Let’s start from creating a custom theme for MOSS 2007 and WSS3.0. Here are the steps :-

1) Copy the “WHEAT” folder from “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\THEMES” and paste it in the same folder. Change the new folder name to “Navdeep”.

2) Rename the WHEAT.INF to NAVDEEP.INF inside the “Navdeep” folder.

3) Open the NAVDEEP.INF file in a notepad. Change the [info]’s title from “Wheat” to “Navdeep” as shown in the following table :-

4) Change the “Wheat” to “Navdeep” under the [titles] as shown in the following table :-

5) Open the “ C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\SPTHEMES.XML “ and add the following code :-

<Templates>

<TemplateID>Navdeep</TemplateID>

<DisplayName>Navdeep</DisplayName>

<Description>Navdeep has a golden background with brown control areas.</Description>

<Thumbnail>images/Navdeep.gif</Thumbnail>

<Preview>images/Navdeep.gif</Preview>

</Templates>

6) Paste the Navdeep.gif file at the images folder i.e “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES”

7) Do an IISRESET and Go to Site settings -> Site themes.

In one case, in a newly created theme and “theme.css” has been hard coded the OOB web parts. Here is the sample example :-

/* this gives every web part a white bg*/

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ1,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ2,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ3,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ4,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ5,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ6,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ7,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ8,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ9,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ10,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ11,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ12,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ13,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ14,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ15,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ16,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ17,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ19,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ20,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ21,

#MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ22,

{

background-color:#000;

padding: 10px;

font-size: 10pt;

}

NOTE :- MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ1, MSOZoneCell_WebPartWPQ2 etc are client side ids for the web parts DIV.

Because of this modication, OOB web parts get the new setting but the custom web parts didn’t get the same look and feel. To workaround this, we have done the following changes :-

1) Created a new class named “Navdeep” in the theme.css file :-
.Navdeep{

background-color:#000;

padding: 10px;

font-size: 10pt;

}

2) Added the following javascript in all the custom web parts :-

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)

        {

            string elementID = "MSOZoneCell_WebPart" this.ClientID.ToString();

            writer.Write("<script language='javascript'>var obj = document.getElementById('" + elementID + "');  obj.setAttribute('className','Navdeep');</script>");

            base.Render(writer);

        }