A Look at Moodle 2 Themes-Libre

White Paper
11/4/2011
Moodle 2 Themes
A look at the default themes that come with Moodle 2 and at a selection of
themes which have been contributed to the community.
By Gavin Henrick
www.somerandomthoughts.com
Please feel free to copy, share and reference this e-book. All we ask is that you acknowledge Gavin Henrick as
the source and link to http://www.somerandomthoughts.com when citing the publication.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.somerandomthoughts.com
Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011
Moodle 2 Themes
A look at the default themes that come with Moodle 2 and at a selection of themes which
have been contributed to the community.
Themes in Moodle are a combination of PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and images files. When you set out to
deploy Moodle you will either need to
use an existing available theme

tweak or customise an existing theme
build or source a new theme from scratch (from http://moodle.com/themes/ for example)
When using a theme in Moodle 2, you can select it to work either across the whole site or at different levels
throughout the site namely:
Site-wide (One theme is used everywhere)

Category level (each category can optionally specify a different theme to the default)
Course level (each course can optionally specify a different theme to the default)
User level (each user can optionally specify a different theme to the default)
This paper evolved from the reviews and Moodle 2 theme review page:
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/moodle-2-themes/.
During my reading recently I also came across a number of other presentations and documents about
themes, they are referred to in the appendix 2.
Many thanks to all who helped review the content of the paper - your time is appreciated and thanks also to
those who submitted examples for use in Appendix 3 and 4.
For any queries or corrections for paper please contact me gavin@somerandomthoughts.com
THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY CONTAIN
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS,
WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com
1.
Why read this?................................................................................................................ 3
2.
Themes in Moodle 2 ...................................................................................................... 4
3.
Customising themes ...................................................................................................... 9
4.
Theme gallery ................................................................................................................13
5.
About the Author ........................................................................................................ 49
6.
Creative Commons Copyright .....................................................................................50
Appendix 1 - Community Contributed Themes .................................................................... 51

Appendix 2 - Further Reading ................................................................................................ 52
Appendix 3 - Moodle 2 site Examples .................................................................................... 53
Appendix 4 - Moodle 1.9 site Examples .................................................................................58
1. Why read this?

If are you planning to move from Moodle 1.9 to Moodle 2 you will need to redevelop your theme. This
document aims to provide some guidance on whats out there already and some of the issues to think
about.
Or if you are just looking at moving to Moodle 2 and thinking about what you are going to do for your
theme, then this document should provide some assistance in understanding what community contributed
themes are available in addition to the standard themes that come with Moodle 2.
This paper looks at the basic features of themes in general and what aspects to consider when customizing
or selecting a new theme. The paper also looks at what features the specific themes have in layout and the
extra customisation options available through the admin settings.
Appendix 3 and 4 provide some sample sites from the community for Moodle 2 and Moodle 1.9 respectively.
2. Themes in Moodle 2
For Moodle 2 the theme system was completely redesigned. There are a number of areas which make
themes in Moodle 2 very different to how they were in Moodle 1.9. This section deals with some general
theme aspects of Moodle 2 specifically:
Layout and positioning

Functionality overrides
Device detection
Customisation of the menu
Overall theme settings
Layout and positioning

Moodle 2 doesnt need to look like Moodle. What do I mean by this? Well any design is now possible.
Where traditionally Moodle themes followed some set layouts with a header/footer and 3 columns (2
columns of blocks on either side of a main content column), this is not the case with Moodle 2, and the new
design is layout based. You could have 1, 2, 3 or more columns if you want to. The traditional design
limitations are now all but removed.
Blocks can now be placed in the header, footer, or at the top / bottom of the content area in addition to the
normal columns. So the whole page can look very different if you put the work in. As blocks can provide a
range of functionality, from content display, to specific features like login boxes and RSS feed displays, if
you think creatively, you can really change the makeup of the Moodle page. All options are on the table
now.
For more information on layouts, check out the Moodle Docs http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Themes_2.0#Layouts
Customising the menu

