Creating a Theme

Dan Nuckolls

I am new to Vanilla, and not the web affianado in the family. I have a website that I thought a blog would work well on. After talking with my web-savvy brother, he turned me on to Vanilla, because I needed a forum. My question is: is there a way to customise my forum to look like my site, so guests don't get the idea that they've left the site? I'm not trying to deceive anywone, just eliminate confusion.

Mr Do

What is really your question? Is it a mere coincidence that you use the term theme? Because that is also the obvious answer to your question. A mix of a custom theme and style is what would be needed. If you do just a little query on the forum, in the Vanilla Add-ons section and in the documentation, you will discover much information about how to solve the dilemma.

Dan Nuckolls

I'm no programming whiz. Is there someone out there that creates themes? I want a forum to look like my webpage.

lech

Dan, what Mr Do was attempting to hint at is that there's a big difference between "Styles" and "Themes" within Vanilla. If you're flexible with CSS, you should be able to tackle the task of creating a style for Vanilla to match your site. Creating a "Theme" which is Vanillas version of a template is another order of business as in its current form is not for the faint. If you're not comfortable with altering serious bits of code I'd suggest you stick to simply creating your own Style as I don't think there are many that would be willing to create one for you without something in exchange.

Creating either at the moment is a slightly involved task, but creating a new Style is reasonably easier. Read and search through the Wiki for more info.

Dan Nuckolls

Thanks!