Themes QuickStart

Are you already creating commercial graphics, animations, or audio? Do you want to explore the market for mobile content? Do you have design ideas that would make a great custom theme for mobile devices?

If so, this QuickStart guide is for you. It guides you through the creation of a simple theme and shows you how to load and activate it on your mobile device. It also provides links to other training resources, which you can use to develop your skills further.

Before you start

If you're already developing graphics on a PC, you likely have the hardware that's necessary to run Carbide.ui Theme Edition, Nokia's theme-creation tool. To confirm, compare your system configuration to the hardware requirements described on the Carbide.ui: Features page. Keep in mind that graphics applications can require significant PC resources, so users of some PCs may need to close other graphics applications before working with Carbide.ui.

You now should download three pieces of software: Carbide.ui Theme Edition, Nokia PC Suite, and the Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE). JRE isn't essential for getting started, but you'll need it if you want to use Carbide.ui's feature that enables automatic updates of the software. If you haven't used Nokia PC Suite before, take a look at the Nokia Web site's PC Suite Help section, paying particular attention to the "Start" and "Get connected" subsections.

Although you won't need them for this QuickStart, you will need your favorite applications for editing graphics and audio when you create content for themes. Almost any bitmap, vector-graphics, or audio-editing application can be integrated with Carbide.ui.

Finally, you might like to locate a favorite image and ensure that it's sized to 240 x 320 pixels.

Installing the software

Carbide.ui and Nokia PC Suite are delivered as Windows installers. Simply locate the *.exe files you downloaded, and install the applications.

Starting Carbide.ui

After installing Carbide.ui and Nokia PC Suite, start Carbide.ui. When Carbide.ui displays the Workspace Launcher (as shown in Figure 1), select a workspace folder in which to store your themes. Either choose a new location or accept the default.

Figure 1: Use the Workspace Launcher to select a workspace folder in which to store your themes.

Next, Carbide.ui displays a welcome screen. From here you can access the users guide, run tutorials, or open an example theme. Let's dive right in by clicking the Create Theme icon (shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2: Click the Create Theme icon on the Welcome screen to get started.

The New Theme dialog (shown in Figure 3) is now displayed. Here you name your theme and select the type of theme you want to create. This example describes the creation of an S60 theme.

Figure 3: In the New Theme dialog, enter a theme name and select the content type.

Click the Finish button to create the theme and open it in the Carbide.ui interface. The Carbide.ui interface is divided into a number of panes that are designed to provide all the information you need to create themes. We'll introduce some of these panes as we move through the QuickStart process.

Next, we'll make a simple change to the theme, replacing the idle screen's background with our own image.

At the left of the Carbide.ui interface is a pane labeled Resources (as shown in Figure 4). In this pane, click Background. This will open the Background resources tree and a second Background item will be displayed, click this item and then finally click Idle Background.

Figure 4: Select Idle Background from the Background hierarchy in the Resources pane.

You'll notice that the content of the pane in the center of the interface (shown in Figure 5) has changed. This is the Editor, which now displays a representation of the S60 idle screen. Whenever you select a theme resource, the Editor shows a typical S60 screen using that resource.

Figure 5: The Editor pane shows the Idle Background in a representation of the S60 idle screen.

Below the Editor is the Components view (shown in Figure 6), which displays all the components in a theme resource. In this case, the theme resource has just one component. Other theme resources may contain several components.

Figure 6: The Components pane shows all the components in a particular resource.

Now you can replace the existing background image with your own. To do this, right-click the Idle Background component to open its shortcut menu (shown in Figure 7) and click Select File.

Figure 7: Click Select File on the component's shortcut menu to browse for a new image.

Browse for and select a new image for the background. The Editor then updates the representation of the idle screen to show the new background (as shown in Figure 8).

Figure 8: The Editor pane shows a representation of the idle screen with its newly selected background image.

There are many more components within this theme that you could change. The additional resources mentioned in the Learning paths section below can help you with those. Now, however, we'll proceed to packaging the S60 theme and installing and activating it on a device.

Because this is an S60 theme, the next step is to create key pairs with which to sign the theme before packaging it. From the Carbide.ui menu, select Tools > Handle Key Pairs.... In the Handle Key Pairs dialog, click New and then Make Keys.

In the Make Keys dialog (shown in Figure 9), fill in the fields in the User Information section and click Generate.

Figure 9: Fill in the User Information fields in the Make Keys dialog to prepare for generating keys.

Next you'll see the Handle Key Pairs dialog, where you can save the generated keys.

Before the next step connect your S60 device to your PC, using PC Suite.

Now it's time to package the theme. Select Tools > Create New Package from the Carbide.ui menu. In the first New Deployment Package dialog (shown in Figure 10), enter the information about your theme.

Figure 10: Enter information about the theme in the first New Deployment Package dialog.

Then click Next, and in the second New Deployment Package dialog (shown in Figure 11), click Finish.

Figure 11: Click Finish in the second New Deployment Package dialog to create the deployment package.

The packaging process for Series 40 themes is similar, though you don't create key pairs for them, because they don't need to be signed.

Carbide.ui now displays the New Deployment Package dialog that asks whether you want to continue by launching the transferring tool, Click Yes and PC Suite then asks you to confirm that you want to install the theme (shown in Figure 12).

Figure 12: Carbide.ui asks whether the theme should be transferred to the mobile phone, and PC Suite transfers it and commences installation.

PC Suite now transfers the theme to your device and starts the installation process. When the installation process starts, follow the instructions on the device to install the theme.

To activate the installed theme on your S60 device, select the Tools folder from the menu, then select Themes, General, and your theme (as shown in Figure 13).

Figure 13: Screen shots illustrate the process of activating a theme in an S60 device.

You've now completed the entire theme-creation process. You have created a new theme, customized a theme component, packaged your theme, and installed and activated it on a device. You're now ready to explore the full range of theme-editing features offered by Carbide.ui. You'll find helpful guidance in the next section.

Learning paths

A number of resources will help you learn more about the features and capabilities of Carbide.ui and about themes. A good place to start is the Carbide.ui screencasts, which are available in the Forum Nokia eLearning section's Web Technologies and Content Creation Track.

Once you've gained an understanding of Carbide.ui's features, consider the issues of good design and usability. Guidelines and advice on what makes for good (and bad) theme graphics are provided in Design and User Experience Library.

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