One of the new aspects of themes in Moodle 2 is the ability to manage a dropdown menu from the admin
settings.
By adding in rows of the name and URL that you want the option to go to, you can configure the custom
menu easily. You can also create menus can indenting the option using - .
So for example this sample has Moodle Community as the first option and below it Moodle Support:
Moodle community|http://Moodle.org
-Moodle free support|http://Moodle.org/support
The section to add these in is found at the bottom of the page under:
Settings -> Site administration -> Appearance -> Themes -> Theme settings
Rendering over-ride
In addition to the new layout files, it is possible with programming to override the renderers which produce
the smaller parts of Moodle, so you can change how they display as well.
This means it is much easier to change the output of parts of the features, like blocks, activities and so on.
This is a huge change. For more information be sure to check out the Moodle docs page
http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Themes_2.0_overriding_a_renderer
! One of the areas which you may want to have an override would be the custom menu. You may want to
extend it so that it includes a my courses dropdown as well as the normal options from the settings box.
You could also decide to add a categories drop down as well using overrides too. Both of these would
require development.
Device detection
Moodle 2 now has device detection for themes. What does this mean? Well, it means that you can have a
main theme set for your Moodle 2 site which will load when people access from a web browser on their
desktop, notebook or laptop, however you can have a different one load when they access it from a mobile,
and a different one load when they access it from a tablet.
This means you can if you wish, customise the look/feel and structure and layout for each different device.
A good example of this is the MyMobile theme which is highlighted later on which provides an optimised
experience for smart phones and tablets. It is written using a mobile specific interface (jqueryformobile).
However, as you can add device definitions, you can also create a theme for different browsers if you need
to. This would enable you to create a version of your theme optimised for a specific browser like IE6 for
example.
The screen for selecting which themes you are using for which device is found in the Settings block:
Settings -> Site administration -> Appearance -> Themes -> Theme selector
Theme Settings
The following are the settings which you may or may not want to alter but need to be aware of:
Setting
Theme list
Default
EMPTY
Comment
You should probably fill this in when you finalise your
themes if you want to let course teachers or even all
users select their own theme from a selection of
themes.
Here you specify the only themes you want available
to choose from.
Theme designer mode**
No
If you are designing themes or developing code then

you probably want to turn this mode on so that you
are not served cached versions.
Allow user themes
No
If you want to allow a user to change to select a theme

for accessibility them this is needed, if not, set no.
Allow course themes
No
If you want to allow a teacher to set a specific theme

for a course (perhaps in a department, or special
course) this is needed, if not, leave at no.

Allows category themes
No
If you want to allow each faculty or department have a

unique theme then this is needed, if not, leave at no.
Allow theme changes in the

URL
No
If enabled, the theme can be changed by adding

theme={themename} to any Moodle URL.
Allow users to hide blocks
Yes
If you want to allow users to hide/show block contents

throughout the site, you leave this enabled. However
if you want to force the contents showing, then set
this as No.
Allows blocks to use the dock
Yes
This is primarily controlled by the theme as it must

support the docking concept. If it does, you can still
turn it off here if you wish.
Empty
Custom Menu Items
Enable device detection
Yes
Device detection regular

expressions
Empty
Add in the menu URLs that are required. (as explained

earlier)
If you want to allow different themes for different
devices leave this enabled.
Advanced option for further device detection.
** One important thing to note is that the Theme Designer mode is not designed for use on production
servers as it has a significant impact. This should only be used when developing a theme, which ideally
should be done on a hosted test server or a local test server on your desktop/laptop (using xampp for
example).
3. Customising themes
When thinking about getting a theme made, or setting about customising a theme, there are a number of
areas you probably want to consider.
Layout
Although most themes release have the same column outline, it is not the case for all themes and as already
outlined in Moodle 2 the layout can be pretty much anything. That said, most themes released so far still
follow the layout concepts from Moodle 1.9, but this is changing.
Leaving aside whether you add block spaces in the header or footer, lets look at the standard layouts people
use.
Some themes have all the block columns on left, some on right, or some have the normal of one block
column on either side. Now of course you can choose to use or not use blocks, however the inherent design
has a lot to do with what decisions you can make.
The options are:
Option
Blocks, Content, Blocks
Description
This is the most typical layout of a
Moodle theme, and provides
options for blocks on both sides of
the course content area.
Impact
In a standard screensize this restricts the
content area to about 60% of the width if
blocks are used on both sides; however it
provides a lot of space for blocks.
Content, Blocks, Blocks
This is variation of the main type,

where both columns are on the
right side of the content column.

Blocks, Blocks, Content
This is the 3rd variation of the main

type, where both columns are on
the left side of the content
column.

