Suggest the ability to edit the default CSS file for any theme you wish to use.  This would be of benefit even before any custom theme option is available.

 that's actually one of the things that had been suggested several times when originally discussing custom themes.  not saying anyone said ok, or they are working on it, but if you search on 'CSS' I'm sure you'll find some old posts addressing just that!  Would be nice to take an existing theme and just tweak the colors with CSS...to personalize it a bit.  :)

 I did see the old thread about the topic, but as it was more than 6 months old thought I'd put in a feature request.  The old thread also seemed to have got a little off track from simple CSS, again my reason for this feature request.

 I best explain the last remark, lol.

My request for Theme CSS is not complicated and does not require end user html knowledge, I'm only asking for CSS editing.  Simple a method of telling my site theme to use my CSS file rather than the default theme css file.  This could be achieved either by having my css file uploaded to zenfolio somewhere, like a 1mb folder that can be addressed in style options, webpage with the css values listed that are editable or linking to an external css file that I store.

All the end user would need is a small document explaining what each section of the current css file edited, I know we could work this out by trial and error but be nice to have.

Majority of site providers and web scripts do this as a matter of course some either via the css file or some via webpage that holds the css values.  So would be nice for Zenfolio to give at least the Premium users this ability.  We do all not want to be the sheep and follow the same basic design, little tweaks can make a big difference.

What I'm suggesting is simple for both end users and Zenfilio to implement.

 I agree with you completely.  I would love it.  I can see someone getting pretty goofed up depending on what css controlled and all (whether just colors or layout as well, etc) but as long as there was the option to switch back to default, it shouldn't be that hard for someone to get back to where they were.  :)

What is the status of creating a personalized theme? 

When I joined Zenfolio a year ago, custom themes were "Coming Soon". Now they are "Planned". My one year membership is over in a month. I would like to know where Zenfolio stands on customization. Comments were also listed as "Coming Soon" when I joined. They were finally added, but I would not consider that it was soon. It was several months.

I saw where one person on another thread argued that photographers shouldn't be burdened with learning CSS and HTML. Not everyone on here is a professional photographer. I do it as a hobby. My full time job is as a web developer/designer. 

People should be able to customize an existing theme or create their own if they are paying for a Premium account. I understand that development can take longer than expected sometimes, but subscribers should be updated on the progress of this feature.

Thanks!

Anybody home? 

 I am very interested in this as well. I chose Zenfolio over SmugMug because of the ability to have multiple levels of groups. I really liked SmugMug's customization options much more than Zenfolio's but in the end I put that second under the levels. I am still very interested in having more customization options with Zenfolio.

Couldn't agree more! Maybe I'm being naive, but it should be relatively simple to implement user-designed CSS customization: the burden of figuring out how to make it work would be on the user, and they could always switch back to zenfolio's (already gorgeous) templates. 

It would really make an enormous difference. As a potential user currently leaning heavily towards zenfolio over smugmug, this is literally the only thing holding me back.

 Ditto  nhvzr's comments and those before it. I, too, am trying to decide between Zen and SmugMug and that is a big difference between the 2 programs.

Since both do not support UK selling of image (yet) and ZF are lacking in a few features I'm thinking of moving over to Smugmug... Why!

Simple to cover the missing feature, as I see them. ZF need to implement or at the very least tell us an estimate of when they will be added, the lack of any information on this are after months is what is making me think about the move

The two main feature being:

Customization of pages/gallery/themes
Better (some) search engine optimization

There are more, such as UK support for selling, this has also been rumored for a long time but as yet nothing. So to me those are the two most important feature, at this time Smugmug are providing these. 

Its a real shame as I think ZF has a better presentation and system, just not the feature or information on when and if they will come to reassure me I will not be waiting another 6 months....

We have made it very clear that support for selling in other countries using a European lab is in the works. We can't tell you exactly when this will be released but we have been working on this for many months. Believe me when I say that this is a very involved project, and we are very close.

