iGoogle Themes, announced by Goggle after iGoogle Gadgets which we mention in our article iGoogle Gadget Apps, allows you to change the background of your personal landing page. You can prepare your iGoogle theme in 6 steps using our tutorial.

Step 1. Create your visual design: Create visual designs for the top and bottom sections that you want to use in your iGoogle page. The image you will use on top must be 175 pixels in height and minimum 640 pixels in width. The file size should not exceed 40k. The image to be used in the lower section should be 140 pixels in height and minimum 640 pixels in width. It should not exceed 20k size.

Step 2. Download the XML Template: Download the Template from here. The template contains all the XML details required for iGoogle theme and sample Adobe Photoshop file.

Step 3. Enter your theme information: Update the information that will appear in the iGoogle Themes Catalog by editing the meta tags under the first ConfigMap element found in the XML document. You can check the meta tag reference to find out which fields you can use.

Step 4. Personalize your theme: Change the iGoogle theme according to your preference by changing the properties under the second ConfigMap element in the XML document. Detailed information about features and variables can be found here. You can also access to the tutorial on how to make the necessary arrangements from here.

Step 5. Test your template: Once you have prepared your XML document and your images, test your theme on your iGoogle page. Test your theme on your own page by adding “?skin=<theme-address>” parameter to the url part of your iGoogle page.

Step 6. Add your theme to the catalog: After you have created and tested the template, add your theme to the iGoogle Catalog for other users’ to add your template to their pages. You can add your theme from here.

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