Messing about with layers and layouts

[sqbr]

This is more for my own reference than anything else since I got confused by these in retrospect perfectly good instructions (namely, the very first step assumes you're willing to mess up your lj theme, which I'm not) Divided into explanation and instructions.

Explanation: The "customise your Dreamwidth" page isn't ready yet so you have to mess directly with the code.
Every journal has a Layout (what pieces the page is made of and where they go) and a Theme (colours, images etc) These are both called "Layers" and since every theme is specific to a particular Layout it's called a "child" of that Layout. A lot of Layouts and Themes are not open source so you can't copy them.
You need to create a copy of both a Layout you want and a corresponding Theme from lj's list of Public Layers and turn them into Dreamwidth Layers. You then need to create a Dreamwidth Style using that Layout and Theme and apply it to your journal.

Instructions:

Choosing a Layout and Theme:
Look at the "LJ Layouts" section of the List of free lj layouts. Cut and paste the names into the search box in the Customize your LJ page and see what they look like. Choose a Layout and Theme.

Making a Layout:
Go to lj's list of Public Layers(*) and click on the Layout you want. Choose "Syntax Highlighted" to bring up the source text.

Go to the Dreamwidth Layers page and create a new "Top Level Layer": Type "Layout", Core Version "1". Then "Edit" your new layer, bringing up a page with three windows. Paste the source text into the largest one on the top right over the 2 lines of text. Click "Save and Compile" and hopefully it will say "compiled without errors" (don't ask me what to do if it doesn't!)

Making a Theme:
Go back to lj's list of Public Layers, choose "child" under our Layout and open up the theme you want.

Go to the Dreamwidth Layers page and create a new "layout-specific layer": Type "Theme", Layout "The Layout You Just Made". Edit it and paste in the source text as above.

Making a Style:
Go to the Dreamwidth Styles page and create a new style with an appropriate name. Edit the style to use your Layout and Theme. Click "Use" to apply it to your journal.

(*)or the Name of the Layout on this page

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I never used Layers on LJ which is why this was so confusing. I like this being able to create multiple themes thing, this way I can mess about with colours and layouts without overwriting my earlier experiments.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

I found this very useful, thanks!

[sqbr]

*checks your dw*

Nice! (Well, as nice as it can be given that I don't like orange :))

[flamebyrd]

That wasn't my doing, alas! I did away with my custom theme and switched to Transmogrified, which is now available.

I am working on an actual layout. Slowly.

[sqbr]

So you're going to get a paid account so you have time to work on it properly?

[flamebyrd]

I haven't decided yet, but if not I'll just do it on LJ. Or maybe one of the basic themes will allow custom CSS.

[samvara]

*eyes the non-open source themes sadly*

I am gonna have to learn how to make custom layers and themes methinks :)

[sqbr]

I was thinking that, but I don't think I'll shell out for a Paid account (not for a while anyway) and have a feeling it would take me more than week to get the hang of it!