SharePoint Blogs / SharePoint University
SharePoint Blogs and SharePoint University - all in one place!
Need SharePoint Training? Attend a SharePoint Bootcamp!

Please delete cookies related to sharepointblogs.com and sharepointu.com to resolve login issues!

Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0

The easiest and the fastest way to apply the same look and feel on any SharePoint site is creating a site theme. A SharePoint site theme basically consists of theme.inf, theme.css, and image files. Theme.inf file simply represents the title of the theme. Theme.css is a stylesheet file that defines colors, header images and layouts of a site and image files can be referenced here to display on the page. By creating a custom site theme, you can easily change the style but in fact, writing and editing the stylesheet can be somewhat chanllenging when you have more than a hundred of elements to deal with.

Here is a short procedure of creating a custom site theme named "Ghost":

1. Copy any theme folder in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES" folder and paste with its name replaced with "Ghost". In this example, copy GRANITE folder.

2. In Ghost folder, rename GRANITE.INF file to GHOST.INF in upper case.

3. Open GHOST.INF file with notepad.

4. Change the value of title under [Info] to Ghost.

5. Replace every word, Granite, under [titles] with Ghost.

6. Open "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\SPTHEMES.XML" file with notepad.

7. Add the following lines under <SPThemes> tag:
 <Templates>
  <TemplateID>Ghost</TemplateID>
  <DisplayName>Ghost</DisplayName>
  <Description>Ghost theme.</Description>
  <Thumbnail>images/thghost.gif</Thumbnail>
  <Preview>images/thghost.gif</Preview>
 </Templates>
Notice that preview and thumbnail paths are images/thghost.gif. By default, MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 will not have such image files.

8. In order to display thumbnail and preview correctly, you will need to capture the screen and save the file in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES" folder with thghost.gif name. You can change the .gif file name if you change the thumbnail and preview file names in <Templates> tag.

9. Do an iisrest for the server to recognize the new theme.

Pretty simple procedure. Now you are ready to test your new theme. In Site Settings, you can now choose Ghost theme; however, the theme will not differ from Granite theme. Now, it is time for you to play with theme.css file!


Posted 07-03-2007 1:49 PM by tigirry

Comments

Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at Virtual Generations wrote Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at Virtual Generations
on 07-04-2007 3:14 AM

Pingback from  Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at  Virtual Generations

Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at Virtual Generations wrote Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at Virtual Generations
on 07-04-2007 3:14 AM

Pingback from  Sharepoint link love 07-03-2007 at  Virtual Generations

Robert Wuhrman wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-05-2007 1:58 PM

Great lesson!  Thanks.  You can also just bounce the application pool in IIS Manager and the new theme will show up.

Mike Walsh's WSS and more wrote WSS FAQ additions and changes LXII - 2nd - 8th July 2007
on 07-08-2007 3:02 AM
Tomkyn wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-12-2007 2:00 PM

Now, how do you assign a theme to a site / site collection programmatically, using the SharePoint 2007 API?  :/

tgrk wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-19-2007 2:31 AM

Thank you for this great post. It really helped my a lot. Please did you try to deploy it using some package or solution?

Thanks

pup wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-19-2007 7:13 AM

gr8 idea!!!!!!!!!!

Rashmi wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-26-2007 4:21 AM

I tried your way to add a custom theme. but it dint work.

I m getting a Write Error on file _themes\<new theme>.

Please help.

tigirry wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-26-2007 9:12 AM

Rashmi,

Make sure you have administrative access to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES" folder. Why would you want to edit theme.css file in _themes\<new theme>? If you do that, it will only change the theme that has been already applied to your current web. This will not change the original version of your custom theme. In order to change your custom theme, you will have to go to this location ("C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES\<custom theme>") and make changes to theme.css file.

Rashmi wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-26-2007 9:37 PM

Thanks Tigirry for your quick response, i did change the theme.css same way as you told. The problem resolved as had to give the same security access settings to the new custom theme folder as its parent folder. It worked. Thank you.  

I also need to set this custom theme as default theme. so that entire site and sub sites will have the same theme. Do you have any idea how to go about it....?

Tigirry's SharePoint Blog wrote Easy way of Editing Customized Theme in MOSS 2007
on 07-27-2007 3:07 PM

Recently, I have observed that many MOSS 2007 and/or WSS 3.0 administrators want to apply their custom

Philippe Sentenac [Usual Coder] wrote SharePoint 2007 : Navigateurs Web, Css et Outils pour customiser le look de SharePoint (Partie 2)
on 07-30-2007 2:20 AM

Ce post s'intègre dans une série qui évoque la customisation de SharePoint, vous retrouverez le premier

thekaran wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 08-07-2007 10:09 AM

When i switch to my custom theme, i get this error. Any idea?

