Learning LJ Styles (S1 and S2)

Moderators/Maintainers
This community is currently maintained by me, ninjamonkeyspy (with occasional assistance from traversant). Read more about us on our respective journals and user info pages.

Purpose
I am using this community to document the learning process as I explore Livejournal's S1 and S2 style systems. The purpose is not only to learn how to customize and design Livejournal layouts, but also to deliver any useful information that I come across along the way. Posts will include links to other helpful materials (journals, tutorials, reference material, etc.), code that I have put to good use, and occasional requests for more information or help.

When I started this community (February 23, 2005), I had no experience with S1 or S2. Since then, I have only worked with S1 briefly (Generator layout), but I have put a bit more work into learning how to customize S2's Component layout. Until/unless I decide to branch out and learn more about other layouts, any help I can offer will be essentially limited to S2's Component and the basics of S1.

Additionally, I can be found commenting on entries in several livejournal help/guidance communities. You can access them via a custom friends filter here: ninjamonkeyspy/friends/lj.

Membership and Posting Access
Membership is open, but posting shall be moderated, at least for now. So many other LJ communities are cluttered with far too many entries to be useful, and I don't want that to happen here. I have crafted the purpose of this community to justify this. Feel free to join and leave a comment any time!

The guidelines for posting access, format, and topics will be more clearly defined in the future. For now, the guidelines are simple: I post whatever I want, and hopefully you stick around and more newcomers are attracted to the community!

Question or Request?
This is not a help community, at least not yet. For open communities that serve help requests, I recommend s2_for_dummies for S2 and overridehelp for S1. Also see the links below.

I'll still take your questions and suggestions in the comments of any entry (preferably the most recent one). I will receive an email if you comment anywhere in this journal, and I'll answer it accordingly.

Did we miss something?
Leave a comment in the most recent entry at any given time to let us know if we've missed something!

Getting Started: FAQ    7 Livejournal styles overview FAQ 168 Switching between S1 and S2, and where to go to use either system FAQ 173 What's the difference, and which should I use? FAQ 64 Custom mood theme overview
S1 (OVERRIDES): All S1 FAQs S1 Variable List General: FAQ 124 How overrides work FAQ 140 Common mistakes FAQ 141 If your journal goes blank How to: FAQ   12 Change font settings FAQ   13 Change number of entries per page FAQ   96 Change default link text FAQ   97 Set a background image FAQ 131 Create a custom S1 style Further Help: FAQ 138 More about overrides and S1	S2 (LAYERS): All S2 FAQs S2 manual and official documentation General: FAQ 170 How S2 works FAQ 171 Available options for each style FAQ 176 S2 layer types FAQ 145 Extras for paid accounts How to: FAQ 169 Add a links list FAQ 213 Add a plain text blurb (no HTML) FAQ 214 Set a background image FAQ 175 Apply your style to other LJ pages FAQ 177 Create a custom S2 style Further Help: FAQ 172 More about S2 styles
Now You're Ready Livejournal Developers' Area (intended for programmers and advanced users) Custom Mood Theme Editor (create, edit, use, and delete mood themes) S1 Styles: Front Page S1 Modification (define layout, color scheme, mood icons, and overrides here) S2 Customization: Front Page S2 Customization Wizard (apply and/or customize preset public styles) S2 Advanced Customization (browse, create, and edit layers and styles)
Other Helpful Livejournal Communities (Note: most help communities advocate learning the code; they won't simply do it for you!) Everything LJ: everything_lj: ask for help or discuss anything about livejournal -- not just for LJ styles! lj_style: discussion of and help for anything relating to S1 or S2 styles ljstyles: discussion of and help for anything relating to S2 or S2 styles ljdesigners: lj icon, background, and layout customizations -- read the FAQs! publicstyles: users post their styles for the public -- not a help community! S1 in General: overridehelp: help community for helpful veterans and in experienced newbies howto: advanced tutorials community for S1 overrides S2 in General: s2_for_dummies: help community for helpful veterans and inexperienced newbies s2styles: open community for anything about S2 styles, a good place for user input s2layers: the "S2 Styles Exchange" -- share your S2 styles, code, and tips here fblayers: S2 styles code posted and discussed by helpful users for public use s2howto: advanced tutorials community for S2 styles Help with each S2 layout: boxer_help component_help s2component (old tutorials) s2haven opal_help s2tabbedmenu (old) s2unearthed s2variableflow