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   FAQ - CHAPTER 6

Chapter 6: Themes and Dockapps




6.1  What exactly are themes?
Themes are a great aspect of Window Maker allowing a user to simply save the entire 'look' of their desktop in an archive to distribute freely among friends, fellow users and/or the whole net in general. :)

See the theme-HOWTO at http://largo.windowmaker.org/themes/themepacks.php for an in-depth walk-through on making a Theme archive.

6.2  How do I install a theme?

This should be as simple as untarring the Theme.tar.gz into one of two places. You can untar it to the global /usr/local/share/WindowMaker/* directory, and have it be accessable to all users, or you can untar it to your own ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/ directory for your own personal use.

Use your favorite variation of the following:

	gzip -dc "Theme.tar.gz" | tar xvf -
Note that directory may differ on different systems

6.3  Why do my themes not load the background?

Likely you have not compiled Window Maker with support for the background image format, usually JPEG.

You can check this by the following command

	ldd `which wmaker`
If libjpeg is not listed, you will need to install libjpeg that is available from ftp.windowmaker.org

6.4  How do I make a Theme?

Please see the theme-HOWTO at http://largo.windowmaker.org/themes/themepacks.php for details on making both new and old style themes (and the differences between the two), here is a short summary on making old style themes. Also, read the README.themes file included with the Window Maker distribution in the WindowMaker/ directory.

In this walk-through when I use WindowMaker/, it can refer to the global /usr/local/share/WindowMaker/ directory or the users own ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/ directory.

To make a Theme.tar.gz, these are the steps I take:

1. Optionally create a README for your theme in WindowMaker/, call it something like "ThemeName.txt"

2. Use the following command to add the Theme files to your .tar file.

     tar cvf ThemeName.tar ThemeName.txt Themes/ThemeName 
     Backgrounds/ThemeNameBG.jpg Backgrounds/ThemeNameTile.xpm
You can add as many more images as you need from the appropriate directories under WindowMaker/ following that general idea. You can even optionally add an IconSets/ThemeName.iconset and it's associated icons to your theme in the same manner. This should be stated in your README if you decide to include these.

3. Then gzip your .tar file to make your ThemeName.tar.gz file with this command:

    gzip -9 ThemeName.tar
4. Now give it to your friends!

6.5  I untarred a theme in ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker like the README says,but it doesnt show up in the menu!

Make sure the OPEN_MENU command for the Themes entry in your menu has the path for your personal themes directory included in it. To be sure, add
	#define USER_THEMES_DIR ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes
in your wmmacros file.


 


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