Content, Blocks
This only has one block column to

the right hand side of the content.
This gives a lot more space to the

content area and has limited space for
blocks.
Blocks, Content
This only has one block column to

the left hand side of the content.
This gives a lot more space to the

content area and has limited space for
blocks.
Of course these are all changed if you have docking on, as some blocks can now hide off to the side of the
screen.
My personal preference is the Content, Blocks format with the navigation and settings blocks docked (so off
to the left)
As below:
Docking
New in Moodle 2 is the ability to dock a block to the side of the page, thus creating more real-estate on the
page for the content and the activities. This feature has a global setting which can be turned on and off,
however it is also an aspect of the theme. Not all themes support this docking feature, so if you want to
dock you will need to take this into account.
MyHome (MyMoodle)
The new MyMoodle (MyHome) can be focused on and customised more so that it can have extra
placements locations (more columns for example) for blocks to turn it into a strong dashboard. Some extra
blocks may need coding to take advantage of this, but this needs taking into account from theme and site
design phase.
10
Navigation
The new navigation block in Moodle provides context aware site-wide navigation options for the user. It
can also provide some in-course navigation to resource and activities. However, you may wish to consider
one of the specialist in-course navigation blocks called Course Menu Block, or Course Content. So a
decision on how you want to work will need to be considered, namely - is the Navigation block going to be
used for site-wide and in-course navigation or will a specialist block be used for in-course meaning you
need to change the settings for the navigation block.
Front Page
Although this is not necessarily part of a theme install, it should be something that is considered in the site
design of which the theme is an integral part of.
With the front page settings you can have blocks on the front page, and lists of courses and categories
automatically generated, and a news feed too, however one has to ask if you want some, any or all of these
on your front page.
There is one approach which can provide you a lot of visual control to the front page. With all blocks gone,
no news, no category list and no course list you have a big empty space. If you then enable topics for this
you can then control the front page through a HTML editor, and build a nice graphical /content front page.
Then you can build a graphical or flash panel which shows the different departments, and clicks through to
category course lists, or have a table grid of images sort of a dashboard, which go to MyHome, Student
Support course and so on. The point is you have a lot of control and can think about this page without
constraints if you so wish.
You can see a nice selection of front page examples in Appendix 3 (Moodle 2) and Appendix 4 (Moodle 1.9).
The front page settings are detailed below:
Setting
Full site name
Default
Fullname
Short name for the site

Front page description
Front Page
Shortname
Summary
Dropdowns
Front page items when

logged in
Maximum category depth
Include a topic section
News items to show
Comments displayed per
page
Courses per page
Default frontpage role
Dropdowns
Reason for change

This will show on some pages of the Moodle
install.
This will show in some pages of Moodle.
This is not shown unless the block is enabled.
Set all to None to enable full control of front page
as a webpage.
Set all to None to enable full control of front page
as a webpage.
Unlimited
Yes
3
15
20
Authenticated
user on
frontpage
Dont alter.
11
Blocks
You may wish to change the block look, and some of the things to consider are:
Coloured head of block or not

Curves around block or not
Lines around block or not
The style that you overall want to achieve must have a solution for blocks that is workable.
Width Fixed or Fluid

The Moodle theme can be either a set width or dynamic/fluid width so it reacts to the width of the
window/screen.
Each of the options have their benefits and weaknesses. A fixed width theme can squeeze content
somewhat, but sometimes fluid themes can end up with acres of white space around content. Docking also
takes space, so this needs to be considered here too.
Another point to consider when using fixed width is content scroll bars. When you add content that is
wider than the space available Moodle adds its own scroll bars. This can make it a big cumbersome to deal
with (for example a huge gradebook with horizontal and vertical scrollbars).. Equally this can happen with
content in HTML blocks, which then have scroll bars too. So you need to be sure your content fits when in
confined areas.
Accessibility
How are you going to address accessibility with the Moodle theme? There are a number of approaches that
you can consider:
Build your whole theme completely accessible

Provide widgets in the theme which can control font, font size and colours
Provide an alternate theme or themes for different font/layouts or high contrast
Provide education around the accessibility options available in modern web browsers
You may of course choose to do multiple of these, however it is something to consider when looking and
thinking about customizing a theme.
Login Box
Where should login box / link on main site? Do you want it to be a prominent feature on the front page or
perhaps in a block? Maybe you want it just to prompt for login when the user tries to access content which
needs authentication? Or perhaps you will force login for all people accessing the site. This decision has
impact on the site design, especially the front page.
12
4. Theme gallery
Default themes
There are a good number of themes that are distributed with Moodle 2. Not only do these provide some
good examples of how Moodle 2 may look, but they mostly offer simple customisation options through
settings in the theme itself.
For a good comparison, each of the following settings have been adopted for the comparisons
pages have a theme screenshot taken on my standard Moodle feature course

no blocks are docked
A standard set of custom menus are added in
This screenshot is then followed by a table of data related to that theme.
13
Afterburner
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Afterburner
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Mary Evans
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Block, Content, Block