As far as CSS customization, it is not as simple as just opening up the pages for anyone to edit. It needs to be well documented, and support needs to be provided for those who are new to editing CSS. It also creates a problem with backwards compatibility when we introduce new features and changes to visitor pages. I am not saying we will never do this, but it is mistake thinking that this is simple.

Alex, I appreciate that introducing a European lab will involve much work, but it has been as you say many months and although you also say very close that still leave a big time frame to fit it into...  I think just the lack of any time frame, like we're aiming for within a month or two months would be a starter!

As for the CSS, As someone who has worked on and with CSS before I'm not sure how difficult your making it. CSS can be very easy to work with...  The part I'd guess to be hardest for your end would be how the end user applies the CSS code to the page, either via an admin panel or via a simple css file.  The css file being the easiest, this way all you'd need to do is crate a method of us uploading a css file to the correct location, and having a page on the main ZF site detailing each css field meaning.

As for backwards compatibility, why have that to start with, why not introduce a default css theme and allow the user to build their own style with it.  Thus leaving the option for people to either use a set style (current ones) or build their own css style.

As I said in previous post, I do like ZF and I guess my main issue is the lack of any projected enhancements or guides to release times.  By that I do not mean dates as I know projects never finish on time in most environments,  but just a list of what's in the pipe-line, if its currently being worked on and if it is an estimate of release even if its only Q1, 2010 etc.

Dave,

I understand what you are asking for, and we have published a list of what we have in the queue. You can see this list here and here.

As far as giving out projected time frames, that would not be good for us, as a business, and for our users since we are in a highly fluid and dynamic environment and we adjust our priorities all the time based on business and user needs. We generally have a new release every 8-12 weeks, and while we might be working on something for a longer time, if it is not ready and tested, it does not make it into a release.

I would still point out that you are oversimplifying things quite a bit when it comes to opening up the site to CSS editing. But then it would be unfair to expect people outside the business to understand all the interworkings of running a site like Zenfolio.

Alex,

As a web programmer (my full-time job), I understand that it's not easy to try and work-in an admin section for inputting CSS info. It can be a PAIN! However, I do agree that there should be some better communication about what features are forthcoming with a time frame. I have been a member for over a year. I joined because CSS theme customization was COMING SOON, along with comments and guest books. Well, over a year later, CSS is PLANNED and the other two are available. It seems like this went backwards on the priority list. It pissed me off because I saw it as false advertisement. Don't tell me you are going to get me something for Christmas and then not get it for me. Coming Soon features should not be shown to those who are looking at the site. In my opinion, that should be saved for a User Only section. THen you don't get caught in that false advertisement spot. That's my complaint.

Other posters,

I have to agree with Alex that it is not as simple as it seems to just build this into the system. It's very labor intensive and since you are building it into a pre-existing system you have to have some extensive bug testing. You might fix one thing and screw something else up. It's almost "easier" to start over again depending on how the site was initially set up. Also, it sounds easy to make an upload section for uploading your own CSS. I think that would be less labor intensive but it's still a lot of work. 

For the most part, I like how everything is laid out. I would just like to match up the colors here to the site I am building.

After doing extensive research at other sites, I think you get more bang for your buck here, but you lose your customization. I wish the Custom CSS Themes were top priority. I think the ROI would be worth Zenfolio making this a top priority. I would help beta test.... for a small fee of course.  

Alex thanks for the heads-up and pointing me to the two lists...

Reviewing those lists I see no where that a review of search engine indexing or optimization listed?

Does this mean it not on the radar or being looked at, as I for one believe its a major issue with ZF setup, I'll give you two examples:

(1) - I have a photo on my ZF site and also on my Flickr pages, doing a google web search using keywords:

Restronguet + giffney

Returns the first three hits as my image, two on one site (Kazam media and one via Flickr) but no mention of Zenfolio.

(2) - Now trying something else, using google and searching for images I entered 400D + giffney, this showed all my images but on Flickr, not one from Zenfolio.

For your information all images on ZF have descriptions and keywords used, the same as on Flickr.

If there is nothing wrong with ZF setup as far as search engines etc then can you tell me what is going wrong please?

Edit:  Just noticed this is inside Themes CSS thread, feel free to move it into new thread if required.