Themes

What Are They & How Do I Use Them?

I've had many complaints from individuals that do not use themes because they believe them to be to confining! This just isn't so, work with them for a few hours and you will agree with me..."Themes are our friends!" :o)

A theme sets up the boundaries for many standard, but customized graphics for your entire site. You can apply a theme and instantly the background, buttons, banners, bullets, etc. are already for you to use. When you open a new page, the common elements of your site are already there. It can't get much easier, and saves a lot of time when you have a lot of pages to get done.

You can either apply a theme when you first begin a new site, or at any time after. Just click Format in the menu bar, then choose Theme. When the box opens, this is what you will see.

Top Left: choose to apply a theme to all pages, or selected pages

Below the Radio Buttons: A list of themes, just click on one to view it in the large box on the left.

Check Boxes: Choose changes for your theme

Delete: 

Modify: Change a theme more than the check boxes do.

OK: You are happy with it!

Click to View Larger Version
The narrow window on the left, has a list of the installed themes. (the very first line may read "install themes", or something very similar. Click on it, put your FP CD in the driver and install the rest of your themes.

Click on a theme, notice the "page" opening in the window on the right? This is what that particular theme looks like. Remember, every possible component of that theme is placed in a pretty small space, they generally appear quite a bit more colorful than they will on an actual page. You can click from one to the next to choose between them.

The four check boxes below the scrolling list has a few more options for each theme. Vivid Colors, Active Graphics, Background Picture. The best way to get to know them is to click them off and on looking at a variety of themes. These options can be used in any combination.
The bottom check box is to choose between the theme altering the HTML or applying a Cascading Style Sheet. (a file that instructs the pages to use the graphics from the theme.)

Choosing the Right Theme

Choose a theme that fairly closely matches the look you want your site to have. They can be changed quite a bit, so don't get to picky about it being not quite right.
Choose the theme you want to use in the scrolling window so that it appears in the sample window. Then click the modify button. (It's down on the bottom.) You will then have the opportunity to change the font, colors and graphics. (three more buttons have appeared with these options.)

Customizing Themes