WordPress MU

I want to use one theme for six blogs but I want to change colors, header image, the css in general. How do I do that? Some of the forum threads about this are one or two years old.

The first thing that comes to mind is simply make five additional copies of the template you want to use.

Rename each new folder to something that differentiates it from the other new folders, such as template_2, template_3, etc.

Edit each "style.css" file in each folder to identify the templates accordingly.

For example:

Change the style.css in folder two from:
-> Theme Name: WordPress mu Default
To:
-> Theme Name: WordPress mu Default #2
... folder three to:
-> Theme Name: WordPress mu Default #3
... etc.

Upload all these new template folders to your themes directory and you should be set. Of course you will need to change particualr template according to your wishes, but this will get you started.

Or you can create the theme to do just that. Or use an existing one like Mandingo which will allow users to customize the header and colors and whatnot.

That is what I thought, JellyBeen. I have done that in the past, but when I edit the Theme Name in Style.css, it goes all wack in the Mu dashboard.!I thought I could add a screengrab here, but I can not! Well, take a look at it on over here:
http://www.tumblr.com/new/photo

This is what it looks like on Mu Site Themes. It adds all of the style.css instead of just the Theme name.
And it isn't just Thesis. I tried it on another theme and it did the same.

Opps! my bad! here is the correct url: http://kbsmith.tumblr.com/

"but when I edit the Theme Name in Style.css, it goes all wack in the Mu dashboard."

Then don't do that.

make copies of the theme on your computer. RENAME the directories and the style.css in each one. THEN upload them.

Also, Thesis is built to have custom child themes as well, so dig aroudn their site on how to do that.

I know it works on MU fine.

Adrea- That is what I did. Copied the Theme directory, changed that name and the Theme Name in style.css and uploaded to my site. I had done it before on another non-Mu site without incident. Just repeated again now, and still get wack: http://kbsmith.tumblr.com/ Can you see this? I have worked with the Thesis custom sheets.
Glad to know it works on Mu. Thanks. IT's ME!

Not sure why, but here's what happened. The above steps I did first and then used an FTP app to upload. Then I downloaded the few files I would be tweaking using DreamWeaver. In DW I changed the Theme Name and re-uploaded and the "wackness" went away. Not sure why that would do it. Maybe it is a Unix Thang, or permissions.
So I am closing in. Thanks again. IT was ME!

Really what you should be doing is separating your site's layout from the site's design.

One stylesheet should have only the layout and architecture, ie. margins, paddings, positioned elements, etc.

And the other stylesheet should contain only the colors, color, background-color, etc.

Then in the header of the theme you can have an if statement to include which color stylesheet you want depending on what blog is being requested. ie. if($wpdb->blogid == 3) include the red stylesheet.

You could even have different colors per author/category template.

I'm glad you are getting closer.

If you are looking to only have each one of these themes only available to a unique blog, then remember not to activate the themes globally, but activate them via the individual blog editing function. (I forgot to mention this in my previous post.)

"Then in the header of the theme you can have an if statement to include which color stylesheet you want depending on what blog is being requested. ie. if($wpdb->blogid == 3) include the red stylesheet."

Or build an options page for the theme so the user can pick from the backend. :D

wait, can you use some tumblr themes for wordpress mu. i love the simplicity of tumblr.