New UI for the WP Admin area

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Update #1: Joshua aka iioshius from #wordpress has decided to host backups for those who bork thier install, or make changes to the CSS and need a fresh, unspoiled copy.  Thanks brother.

Update #2: Joshua has also posted a variation on my UI for mass consumption, his version attempts to prove that blue is the new red.  We'll see pal.  If you create a variation on this theme, leave me a trackback or comments so I can list you here as well.


Before you get into the nitty gritty of this little excursion, you must be informed of a couple of caveats.


First of all, this design is for me, not everyone.  Some of my compatriots on the #wordpress irc channel seemed to dig it, so I am releasing it for them really.  What does this mean to you gentle reader?  Well it means that for instance, you must keep your window at a certain width to avoid nasty wrapping issues, if you have your monitor set at 1024 X 768 then you shouldn't have a problem.


Secondly, this includes my Overview page wp-glance, with the stats piece commented out, but if you would like to add that back in, you can download wp-glance, and follow the instructions to add the table for stats to your DB and uncomment the stats bit.


Okay, on with the show.


Well here is the first release of my new UI for WordPress.


Again before starting here, the purpose for this little experiment was to make the UI more comfortable for me, and to get rid of the stinking blue, of which I am not a fan.  Give me red baby.


Here is a screenshot:

UI Redesign


Ok, so now on to business.  I tried to make this as painless as possible so bear with me.

  1. First you need to download this archive.
  2. After you have unzipped it, you will find a number of new .php files, and a couple of new images within the wp-admin folder and a new wp-admin.css file.
  3. You now have one of two choices, you can either A.) backup your current copies of the .php and .css files, or you can B.) just drag and drop overwriting the current files.
  4. You also need to add the images found in wp-images to your own wp-image folder.


That should be all you need to do, look for teh next version of this little endeavour that will incorporate more drastic changes to the layout of some of the screens.