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
14
Anomaly
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Anomaly
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Moodle HQ
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
15
Arialist
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Arialist
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Change Logo
Custom CSS
Change Tagline
Link Colour
Column Width
16
Binarius
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Binarius
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
17
Boxxie
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Boxxie
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fluid
Setting Options
18
Brick
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Brick
Default theme
John Stabinger
John Stabinger
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Logo
Block title link colour
Link colour
Heading colour
Linkhover colour
Header main colour
19
Formal White
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Formal White
Default theme
MediaTouch 2000.
MediaTouch 2000.
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Default Font size
1.9 look
Logo
Header background
colour
Footnote HTML
Blocks content
background colour
Custom CSS
Page text or Logo in

header
Right column
background colour
20
Blocks column width
FormFactor
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
FormFactor
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley.
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fluid
Setting Options
21
Fusion
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Fusion
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Link colour
Tagline
Footertext
Custom CSS
22
Leatherbound
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Leatherbound
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
23
Magazine
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Magazine
Default theme
John Stabinger
John Stabinger
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Background graphic
Maincolour
forumback
Logo graphic
Maincolour accent
Link colour
Headingcolour
Linkhover colour
Block colour
24
Nimble
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Nimble
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Tagline
Footerline
Headerbackground
colour
Link colour
Menu hover colour
25
Nonzero
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Nonzero
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Setting Options
Left col width
Right col width
Custom CSS
26
Content, Block, Block

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Overlay
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Overlay
Default theme
John Stabinger
John Stabinger
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Link Colour
Header Colour
Footertext
Custom CSS
27
Serenity
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Serenity
Default theme
Patrick Malley
Patrick Malley
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
28
SkyHigh
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
SkyHigh
Default theme
Julian Ridden
John Stabinger
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Logo
Col Width
Footnote
Custom CSS
29
Splash
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Splash
Default theme
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Logo
Custom CSS
Tagline
Hide Tagline Toggle
Footnote
30
Standard
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Standard
Default theme
Moodle HQ
Moodle HQ
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
31
Community contributed themes

There are an increasing number of themes available that have been created by the community which have
been released for download. Over 15 of these are now available from the new plugins database which is
found at: http://Moodle.org/plugins/
For a good comparison, each of the following pages have a theme screenshot taken on my standard Moodle
feature course, with no blocks docked followed by a table of data related to that theme. The details on
maintainer are as named in the database.
The URLs to the download pages are included in Appendix 1.
32
Aardvark 2.1
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Aardvark 2.1
Theme Plugin
Shaun Daubney, Mary Evans
Setting Options
Background Image
Footnote
Logo
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fixed
Menu Hover Colour
Email URL
Special Feature
Includes a special expandable area in header for logged in users called Profile Bar (grey area in
screenshot), can be toggled on/off.
33
Aardvark 2.1 - PostIt
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Aardvark 2.1 - PostIt

Theme Plugin
Setting Options
Background Image
Footnote
Logo
Profile bar background
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fixed
Menu Hover Colour
Email URL
Special Feature
Includes a special expandable area in header for logged in users called Profile Bar (grey area in
screenshot), can be toggled on/off.
34
All Content
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
AllContent
Theme Plugin
NewSchool Learning.
NewSchool Learning.
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Setting Options
Logo
Link Colour
Link Hover Colour
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
35
Darkb
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Darkb
Theme Plugin
John ST
John ST
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Setting Options
Logo
Link
Maincolour
36

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Decaf
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Decaf
Theme Plugin
Lei Zhang
Lei Zhang
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Background Colour
Hide Navigation Block
Footnote
Show user picture
Custom CSS
Add custom menu to
Awesome bar
Hide Settings Block
Special Feature
For all users it shifts the setting blocks to top of the page, creating the so called "Moodle awesome bar".
37
Discuss
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Discuss
Theme Plugin
Danny Wahl
Danny Wahl
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
38
Education Book
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Education Book
Theme Plugin
99Template.com
99Template.com
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fluid
Setting Options
Logo
Site Link Colour
Block header
Background colour
Block content
background colour
Header Background
Colour
Footer background
colour
Top Menu Background

