Due to the extreme success of the first SharePoint 2010 theme released few months ago I am glad to present you with the second free SharePoint branding template called Synesthesia (joined perception). By choosing this name I wanted to emphasize on the ill perception some people have on SharePoint-based websites associating them with dull designs. I hope this new SharePoint theme will inspire and help you in your SharePoint branding quest.

You can use the theme for free and without any restrictions. However, it is forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without TopSharePoint.com permission. You may modify the theme as you wish at your own risk.

Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

Features:
– Two-columns
– Fixed-width
– CSS based
– Three master pages and one page layout provided
– Slider powered by jQuery Nivo Slider on the homepage
– Top and left dynamic navigation
– Ideal for 1024×768 screen resolution
– Suitable for small SharePoint 2010 Publishing Sites

Instructions

To enable Synesthesia theme for SharePoint 2010 follow these simple steps.

Download the Synesthesia.zip file and extract the files.
There are three folders in the zip file:

MasterPages folder contains three mastrepages. Homepage master page synesthesia-home.master, the general master page used across the site synesthesia.master and the search master page synesthesia-search.master. Import synesthesia-home.master and synesthesia.master into “Master Page” site objects in SharePoint Designer. I will talk about synesthesia-search.master later.

PageLayout folder contains a custom page layout created for this theme. This page layout allows you to display the left navigation and other custom functions. Import this custom page layout into “Page Layouts” site objects in SharePoint Designer.

And finally, the third folder called synesthesia contains a css folder, images folder and scripts folder.
Place the synesthesia folder under your site root. Make sure Network and Network Service accounts have read permissions on this folder.

Once all the files are put into place it is time to set the synesthesia.master as the default master page.

Go to your site homepage and click on Site Actions >> Site Settings.
Under “Look and Feel” click on “Master page” and under Site Master Page select synesthesia.master and click OK.

Go back to the Site Settings and click on “Page layouts and site templates”. Make sure you have the “(Article Page) Synesthesia” on the right side pane for Page Layouts.

Go to your site and edit all the pages to inherit the custom page layout “Synesthesia”.

Now, we need to take care of the homepage.

On your SharePoint Designer, under Master Pages, right click on the synesthesia-home.master and select “Set as Custom Master Page”. This will make the synesthesia-home.master as your default homepage layout.

Navigate to the homepage and you will notice the three small content boxes are missing. Edit the hompage, Site Action >> Edit Page. Click on the “Main Content” area and under the Ribbon click on HTML >> Edit HTML Source.

Open homepage-boxes.htm (included in the Synesthesia.zip file) with Notepad and Copy&Paste the content in the HTML Source and click OK. Publish the page and you’re done.

And finally let’s take care of the search page.
We need to change the search results page first. On the homepage go to Site Actions >> Site Settings and under “Site Collection Administration” click on “Search settings”. Under “Site Collection Search Results Page” change the default setting to “/Search/results.aspx” and click OK.

Go to SharePoint Designer and Open Site (http://yourdomain.com/Search). Under “Site Objects” click on Master Pages and import synesthesia-search.master from Synesthesia package.

Right-click on the synesthesia-search.master and pick “Set As Custom Master Page”.

If you like the theme don’t forget to leave a comment or maybe you would like to show your appreciation and buy me a beer!