Write error on file "_themes/MYTHEME1".   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.ApplyTheme(String bstrUrl, String pVal)

  at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ApplyTheme(String bstrUrl, String pVal)

percith wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 08-09-2007 1:01 PM

If by any chance you have a french(other languages?) version, you have to change spthemes.xml under 1036 instead of 1033 on step 6.

Many thanks for this walkthrough!

carnk01 wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 08-20-2007 10:21 AM

How do you get it to be the "default theme" when a new site is created?.  I am having to manually change the Master Page on the site to inherit.

thanks

Chris Parker wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 08-24-2007 6:38 AM

Hi Tigirry,

Excellent article. I've made some drastic changes to the theme.css file and uploaded some custom images and used this theme as the theme for the top level site. Unfortunately, when I try to apply my theme to another site within sharepoint I get the error mentioned above:

Write error on file "_themes/my_theme_name".

I've checked the permissions and security settings in windows explorer and they appear to be identical to those of the other themes. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Chris Parker wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 09-12-2007 6:32 AM

Just for reference, I solved the problem I was having. Turns out that there were some hidden files in the theme folder due to editing the images on a Mac (resource fork files, .DS_Store files). Deleting these fixed the problem.

Len Gilbert wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 09-21-2007 3:46 PM

Hi, I've got the portal looking great thanks you your tips. On the team sites though, I want to copy the default style and make modifications, but that one seems to "live" elsewhere. Any idea?

Thanks for the help!

shiva wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 09-26-2007 7:32 AM

it is one of the good process thank you very much for ur theam idea

GN wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 10-08-2007 8:05 AM

Thanks for the good article. I created a custom theam and it is working fine. But the error pages still show in the default theam. How to change the style of the error pages?

tigirry wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 10-08-2007 1:06 PM

Many are saying that they have write errors to the theme file. Be sure to make sure you're an administrator of both farm server and the site collection. You will need to have full permission to your custom theme folder in the farm server. I do not know what to say more since I cannot replicate the error you guys have.

Rebecca wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 10-25-2007 3:43 AM

Hi there. I created a copy of a built-in theme (from Granite to Ghost, as you specified) and applied it  - all works fine.

However, if I try to customise the images (i.e. renaming settingsgraphic_granite.jpg to settingsgraphic_ghost.jpg and restarting iis, I run into trouble - the images don't seem to pick up. I have also renamed the various links to them in themes.css.

Is there some other area that I'm missing?

Alex wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 10-25-2007 12:26 PM

thanks for the .DS_Store hint Chris.

I might have gone insane trying to solve that one, but instead it just took 2 minutes to find this post.

Chrisitan wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 10-29-2007 10:08 AM

"Hi there. I created a copy of a built-in theme (from Granite to Ghost, as you specified) and applied it  - all works fine.

However, if I try to customise the images (i.e. renaming settingsgraphic_granite.jpg to settingsgraphic_ghost.jpg and restarting iis, I run into trouble - the images don't seem to pick up. I have also renamed the various links to them in themes.css.

Is there some other area that I'm missing?

"

Ive got the same problem as rebbeca! Anyone that can help?

sam wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 01-23-2008 8:32 PM

Hi,

 I tried creating the new theme as you have mentioned, I created using theme Jet, and my new theme name is displaying in the themes list and working, but if I change anything is theme.css file, it will not update the changes in the site.

Any idea why its not updating the changes?? I am using MOSS 2007

Thanks

Tatto's Blog wrote SharePoint Links
on 01-25-2008 1:04 PM

SharePoint Links

SharePoint 2007 How To List « SharePoint Sherpa wrote SharePoint 2007 How To List &laquo; SharePoint Sherpa
on 02-12-2008 7:27 PM

Pingback from  SharePoint 2007 How To List &laquo; SharePoint Sherpa

Tony wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 02-15-2008 2:44 PM

Hi, I am a newbie to Sharepoint, created the test theme with your tips but getting the following error message when applying the theme to my site

Cannot open "Ghost": no such file or folder.

I did all the files and changes as stated in your instructions.  Can you help?

Thanks,

Tony.

"

BIll Lundgren wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 02-26-2008 2:06 PM

THis worked great, but I encountered an issue with Theme names. I copied a new theme called NEW01 and it worked fine. I then created a new theme called NEW02 (based on a different theme) and it wouldn't work - gave me an error that NEW02 already existed. Turns out that SP read NEWS01 the same as NEWS02. I changed the second theme to NEWSII and it worked fine.

Bottom line - do not use numbers in theme names

Sue Brower wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 03-14-2008 10:06 AM

This worked great.