Colour
Footer note
39
Flexi ii
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Flexi II
Theme Plugin
Richard Oelmann
Richard Oelmann
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fluid
Setting Options
Custom CSS
6 Menu Bar Settings
Footnote
26 General Page settings
27 Dock settings
6 Breadcrumb bar
Settings
17 Block settings
12 Header section
settings
6 Dropdown settings
6 menu hover settings
Special Feature
This theme has exposed a huge amount of settings through the admin page to allow a significant amount
of customisation once it is installed. However you need to have your Hex colours already worked out.
40
Krystle2
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Krystle 2
Theme Plugin
Richard Oelmann
Richard Oelmann
Setting Options
Hide Settings Block
Hide Navigation Block
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Special Feature
This theme has the Awesome Bar which moves the settings and navigation blocks to drop down menus
at the top of the page.
41
Lagomorph
Name
Status
Lagomorph
Theme Plugin
Layout
Device
Author
Maintainer
Richard Oelmann
Richard Oelmann
Docking
Width

Standard, tablet,
Mobile
No
Fluid
Setting Options
URL for settings file
Background colour 1
URL for menu text file

Background colour 2
Choose Menu Layout

Off-black colour
Page Image
Off-white colour
Special Feature
Designed for dynamic column display of 3, 2 or 1 column depending on screensize. There are no
dropdowns and some new block locations are defined above the content area.
42
Mandarin
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Mandarin
Theme Plugin
rd
3 Wave Media
3rd Wave Media
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Content, Block
Standard
No
Fixed
Setting Options
43
MultiStyled
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
MultiStyled
Theme Plugin
Richard Oelmann
Richard Oelmann
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
No
Fluid
Setting Options
Site-wide layout
Page body width
Site logo
Main Content
background
Main Text Colour
Headings background
colour
Heading Text Colour
Sidebar Background
Colour
Custom CSS
44
MyMobile
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
MyMobile
Default theme
John ST
John ST
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Custom
Mobile, Tablet, All
No
Fluid
Setting Options
Mobile Theme color
switcher
Mobile Intro Text
Show site topic
Show full images on

site index and course
pages
Special Feature
This theme provides a ui-enhanced mobile-ready version of your Moodle 2. This theme is customised and
optimised for smart phones using jquerymobile ( http://jquerymobile.com ). It has been tested most on
IOS, 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and IOS 4+ is recommended. It has also been tested on Android 2.1+. It works
with the latest browsers as well (Chrome 10+, Safari, FF 4+ and IE9)
45
Newsie
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Newsie
Theme Plugin
JohnST
JohnST
Layout
Device
Docking
Width
Setting Options
Logo
Link Colour
Link Hover Colour
46
Content, Block
Standard
Yes
Fluid
Simplespace
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Simplespace
Theme Plugin
johnSt
johnSt
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Background image
Maincolour
Forumback
Logo image
Maincolour accent
Forum colour
Link colour
Heading colour
Linkhover colour
Block colour
Special Feature
47
Zebra
Name
Status
Author
Maintainer
Zebra
Theme Plugin
Danny Wahl + others
Danny Wahl
Layout
Device
Docking
Width

Standard
Yes
Fluid
Setting Options
Logo
Background colour
Fourth colour
Colour Scheme
Two col max width
Custom CSS
Logo height
First colour
Fifth colour
Menu Colour Scheme
Three Col min width
Hide footer logo
Logo Alt Text

Second colour
Sixth Colour
One Col max width
Three Col max width
Background image
Third colour
Seventh colour
Two Col min Width
Enable page zoom
Special Feature
Offers 1, 2, 3 column layouts, with dynamic colour dark/light settings.
48
5. About the Author

Gavin Henrick is a solutions consultant based in Dublin, Ireland who works with assisting organisations to
implement a range of open source learning technologies including Moodle and Mahara. He facilitates
project consultancy and training workshops on e-learning project rollouts and upgrade strategies.
Gavin has worked with technology in business, learning and development for over 10 years. He has been
working with Moodle, Mahara, DSpace and other open-source applications for the last 4 years.
Gavin currently focuses on supporting organisations with e-learning projects including Moodle 2 rollouts
and upgrade strategies through project consultancy and training workshops.
Gavin recently co-authored the book for Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide with Jason Cole and
Jeanne Cole. This was published by Packt Publishing in May 2011.
Gavin blogs at (http://www.somerandomthoughts.com) where he regularly provides information on
Moodle including reviews of community created plugins and themes.
He is a regular speaker at a number of Moodlemoots and conferences on the use of Moodle focusing on
practical examples of usage.
For more information:

