Mimbo Pro has been out for a couple of months now and we have been seeing some common modification requests pop up in support and on the forum. So, I thought I’d write a few posts on modifying Mimbo Pro.
Custom Skins
Custom Skins are the colour schemes you get with the theme. The default theme is blue but, from the control panel, you can also select a red or green scheme. We’ve had a number of people express interest in creating their own skins so here’s how.
- Navigate to the wp-content/themes/mimboPro/skins folder on your server
- Inside the skins directory create a new folder and give it the name of your new skin (note: _ and – get converted to spaces when listed in the control panel)
- Inside your newly created folder add a file called styles.css – this will be your new skin.
To activate the skin simply go to the Mimbo Pro options page (Design -> Mimbo Pro Options) and select your new skin from the dropdown, then hit save. To give you a head-start I would suggest looking at the contents of the bundled skins as they will tell you all the properties to change to do a total colour conversion.
Why use skins?
The biggest reason to create a skin instead of modifying the core theme files is simple, future updates of Mimbo Pro (there have been 3 so far) will “just work”, you won’t need to go in and make all your changes again, the theme itself is untouched so you have nothing to worry about.
These non-destructive ideas are things I will be expanding upon in future themes, and the skins system will play a big part in it – so you might as well get used to it now 
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Another interesting approach…
Which is truly more “future proof”?
I’ve changed your link so that it points to the original source rather than a blog scraper.
Personally… my option is more future proof. The problem with the article you link too is that you have to modify the theme to include your custom css file. Sure, it’s a single line change, but this will get annoying if the theme you’re using is updated more than once per week/ month/ year (delete as appropriate).
Currently my method is only available to Mimbo Pro users but it will be included in free themes I release so will be a lot more useful in general then.
As a guy totally new to this, I”m sorry for any obvious mistakes I”m making. But, here goes with the questions.
1st. I created the styles.css file but there isn’t anything in it. What am I missing?
2nd. , when I created the category for the carousel the only thing that shows on the front page is a question mark (and when I click on it I get the post). I know this isn’t skin related, but I thought I’d throw in the question while I’m typing
I did notice that on my server there seems to be a sub-folder under mimbo-pro called mimbo-pro and I don’t know if this duplication is appropriate or not.
Thanks for any and all help
Hi Monty
1) The styles.css file needs to be filled out with your own custom styles. It does not get automatically filled with content (as cool as that would be). I would suggest copying one of the other folders (red or green) and using that as a base.
2) I can’t help that without seeing the site. If you send a link, along with ftp and wordpress login details through our helpdesk system then I’d be happy to take a look
Thanks