FP2003 .css files in themes - how do they work together?

[Dan]

Could some kind soul please enlighten me on the mysteries of the various .css style sheet files that are shown in (e.g.) _themes/anteroomx? I have a modified older theme, and its .css files are ante1011.css, color0, color1, custom, graph0, graph1, and theme (all .css). When I open one of these and make style changes, it shows up OK in the file. One odd thing, it appears that one can have multiple instances of the same user-defined style - e.g. multiple instances of .mstheme-bannertxt - and there also apparent concatenations that I don't understand, like ".mstheme-bannertxt a:link" - is that a legal form of definition (without the "" of course)? When I make changes either by editing, say, ante1011.css in code view, or by modifying a style from the style list, the changes show OK. However, the change is not necessarily reflected in the theme. And, when I open the theme and modify, say, the Colors|Custom of of one of the link definitions (Hyperlink Followed, say), the change does not show up after I save or save as. If I open Text|More text styles|a:visited|Modify, then change color, it does show up. So - I don't understand how the various css files work together in a theme - where which changes are saved etc. I've been unable to find out anything useful online or in the various books I have. Help!

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Do not attempt to edit the .css files in the _themes folder
- FP will restore them from the saved theme .elm file any time you open the theme for editing or run a Tools Recalculate Hyperlinks
(done at every publish)
Make all your changes to your themes using Format Theme (Customize dropdown from the Theme Task Pane for the selected theme) and
save as a new theme name after all edits
- let FP manage the .css files (will be "compiled" in the .elm file for the new theme)
If you want, you can also do a granular edit of FP themes outside of FP, and remove the core WSS styles (not needed unless you are
running a WSS site)
For more details and an explanation of how to manage your older themes in FP 2003 see
http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/themes/newthemes.html



| Could some kind soul please enlighten me on the mysteries of the various .css style sheet files that are shown in (e.g.)
_themes/anteroomx? I have a modified older theme, and its .css files are ante1011.css, color0, color1, custom, graph0, graph1, and
theme (all .css). When I open one of these and make style changes, it shows up OK in the file. One odd thing, it appears that one
can have multiple instances of the same user-defined style - e.g. multiple instances of .mstheme-bannertxt - and there also apparent
concatenations that I don't understand, like ".mstheme-bannertxt a:link" - is that a legal form of definition (without the "" of
course)? When I make changes either by editing, say, ante1011.css in code view, or by modifying a style from the style list, the
changes show OK. However, the change is not necessarily reflected in the theme. And, when I open the theme and modify, say, the
Colors|Custom of of one of the link definitions (Hyperlink Followed, say), the change does not show up after I save or save as. If
I open Text|More text styles|a:visited|Modify, then change color, it does show up. So - I don't understand how the various css
files work together in a theme - where which changes are saved etc. I've been unable to find out anything useful online or in the
various books I have. Help!

 

[Dan]

Many thanks, Stefan - I had read the newthemes page on the sbrenjoy site, but obviously didn't take it all in. BTW the Changing Themes through FrontPage 2003 link in http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/themes/newthemes.html gives a 404 error - URL is http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/wss/articles/themes-applying.htm - looks as if this is for WSS only anyway, which I'm not using

Thanks again

Dan Ellis

 

[Dan]

Stefan - the method outlined at http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/themes/newthemes.html for updating a theme doesn't work for me from inside FP2003 when I'm working into a server - the original (customized) theme has a copy saved on the server, and when I modify, save as (something different), then delete the original, then try to rename the modified theme back to the old name, I get a "can't - that theme name already exists" type message. The theme delete works locally in my userprofile, but the server copy is retained. I guess I could delete from the server, then it would work... No big deal - just a momentary raising of the eyebrows at something ELSE that didn't work

Dan Ellis

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Thanks for the broken link info
- looks like that site is down and become private




| Many thanks, Stefan - I had read the newthemes page on the sbrenjoy site, but obviously didn't take it all in. BTW the Changing
Themes through FrontPage 2003 link in http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/themes/newthemes.html gives a 404 error - URL is
http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/wss/articles/themes-applying.htm - looks as if this is for WSS only anyway, which I'm not
using.
|
| Thanks again,
|
| Dan Ellis

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Possible one of your pages may still be using the deleted theme
View Reports Shared Content Themes

None of the theme .elms are ever stored on a server, so there is a flag set in you site making FP think that theme still exists

PS
I tend not to work w/ editing theme w/ any sites/webs open, especially on a server
(changes can cause a major load since all pages affect by the theme need to be updated)
Edit them locally w/o a site open and then open the site and reapply the new theme



| Stefan - the method outlined at http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/themes/newthemes.html for updating a theme doesn't work for
me from inside FP2003 when I'm working into a server - the original (customized) theme has a copy saved on the server, and when I
modify, save as (something different), then delete the original, then try to rename the modified theme back to the old name, I get a
"can't - that theme name already exists" type message. The theme delete works locally in my userprofile, but the server copy is
retained. I guess I could delete from the server, then it would work... No big deal - just a momentary raising of the eyebrows at
something ELSE that didn't work
|
| Dan Ellis

 

[Dan]

Many thanks, Stefan. So many hurdles, so much help