Make my own theme(s)

[Chaz1138]

Good Sunday morning!

I’m trying to customize my SeaMonkey (2.53.6 for MacOS) and, according to the Themes page, there are only four or five themes that are compatible with my version. I’m not terribly happy with them, so I want to make my own theme(s). I’ve Googled and looked the through the SeaMonkey FAQ, but I can’t find a guide. Anyone know where I can find instructions on how to make my own theme?

Thanks!

[Frank Lion]

according to the Themes page, there are only four or five themes that are compatible with my version. I’m not terribly happy with them, ......................................so I want to make my own theme(s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-7Y82R6HY

[WaltS48]

Good Sunday morning!

according to the Themes page, there are only four or five themes that are compatible with my version.

What Themes page?

You found more than what I find here.

Going to Complete Themes from within SeaMonkey I get 29 results, but didn't check which were compatible.

If I wanted to make my own theme, I would probably download one, unzip it, inspect the code, modify it, save it, recompress it and test it in a new profile until I got it right.

[Anonymosity]

Good Sunday morning!

according to the Themes page, there are only four or five themes that are compatible with my version.

What Themes page?

You found more than what I find here.

Going to Complete Themes from within SeaMonkey I get 29 results, but didn't check which were compatible.

If I wanted to make my own theme, I would probably download one, unzip it, inspect the code, modify it, save it, recompress it and test it in a new profile until I got it right.

That is exactly what I have done. I have taken themes that I like and done modifications to them, patched them if necessary to bring them up to date, bumped up the max version in install.rdf for the target application.

[Chaz1138]

okay ... this is bizarre. I can't find the page where I was and found those themes. I found this theme called Modern2 and added it. It is working, I'm just not happy with it. There were several other themes as well, including the Metal Lion themes. There were two pages of themes and when I hovered over them, a dropdown would appear with information about whether it was compatible with my SM. Now, I can't find any of that.

From within SM, if I go to the Addo-Ons Manager>Appearence and click the link to get more themes, this is where I am taken:

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/se ... t=featured

Additionally, I don't know what documents or what code is used to create a theme so that I could hack someone else's. That's why I am looking for instrucions.

Good Sunday morning!

according to the Themes page, there are only four or five themes that are compatible with my version.

What Themes page?

You found more than what I find here.

Going to Complete Themes from within SeaMonkey I get 29 results, but didn't check which were compatible.

If I wanted to make my own theme, I would probably download one, unzip it, inspect the code, modify it, save it, recompress it and test it in a new profile until I got it right.

[Frank Lion]

That's why I am looking for instrucions.

There are not, and never have been, any. Not for Firefox or Thunderbird and certainly not for SeaMonkey that has a billioneth of the users of either.

However, none are needed as if you only want to theme/style your own stuff then just do the whole thing in userChrome.css.

You will need :

#1. Good links, eg http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3037817 Other links are shown at the end of the first link.

Note: SeaMonkey already has the chrome folder by default, so no need to create them.

This site is essential and is how we all learnt css originally - https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_margin.asp

#2. DOM Inspector extension.

#3. A very good graphics program, to create backgrounds and toolbar icons/buttons, etc.

#4. A good text editor, i.e. - http://www.pnotepad.org/

[Chaz1138]

Okay, it simply isn't possible that there have never been any instructions, primarily because Firefox did have instructions on how to make themes a long time ago. I know because I briefly red them, but didn't try my hand at it because of the huge amount of graphics for buttons seemed like it would be more work than I wanted to get into at the timeand I was able to find themes that I was happy with. Things are a little different now, I have more experience with CSS and getting graphics made and I have more time on my hands. Plus, there had to be some kinds of specifications, else no one would have been able to make for the dozens of TB themes and thousands of FF themes because it would have been too much time and effort.

But worry not, I discovered a group where I got pointed in the right direction. I do also appreciate your tips, but you needn't continue to follow this thread.

That's why I am looking for instrucions.

There are not, and never have been, any. Not for Firefox or Thunderbird and certainly not for SeaMonkey that has a billioneth of the users of either.

However, none are needed as if you only want to theme/style your own stuff then just do the whole thing in userChrome.css.

You will need :

#1. Good links, eg http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3037817 Other links are shown at the end of the first link.

Note: SeaMonkey already has the chrome folder by default, so no need to create them.

This site is essential and is how we all learnt css originally - https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_margin.asp

#2. DOM Inspector extension.

#3. A very good graphics program, to create backgrounds and toolbar icons/buttons, etc.

#4. A good text editor, i.e. - http://www.pnotepad.org/

[Frank Lion]

But worry not, I discovered a group where I got pointed in the right direction.

You are missing the point, you were already being pointed in the right direction here.

For example, when Thunderbird 68 no longer allowed, what they defined as, Complete Themes, this entire theme was created in userChrome.css first -
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14855069

As it was required for a few more people than just myself, that was then converted into an extension .xpi, but could just as easily have been converted into a Complete Theme .jar format.

The point is that not only do the modern overlay theme methods lend themselves to coding in userChrome.css first, but they also take 10% of the time to make compared with the conventional replacement theme methods of old. Plus, they don't break every time the base program has a major version update.

Plus, there had to be some kinds of specifications, else no one would have been able to make for the dozens of TB themes and thousands of FF themes because it would have been too much time and effort.

Strange logic by you, but, yeah, there were no specifications and back in the old days it was indeed too much time and effort.

But worry not, I discovered a group where I got pointed in the right direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-7Y82R6HY