefox and clicking Outline » Outline current element
- exploring the DOM structure by using the DOM Inspector (Firefox has it) or equivalent tools
Learn by example
Let us see how the Flannel Ocean theme is defined - it directly extends the Base theme. The CSS is located here.
What the style actually does:
- defines layout for header, footer, side bar and page content
- defines font sizes and colors for elements such as headings, anchor links etc.
- changes colors for the dialog windows
- changes some colors for the forum
If you like the Flannel theme but you just want to change the colors you can simply extend this theme and redefine only the colors! The same for other themes of course. The easiest way in each case is just to copy&paste blocks of code from existing themes to your own theme.
Below is a list of selected themes and their styles
| Flannel | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel/css/style.css |
| Flannel (no side bar) | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel-no-side-bar/css/style.css |
| Flannel Ocean | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel-ocean/css/style.css |
| Flannel Ocean (no side bar) | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel-ocean-no-side-bar/css/style.css |
| Flannel Nature | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel-nature/css/style.css |
| Flannel Nature (no side bar) | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/flannel-nature-no-side-bar/css/style.css |
| Cappuccino | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/cappuccino/css/style.css |
| Cappucino (side bar on right ) | http://www.wikidot.com/common--theme/cappucino-right/css/style.css |
Update theme
So let us assume you have embedded the CSS code within the page css:mytheme. Go to Site Manager » Appearance » Custom themes and open your new theme for editing. If you have the source page configured, just click import and see what happens.
Save theme of course.
Preview theme
To begin with a custom theme won't be assigned to any pages, so you won't immediately see the results of your work. You can preview the theme in 2 ways:
- you can assign the theme to a particular page category by going to Site Manager » Appearance » Themes (as you would do for any other theme)
- you can use ThemePreviewer module - just put it on your pages somewhere and it will allow you to preview available themes on your page.
Step 4: Test your Theme!
There are many browser quirks. What some browsers render properly others can not understand at all. Please test your theme with at least major browsers (Firefox, IE, Opera).
Step 5: Assign Themes to Categories
When your theme is ready - go to Site Manager » Appearance » Themes and set the new theme for the page categories you want. And… that should be all!
General tips
- do not use pixel units (px) for font size; wherever possible (font size, layout) use font-based units (em) or percentage (%)
- keep your design clean and readable
- test CSS with different browsers
Authors
michal frackowiak. Please visit his/her userPage.
Comments
Yeah, that was helpful to me. Now, at least, I know HOW to get the CSS code onto the wiki… Whether or not it looks any good is a different question… :)
I added some links to the basics section. Maybe one can find the answer to this different question there. ;)
I spent hours looking for this info. Not a single tag mentioning color or how to tweak a theme! I better get studying CSS! Thanks for the free blog!
Just go to http://www.blogger.com/start and sign up for a blog there - they're a great blog provider. Using a wikidot site as a blog would end up being a hassle after a while .. lol
If anyone is interested in contributing to another site dedicated to CSS among other things, check out http://hard-drive.wikidot.com and apply for membership.
Cheers
CycloDS.tk - Firmware, skins, homebrew reviews and downloads for the CycloDS
er…. how do i do that then?
Yeah, it's been blocked from new membership by the other site admin I am working with. I'll see if I can fix that up now, or at least ASAP. Check back there in a few days.
Sorry about that…
EDIT: ok, ready for new members now :)
CycloDS.tk - Firmware, skins, homebrew reviews and downloads for the CycloDS
I'm trying to add a logo to my wiki. I would assume I should do that in the css and I have been messing around wiht it but I can't seem to figure it out. I've tried copying the code for the background image in the header and tried changing the coordinates but my image wont show up.
If anyone is interested in doing it for me :) I just want the image found below in the upper left hand corner of the default Flannel layout.
Thanks much for any help.
In the custom themes section of admin:manage, make a new theme that extends the flannel theme and put the following code:
You will need to re-upload your image and make sure it ends in a valid for (ex: .jpg .gif .bmp) - This is your problem
-Tehraptor
Changed the universal background colour (yes spelt it correctly in the css, US style) and made sure there were no conflicts but refuses to change from default used by co. Any particular reason?
OK, this is basicac CHINESE! I don't get it, it is dificult to navigate.
I have a logo in my computer, how to I attach it next to the name of my wiki??????????
Having struggled a lot to follow these instructions I thought a few extra pieces of information might help - so I've added them. That might be a bit presumptuous, but it's probably simpler than any other options. I won't be offended if someone edits/undoes my changes.
