Custom OWA Themes
Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2003 supports the concept of 'Themes'. Out of the box you can change your default color scheme. However, it's also possible to create your own OWA themes.
STEP 1
On the front-end(s) and back-end(s), create a directory in …\exchweb\themes, e.g. called "foo"
STEP 2
Copy or create new versions of the following images (gradients for buttons, backgrounds, etc) to \foo:
logo2.gif– branding logo, can replace with own company logo
nb-bkgd.gif – navbar background
nb-hide-ql.gif– nav bar hide icon ("slider")
nb-ql-tgl.gif – nav bar slider background
nb-sel-bkgd.gif – navbar selection gradient
nb-show-ql.gif – nav bar show icon
nin-bg.gif – toast image for new e-mail notification
OWAColors.css – colors used in themes
resize-dot.gif
tool-bkgd.gif – toolbar background, also used for folder button
STEP 3
You can then edit the CSS file to come up with your own colors and styles. Note, public folders and the calendar viewer are not affected.
STEP 4
On the back-end(s), add a reg key called 'Themes' under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ MSExchangeWEB \ OWA \ This key does not exist by default. Then under the Themes key, create a REG_SZ with the same name as your them you created in Step 1.
This is the registry structure:
* ...MSExchangeWEB \ OWA
* |
* ---- Themes
* |
* ---- Theme1 (RG_SZ)
* |
* ---- ThemeN (RG_SZ)
Each theme value is a string (RG_SZ) that contains a semi-colon separated list of name-value pairs (name=value)
These name-pairs are:
id: Custom theme id.
Restrictions:
· First bit (0x80000000) can not be set.
· Can be a hexadecimal (starts by '0x' or decimal number)
· Must fit on a DWORD
· Can not colide with an existing custom theme id.
path: Custom theme path.
Restrictions:
· Must be shorter than 256 characters.
· Can not be an empty string
title: Custom theme title.
Restrictions:
· Must be shorter than 512 characters.
· Can not be an empty string
bgcolor: Custom theme background color.
Restrictions:
· Must be 7 characters long.
· '#' must be the first character.
· The rest of the six characters must be a valid hex digit (basically, this has to be a valid HTML color '#rrggbb').
All of the name-value pairs are required.
If a theme doesn't meet comply with these restrictions then it will be ignored.
* Example:
*id=0x1;path=mytheme;title=My Custom Theme;bgcolor=#12ACD3
*
* Note:
* The name-value pairs can be listed in any order
In the path section of the reg entries, just put in the path relative to the exchweb\themes directory (such as "foo"), mentioned above.
STEP 5
Just wait 30 seconds after implementing the registry parameter, and the new theme will be available in 'Options'. No need to restart services!
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