This is our blog.

While most posts here are of the news and updates variety, we do occasionally scribe a few lines of tutorial as well. Enjoy.

11.06.07 / October Release - Moodle Dressed in Black

Stealth Theme for MoodleBack in August, I wrote that we would try updating our collection of themes at least once per month. In the spirit of keeping that pace, I’m pleased to offer our sixth premium theme - Stealth.

While I don’t think that a black Moodle theme is exactly what everyone is looking for, I thought it was important that it was at least an option for that one person who might be looking for it.

The biggest challenge of this theme was the icon set, which had to be redone to work with the black background. The overall effect is a very clean, sophisticated, and dark theme for Moodle.

You can see it for yourself here.

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/ Going Live ….

After a few hours of making things fit, it looks like we’re ready to start blogging on WordPress.  Visit frequently to read about our adventures in Moodling!

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11.05.07 / Hello world!

Pardon the drastic change in the look and feel of this blog versus our site. We are migrating our blog from the RapidWeaver engine previously used to WordPress, which should allow us more flexibility and freedom to blog more.

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09.11.07 / Break From Custom Themes

Due to my increased responsibilities during the academic year, I will be unable to take on any new custom themes for awhile. While this will not interfere with any custom themes I am currently working on, I don’t want to stretch myself too thin in the future.

I will, however, entertain requests for custom work during the Christmas holiday break.

I will continue to release themes through this site as frequently as I can. And, I will continue to support all themes available.

If there is a theme developer who is interested in a referral, please contact me. I’d love to see your work, and possibly send some business your way.

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09.04.07 / Downloads Now Include All Theme Variations

If you purchased our Solstice or Elegance themes before we started including all style variations in every download, you can drop us a line and we will send you out a new download that includes all of the styles. You will know that this applies to you if your theme ends with a “_0X” - where the “_0X” designates the corresponding variation that you downloaded.

See, when we first started, I (Patrick) thought it would be easiest (for you) to be able to pick a theme, install it, and get started without any customization. As we add our fourth theme, I realize that this is simply not practical (for us or you). You want options, right? We don’t want to update 4-12 theme variants every time we update one of our themes!

So, now every download comes with every variation shown. We’ll call them “theme sets.” Installation and customization are made a breeze with our included step-by-step documentation. As long as you have a basic text editor (NotePad, TextEdit), you can pick the theme set that you like best and have your theme up in seconds.

Note: this does not change the license, which can be read here.

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08.24.07 / September Release

Modern ThemeWe’re happy to release our 5th premium design for Moodle. It’s light. It’s sharp. And we’re calling it “Modern.” It uses minimal background images. It includes an “access bar,” which allows users to select their preferred font size. No page has been left untouched. See it here.

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08.08.07 / 2007-2008 Release Schedule

With school fast approaching, I anticipate my theme development will slow down. Already, I’m finding that I should be working on other projects. With that said, I hope to release about a theme a month to keep things fresh around here. Now, this is no guarantee. There are a lot of variables that could potentially cut into my development schedule:

  • Moodle upgrades that break our current line-up of themes
  • My classes
  • The birth of my first child in February

But, alas, I will do my best to keep fresh Moodle designs coming.

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08.04.07 / Convertible Theme Release

Convertible Theme for MoodleI am pleased to announce that Convertible - our most versatile and gorgeous theme to date is now available for download.

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08.02.07 / What’s on Deck for August?

I have just finished what will be our fourth professional theme. Meet “Convertible” - named for its convertibility!

I have posted some screenshots here so that you can take a closer look at all the color/background/header options. IMHO, this is our best theme yet.

I have some documentation to complete, some code to cleanup, and perhaps a tutorial to make, and then it’s go.

Estimated Release Date: Monday, August 6, 2007

Edit: The pages are all in place and the demo for convertible are now working. The only thing I have left to do is make the Convertible page look good; fill it with features. Nevertheless, the download link is functional and the files are in place. Enjoy. [11:57am EST Saturday, August 4, 2007]

Edit: While taking some screenshots, I found a bug in convertible’s resource pages - this is easily fixable, but may take a while to remedy. I’ll let you know here when i have this fixed. [12:37pm EST Saturday, August 4, 2007]

Edit: Ok - the resource view problem looked much worse than it was. Fixed. I simply left out a couple lines of code from one of the variants. The problem (if you care) is that fixed width themes don’t look very nice in frames or popups). So, I had to switch all resource-view pages to variable width. It flows together really well. [1:08pm EST Saturday, August 4, 2007]

Edit: Done! Everything is up and running. Looks great. Now, I can relax this weekend! - Patrick [1:38pm EST Saturday, August 4, 2007]

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07.05.07 / New Premium Theme: Elegance

Elegance Theme for Moodle
Just seconds ago, I put up my second set of premium themes for Moodle. This one I am calling “Elegance,” and have created five different color options to choose from. As always, I have included the source files and separated the color attributes into their own CSS so that you can easily modify it to your needs. This theme would look great on your Moodle installation!

Let me tell you just a little bit about this theme. If you’d rather just get to the good stuff, you can check out Elegence on my Moodle Demo now.

Key Features

  • Separately styled left and right columns to divide up the screen real estate, providing improved usability.
  • Since logging into the site is such a big deal, I isolated the login block above the header image on the front page. Since the background is tied to the login menu, it disappears when users are logged in.
  • I’ve added some PHP to the header that will call up your site site description inside the header gradient. This is nice for those of you who would like to use a tagline in your Moodle themes. Don’t want it? Easily fixed; documentation included.
  • The header images are all replaceable with a single-line CSS edit (also included in documentation).
  • Within the course, the header gradient shrinks into a tight, rounded-corner breadcrumb for navigation. No screen space is wasted.
  • One-of-a-kind forum background styled to look like a text bubble.
  • Shadows added to user and group pictures whenever they appear.

As always, this theme is built on top of the Standard style sheet to ensure that it will remain intact for years to come. When Moodle upgrades, so will your theme!

If you have any questions about this theme, or would like my help customizing it to fit your needs, please do not hesitate to contact me through the NewSchool Learning Support forums.

Enjoy!

Update: I just checked Elegance in Internet Explorer for the first time … boy, wasn’t that fun! Elegance is NOW browser compatible. I apologize for not doing this before releasing it! Live and learn, I suppose.

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