Fine, it is clearer now.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
"Theme" didn't t mean anything to me for a while and neither did CCS ( Cascading Style notes)
It might be good to start this page with something like this.(It may be off base — I am new.).)
A theme is a structured template that provides specific directions that control the appearance of pages. When complete, the template establishes the fount to be used, its size, the location of text, any back ground color, specific images to be used and their location. (and other things that I don't know.)
The theme starts with a basic template and modifies and adds to it, using a markup language called Cascading Style Notes (CSS)
Am I in the ball park? If yes, please modify it and place it at the top of the page.
Regards, Jack
Can we import CSS from other places, or must we use wikidot specific theme modification only? Thanks!
You can import any CSS using
in your CSS.
But remember that any import must go before the rest of the content.
Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog
I don't know anything about CSS, but I managed to change the most colours in the Cappucino theme. But can any one please tell me how I can change the colour of the text on the pages???
Please! I need your help!
Have a look on the howto:
Basics contains some important links for the syntax of CSS:
http://community.wikidot.com/howto:design-your-own-css-theme
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
in the theme creation page in site manager, it says the seperate css file is recommended, here it says directly into the box is recommended.
EDIT: here is the "extra" file named like ( "css:mytheme") recommended!
Both can be correct… the diffrence is the "mass of changes" you want to do in CSS.
If you have only ONE thing changed than the direct entry is enough to key in. For a "howto" it is easier to concentrate on little entries.
If you want to experiment more and more - than it is a very good idea to put your CSS code in extra pages - only to save them and to have the history(!) if something goes wrong. This was the first idea of Michal ( the developer of ikidot).
Hope this makes it clearer.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
Hey i want my wiki site pe egr .wi kidot.com to customize like ht tp: //w ww. c heap t-cav ta.com c hea est-c aver or like http: // ww w. tru harma.com can anyone help me out regarding this and also i want to know that how can i remove the search box from my wiki site, it will be done by customizing theme.
Any suggestions please.
Jeff Turner
Edit: cleared the links and names no spam on our community site forum with adsense to your wiki.
You have to read all about CSS theme. Go to search center ( left menu) and search for CSS or theme . This is the only way to change the layout.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
I am hoping someone can help me troubleshoot my css problems:
I am trying to get the css from RubyX template to work on my wiki: http://crazyhappenings.wikidot.com
Here is what it is supposed to look like: http://www.kendahlin.com/demo/rubyx/index.html#
I attached all the image files to this page: http://crazyhappenings.wikidot.com/css
I then took all the code from main.css and replaced the existing url reference with the urls from my wiki. That part seemed to work.
But, it appears to be the code that is messed up.
Is the base code getting in the way?
How can I troubleshoot this problem?
I've spent a long time reading up on css and I can't seem to get past this!
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
regards, crazyhappenings
by the looks of it, you have just copied and pasted css from elsewhere.
Not a good idea :-(
Have a look at the css here
http://skins.wikidot.com/
replace some of the colours and urls and yourll be halfway there.
there are a number of pointers for sorting out what goes where when and why
this one helped me :-) http://psc2.wikidot.com/
Because the way the Base code is done, youll be hard pressed to get it exaclty the same, but i think you should get it close.
I would recommend that if you are using Firefox 3 that you get the Firebug add-on which allows you to see proposed changes to your CSS on the fly and to try different things before you add these changes to your css:theme page (or whatever you've called it)
Both great suggestions. I thought the Base might be getting in the way, but there's no chance I'd be able to write my own CSS yet. And, I haven dl'ed the Firebug add-on. That's pretty cool. I have no content on the wiki yet though, so it doesn't matter what it's like. I've left my content elsewhere until I can sort this out. thanks again strathview and Phil! And, yes, I did jsut copy and paste the css - I guess I thought that was the point! oh well.
crazyhappenings
Is there a css tag line that wikidot uses for the table headers? Trying to find a way (if there is one) to change the bg color of the header when you do
the header blocks would be green, or red, or blue, or whatever.
A) You can use span tag!
[[span style="color:#F00; background-color: #FFFF00; padding-right:45px"]]Your text [[/span]] instead of CSS if you have only a few tables.
here is an example:
Row 1: Header 3 in green background - red text
Row 2: bla bla n
Row 3, cell 3:
[[span style="color:#F00; background-color: #FFFF00; padding-right:45px"]]Your text [[/span]]
A.1) New Table layout with style attributes:
Only to show what is possible( taken from howto: import-simple-excel-tables-into-wikidot
The King
Kong
Litespeed
S
Litespeed
Litespeed
Done with :
B) Where in the CSS this can be changed ?
