WHERE TO START -------------- Yay! You opened the correct file first. The first thing that people notice when they download the Zen theme is that there are A LOT of files -- way more than other themes. Don't worry! You don't need to learn everything all at once in order to make a drupal theme. Zen will do the bits you haven't learned and patiently wait for you to discover the documentation and inline comments about them. SUGGESTED READING ----------------- Installation If you don't know how to install a Drupal theme, there is a quick primer later in this document. Building a sub-theme See the STARTERKIT/README.txt file for full instructions. Theme .info file Your sub-theme's .info file holds the basic information about your theme that Drupal needs to know: its name, description, features, template regions, CSS files, and JavaScript. Don't worry about all these lines just yet. CSS Once you have created your sub-theme, look at the README.txt in your sub-theme's css folder. Templates Now take a look at the README.txt in your sub-theme's templates folder. ONLINE READING -------------- Full documentation on the Zen theme can be found in Drupal's Handbook: http://drupal.org/node/193318 Excellent documentation on Drupal theming can be found in the Theme Guide: http://drupal.org/theme-guide INSTALLATION ------------ 1. Download Zen from http://drupal.org/project/zen 2. Unpack the downloaded file, take the entire zen folder and place it in your Drupal installation under one of the following locations: sites/all/themes making it available to the default Drupal site and to all Drupal sites in a multi-site configuration sites/default/themes making it available to only the default Drupal site sites/example.com/themes making it available to only the example.com site if there is a sites/example.com/settings.php configuration file Please note: you will need to create the "theme" folder under "sites/all/" or "sites/default/". For more information about acceptable theme installation directories, read the sites/default/default.settings.php file in your Drupal installation. 3. Log in as an administrator on your Drupal site and go to Administer > Site building > Themes (admin/build/themes). You will see the Zen theme there with links on how to create your own sub-theme. You can optionally make Zen the default theme. 4. Now build your own sub-theme by reading the STARTERKIT/README.txt file. 5. Internet explorer has a nasty bug that limits you to 31 stylsheets total. To get around this limitation during theme development, download, install and configure the "IE CSS Optimizer" module. http://drupal.org/project/ie_css_optimizer