MyBB Community Forums

I've been running a Mybb forum for a little over nine months now, with pre made custom themes which to be honest aren't really my cup of tea nor does it do my forum justice for being unique and different from other related forums.

So I want to customize my forum in every aspect such as theme, layout, buttons.

For the banner/logo I want to make it so my title is visible and never changes, but has a bottom layer that runs an animated GIF that cycles through a different image every so often, just enough to keep the forum fresh without being annoying.

The only barrier I've ran into which is quite an issue is I don't possess the knowledge in CSS, XML, HTML or PHP to make this happen. How can I expect to be a better webmaster if I can not modify or customize my forum/website to appeal to visitors?

So I am seeking help on what is required to make such modifications to Mybb and uniquely customize my forum to suit mine and my visitors needs? What should I expect to learn and what tools would I need?

I can't afford expensive tools like Photoshop and only have free alternatives such as Gimp and Paint.Net to work with.

um, you're gonna have to either learn those things or hire someone else to do it

I would charge 10 dollars through pay pal.

(2008-09-24, 04:09 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]um, you're gonna have to either learn those things or hire someone else to do it

Yes I know, but what should I expect to learn/study in order to do such modifications for Mybb?

I know Mybb uses html/css for templates at least I think it does, but I am unsure of where to start or exactly what needs to be done to customize/create a theme and change the layout of the forum?

I don't expect anyone to do this for me, I am more than willing to learn this on my own, in order to customize it the way I want. I am just looking for tips, suggestion or information from the Mybb community to accomplish this.

(2008-09-24, 04:09 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]um, you're gonna have to either learn those things or hire someone else to do it

lol...I was just about to say the same thing!

Well for a new template and theme all you would really need is (X)HTML and CSS. PHP could help with a few very customized parts but for the most part you can just copy and past that as well all templates are (X)HTML.

Oh, and maybe a few photoshop tutorials for the images.

Can a templates CSS/Xhtml be basically copied from other themes and be customized/edited to change the appearance, along with some image editing?

What I am basically asking is do I have to start from scratch or can I use another themes CSS/Xhtml code as a base for the new theme. Such as editing an existing themes XML file which contains all the CSS/Xhtml code to customize the appearance.

I don't have Photoshop nor can I afford it, would free alternatives such as Paint.Net or Gimp be sufficient for image editing?

Well, to be truthful I don't know much about CSS or XHTML, but it's pretty easy to learn all of it on the fly while you're working. It's mostly just piecing things together logically.

Yes you can use them as a base. Heck I would recommend just editing it right in your browser(for the theme at least but the template maybe better on your computer).

Then yes Gimp or Paint.net can get the job done especially since honestly most web images aren't that complicated .