I have only found out the css trick with own classes with the specific table layout using:
B.1.) Build an own Class for this and use a little additional "css:table-class" :
(taken from the old post :http://community.wikidot.com/forum/t-44316/custom-css-doesn-t-work )
Have a read!
B2.) Table codings with own classes
B.3) In action:
this is a hard job - where to store the "css:table" page used?:
——
Have a try!
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
Yeah, I figured out how to do it that way. Was looking to see if there was a bit that I could put in the css for the theme and just have it be auto though. Like you have:
If you could do:
Just don't know what the <table something> part would be.
Sorry - I cannot detect in CSS any table related pre-defined colors for "headers" ..
Could be you have more chance… use firebug as strathview has mentioned..
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
Web Developer (similar tool as Firebug) to the rescue! Here's some CSS to give you a nudge in the right direction.
The limitation you'll have is that you won't be able to use multiple colors in different header cells. You'll have to use one of the other methods described here to have the most control (I like Gerdami's Excel utility).
-Ed
Install, Configure and Customize Wikidot Open Source
Thanks so much! That's exactly what I was looking for.
Hi, Where should I get the CSS for Co and Webbish themes?
Any help is appreciated.Thanks
See my post earlier on about Firebug, I really do think that this is the easiest way to view the CSS of a theme and work out which elements to adjust and see the effect if you do change them. It's particularly useful when looking at CSS themes like the ones you've mentioned which lurk in the depths of wikidot and for which there isn't any CSS code printed in the documentation.
Rob
High I am new to wikidot and am trying to build a page. I want to be able to upload a background image and make it repeat over and over. How can I do this without being able to edit an existing code? I know some HTML but not much else.
deleted
i think you are talking about a background image, repeating as in say the quake theme. This is done using css as a background image, in custom themes.
Where you want to place it will depend on how it is done.
If you intend to mess with CSS then as myself and so many others have repeatedly said, get ff with the web dev addon, and start to play :-)
Very helpfull. Thanks. I wish to find other ways to publish Excel. Maybe with "embed"? From zohoo sheets?
This present way asks a lot of work.
An example at http://georges42.wikidot.com/colores at bottom: a zoho sheet.
I wrote a snippet on how to embed zoho sheets here
Rob
Excellent job. Thanks.
I did find a how-to on customizing the input boxes for the editor, however… I was looking to see if anyone knows anything about how to edit other portions of the editor. I have a theme that's light text on a dark background and (I'm guessing) because of that I can't see any of the text in the alt mouseovers and popup windows that work with the wikidot page editor. White on white isn't exactly readable after all. ;) Any thoughts/ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Zorya.
i "think" all the css relating to what you are after is in either:
http://zorya.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/editor.css
or
http://zorya.wikidot.com/common--theme/base/css/odialog.css
or both.
I wrote a how to on customising the editor a short while back which is at http://community.wikidot.com/howto:customise-the-wikidot-editor
Edit: oh, re-reading your post I see that you found my how-to on this. I have updated the how-to to show how to change the dialog popup boxes for saving the page and the background colour and text colour of the hover tips.
Rob
Awesome. Thanks much guys!
Yep, was in the odialog.css file just needed to know where to look. The following did it for me. Thanks again!
I need some help on changing the header's picture for the Localize theme.
Could some one help me?
Thanks,
milene
If you just want to change the existing image, it's pretty simple. I would create a replacement for the leaf image with the same dimensions (293x220) and upload it to a page (your start page would be a good place for this since it's unlikely you'll ever delete it). Next, create a custom theme (i.e "Localize-extended") and choose "Localize" as the theme to extend. Then add this to the custom CSS box, changing the background-image:url to point to your new header graphic (I saw that you're using localize on your dimatch-hta site so I could give a good example).
Let us know if you need more help or want to change more of the style.
-Ed
Install, Configure and Customize Wikidot Open Source
It worked!
For now, I'm thinking about the site structure (it is supposed to be a site for presenting the study and, if possible, to have some private "working"pages).
But I'll let you know if I need more help (I think I will).
:)
thanks,
milene
I would like to use image files like this:
How can I upload the image files to the themes page?
if I upload to the mytheme page the file link is ../local-files/… but the link required is ../local-theme/… or something similar.
Are you talking about themes.wikidot.com or your own custom theme on your site?
Wikidot Team
Any problem? Write to me: support@wikidot.com or lukasz@wikidot.com
Visit my wiki: http://www.squark.wikidot.com
I am talking about my own custom theme on my site.
