One of the enhancements to SharePoint was an "upgrade" to how it does Themes.  Everyone remembers how Site Themes are handled now, right?  Head into the Site Settings and under Look And Feel find the Site Theme link, which shows you the below image.

Now, when heading into the same area in SharePoint 2010 you see the following:

Note the additional information now available in the page: the color scheme is shown, the text backgrounds and foregrounds, accents and hyperlinks are shown as well.  This aligns up perfectly with a PowerPoint Theme.  Now, how can we create a PowerPoint Theme?  Well, you can either open up PowerPoint 2007 and start playing there, or, enter: Theme Builder.

Theme Builder (currently a beta tool) allows you to create Microsoft Office 2007 Themes to be used throughout the Office suite.  Utilizing a tool like this allows you to create Themes that can also be used in your SharePoint 2010 sites.  Using the interface (see above) you can assign colors to the various areas that match those that SharePoint is looking for (accents, hyperlinks, etc).  Once created, you can upload the Theme to the Gallery, and then reference it in the Theme Settings.

So, to create a custom Theme using Theme Builder

1. Open up Theme Builder
2. Assign different colors to the various accents and hyperlinks
3. Select the font of the major and minor fonts
   • Major=Heading Font; Minor=Body Font in SharePoint
4. Test the Theme in Powerpoint
   
5. Save the Theme inside the PowerPoint interface
6. Open up the SharePoint 2010 Site you wish to play with
7. Navigate Site Actions --> Site Settings
8. Select Themes under the Galleries section
9. Upload the Theme created/saved in the steps above
10. Navigate back to the Site Settings page, then select Site Theme under the Look and Feel section
    • You should now see your uploaded Theme as a choice in the list
11. Select the new Theme...the color scheme, accents, hyperlinks and fonts in the page will now reflect your Theme
12. Select the <Apply> button
13. Your site now has this new Theme throughout

Relatively simple, eh?  It's not too bad for something automated.  Now, you can experiment with different color schemes and see what looks best for your new theme.

Note: When trying to just save the Theme through the Theme Builder only, and then uploading it, SharePoint exceptioned, hence we need to save it through the PowerPoint interface.

Enjoy! - M

Let's set the stage:

Initial Steps
The following prepare the virtual of a SharePoint Server 2010 Farm Installation.  Note this install will use DOMAIN\Administrator for all access.

1. Rename your virtual server something sensible (instead of taking the funky looking name it is given when you install WS2K8R2)
2. Within the virtual server I took the IPCONFIG information and made it static in the properties of the network adapter (verify network/internet connectivity)
3. Next install the Active Directory Role and DNS
4. Next, install the Application Server and Web Server Roles (taking the defaults with these)
5. Install the WCF hotfix for SharePoint 2010 installation on Windows Server 2008 R2 (found here - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166231)
6. Take a snapshot here, just in case we need to revert back.
7. Install SQL Server 2008 Standard + SP1 + Cumulative Update 2 (64-bit all the way here)
8. Snapshot #2

SharePoint Server 2010 Installation
Here's what we're all interested in...and with screenshots!

1. Fire up the beta, and the welcome screen appears...select Install Software Prerequisites.
   
2. The SharePoint 2010 Preperation Tools dialog appears...click <Next>
   
3. Accept the licensing agreement, click <Next>
   
4. The prerequisite software will now be installed
   
5. After a little time the prerequisite installation completes, click <Finish>
   
6. Next, select Install SharePoint Server
7. A little setup preperation happens...
   
8. Time to enter the Product Key for the Beta then click <Continue>
   
9. Accept the Terms of Agreement then click <Continue>
   
10. Next we'll choose the Server Farm installation
    
11. Select the Complete Server Type installation then click <Install Now>
    
12. Installation begins...
    
13. Applying updates...
    
14. Installation complete!  You can run the Configuration Wizard next if you choose to do so (which we choose to do so!), click <Close>
    
15. Here we have the Configuration Welcome Screen, click <Next>
    
16. The service restart notification dialog appears, click <Yes>
    
17. Select Create a new server farm, click <Next>
    
18. In the Specify Configuration Database Settings page, enter the Database server, Database name, and the username/password of the access account
    
19. Enter and confirm the farm passphrase. This is new for SharePoint 2010 and is used to protect the farm's configuration data.  Each server that joins the farm is required to enter this, so keep it handy! Click <Next>
    
20. Specify the port for Central Administration and the security configuration, click <Next>
    
21. Verify the configuration information then click <Next>
    
22. The configuration progress dialog...
    
23. Successful configuration!  Clicking <Finish> takes you into Central Administration to continue with additional configuration of the farm
    
24. Upon entering CA you're asked if you want to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program.  Pick yes/no then click <OK>
    
25. Continuing with configuration you are given the choice of following a wizard or configuring all yourself.  We'll use the wizard for now.  Click <Next>. (Click the image for a larger view)
    
26. The next screen configures the services that will run on this farm, along with the account that they will run under.  Again, if you were following least privilege you'd have created additional/different accounts after installing AD (part of the initial steps above).  Here we'll just use the DOMAIN\Administrator account again.  Click <Next>.  (Click the image for a larger view)
    
27. The system will now complete the configuration process of the farm.  This part took a little time on my rig (then again, it is a 4GB virtual running on an external HDD)
    
28. Upon completion the system allows you to create a new site collection (so I did).  Value the relevant fields with the information you wish, select the relevant template, and click <OK> (Click image for a larger view)
    
29. After the site collection is created a configuration details screen is displayed, with all of the relevant information for the farm.  Click <Finish>. (Click image for a larger view)
    
30. And after all that, we now have a Team Site (created in the steps above). (Click image for a larger view)
    

 Happy installing! - M