How to install a style on your board

If you don't know how to install a style on your Forumotion, phpBB2 or phpBB3 board, follow the directions given below.

Decompressing a style

All styles hosted on this site are compressed as ZIP format. Unless you have an old Windows version (Windows 2000 ? It still exists ??), you normally can decompress them without having to download any decompression tool.

  • Under Windows XP and newer versions : right click > Extract all.
  • Under any Linux distro : right-click > Open with archive manager or use the unzip myarchive.zip in your terminal.
  • Under Mac OSX : Having never used this OS, I suppose that the way is similar to what we do on the two other OS.

Installing a Forumotion style (from a ZIP)

Even if Hitskin is practical for quick style install, some styles distributed on Ishimaru Design aren't available on Hitskin and some buttons might be missing.

To install a Forumtion style manually from a ZIP archive, here are the steps to follow once your archive is decompressed :

  1. First of all, all styles made by Ishimaru Chiaki include a en/install/adminpanel.html for image correspondences, and a en/install/colors.html for install directions, and it's strongly recommended to consult them before installing.
  2. All styles made by Ishimaru Chiaki include a .bbtheme file in the en/install directory, in order to quickly import style colors. To import it, go to your admin panel > Display > Styles management and use the style import form in order to import the colors .bbtheme file.
  3. Host all your pics on an image host (or a file host that allows hotlinking), such as servimg or imageshack ou Archive-Host. or any other host.
  4. Once your pics hosted, while helping yourself with the en/install/adminpanel.html, place the links, one by one, in your admin panel > Display > Pics management.
  5. Some styles require specific settings for an optimal rendering, such as centering the logo and/or the link bar, disabling textes in link bar or repositioning some buttons. All of this can be done in your admin panel > Display > Headers and Navigation.
  6. If a css.txt file is included in the en/install directory, go to your admin panel > Display > Colors > (tab) CSS Stylesheet then copy the .txt file content into the field.
  7. Your style is now installed !

Installing a phpBB2 template

  1. Using a FTP client (ex: FileZilla), upload the decompressed directory into the templates directory of your baord. You must make sure that you have something like templates/yourstyle, not like templates/yourstyle/yourstyle. Otherwise, the template won't be detected ! This mistake is more likely to occur for Windows users.
  2. Supposing that you don't use CyberAlien's eXtremeStyle MOD, go to your admin panel > Styles Admin > Add, then install the new template that should normally appear.
  3. All is left to you is to set this template as default in your board's general configuration and change style for users.

Installing a phpBB3 style

  1. Using a FTP client (ex: FileZilla), upload the decompressed directory into the styles directory of your board. You must make sure that you have something like styles/yourstyle, not like styles/yourstyle/yourstyle. Otherwise, the style won't be detected ! This mistake is more likely to occur for Windows users.
  2. Go to your admin panel > Styles > in the styles homepage, you should normally see a new style in the uninstalled styles list. If you see it, install it. At the same time, you can set it as default.