Themes seem kind of random

laer wrote on 2/19/2009, 8:37 AM
I have set up one page (with navigation buttons like Main Menu, Next Page, etc), along with a background image and thumbnail grid.... and exported it out as a theme.

That all worked, except that when I apply the theme, it almost seems random as far as what elements it applies.... only some of the buttons appear some of the time. Even in the theme's thumbnail (in the Theme palette), some of the nav buttons are missing.

Is there some other thing about themes that I should know about here that may be causing this behavior?

All I'm trying to do is set up one menu page (with a thumbnail grid setup, a title, and several common nav buttons (last page, next page, main menu, index menu). I figured that I'd set it up, and export it as a theme... but as I mentioned, only some of the buttons seem to get saved into the theme.

Also, is there a way to remove a theme from a page? (Not that it changes it back, but at least isn't marked as 'using Theme X'.

Thanks in advance...

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 2/20/2009, 9:11 AM
Remember that a theme will save the button style and background, but it won't serve as a template for your menu.

In other words, if your new menu doesn't have an Extras button but the page you saved as a theme did, you won't automatically get an Extras button on your new menu. It's the STYLE of the button that will be applied to your new menu. Not the content of your theme.
laer wrote on 2/20/2009, 3:23 PM
Hi, Steve.

The weird thing is, it seems to be somewhere in the middle! It actually DOES seem to generate new buttons... but not all of them... and seemingly random which ones it does!

For example, the menu I created has 4 nav buttons... Main Menu, Photo Menu, Previous Page, and Next Page. I exported it, and the Theme thumbnail that appeared in the Theme palette shows the Main and Photo menu buttons, but not the previous/next ones. Then, when I apply it to a blank menu page, I sometimes get that same thing (to be expected)... but sometimes I'll get the reverse, and get the Previous/Next buttons and not the Main/Photo buttons! Crazy stuff....

In the end, I was frustrated with the randomness of it all, and just did it manually (...like I so often do with most things). I simply copied and pasted all the nav buttons from a previous menu onto the new ones (...and thankfully it pastes them in their proper positions, rather than dumping them in the middle or something!)!

I'll tinker with it some more some other time, but right now, I'm on a deadline, and can't deal with randomness...
Steve Grisetti wrote on 2/21/2009, 11:40 AM
Strange. I would think your menu, with template applied, would only generate next and previous buttons if you actually had next and previous menus pages!
laer wrote on 2/21/2009, 12:01 PM
Hmmm... That might be part of it! You're right.

There's still some unexplained weirdness.. but I'll experiment with it all once I finish this project. I'm sure it's just me missing something or not understanding some aspect of it... I'll post the findings once I do.