Xojo Theme for Desktop Applications

Getting Started
1

I am starting to build a desktop application in Xojo that will be available for installation on both Windows and Mac. I’d like to customize the theme… colors, button styles, etc, with a nice looking theme for the final product. I see a lot of posts for the IDE theme but that’s not what I’m looking for.

I tried dropping a bootstrap theme into my project from https://bootswatch.com/, nothing changed. I’m not sure if I’m doing it wrong, or if the bootswatch theme doesn’t do what I want it to.

Thanks for any help.
I am developing on the Mac.
Cynthia

2

Desktop applications do not use Bootstrap. They, more often than not, use native OS controls that only provide a certain amount of customization. If you wish to theme your app in a way that is non-native, you’ll need to:

  1. Use the canvas to draw your UI
  2. Use an HTMLViewer and build your UI from the ground up with HTML/CSS/JS
  3. Use products from third-party developers that allow you to customize the appearance of control but provide the functionality you expect.
3

Ah okay thank you.
Do you recommend any third party developers that I could check out?
Cynthia

4

I am the developer of GraffitiSuite which has a number of controls with color customization built directly in to them.

5

Great thanks so much! I’ll check out your website.

6

It looks nice, but it’s way out of my price range. I will be writing an application that I will resell, but has a very small user base, and probably won’t be able to sell more than 100 copies.