[Twister]

So what do people think about a theme sharing idea? Just thinking off the top of my head here, but, people could come up with partial themes, or even share whole themes so others could open them up and use the elements. Example: I could take the finder buttons from In Motion and the x+- buttons from PureWite to use in my theme. That way I didn't have to spend time on those elements since someone else already did. Kind of like 'Royalty Free' themes.

Thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea?

[gautch]

Max dose somthing like this for his themes over at his forum...http://maxthemes.com/forum/

Its a good idea.. but to many designers get all but hurt about people using there stuff.

[cruciarius]

you could just ask the original theme maker if you can use their things, but even if they say no, that can't stop you from having your own private theme..just don't release it

[DaveV1.0]

I get it you mean like make stock elements that anyone can use without asking permisson cause thats what there for. I think this would work with say menu extras and button glyths maybe even async arrows as these are elements that most don't theme anyway because they can be very tedious but if we did it with other elements I would imagine there'd be a ton of similar themes released.

[Twister]

Originally posted by DaveV1.0:
I get it you mean like make stock elements that anyone can use without asking permisson cause thats what there for. I think this would work with say menu extras and button glyths maybe even async arrows as these are elements that most don't theme anyway because they can be very tedious but if we did it with other elements I would imagine there'd be a ton of similar themes released.

Yea sharing theme elements for public release. To help with some of the tedious stuff. Exactly!!

[gautch]

"Stock elements" is abetter way t explain it.

[cube3]

people are more then welcome to use anything of mine that they want, unless it's for financial gain. Also, I come up with loads of designs that never make it out of my themes directory, I would be willing to up those too if people want something to make.

[Twister]

Originally posted by cube3:
people are more then welcome to use anything of mine that they want, unless it's for financial gain. Also, I come up with loads of designs that never make it out of my themes directory, I would be willing to up those too if people want something to make.

Sweet. Not sure how to start this though..... Maybe mac themes can help us out....

[dggraphics]

What if you could just drag and drop stock theme elements from a drawer onto a template to create a theme. How sweet would that be. Instead of having to scroll through 1000's of individual elements. That would make it so easy to mix and match different parts with diffferent themes. You could use it with existing themes in the same way GUI kitty decompiles the diffent theme parts and catagorizes them.

[DaveV1.0]

I've been considering adding a submissions section to my site for desktops and other extras that people make like widgets and other stuff I would be willing to an a stock section too if you think it's a good idea.

[gautch]

Originally posted by DaveV1.0:
I've been considering adding a submissions section to my site for desktops and other extras that people make like widgets and other stuff I would be willing to an a stock section too if you think it's a good idea.

I think for now till some one could make an app to assist us.. this might be the best way to go about it.

Originally posted by dggraphics:
What if you could just drag and drop stock theme elements from a drawer onto a template to create a theme. How sweet would that be. Instead of having to scroll through 1000's of individual elements. That would make it so easy to mix and match different parts with diffferent themes. You could use it with existing themes in the same way GUI kitty decompiles the diffent theme parts and catagorizes them.

Maybe an add on to Theme park could be a drag and drop elements drawer...

I can see this working out great. Maybe when some one posts an element in the forum, you could download it.. then put it in a folder and theme park will recognize it. So when you start up Theme park, you open the drawer and there's your new element....

[cruciarius]

that sounds great and all, but how would it know where the element goes? or would this drag and drop draw thing be more of a place to get the element into ThemePark, but you have to copy paste it into the right place? say the menu bar apple is in the drag & drop draw, but you still have to copy paste it where it goes.

i just don't think ThemePark would automatically know where to put the element.

[Twister]

An application is way more than I ever expected. However it would be cool. If someone could come up with a way to share stock elements that'd be great. But there are so many and it's hard to figure out how to do it. Maybe someone creates PSDs full of buttons? Or themepark files with just pieces?? Or special theme park files that just have buttons. Ohh that'd be cool.

[gautch]

Originally posted by cruciarius:
that sounds great and all, but how would it know where the element goes? or would this drag and drop draw thing be more of a place to get the element into ThemePark, but you have to copy paste it into the right place? say the menu bar apple is in the drag & drop draw, but you still have to copy paste it where it goes.

i just don't think ThemePark would automatically know where to put the element.

I dont know much about ThemePark.
There are a few ways to do it.
(1 If each element has a diferent size then ThemePark would know what ones will fit where. Based on the Image size.

(2 Based on the Image's file name ThemePark could place the elements with specific file names to specific positions.

(3 Drag-N-Drop. You could have a drawer on the side with all your elements organized in groups (widgets, title bars, menu highlight, ect..). Then you can drag the element into a window in ThemePark, then it will get placed into the new theme. ...

Ill create a mock-up and post it later.

[gautch]

Originally posted by gautch:
Ill create a mock-up and post it later.

First off.. this ^ is a mock up.. AKA NOT REAL. I used iPhoto to make this mock-up go faster. Sorry that is so big!

So with that said, here i go:
We can keep the original ThemePark Navigater. It works, why change it?

On the left you see a drawer with the Open Source Elements we can use.

You should be able to click and drag the element onto the preview on the right. ThemePark would know the image size/filename and place it in its respected positions. Updating the preview in real time.

In the preview pane we should be able to set a wallpaper so we can see how the theme reacts to light and dark wallpapers.

On the bottum you could import, organize, edit all your elements.

Below that is where you can edit Theme info. (Theme Name, Creator, Discription, ECT...)

So thats my idea on the Open Scource Elements.... (and other things).

[Twister]

wow how cool.

[crooner]

Originally posted by Twister:
wow how cool.

What he said!

[dggraphics]

gautch... that is exactly what I was talking about. Using drag and drop the app would know exactly where to place the element. That way you would not have to mess with all the dead resources, just the applicable ones. You could even make it so can just import .psd files with layers for each state.

[gautch]

Originally posted by dggraphics:
gautch... that is exactly what I was talking about. Using drag and drop the app would know exactly where to place the element. That way you would not have to mess with all the dead resources, just the applicable ones. You could even make it so can just import .psd files with layers for each state.

Yeh i thought about the PSD option for states. Its a great idea!!

If ThemePark could recognise file size/name then once you were at a point in the design
process to atack ThemePark, you could tell ThemePark to look in a specific folder.. then it
would place all the elements automaticaly.

I also wonder if when you save a theme.. maybe there could be a check box that allows
you to make the theme open source. So if some one downloads it and then opens it in
ThemePark they could use elements from it.

[gautch]

sorry i double posted...