Front and Center: Should You Use Themes?

When they were first introduced to the FrontPage, themes seemed like a good idea. How nice and how easy to be able to change a site's look and feel with the click of a button! The integration with other Office products also provided a potential synergistic element because developers could apply a theme across their work despite the application.

Themes were born with a number of significant problems. The most important of which was the fact that all the themes that came with FrontPage were downright ugly. Some companies were formed for the purpose of creating better looking themes than what came with the CD. Although a small cottage industry was born of third-party theme developers, most users didn't think that was enough and shied away from them altogether.

Microsoft could develop an attractive theme, but the limitations to what could and couldn't be done in this format prevented themes from having a significant impact on Web design. They kind of came and went quickly and are seldom used anymore by the professional developer.

NOTE

One developer's unique answer to the limitations of a FrontPage theme produced a FrontPage product called SuperThemes. You can read more about this product at http://superthemes.frontpagelink.com.

Instead, developers worked with FrontPage Templates (often supplemented with themes) to provide the professional out-of-the-box look-and-feel element others were hoping to accomplish with the use of themes. You weren't able to apply a template to an existing project, but many felt the trade-off was worth it.

In most cases, the template content supplemented with theme information could easily also be supplemented with CSS. Because themes are still so tightly integrated into the FrontPage interface, many template developers chose to take that path to make the support process somewhat easier.

If you look around the Net, you will find that most template developers have a "FrontPage version" with themes and another version with CSS providing the same. The second is usually marketed as a generic template or focused toward the Dreamweaver or GoLive user. You can really use both with FrontPage 2003, but the marketing angle of using themes in packaging is still chosen by many.

For more information on FrontPage Templates, see "FrontPage's Web Templates, Wizards, and Packages," p. 267.

In addition, the metadata associated with theme use added a considerable amount of information to any Web site (especially when more than one theme was used) and could slow down both the publishing and editing process.

With Microsoft's push to move theme elements to CSS, the size and slowness issue has been somewhat answered. However, the limitations of what can be accomplished in a theme simply prevent most template developers from suggesting that they are the best alternative for offering presentation options to a FrontPage Web site.

In addition, if all theme elements are published and supported through CSS, many more experienced FrontPage users wonder why themes aren't eliminated completely for this more industry standard technology.

NOTE

A great CSS resource can be found at http://csshelp.frontpagelink.com.

It is still my feeling that themes as a standalone style tool simply aren't enough. When integrated with a FrontPage Template, they can be a powerful tool, but they seldom provide more than a good CSS file does to the Web design process.