Custom theme question

The place to post your Salix wallpapers, screenshots etc.
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Sasquatch
Posts: 155
Joined: 26. Mar 2014, 00:50

Custom theme question

Post by Sasquatch »

Is it possible for a novice to create a complete theme for xfce or does it require programming skills? I would like to create a full theme, icons and everything, that I could share with the community as a way of contributing something to this wonderful OS which I have been enjoying for the past couple years now. Is it a simple matter of just creating all the pretty little pictures or do I need to know C++ or something to make it happen? Yes, I know I could do wallpapers. But I have the urge to do more than that.
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gapan
Salix Wizard
Posts: 6236
Joined: 6. Jun 2009, 17:40

Re: Custom theme question

Post by gapan »

No, it does not require programming skills.

Yes, it would take a lot of effort and a lot of time to even start having an idea of how it works.
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Sasquatch
Posts: 155
Joined: 26. Mar 2014, 00:50

Re: Custom theme question

Post by Sasquatch »

gapan wrote:Yes, it would take a lot of effort and a lot of time to even start having an idea of how it works.
Good thing I like that sort of stuff.

Any idea where to start looking for what needs to be done?
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gapan
Salix Wizard
Posts: 6236
Joined: 6. Jun 2009, 17:40

Re: Custom theme question

Post by gapan »

Look into existing themes, try to tweak them.
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Sasquatch
Posts: 155
Joined: 26. Mar 2014, 00:50

Re: Custom theme question

Post by Sasquatch »

gapan wrote:Look into existing themes, try to tweak them.
That's what I'm currently doing. I never realized how wonderfully flexible xfce is. I also learned that you can break X by tweaking gtkrc files. I don't know how, but I did it. Had to reinstall to get X back. Well, I might have been able to recover via the terminal. But not without knowing how to diagnose the problem.

And I'm well on my way to creating something fairly unique for this little laptop. All I'm doing is tying together bits from various themes I've downloaded. The plan is to have a tidy, cohesive interface so my wife will enjoy using this laptop and getting to see what Linux is like.

I'm having a problem configuring the panel the way I want it. The tooltips keep getting in the way. I want to move them so they appear above the icons rather than to the side. But I can't find any information on how to do this. I know it's possible because the Wi-Fi indicator puts its info above. But all the launchers put it to the side. So when I move the mouse to the right the cursor hits the tooltip and the tooltip steals focus from the panel. So the panel autohides and I have to scroll back down to get it. I've disabled tooltips for now. But I would prefer to have them active for my wife since she is not familiar with the icons. Anybody know which file I can edit to fix this? All the xfce site tells me is how to disable tooltips, not how to relocate them.
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