If you are adding for example a new image in the header of your site the code would be in the format shown below. I uploaded the .jpg file to my css:theme page and then added the reference to it in my custom CSS.
Rob
I already know that.
The thing is that the theme css is this one:
For the files to be used without the full link there should be a way to upload the files to this location:
<wiki_name> and <custom_theme_name> are generic.
""I already know that.""
No need to jump down my throat, particularly when I don't think you have quite got this right. What I said in my previous post is the correct way to do it. You do not upload the file for your header to a theme, you upload it to a page on your site and reference it in your custom theme CSS which just happens to be named /local--theme/{yourname}/style.css... as shown in my site below:
Rob
I wasn't jumping at you or anything.
Please don't look down on me. I know what I am doing. Although I am new to CSS I am learning fast. The things you told me were known to me. Also I know of Firebug and Web Developer and I am using them.
As a programmer I can come up with solutions myself. If you look at my first post I didn't ask how I can put an image in my css but if there is a way tu use it without the full url. I guess not.
oops! comment withdrawn ;)
Hello everyone.
In customizing my theme I wanted to move the breadcrumbs above the page title. Any suggestion?
Thanks in advance,
~WK
If it's for your Pharmament site, add position: and top: styles to your custom CSS:
-Ed
Install, Configure and Customize Wikidot Open Source
Worked like a charm!
As long as we don't change the size of the header it'll do just what I needed. And when we do I should be able to adjust the absolute positioning.
Thank you,
~WK
http://community.wdfiles.com/local--files/howto:design-your-own-css-theme/tema1.JPG
Looks well like a image for the" top"
Do you need a background - picture always available from an "open" storage?
or do you want to give it as a gift to the community?
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)
Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?
This is all really confusing. I've just managed to work out how to 'access' the code for customising the site (which when you know how…) but shouldn't we offer a separate page explaining how to do a few simple things, step by step? The existing pages sort of lost me where it started saying edit this code, and offered a blank box!
I can help write a really simple page if Michael wants to start one.
Docmartin, as part of a project to re-design the theme for another wikidot member I am currently preparing an online tutorial/walkthrough about getting started with designing themes and making changes to CSS. I am very guilty of taking longer over these things than I should, but before long the how-to page will be updated and hopefully will make it less confusing. I can see however that you have managed to create a new theme and have started to add custom CSS so that's good.
Where did this happen? If there some rogue instruction somewhere we can correct that easily.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Well, let me know if you want any input/ feedback on the page. The 'blank box' riddle appears after you go to:
manage site/
appearence/
custom themes/
create a new theme
The naive user (like me) chooses the theme to follow, eg basic, and then expects the code to appear in the box below. Only 'it never does'! We need some advice on how to get the 'appropriate' code there to edit. How about putting the code from the selected theme straight into the box?
Martin
Martin, ah I see what you mean. That box is blank because what goes in there is the custom CSS that is added to or, more often, changes the base and theme CSS, i.e the "cascading" in cascading style sheets. As you've now realised, that CSS is either typed in or imported from another page on the site (which is how I do it).
I'm not sure the best way of showing the base and theme CSS but I really don't think it should be put into that blank box when you try to create a new theme. It would no doubt cause coding issues and would actually probably confuse more than it would illuminate given that the base CSS and theme CSS run to hundreds and hundreds of lines.
For a new user I can see your point that it would be beneficial for them to see what the code in that blank box will build on. And perhaps the blank box could be re-titled something like "Add/import your CSS to change the theme". Many advanced users are using Firebug to view the CSS code and try changes on the fly and it is an invaluable tool, but most new users probably won't know about that. Unfortunately if the developers put the full CSS of the base and theme on a page it would make for a very long page indeed given the length of the stylesheets. I'll give this some more thought and see if there is something that we might add to the wishlist to show the CSS (perhaps in a new window) that would make this aspect of creating a new theme a bit more understandable.
Rob
"And perhaps the blank box could be re-titled something like "Add/import your CSS to change the theme"
Yes, Rob, I do see the problems with putting all the code in. After all, the aim is to offer something friendly. Retitling the box though would be worth doing. Not quite this, I suggest, as CSS is off-putting to us Dummies!
How about:
'Add additional custom instructions in the box to adapt the existing code of your chosen theme. See this page for more details.'
ie. add an extra guide page straight away. My suggestion is that the code is described with no 'assumptions' at all made! - eg. this (typo corrected) is how I communicated on the topic on the Philosophical Investigations site just:
Best,
Martin
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