New Themes That You Create or Install Are Not Displayed in the Themes List in FrontPage

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This article was previously published under Q308130

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SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft FrontPage, when you create or install a new theme from a third-party vendor, the theme may not be displayed in the list of available themes when you click Theme on the Format menu. As a result, you are unable to add the new theme to FrontPage, or apply it to your FrontPage Web.

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CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the theme is not located in the correct folder on your computer's hard disk. By default, all FrontPage themes are stored in individual folders in the following location:

Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Themes

Note: In Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, the themes are stored in Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\THEMES11.

If your operating system is Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, themes may also be stored in individual folders for each user in the following location:

%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Themes

Most third-party theme providers include a setup program that installs themes to your hard disk. In most cases, you are prompted for the location in which to install the themes. However, some setup programs may not always install themes to the correct location.

When this situation occurs, or when new or existing themes are moved to a location different from those listed in the "Cause" section of this article, FrontPage is unable to locate the theme and cannot display it in the list of available themes.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, make sure that all themes are stored in the correct location on your hard disk.

A FrontPage theme consists of a subfolder of the same name that is located in the Themes folder. Each subfolder contains at least one .elm and one .inf file. The name of the subfolder (theme) must match the name of the .elm and .inf files.

For example, if you install a new theme called MyNewTheme, all of the following conditions must be true before MyNewTheme is displayed in the list of themes when you click Theme on the Format menu:

The Themes folder is located in the following directory:
Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Themes
-or-
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Themes

(on Windows NT and Windows 2000-based computers)
A folder named MyNewTheme is located in the Themes folder.
The MyNewTheme folder contains a MyNewTheme.elm file and a MyNewTheme.inf file.

For each new theme that you install or create that is missing from the theme list, locate the theme, and then manually move the individual theme folder to the Themes folder on your hard disk.

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MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about working with themes in FrontPage, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

197997 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197997/EN-US/ ) FP2000: What Are Themes and What Do They Do?

219128 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/219128/EN-US/ ) FP2000: Unable to Delete, Modify, or Use a Custom Theme

206011 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/206011/EN-US/ ) FP2000: How to Alter the Theme Used by Web Templates

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