[starlit]
never let them see you cry
Tutorial : Adding LJ Layouts to DW (All Users) 
May 06 09
crush: Adventure Time (Idol | Ice Cream)
If you migrated from LJ, which is probably the majority of you, you probably miss having layouts like Flexible Squares, Smooth Sailing, and Mixit.. Do not fear, there is a way around the system but you need a Paid, Premium, or Seed account. This will not work with Basic users, sorry to say. Dreamwidth recently announced that all users can use Layers, but for Basic users it's limited. So I've tried to make this as easy as possible, but if you have any questions/comments/concerns, just reply to this entry.

The Tutorial

  1. Go to the Advanced Customization area of Dreamwidth.
  2. Click on the link under "Advanced Options" that says Your Layers.
  3. Look toward the bottom of that page and you'll see this:
  4. Under the "Create top-level layer" is where you will start. From the "Type" drop down menu, choose Layout and from the "Core Version" drop down menu, choose 1. Choosing Core 2 won't let this work, just so you know. So it'll look like this:
  5. Hit "Create" and it'll make the new layout. Since I already installed Flexible Squares and Smooth Sailing, I'm going to use Mixit for this tutorial but it should work for all the layouts as far as I know. :)
  6. Click on the "Edit" button and it'll take you to another screen that looks like this:
  7. UPDATED: Because Livejournal made changes to the raw source code for each of their layouts, the way the tutorial was originally written will not work.  I have linked the source code for four layout bases, but do not have the others. I'm sorry for any inconvencience they may be to people, but hate the system, not the writer of the tutorial.
  8. Here are the Source Codes that will work with the rest of this tutorial: Flexible Squares | Smooth Sailing | Mixit | Nebula
  9. If you are looking for any other layout styles, I'm sorry, they are not available here and I'm not good enough with coding to be able to make them work as well. I apologize for any inconvenience this makes, but by the time I realized I had to provide the code, it was already too late to salvage the others! :/

  10. Copy all of the code. Using the Select All (keyboard command Ctrl+A) and just copy it (keyboard command Ctrl+C). Now you want to paste it into the layer window in your other tab. Click "Save & Compile" at the top of your window.  There should be no errors.
  11. Now go to the Your Layers again and you'll see that it now lists your layout! Yay, now, that's the hard part and everything now should be easy as pie. Well, hopefully...I think? Yeeeah.
  12. Now go to your Customize Journal Style page and to make life easier, click on the Your Custom Layers link under the "Select a New Theme" area.
  13. Choose the layout you want by click the button that says "Apply Theme", so I'm going to pick Mixit, because that's what I want to mess with. It'll automatically apply the layout to your journal.
  14. WE'RE NOT DONE YET! Keep reading kids. :P
  15. Click on the Customize link and it'll take you to a very similar page that looks pretty much what you had on LJ.
  16. I'm going to use this layout by [community profile] thefulcrum for this tutorial. Go to the Custom CSS area of this page.
  17. Uncheck the box that says "Use layout's "Base Weblog" stylesheet" because you don't want to use that.
  18. Paste the code from the layout you want to use into the large textarea.
  19. Hit the "Save Changes" button.
  20. You are done.


Things to Note

  • If you don't use CSS for your layout, you won't have a layout, it'll just be Times New Roman text without any special format. Boring boring, yes, but that's life, unfortunately.
  • Flexible Squares is a little limited and I'm trying to figure out how to not make it so. Basically, layouts from people like [livejournal.com profile] milou_veronica might not look as nice because you can't cut down the list of navigation links (such as getting Memories and your website removed from the list in the menu).
  • If you're using someone else's CSS, please, oh please remember to give them proper credit. :)
  • If you intend to add any modifications to your "layout" layer (not the "theme" layer!), please make sure to follow the instructions here so everything shows up all right.
That's all folks!
Comments 
Sep 12 10 (UTC)
Thank you! Man, I remember making LJ layouts JUST LIKE THIS years ago. <3
Sep 12 10 (UTC)
narrator: (Default)
Hi,

Do you think you'll add source codes for Tranquility II and Minimalism in the near future?
Sep 18 10 (UTC)
crush: Adventure Time (Default)
I wish I could, however their coding has changed a lot since I had first nabbed the source codes, so I can't get them to work. Sorry. :/
Sep 19 10 (UTC)
velvetsun: (Default)
Thank you so much for this tutorial. Now I can have my lj layout over here as well! =)
Sep 22 10 (UTC)
luckydaydreamer: (Default)
Thank you so much for this <3

It really helped a lot! =)
Sep 24 10 (UTC)
bigmamag: (Spock 2.0)
I am so pleased this works and now my layout matches my lj perfectly. Thank you for the tutorial! :D
Sep 30 10 (UTC)
lauchlen: (Default)
Thank you so much for this! You rock. *G*

I'm totally squeeing now because I have access to some of the most popular LJ layouts that I haven't been able to fiddle with the entire time I've been at JF.

