Lean Skin for PmWiki
Overview
This is a clean, minimalist skin for PmWiki 2 that was created with usability in mind. It evolved from a similar skin? for PmWiki 1. The appearance isn't on the cutting edge of graphic design, but hopefully what the skin loses in style it makes up in functionality.
Design Objectives
- Be understated without being stripped bare. Emphasize the content.
- Keep the main content area a reasonable width for easier reading.
- Treat screen pixels as valuable and scrolling as inconvenient.
- Avoid displaying nonessential duplicate links.
- Avoid linking from a page to itself (self-referencing links).
- Give site navigation links conspicuous placement in the layout.
- Be easy to use for both inexperienced and seasoned veteran wiki users.
- Allow wiki links and last-modified output to be obscure or invisible.
- Provide an adequate text area (approx. 80 x 28) for easy editing.
- Produce pages that render similarly in various browsers.
- Encourage wiki users to create well-structured web documents.
- Be easily customizable to suit personal preference.
Attach:xhtml-valid.png Δ Attach:css-valid.png Δ The skin produces valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS output.
Access Keys
The skin includes these access keys:
accesskey+'c' = Recent [C]hanges in current group accesskey+'a' = [A]ll recent changes accesskey+'b' = Edit side[B]ar accesskey+'e' = [E]dit Page accesskey+'h' = Page [H]istory accesskey+'p' = [P]review page when editing accesskey+'s' = [S]ave page when editing
Using access keys allows your site to have "Invisible Wiki Links", where the wiki links aren't displayed but their access keys still work (in Firefox but not Internet Explorer). Just uncomment the appropriate lines in the stylesheet (lean.css) and you will have a quick-and-easy-to-edit wiki that looks like an ordinary web site.
Screenshots
Screenshots of Lean Skin v0.13 are in this image gallery made with Qdig.
Installation
Place the lean/ directory in your skins directory (pub/skins/) and add the following to your local configuration file:
## Use the CIS-Dept. Lean Skin.
$Skin = 'lean';
You can also use the bundled printable-view skin by adding another line:
$ActionSkin['print'] = 'lean/print';
You can customize the skin. Read more about customizing in INSTALL.txt.
Files
gzipped tar archive (LeanSkinForPmWiki-0.16.4.tar.gz, 12K)
zipped archive (LeanSkinForPmWiki-0.16.4.zip, 14K)
These files are in the archives:
pub/skins/lean/
|-- README.txt Brief documentation
|-- INSTALL.txt Installation instructions
|-- lean.tmpl Template
|-- lean.php PHP script
|-- lean.css CSS stylesheet
|-- leanicon.gif Icon image
|-- leanlogo.gif Logo graphic image
|-- print/
| `-- print.tmpl Print View template
`-- wikilib.d/
|-- Site.LeanEditForm Custom edit form
`-- Site.LeanXLPage Preferences page
Changelog
Older Releases
See the README.txt file.
Ver. 0.14
- The overall width is slightly wider. The extra width was added to the wikitext area.
- Diff output on History Pages is wider (same width as textarea on Edit Pages now).
- Preview output on Edit Pages is narrower (same width as wikitext area now).
- Heading margins are smaller.
- History Page links to Edit Page and vice versa.
Ver. 0.14.1
- Adjusted CSS so wiki style markup can more readily override the stylesheet.
Ver. 0.14.2
- Fixed IE compatibility bug introduced in v0.14.1.
Ver. 0.14.3
- Improved links on Edit and History Pages. (Suggested by Jeff Schuler?.)
Ver. 0.15
- Adapted the skin so it works on fresh installations of PmWiki 2.0.beta44 or newer, which use the Site group rather than the Main group for site-related pages.
Ver. 0.16
- Added a searchbox to the page header.
- Added CSS for compatibility with v2.0.0 SideBar wikistyle.
Ver. 0.16.1
- Added preview button to the edit form.
- Adjusted fonts in the stylesheet.
Ver. 0.16.2
- Shortcut icon (favicon) is now configurable via $EnableSkinIcon setting.
- Trail path separator is
' > 'by default (instead of PmWiki's' | '). - $Action has been replaced with $ActionTitle to restore correct title.
- CSS stylesheet rearranged so it's now overridable by the administrator.
Ver. 0.16.3
- Using a logo or text for the home link is configurable with $EnableSkinLogo.
- The URL of the logo image file is configurable with $LeanLogoFile.
Ver. 0.16.4
- Removed the
(:noleft:)and(:noright:)directives fromlean.php. - Added an "
xmlns" attribute to the<html>tag.
Notes
- Lots of "settings" are available by commenting out or un-commenting sections in the stylesheet.
- This skin uses tables for layout because doing so causes the pages render as consistently as possible in a wide variety of browsers. No transition to CSS-only layout is planned for this skin.
Comments / User Feedback
Feedback about the skin is encouraged, especially feedback about browser compatibility. Take a test-browse! Use the skin to view the pages of pmwiki.org. You can always return to this page and switch back to the default skin.
- I want to change the look & feel on a per wikigroup base with this skin.
Nice Skin! But I've found a problem. I have included a "Latest News" block, as suggested here? in my Site.SideBar. Basically, it simply uses (:include:) in the Site/SideBar plus some CSS (in local.css) to make it look "pretty". The Problem: With LeanSkin, the LatesteNews block and the rest of my SideBar menu are totally overlapping each other (I'm not sure which one is actually "on top" -- let's say they "coincide in screenspace). I have been playing with several different Skins today, and this is the first Skin wherein I've seen this problem. Probably and easy-to-fix problem in the CSS? (using PmWiki ver 2.0.2, viewing with FireFox v1.0.6 on WinXPsp2) ~Peter M, Sept 7, 2005
Peter,Try wrapping your (:include:) in a div. (That is, put (:div:) above and (:divend:) below it.) That, or put a [[<<]] above and/or below it. Post again if neither of those works. -Hagan
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