History: Three Ways to Make a New Theme

File arrangements

First, establish the basic file arrangement of your new theme.

1. Pick a name for the theme. Check the styles directory to make sure there's not an existing theme (i.e., *.css file) with the same name.
2. There is no authoritative register of Tiki theme names but, if you intend to share your theme, it would be good to check at this site to make sure no theme already exists with the same name.
3. Create a new CSS file with the theme name you chose and place it in the styles directory (like styles/newtheme.css). (See CSS Overview for more details.)
4. If your new theme will use customized templates, create a sub-directory in the templates/styles directory and give it the same name as your theme (like templates/styles/newtheme). Having customized templates is discouraged, because it makes updating your installation more difficult when new Tiki versions are released.
5. Copy any needed files from the templates directory or from an existing theme's templates directory to your theme directory.
   • For example, if you are basing your new theme on Kubrick, copy the files from templates/styles/kubrick (if Kubrick is installed, or copy from the Kubrick download package) to templates/styles/newtheme. Otherwise use copies of default template files. See Template Overview for more details.

At this point, your new theme has been added to your site! If you go to User Preferences and check the drop-down menu for Theme, you'll find your theme listed (e.g., newtheme.css). Of course, without changing the CSS and/or template files, the new theme will look unstyled or the same as an existing theme.

See next: CSS Overview and Template Overview.

Allow users to set the theme

Under Admin > Login you can activate "Reg users can change theme".

Once activated users can change their theme in their Preferences page under My Tiki menu.

Under Modules you can also activate the switch_theme module which makes it very easy for any user to change themes.

Using multiple themes on your Tiki site

ThemeControlDoc describes how to assign Themes to

• A Tiki category
• A Tiki section
• An individual Tiki object (i.e., an individual Wiki page, Blog, Gallery, etc.)

If you enable Theme Control, you will see a link to Theme Control in the Admin section of the application menu.

(from http://doc.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Styles and Themes)