Am off to find a layout I love.
Oct 12 10 (UTC)
favoritedarkness: (Default)
Thanks so much for this :-D It worked like a charm and now I can enjoy other layouts as well.
Oct 26 10 (UTC)
mrpikolo: (MJ → tee hee)
I was having so much trouble installing a layout for awhile.. but thanks to you, I finally be able to fix everything. Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial :D I really appreciate your help. I'm definitely passing this on to my friends :)
Oct 27 10 (UTC)
Thank you! I was having a heck of a time getting Smooth Sailing to compile and couldn't figure out what the problem was. Turns out I was trying to use the newer version of the code.
Oct 31 10 (UTC)
myshkin: (Default)
you are lovely, thank you
Jan 10 11 (UTC)
tehopheliac: (Wonderland: Tiny!Alice on a hat!)
Thank you so much for this! I was getting ready to rip my hair out in frustration at trying to figure this out on my own. <33333
Jan 12 11 (UTC)
charredwood: (Default)
Thank you, this was very helpful and quite easy to do.
Jan 29 11 (UTC)
Omg Thank you so much for this!!!! I did not like the available layouts and wanted Flexible Squares. I was able to install it with no problems. It's wonderful!! Thank You!!! I gave you credit on my profile page. :)
Feb 21 11 (UTC)
bituin: (Default)
thanks! just installed flexible squares :))
Feb 28 11 (UTC)
OMG ILU!!!!

Your instructions are clear and precise. You helped a lot by giving the fabulous codes~

Thank you so much! Really, thank you!
Apr 05 11 (UTC)
corlee1289: (Default)
OMFG!!

THANK YOU!!
Apr 06 11 (UTC)
arisa_draconis: (Default)
Thank you for this! Mine is a success! :D
Apr 06 11 (UTC)
thanks for the guide !
it was very useful :D ~
Apr 06 11 (UTC)
cowdungs: (Default)
thank you so so so much ♥
Apr 07 11 (UTC)
bluebelle78: (Default)
Found this searching through DW. I've been wanting to move my LJ layout over here for a while now, this is just what I needed to help me. Thanks! :)
Apr 12 11 (UTC)
chratz: (Default)
you mentioned that you have only saved the layout bases for four themes, but I think you can see the source code for the others here? I really hope that's helpful. if not and you know about this already, then I am sorry, but I just had to mention it, in case you do not. thank you so much for your tutorial, btw. it was really helpful for me to move my lj layout over to dw. thank you!
Apr 12 11 (UTC)
crush: Adventure Time (Default)
LJ, unfortunately, had changes to their layout design and actual coding so much of what they changed/added doesn't correspond with the things that Dreamwidth changed. I only realized this a little too late though, so the raw code is available for LJ, but it is no longer sympatico with the way DW has things.

Thanks for the suggestion though, if I could have used those source codes, I would definitely have done it. :)
May 12 11 (UTC)
pink: (Default)
Thank you for this tutorial!
May 16 11 (UTC)
biodamped: for better or for worse (Default)
I've used this tutorial a few times now for importing (because I keep forgetting how to do it, pfft) and it's been so useful! I saw your update about lj's source code - I don't know if it will help, since I don't know too much about the S2 base code, but I have some of the old versions of the raw source saved. If you want copies to add in here, let me know. They'd be from .... oh, somewhere between 2008 and 2009, when I got anal about backing up all my coding, so definitely pre- the change to lj's syntax (I had a quick look over one of them, and as far as I can see, it looks like all the additions for the spam filters are the main differences? I haven't tried to install one on here though, so I don't know if there's anything else that'll mess it up. I'm guessing the original errors caused by the friends/read properties would need to be fixed). Anyway, like I said, it may not be any use to you, but if you ever want them, let me know. I'm happy to upload them for you. :)
May 16 11 (UTC)
crush: Adventure Time (Default)
If you could that'd be awesome! It'd be interesting to see if I could get it to work and f you could point out in the code where the new spam filter stuff is, maybe I can find a way to work around that! And you'll definitely be credited if it does work. :)
Jul 11 11 (UTC)
Thank you very much! This was sooo helpful! ^_^
Sep 28 11 (UTC)
natnat466: (Default)

Thank you so much for this :D :D :D
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