Catalyst Theme Marketplace and Dynamik Skins

In last week’s Feature of the Week post I covered the new Catalyst Marketplace where complementary Catalyst related products and tools are available for download and/or purchase.

This week I’m taking a look at one of the ranges of products provided there – Dynamik Skins.

The Catalyst Theme is actually a theme framework where the Parent Catalyst Theme provides all the core functionality including things like SEO options, navbar, content, header and footer settings, etc (basically – what to include) and a Child Theme then provides all the customisation functions and design styling options (how to include it).

So as well as the parent theme, the standard Catalyst bundle includes a child theme called Dynamik that provides hundreds and hundreds of design options.

A simple illustration of this would be that the Catalyst core options allow you to set the default content and sidebar layout for the site while the Dynamik options allow you to specify the widths of the sidebars and content pane, their margins, padding, border options etc.

The Dynamik Theme pretty much allows you to customise most aspects of the site’s design – from the font type, size and colour used in the header text, all the way down to the colour, thickness and position of the footer border – along with everything else inbetween of course!

The Dynamik Theme is also where images used in the design are uploaded and managed, including those for the Body, Header Logo, Navbar tab and other background images etc.

It also allows you to specify the layout for a static Homepage using the EZ Widget functionality included in the Dynamik Theme.

Once the design for a site has been completed, images uploaded and assigned appropriately, and the various Dynamik options adjusted to create the desired look for the site, all the settings can be saved into a file and exported as a Dynamik Skin.

They can then be imported into any other Catalyst/Dynamik Theme based site to replicate the same look and feel, meaning you can have a new site design up and running pretty much instantly.

Using the Dynamik Child Theme with Catalyst means you can create and save your own Dynamik Skins.

Or of course, by choosing a ready made Skin from the Catalyst Marketplace you can save yourself the effort and take advantage of someone else’s design abilities to give your site a  great look – instantly!

A Catalyst/Dynamik Theme with Drafter Skin

Here’s a site that has just had the “Drafter” Skin imported into it. Just download the relevant Skin from the Marketplace, unzip the file to get a folder that contains the zip file containing the Skin’s settings and upload that into the Dynamik Theme settings using the Import/Export tab.

And remember that an imported Skin doesn’t have to be the final design. It’s just a set of images and settings that give your site a certain look and feel initially. You can then start to make changes as you see fit using the settings and options in the Dynamik Theme.

So for example, you could upload an alternative header image, change the border colour and style, or the font type and colours etc from those provided in the Skin.

Because the Dynamik Child Theme is so comprehensive and easy to use means that you can make those changes to almost any aspect of a site’s design without the need for coding.

Dynamik Skins – they’re instant and fun!

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com