Skinning a website: the basics!

[Miluette]

I've been asking a lot lately. My mind is always here-and-there. I try only to ask after I've exhausted my searches! Thus comes this query!

I've been wondering how one goes about skinning a website. I'm not even sure how to start, which is why my searches turn up dry, I suppose. What am I searching for? Is it some really advanced CSS-manipulating code that I don't want to learn? Or is it, perhaps, so simple that it's surprising I still don't know it?

Help a girl out! Please.

[Xepher]

You're gonna need to be more specific with your question. "Skins" or themes, generally apply to specific script packages or programs. Like this forum software, it's designed to let me easily add new themes and change between them. That's only easy though, because the entire design was coded from the ground up with that in mind. Most blog packages, like wordpress and the like, have similar functionality. If it's a website you're writing yourself, then its up to you whether it's skinnable or not, and to what extent. That can be as simple as having a PHP-generated stylesheet where "background-color: $COLOR" and letting people switch it via links like "<a href=thispage.php?COLOR=red>" or it can get as advanced as coding your entire site to use a template engine like Smarty.

[Miluette]

The PHP thing you mentioned is exactly what I'd like to do.
I don't need anything extensive, just swapping of background images and colors. <3

[Miluette]

For the record, I found two things closest to what I need here: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/generating_dynamic_css_with_php/

And here: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alternate/

I'm going to be trying the second one with one of my sites soon. It's oh-so convenient!

[Xepher]

Cool... that's gonna mostly be similar to the PHP thing I mentioned, save that it uses javascript to switch styles.