Q: What is a theme?
A: A WordPress theme is a unique template you can use to change the look of your site. Most themes contain the essential WordPress features that make WordPress, well, WordPress, so you can expect them to share many common features.
Most of the themes available on the “Presentation” page were developed by individuals unaffiliated with Baylor and have varying levels of stylistic quality and functionality. While most of these themes work well enough, we cannot guarantee that every theme will function exactly as you would like (In other words, just because we offer it doesn’t mean it’s a great theme!).
Take time to experiment with various themes until you find one that suits your taste and offers the features or “widgets” you want. That said, the Electronic Library staff generally will not have time to repair (or add functionality to) a theme developed by someone outside of Baylor.
Q: May new themes be added?
A: The Baylor Electronic Library is willing to add new themes that faculty and staff find on their own. Keep in mind, however, that we reserve the right to refuse adding themes that fail to comply with Baylor’s Technology Systems Usage Policy, or those that simply don’t work well with Baylor’s system. A good place to start looking for new themes is the WordPress “ThemeViewer” at http://themes.wordpress.net/.
Also, most of the themes on this page were not designed for Baylor’s version of WordPress, WordPress MU (or “Multi User”). The WordPress folks claim most themes developed for the ordinary version of WordPress will work with MU, but we cannot guarantee it.
Finally, any theme we install will be available by default to every other user in the system.
Q: Will you develop a theme for me?
A: At this time, we cannot develop custom themes. However, with the many themes we offer and the widespread availability of themes elsewhere, we hope that you will find the template you’re looking for.
Q: If I develop my own theme, will you install it for me?
A: So, you’ve developed your own theme, and you want to run it on our server … See the above point, “May new themes be added?” If you’ve developed a theme that is well tested and adheres to our guidelines, then we will consider making your theme available to our system users.
Q: I’ve found a nifty WordPress plugin I really like. Will you install it?
A: Most likely, as long as the plugin doesn’t interfere with the general function of our WordPress server AND it offers some general benefit to every other user in the system. Again, such requests will be considered as time and resources allow.
