<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
The obvious "benefit" of being able to theme the admin area is to carry
over the branding from the front-end to the back-end. John already
mentioned two good ways of cleaning it up and this plugin
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/white-label-cms/">http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/white-label-cms/</a> would certainly
take care of the rest. I don't think the option to theme the admin area
is the best one either, even though I *love* to theme virtually
anything I can get my hands on -- some things are better left alone to
retain simplicity.<br>
<br>
Here's just one scenario of how this could go south very quickly: A
designer decides to fully rebrand, redesign the backend and revert to a
horizontal menu a la WP 2.0, at her client's request. She decides to
bail the site/maintenance after a year or two and the menu is all out
of whack, come the next upgrade. Now, the client has a funky menu and
it's all WordPress' fault. The client could just get rid of the custom
admin theme altogether, but that would mean having to re-learn to the
navigation. Again, it's all WordPress' fault. Well, not really... but
you get what I mean. This is typically how a CMS gets pounded on.<br>
<br>
Mike<br>
<br>
On 6/3/2010 3:08 PM, Toon Van de Putte wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTinoqgQkxnWCVnqoG6Po2Ptqe0rze2H_j1PnBxrK@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Is all of this well documented? The Screen Options I know
about, but the custom fields thing is new to me. But my main argument
was <i>against</i> admin themes. I don't see the point, frankly,
besides some superficial cosmetic stuff.<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:54 PM, John
O'Nolan <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:john.wp@onolan.org">john.wp@onolan.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;">Hi Toon,
<div>You can already hide many panels via the Screen Options tab,
and custom fields are fairly easy to customise now via the
functions.php file of a theme, no need for a plugin!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Hope that helps</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<font color="#888888">
<div>John</div>
</font>
<div>
<div class="h5">
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>On 3 Jun 2010, at 22:36, Toon Van de Putte wrote:</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I don't think that is a good idea. I think
it's one of those features that sets Wordpress apart from, say, Drupal
and that makes Wordpress much more usable out-of-the-box.<br>
The standardized look 'n' feel of the admin is one of the reasons I
really like Wordpress. It just works, and it makes sense that a
well-designed admin interface doesn't need themes.<br>
What I would like is the ability to show/hide certain panels, have more
flexibility in how custom fields are integrated (without resorting to a
plugin), etc. But the basic layout and functionality of the admin does
not need theming, imho.<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:02 PM, Luke
Gedeon <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:luke.gedeon@gmail.com" target="_blank">luke.gedeon@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Call me crazy, but it seems like the easiest way to solve the look and
feel issues with the admin is to make it as easy to theme the admin as
it is to theme the site.<br>
<br>
Give designers a while and see what ideas happen. We can then take the
best ideas and build them into the default theme.<br>
<br>
To encourage theme development we need to:<br>
1. Set-up an admin theme repository.<br>
2. Add a page inside admin to choose and install new admin themes.<br>
3. Make admin themes editable in theme editor tool.<br>
4. Allow users to select admin themes separate from site themes but
allow theme designers to ship matching/complementary themes.<br>
<br>
I have got to be missing something????<br>
<br clear="all">
-------------------------------------------<br>
<font color="#888888">Luke Gedeon<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://luke.gedeon.name"
target="_blank">http://luke.gedeon.name</a><br>
</font><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
wp-ui mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:wp-ui@lists.automattic.com" target="_blank">wp-ui@lists.automattic.com</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui"
target="_blank">http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
wp-ui mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:wp-ui@lists.automattic.com"
target="_blank">wp-ui@lists.automattic.com</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui"
target="_blank">http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
wp-ui mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:wp-ui@lists.automattic.com">wp-ui@lists.automattic.com</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui"
target="_blank">http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<pre wrap="">
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
_______________________________________________
wp-ui mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wp-ui@lists.automattic.com">wp-ui@lists.automattic.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui">http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>