Themes in a nutshell (Simplest Example)

Ok...

1. Go to your THEMES Folder on your Sharepoint site

   Mine is here
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES

2. Copy one of the Precanned THEME Directories (I used GRANITE) and Rename it to MYTHEME (Or whatever you want it to be)
3. Open your new MYTHEME Directory and sort the contents by type.
4. Delete all the gif files.
5. Rename the INF file (GRANITE.INF) to MYTHEME.INF
6. Open MYTHEME.INF
7. Replace the old theme name (Granite) with your new theme name (MYTHEME)
   It will look something like this
   

   [info]
   title=MYTHEME
   codepage=65001
   version=3.00
   format=3.00
   readonly=true
   refcount=0
   
   [titles]
   1031=MYTHEME
   ... Shortened to save room.
   1054=MYTHEME
   

8. Save and close it.
9. Open theme.css and delete its contents.
10. Then add this css code
    
    

    .ms-bannerframe,.mrGRHeaderBackGround, .ms-storMeFree
    {
      background-image:url("logo.gif");
      background-repeat:no-repeat;
      height:89px;
      background-color:#FFFFFF;
    }
    

11. Save and close it.
12. Open Paint and make a file called logo.gif and save it in your MYTHEME directory.
13. Find and open the SPTHEMES.XML file
    

    Mine is here.
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033

14. You will see a bunch of <Templates> tags.
15. Copy and paste one of them and edit it to look like this
    

    <Templates>
     <TemplateID>MYTHEME</TemplateID>
     <DisplayName>My Theme</DisplayName>
     <Description>Theme created specifically for ME</Description>
     <Thumbnail>images/thnone.gif</Thumbnail>
     <Preview>images/thnone.gif</Preview>
    </Templates>
    

    The image THNONE.GIF is found in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES directory. If you want a different image for your thumbnail you just need to put it in the same directory as THNONE.GIF and reference it in SPTHEMES.XML.
    
    
16. Save and close it.
17. Once you are done you just need to go to your Sharepoint Site Settings -> Site Themes and select "My Theme" from the list.
18. Your site will get your new logo at the top.

Themes

The first thing that every customer wants with a COTS product is to make it not look like an out of the box product. MOSS looks like a Microsoft product...the default theme has the blue that seems to belong to Microsoft now, just like they invented English (US)...God praise 'em for their ingenuity.

Anyway as this seems to be the first thing I will have to do I guess I'll start documenting what I find and how I turn that knowledge into something useful.

Firstly this link has some pretty useful info about theme creation.
and here is some good stuff about sharepoint css

Turn off Friendly Errors

Thanks to Heather Solomon

While in development, the friendly error page that SharePoint displays when your page has an error can make debugging your master page issues very difficult. You can make an easy change to your Web config file for the site to turn friendly error messages off, therefore providing you with more useful information if your page breaks. Only do the following in a development environment, you would never want to turn off friendly error messages in a production environment. Also be sure to make a back up of the file prior to editing.

1. On the Web server, navigate to the site directory:
   Local Drive:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\[directory for site] (for example 84)
2. Open Web.config in Notepad.
3. Search for "CallStack". Change the CallStack status to "true".
   CallStack="true" DirectFileDependencies="10" TotalFileDependencies="50" AllowPageLevelTrace="false">
4. Search for "CustomErrors". Change the mode to "off".
   mode="Off" />
5. Save and close the file.

Now when your site encounters an error, you will receive a .NET screen outlining the issue instead of the friendly SharePoint error screen. This is particularly useful with dealing with missing Content Placeholders and editing Master Pages. To turn friendly error messages back on, just walk through these steps setting the CallStack to false and CustomErrors mode to On.

The Beginning

It all starts with a ground swell, a revolution of corporate opinion, and a bottom line.

The company I work for has decided, for good or bad, to deploy Sharepoint (MOSS) into their environment, heralding a new and exciting era for corporate collaboration. Because we need it.

Anyway I'll try and document my experiences as completely as I can here so that you, the reader, might save some time and pain.