Theme Library

A theme is a set of unified design elements and color schemes for the objects and pages in a project. When you apply a theme to a project, VisionTools Pro-e customizes attributes, such as colors, styles, fonts and shapes, for elements in the project. In this way a theme helps you easily create a consistent and professional look.

With the Crestron Theme Library, you can have themes that are designed for particular applications, such as Residential, Commercial, or Educational. You can also categorize themes according to general style, such as Traditional, Modern, Industrial, or Classic.

Crestron provides several themes that are available on your hard drive when you install VisionTools Pro-e. Using the Theme Library, you can view or customize the Crestron themes, design your own themes, and edit or delete themes.

The Theme Library organizes themes by touchpanel type; all themes are available to any project of the same type, including projects created in earlier versions of VisionTools Pro-e (see Converting .ini Files).

Themes are contained in .thm files that reside in the main VTPro-e directory. If you create a project for a TPS 5000 touchpanel, any themes you add or create will be saved in a file called "TPS5000.thm." Any subsequent projects you create for panels of that type can access the same stored themes. That is, all projects of a particular type share the same .thm file.

To open the Theme Library go to the Options menu, point to Preferences and then click Theme Library. The Panel Type list gives all the touchpanel models that support themes, while the Theme list displays the available themes for projects of that type.

As you select a theme, the Theme Style window will display a top-level folder with the name of the theme, as well as subfolders for every object. If the theme has an associated JPEG layout file, click the Layout tab to load or view a sample page (see Layout Files).

When adding new themes to the Theme Library you first create the theme, and then specify the attributes, or theme style, that you want to apply to each object. You can create any number of theme styles for an object, and they can vary according to function. For example, you can have one theme style for audio/video distribution buttons, and another for home security buttons. You can also set or modify the theme styles for multiple objects at once.

Create a Theme

1. Choose a panel from the Panel Type list and click the New Theme button.

2. Type a name.
   
   The new theme will be added to the Theme list and the Theme Style window will display a folder with the name of the theme, as well as subfolders for objects. Each object folder contains the available theme styles for that object.

3. To remove a theme, select it from the Theme list and click the Delete button. To copy an existing theme and save it as a new one, click the Save As  button and enter the new name.

Create/Edit Theme Styles

When you create a new theme, a theme style with generic attributes (simply called Style) is automatically added to each object folder. It will be displayed in bold, signifying that it is the default style of the new theme.

You can edit the default theme style, customize existing styles, or add any number of new styles. You can also designate a different style as the default for the object, or specify no default.

• To add a new theme style, right-click the object folder and choose Add Theme Styles.

• To rename a theme style, right-click and choose Rename, or click the theme style and type the new name in the text box.

• To select a different theme style as the default, right-click it and choose Default Style. (It will be displayed in bold.)

• To select no theme style as the default, right-click the default style, and select Default Style to un-check it.

There are two ways to change the attributes of a theme style:

1. Double-click the theme style to open the Properties dialog. (For example, double-clicking a theme style for a button will open the Button Properties dialog.)
   
   Then set the new values for properties such as colors, style and shape, text and image alignment, and so forth, as you normally would in a project.
   
   or

2. Change individual attributes from the lists provided in the Assign Theme Properties box. The available choices differ depending on the object.
   
   As you choose properties and set new values, an image will be displayed in the Preview window.

Work with Multiple Theme Styles

The Theme Library provides extensive right-click functionality and other Windows-like procedures that enable you to work with multiple objects at a time. For example, you can use the <Shift> key to select a block of objects and theme styles. You can also use the <Ctrl> key to select multiple items that are not adjacent to each other, or to cancel a selection.

When you select multiple objects, you can:

• Set their attributes as described above, via the Assign Theme Properties box. Here the properties list will include all properties, not just those specific to one object. You can set values for properties that all the selected objects share, or for properties that pertain to one or more of the selected objects.

• Add new theme styles to all selected folders: right-click and choose Add Theme Styles.

• Delete all the theme styles contained in the selected folders: right-click and choose Delete Theme Styles.

More:

Theme Manager

Theme Styles