Writing.Com 101

Skins & Themes

When you are using your personal computer, you can change the look of Writing.Com and decorate your workspace with just a few clicks! Skins are graphics that allow you to instantly change the page header image, and Themes are the navigation colors for the rest of the page that coordinate perfectly with them. Skins are not available on mobile platforms.

At the top of your Writing.Com page is a graphic area with the WdC Default Skin:

#100157 • Writing.Com: Default

Actions:  Try • Use

Move your mouse to the far left of that graphic area, where a small SKINS button will pop out. Click this to open a small menu to the left above the Writing.Com logo. As you click the left or right arrows and cycle through the Skins and Themes, you will see your WdC page change instantly before your eyes! Find the perfect Skin and Theme to suit your mood or writing style today. When you've found your favorite, click the X button on the menu and go about your business of reading, writing and reviewing!

What's Available?
To browse our complete listing of over 100 skins, click on Skins & Themes linked under My Account in the navigation on the left. From here, you can click on Browse Our Skins & Themes to browse all that are available, or you can click on Most Popular Skins to see which Skins are most popular. You can try out a Skin and Theme or select a Skin and Theme to use from either page.
         http://www.writing.com/main/skins/action/list_skins
         http://www.writing.com/main/skins/action/skin_stats

Customizing the Theme
After you have chosen a Skin, you can also customize its theme by clicking the Customize this theme button. On the Edit a Custom Theme page you can choose the name for your custom theme, select whether you want it to be available with every Skin, and choose the colors for the various parts of your pages. To choose the colors, you can either use a color selector box, or use the hex code for the color in the text box. This website lets you find the color codes for any color. Scroll down to HTML Color Picker, click on any color, and it will give you the 6-character code for that color.
         http://html-color-codes.info/

When you have the Theme set the way you want, click the Save Theme button at the bottom. You can also Save & Edit a theme, or Delete Custom Theme.

Note that when you change the Skin, its default Theme is also loaded, so you'll need to change the Theme in the menu to get your custom theme back. You may also need to reload the page.


Options To Reduce Visual Stimuli
If you need to keep visual stimulation to a minimum, and you're not familiar with using color on webpages, this tutorial can help you make some basic changes.

If you can find a Theme you like, never mind what the Skin is, you can use the Customize this Theme page to designate that you want to use that Theme no matter what Skin you use.

Choose My Account/Skins & Themes in the navigation on the left. Click on Customize This Theme. Find the Global Theme check box in the General Settings section, and check it.

Theme Settings:
         General Settings
                   Theme Name:
                   Global Theme: Include theme as an option for any skin you use. Check this box.

If you like the text and link colors in a theme, but the general background color is still a problem, you can set that to white by using FFFFFF in the Light Background Color text box in the General Colors section:

         General Colors
                   Light Background Color:    [_________] Put the FFFFFF here.

Or pick a background color you like from the color selector box, or use the hex code for that color in the text box.

When you're done, scroll down and click Save Theme.

Note that when you change the Skin, its default Theme is also loaded, so you'll need to change the Theme in the menu to get your custom theme back. You may also need to reload the page.



Much More to Come!
Dateline: July 30, 2010
We are in love with this feature and are very excited to see where we take it. For our Skins & Themes initial release, we will only be offering Skins & Themes that Writing.Com has designed and made available, and the Skins & Themes are currently linked together (meaning you can't have the WdC Default Skin with the Acrylic Yellow Theme). We have so many ideas on what we will do with these, but simply put... the code is not written yet! In the future, members will be able to design and upload their own skins and themes, making them available to the community for free or Gift Point fee. There will be WritingML tags for your skins, a management area for you and so much more. But for now, you simply get to play with them, sift through them and choose the one you love the most today!1

Recommended Reading

1. My Account

Footnotes
1  Updated by northernwrites; written by The StoryMistress