Developer’s Guide

Table Of Contents
48 FileMaker Developer’s Guide
Important The XML for a layout theme must be well-formed and
comply with the required syntax. See “Requirements for theme files”
on page 49 and “Checking theme files for errors” on page 56.
To modify a theme:
1. Make a copy of one of the theme files in the Themes folder.
Windows: FileMaker Developer 7\Extensions\English\Themes\
or
Mac OS X: FileMaker Developer 7/ FileMaker Developer.app/Contents/
Resources/English.lproj/Themes/
Important The total number of theme files is limited to 50.
2. Rename the copy and include the .fth extension with the new
filename.
Keep the new file in the Themes folder. In order for the New Layout/
Report assistant to display a theme option, the theme file must reside
in the Themes folder and it must have the .fth filename extension.
3. Open the theme file in a text editor.
4. Change the name of a theme by replacing the value of the
THEMENAME element with a new name.
<THEMENAME VALUE="Purple and White Screen" />
Note If your THEMENAME value contains any upper-ASCII
characters, use the HINT attribute to ensure that the theme name will
appear on both the Windows and Mac
OS X platforms. For
information, see
“Valid values for theme attributes” on page 53.
5. Change the values of other elements and attributes.
For example, to change the background fill color of the body part in
a layout to a light purple, change the color hexadecimal (hex) value
to #9933CC:
<BODYPART>
<FILL COLOR = “#9933CC” PATTERN = “2” />
For guidelines, see the table in “Valid values for theme attributes” on
page 53 and “Using values for patterns and colors” on page 55.
6. Remove any elements that you don’t want to specify.
Be sure to remove the entire single-line or multi-line element
including its start and end tags. For information, see “Removing
elements from theme files” on page 50.
7. Scroll down to the next FMTHEME element and repeat these
steps to change the THEMENAME value and other elements.
8. Save the file in text format with the filename extension .fth in the
Themes folder inside the FileMaker Developer folder.
Each new THEMENAME value will appear in the New Layout/
Report assistant as a Layout Theme option.
9. In FileMaker Developer, choose Layouts menu > New Layout/
Report
to use your theme.
Multi-line
element
Single-line
element
Attributes