The Theme builder is a point and click tool that gives admins a high degree of control over the branding in their documents.

In Collaborate, a theme is used to brand online documents, the PDFs and Word files that can be downloaded from those online documents, and the emails that are delivered to share those documents. The Theme Builder is a point and click tool that gives admins a high degree of control over the branding in their documents.

Your Collaborate documents should be an extension of your company’s image and branding. It is important to have documents that look professional and represent your company well. The Theme Builder is your first step towards reaching that goal.

To get started with the Theme Builder:

  1. Open your user dropdown and go to Administration > Themes.
  2. Click one of the default themes or any theme you’ve already created in order to edit it.
  3. Use the tools on the right side of the page to make changes and preview your changes within the theme editor.
  4. Click Save to save theme edits.

Once you’ve opened a theme, you’ll be in the basic theme editor. We recommend showing all settings by clicking Show Advanced. This presents all configuration options and gives much more granularity in design choices for your theme.

Colors

Colors can be defined in the Theme Builder using color sliders, RGB values, or hex color codes. An admin can also define up to three additional custom colors that become available within the user’s document editor when documents use that specific theme. You must click Show Advanced in the Content panel to access the three custom colors.

Logo Panel

From the Logo panel, you can upload a document logo. Images with transparent backgrounds and a size of at least 300 x 200 pixels are recommended. This logo will be used for both your documents and your document login page.

You can also upload a Favicon in the Logo panel. This is the image that sits next to your site name on a web browser tab and also in most bookmark lists. We recommend images with a transparent background and a size of at least 16 x 16 pixels.

Buttons

The Buttons panel enables you to edit the colors of buttons themselves as well as the colors of the button labels. You can also choose whether a button lightens or darkens when a mouse hovers over it. By clicking Show Advanced, you can also set the colors for the document’s Table of Contents sidebar.

Content

From the Content panel, you can choose the font and color of your text, headings, and links. Collaborate comes with many fonts available by default, but if additional fonts are needed, a Collaborate admin can use the Font Manager tool to add them. By clicking Show Advanced, you can also set color and font selections for your document’s tables.

Layout

Within the Layout panel, you have the options to edit the color of the document header, page title, and page title bar.

Background

The Background panel gives you the ability to set the background color or image, the size and position of the background image, and also the repeat options for the image. We recommend a background image that is at least 1920 x 1080 pixels if you want to cover the entire background area.

PDF

Use the PDF panel to customize your PDF download by editing page size, cover page, and standard page options. Customizable options include page background image, margins, Table of Contents design, and header and footer text.

To add a PDF cover page background:

  • Upload a jpg or png image that is 8.5 x 11 inches and 150 dpi.
    • The uploaded image will cover the whole background of the PDF cover page

To add a standard PDF page background:

  • Upload a jpg or png image that is 8.5 x 11 inches and 150 dpi.
    • The uploaded image will cover the whole background of the standard PDF page

Login

The Login panel controls how your document looks from the document login screen. You have options to edit the logo, background color or image, color of the display text, and even the colors that govern the Login button. You can preview the Login screen by selecting Document Login from the drop-down beneath your theme name.

Notes on Branded Emails

When sending emails from Collaborate, colors and logos from the document’s theme will be used to style the outgoing emails and notifications. There are three areas within the Theme Builder that affect the look of your emails:

  • The theme Logo becomes the image in your email headers
  • The Document Header color becomes the background color within the email header
  • The Accept Button color is used for any links or buttons within the email