One issue -- do NOT use an underscore in the theme name.  I originally tried NEW_THEME and had problems applying the theme.  Once I renamed everything to reference NEWTHEME all was well.

Bottom line - do not use underscores in theme names

Rojas1MG wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 03-25-2008 1:13 PM

I look at (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES) and see there are far more themes there than actually show up in the portal when looking at the themes.  Is there somthing to modify that'll show these others (CENTRLAD, CLUB, FRESH, etc....)

Andrew wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-02-2008 4:10 AM

How I can set "Cardinal" theme by default for sites that will be created?

Jade Skaggs wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-02-2008 4:16 PM

I had to restart the application pool to get my changes to theme.css show up.  even iisreset didn't do it.  After that, I needed to select another theme and then go back to my custom one.  it sucks doing that EVERY time i need to make a change

Gudni P wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-07-2008 9:45 AM

If you are editing your theme on a regular basis, I´d recommend checking out a method I saw at heathersolomon.com, surprisingly easy.

basically you just use @import xxx.css in the theme.css file.

url:

www.heathersolomon.com/.../SharePoint-2007-Design-Tip-Import-your-CSS-for-SharePoint-Themes.aspx

Ali Nawaz wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-08-2008 5:19 AM

yes this is a fine and rapid steps to create SharePoint Theme from existing themes, after that you can easily change colors as per your site theme from CSS

Prabhakar wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-21-2008 7:23 AM

How I can set "Cardinal" theme by default for sites that will be created?

Steve Manning wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 05-05-2008 11:39 AM

This works great on the parent site. However, I'm trying to use the same method on a subsite so the subsite can have a different theme than the parent. It's having no effect, the subsite keeps the same theme as the parent. What's up with that?

Raymond Chin wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 05-10-2008 11:06 PM

"Hi there. I created a copy of a built-in theme (from Granite to Ghost, as you specified) and applied it  - all works fine.

However, if I try to customise the images (i.e. renaming settingsgraphic_granite.jpg to settingsgraphic_ghost.jpg and restarting iis, I run into trouble - the images don't seem to pick up. I have also renamed the various links to them in themes.css.

Is there some other area that I'm missing?"

I ran into this issue and it seems that the sites cache the theme in their local director structure in the _themes directory. If you connect to your site using SharePoint designer, you will see the directory. Once you customize the css (ThemeName-65001.css) you can export the css, rename it to theme.css and copy it to your /TEMPLATES/THEMES/ThemName. after doing this, you need to go into the site settings on your site and reselect the theme so that it refreshes its local site theme.css to your newly created one.

Tearjerker wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 05-29-2008 9:34 AM

How can I make my theme the default theme?

Night Safari wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-09-2008 2:22 AM

One update: If you are getting "_themes/my_theme_name  then try to find a file name starting with ! sign; for eg !fhjdhf.jpg . This guy makes WSS writer difficult to resolve the cache with on-fly generated theme.

Enjoy !

Night Safari wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 07-09-2008 2:29 AM

And dont forget to delete this guy starting with ! sign. The error is generic so this could be other problem. But in 90% cases this extra file with ! sign starting is problem. You can find this file in your newely created THEME folder say myStyle. :)

Munna wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 08-07-2008 7:42 AM

I created a theme this way, the theme is visible in the list of themes. I changed theme.css in sharepoint designer, saved it. Now when I try to apply the theme i get the error:

"A theme with the name "Mine 1011" and version  already exists on the server. "

I'm unable to proceed from here.

Also if any can suggest what to change in theme.css so that the changes reflect to only particular area;; like changing topnav changes the top navigation bar, simalarly for font..., for content editor webpart heading color....

Tales from up North » Blog Archive » Pimp your SharePoint wrote Tales from up North &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; Pimp your SharePoint
on 08-07-2008 9:58 AM

Pingback from  Tales from up North  &raquo; Blog Archive   &raquo; Pimp your SharePoint

Expiscornovus » Blog Archive » How to create & deploy a custom theme in MOSS? wrote Expiscornovus &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; How to create &#038; deploy a custom theme in MOSS?
on 09-17-2008 5:34 AM

Pingback from  Expiscornovus  &raquo; Blog Archive   &raquo; How to create &#038; deploy a custom theme in MOSS?

Hexanes! » Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 wrote Hexanes! &raquo; Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007
on 09-23-2008 7:46 AM

Pingback from  Hexanes! &raquo; Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007

Image Refresh Issue Fix wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 09-29-2008 11:27 PM

I was having the same problem with the images not refreshing and I cleared my local browser cache and the new images were downloaded. The browser is caching the original images before the modifications.

