New theme released - PeachPlate. Some of you will like its flashy templatish look. Download from MoodleThemes. Both theme and header PSD files available.
Hello, i'm having brain freeze here. Are there instructions available for installing and activating a new theme? I really like the PeachPlate them Himmat has shared and would like to see how it looks on my site and even possibly create a new theme myself.
Thank you in advance for your help and assistance. Marie
Hi Marie,
Glad you liked PeachPlate.
I am putting down all the theme configuration steps because you may also be using cpanel; it's the commonest server admin tool on linux servers. What you really have to know is that the new theme folder has to go into your moodle installation's theme folder where all Moodle Themes reside. Next you have to log in in moodle and go the Configuration page where you'll find the Theme link.
Here's how I install the theme on the server using cpanel:
1. once cpanel page opens I click on the 'file manager' icon
2. when file manager page opens I click on the folder 'public_html' and when public_html page opens I click on the folder 'themesmoodle' , our moodle installation.
3. in the'themesmoodle' page I click the 'themes' folder. All the moodle themes are contained here.
4. I upload the the theme zip file into the 'themes' folder. Then I extract the zip file. Cpanel has unzipping routines.
5. Once the theme zip file is extracted/unzipped I open the extracted folder and change permissions of all visible files - image files, header.html, footer.html, styles.php etc. to 755. I didn't need this step (changing permissions) in my earlier cpanel installation. In this one however if I don't change the permissions of these files the theme displays garbled.
6. Now I login to my moodle site, click on 'configuration' and then on 'themes'
7. The 'themes' page opens. Scroll down to find the theme name if necessary, click on it.
8. The theme then loads. Scroll if needed and click on 'save changes' next to the theme name. That's it.
I really appreciate your themes. I downloaded the RomanMoodle one, and think it is great. However, I'm having a little trouble with inserting my logo. I haven't quite figured it out yet.
I used other logos such as "Metal", changed the header using the "Standard Logo" html, and was able to use the logo.jpg in my course files. However, this doesn't appear to work with our themes.
Any suggestions?
Thanks again. Lovely work.
Mark
Mark, follow the customisation tutorial on the MoodleThemes site. I added it yesterday. The link is on the Main Menu - Customizing PSDs. Unlike PeachPlate, on which the tutorial is based, RomanMoodle uses two headers. For the big header that shows on the homepage the logo image is saved in the romanmoodle themes folder as university_look_01.jpg. The logo image for the smaller header is saved as university_look_in_01.jpg. These are the names of the files you save your customised images as in the themes folder, replacing the earlier ones. Just remember to play only with the left parts of the two Photoshop 7 files, and do not let your logo or picture cross the ruler line!! The other part is the repeating background.
I had the PeachSchool one up and it looked good, but the "New_Looks_02" didn't fit. It was for the PeachPlate. So, I copied an identical portion from "New_Looks_01" and replaced it, thinking that the repeating pattern would fit better. However, when I used Fetch to transfer the file with the two new gifs, I got this message.
"Server file error: Transfer aborted. Link to file server lost."
I don't quite understand why it worked with only the "New_Looks_01," but not when I added the "New_Looks_02." I think is might be significant that I get the same message when I try to upload RomanMoodle. I wonder if it is related to having two files that have been changed by me.
Thanks again for your help.
M
Mark, the right side of the PeachPlate PSD file is actually saved as a thin slice, not the whole. Install the original Peachplate theme, open it in a browser, right-click on the right part of the header and save the background image. Put this file in your customized-peachplate theme folder and replace the one there. If you've made any changes to the PSD, just cut a thin slice (after making sure it repeats well) and give it the same name as the background file you you saved.
And please use only lower case characters to name files - Unix platforms are case sensitive i.e. not New_Looks_01 but new_looks_01.
Hello Himmat,
Your PeachPlate theme is very elegant, but in trying to modify the logo or slogan from the psd file (using PhotoShop), do you require for the resulting file to be saved under some special conditions? Whenever I generate the new gif to replace the one that you provide, the new graphic just lays there like an old shoe and the login information is bumped into the next row thus loosing the nice spanning and backgound capabilities of the original gif. Is it the way I'm saving the new file? Any recommendations?
Thanks JorgeM
I've added a small PSD customizing tutorial at the MoodleThemes website. Hope it helps. The link is on the Main Menu.
PeachSchool - a minor variant of the PeachPlate theme. School moodle users could find it more appropriate. Added today with PSD file at MoodleThemes.