Email gavin@somerandomthoughts.com
Blog http://www.somerandomthoughts.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ghenrick
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinhenrick
Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick
Book - http://www.Moodleforbusinessbook.com/
49
6. Creative Commons Copyright

Please feel free to copy, share and reference this e-book. All we ask is that you acknowledge Gavin Henrick
as the source and link to http://www.somerandomthoughts.com when citing the publication.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.somerandomthoughts.com
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
50
Appendix 1 - Community Contributed Themes

Aardvark 2.1
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_aardvark
Aardvark 2.1 - Postit
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_aardvark_postit
AllContent
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_allc
Darkb
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_darkb
Decaf
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_decaf
Discuss
https://github.com/downloads/thedannywahl/Discuss_4_Moodle_2/discuss-v0.1.zip
Education Book
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_educationbook
Flexi_ii
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_flexi_ii
Krystle2
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_krystle2
Lagomorph
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_lagomorph
Mandarin
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_mandarin
MultiStyled
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_multistyled
MyMobile
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_mymobile
Newsie
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_newsie
Simplespace
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_simplespace
Zebra
http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_zebra
51
Appendix 2 - Further Reading

Some other useful Links
http://moodle.com/themes/
http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Site_appearance
http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Installing_a_new_theme
Blog entries
http://stawebteam.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/developing-a-new-theme-for-moodle-2-0/
http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/elearningteam/2011/01/24/things-we-love-about-moodle2-pt2-experimentingwith-themes/
Through checking the referring URLs to my blog, I recently came across some other interesting
presentations embedded from Slideshare which are also of interest:
Original Blog: http://cem.factorsim.info/ (Spanish)
http://www.slideshare.net/tumbukta/101012-mootes2010
http://www.slideshare.net/pvdhyden/moodle-20-themes
http://www.slideshare.net/moodleman/theme-gurus-moodle-2-edition
52
Appendix 3 - Moodle 2 site Examples
Figure 1 Moodle Community site http://Moodle.org
Figure 2 iMoot Conference http://2011.imoot.org
53
Figure 3 South Devon College http://moodle.southdevon.ac.uk
Figure 4 - Developed by www.synergy-learning.com
54
Figure 5 Developed by http://www.remote-learner.co.uk for client
Figure 6 -Leeds City College http://moodle.leedscitycollege.ac.uk/
55
Figure 7 - Developed by BrightAlley http://www.brightalley.nl/ for Ricoh Europe
Figure 8 - Developed by BrightAlley http://www.brightalley.nl/ for client SWETS
56
Figure 9 - Royal Conservatoire of Scotland http://moodle.rcs.ac.uk/
Figure 10 - Developed by www.synergy-learning.com
57
Appendix 4 - Moodle 1.9 site Examples
Figure 11 - Southampton Solent University http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk
Figure 12 - Southampton Solent University http://learn.solent.ac.uk
58
Figure 13 - Barking & Dagenham College http://vle.barkingcollege.ac.uk/ecampus/
Figure 14 University of Canberra - http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au
59

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Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

use an existing available theme

Site-wide (One theme is used everywhere)

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Why read this?................................................................................................................ 3

Themes in Moodle 2 ...................................................................................................... 4

Customising themes ...................................................................................................... 9

Theme gallery ................................................................................................................13

About the Author ........................................................................................................ 49

Creative Commons Copyright .....................................................................................50

Appendix 1 - Community Contributed Themes .................................................................... 51

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

1. Why read this?

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Layout and positioning

Layout and positioning

Customising the menu

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Theme designer mode**

If you are designing themes or developing code then

Allow user themes

If you want to allow a user to change to select a theme

Allow course themes

If you want to allow a teacher to set a specific theme

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

course) this is needed, if not, leave at no.

If you want to allow each faculty or department have a

Allow theme changes in the

If enabled, the theme can be changed by adding

Allow users to hide blocks

If you want to allow users to hide/show block contents

Allows blocks to use the dock

This is primarily controlled by the theme as it must

Custom Menu Items

Enable device detection

Device detection regular

Add in the menu URLs that are required. (as explained

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Content, Blocks, Blocks

This is variation of the main type,

In a standard screensize this restricts the

Blocks, Blocks, Content

This is the 3rd variation of the main

In a standard screensize this restricts the

This only has one block column to

This gives a lot more space to the

This only has one block column to

This gives a lot more space to the

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com

Moodle 2 Themes 04/11/2011

Gavin Henrick Solutions Consultant http://www.somerandomthoughts.com