In the Trenches wrote InfoPath and MOSS 2007 Useful Links
on 10-11-2008 6:46 AM
the rasx() context » Blog Archive » The Penalty for Failing to Install a SharePoint Theme Correctly???Lose All Themes! wrote the rasx() context &raquo; Blog Archive &raquo; The Penalty for Failing to Install a SharePoint Theme Correctly???Lose All Themes!
on 10-31-2008 11:34 AM

Pingback from  the rasx() context  &raquo; Blog Archive   &raquo; The Penalty for Failing to Install a SharePoint Theme Correctly???Lose All Themes!

roitaks wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 11-01-2008 2:53 PM

How can I make my theme the default theme?

Huradi praveen wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 11-13-2008 11:08 PM

am newbie to sharepoint,

Thanks buddy....its really great post.

Haque wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 11-18-2008 3:32 AM

Great work! I love it.

Gabi wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 11-19-2008 12:52 PM

Gosh,

Sharepoint is proving to be very time consuming in regards to rebranding.

By bespoking the "temp" .css file, I can get the effects I want, however, it does not pick up the images I want it to.

I have carried out your instructions, all is good, apart from when I want to use different images.

Please advice.

It would be great to have a tutorial of which demonstrates the following;

1)this is what it looked like

2)this is what it looks like now

3)these are all the directories used

4)these are the changes I carried out

Then we can see a logical step into achieving what some people have done, currently, I am going through so many sites, they all say different things and to be honest, both yours and Heather Solomon's work has been the best for me.

Thank you very much for all yoru hard work,

Regards,

Gabi.

Rene wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 12-04-2008 9:09 AM

The directions worked great for the public sites. How does one do this with the sharepoint My Site sections?

huradipraveen wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 12-23-2008 8:11 AM

hi sir,

am new bie to sharepoint....

my question is that i have created site collection i.e http://sys4:480480/sites/ILIE/default.aspx .

Now i have created sub sites i.e more site collection inside this Parent site collection,i.e

http://sys4:480480/sites/ILIE/Succession/default.aspx .

succession is site collection.....

i made custom theme and added to parent site collection ,but am not to assign this custom to other site collection (i.e sub sites )

please help me

huradipraveen wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 12-23-2008 8:18 AM

hi sir,

am new bie to sharepoint....

my question is that i have created site collection i.e http://sys4:480480/sites/ILIE/default.aspx .

Now i have created sub sites i.e more site collection inside this Parent site collection,i.e

http://sys4:480480/sites/ILIE/Succession/default.aspx .

succession is site collection.....

i made custom theme and applied to parent site collection ,but wen i assigned this same custom theme to other site collection (i.e sub sites ) they are not effecting.i.e means they are not reflecting

please help me

Missing "Custom" tab picker for choosing custom site templates | keyongtech wrote Missing &quot;Custom&quot; tab picker for choosing custom site templates | keyongtech
on 01-18-2009 11:36 AM

Pingback from  Missing &quot;Custom&quot; tab picker for choosing custom site templates | keyongtech

Babasaheb Mali wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 02-18-2009 1:15 AM

Hi,

This article very useful for me as I am learning sharepoint.

Thanks.

liuqian wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 02-19-2009 12:36 AM

you could look china magic,His name is liuqian,site:liuqian-moshu.appspot.com

paco wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 04-01-2009 10:34 AM

me cawen todo. aim paco

Mark Deraeve wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 05-05-2009 8:25 AM

While I was grasping through the comments, I saw a number of questions on how to make the theme the default theme. Changing the Masterpage in site defenitions is really easy, look here how its done: www.dailycode.net/.../How-to-create-site-definition-(template)-with-a-custom-masterpage.aspx

But how to set the theme as default? I know it can be done with feature, linking the theme to a farm, site collection or subsite. I wonder if it is possible by just using CAML?

brro wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 06-08-2009 4:12 AM

everybody  look up for how many Q regarding to how to make new created theme as default theme for new created site.please do any body have an idea

Santhosh wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 06-28-2009 2:16 AM

to know more making your own sharepoint theme with ur design, jus ve a look at this, it ll be very useful

santhoz-teaches.blogspot.com/.../sharepoint-themes-unveiled.html

And to download 50+ quality sharepoint themes, go on to www.buytemplates.net

Regards,

Santhosh

pelly wrote re: Custom Site Theme for SharePoint 2007 (MOSS 2007) and WSS 3.0
on 06-29-2009 2:11 AM

how to create a custom theme? how customize the theme in MOSS 2007?

Add a Comment

(required)  
(optional)
(required)  
Remember Me?
Need SharePoint Training? Attend a SharePoint Bootcamp!
Posts (c) their respective authors. Everything else (c) 2009 SharePoint Experts, Inc.