Thread

Hi there,

I am looking for another skin (theme) for my EE-Website project. I saw that there are a couple available through EE. I remember as well having seen some (for free) somewhere else on the Net. But I don’t find it anymore.

And it seems to me that most of the skins have a “blog”-style - where the column for additional stuff (I don’t dare to call it navigational menu) is at the right side. For traditional websites I am an advocate of left-handed menues. So, if anyone could point me to a resource where I could find that kind of skin… that would be great! (Ok, in most cases it probably won’t be too difficult to get the column from the right to the left…)

Thanks a lot!

Traditionally (Hm, is it a traditon? More a fact, really) there are not that many great themes for EE. Why is that? My theory is that EE, by and large, tends to draw a more professional crowd then, say, WordPress. These users want their sites to look unique, and have their own individual layout, so they create their own. Also, since EE is so powerful and complex, there are numerours approaches to most issues, and a one size fits all template quickly becomes impossible.

Here’s the good news, though: EE’s templates are really straightforward. If you see a public, generic template you like (from a source like oswd.org, eg.) converting it to an EE template is as easy as replacing filler text with EE tags. Well, almost 😊

... converting it to an EE template is as easy as replacing filler text with EE tags. Well, almost 😊

Hmm… good news indeed. And great site! Thanks for the link!

And how does it actually work? I guess I replace the given style_sheet (or create a new one); and then inserting the HTML code of the new design into the template, but keeping the {} etc…, right?

Well, it works exactly like I said: I take a template, paste it into the EE forms, then replace, say:

<h1>Foobar</h1>
 Lorem ipsum ... <>

with

{exp:weblog:entries}
<h1>[title}</h1>
{body}
{/exp:weblog:entries}

etc. You will generally want to keep the stylesheet, too.

The only place I’ve really seen a need (?) for themes in EE is the Forum, Wiki, and Control Panel, which have a more “structured” setup. The front end, which you’re presenting to the user, is a wide open canvas. You can pretty much do whatever you want and use as little or as much of EE’s power/tags as you need. I think that’s one reason there aren’t really themes for EE - because they’d be infinite.

I’d say find an open-source theme you like from Wordpress or some other source, and you would be able to apply it pretty easily to your EE site - with all the benefits of EE under the hood.

... If you see a public, generic template you like (from a source like oswd.org, eg.) converting it to an EE template is as easy as replacing filler text with EE tags. Well, almost 😊

That is exactly what I did on a recent proposal for a new client.

They have a site, poorly built using Yahoo SiteBuilder.
So I downloaded a few OSWD templates, changed only the headers, and images - to reflect their site, then took a few screen caps of the new proposed pages, and *poof* ... I’m hired! 😊

OSWD is really the way to go, here is another resource.

and also 6-brand-new-templates-for-expression-engine