Styles FAQ

We know that journal styles are important to lots of people, and so there will be a lot of questions about what styles on Dreamwidth will be like. We'll attempt to answer those questions here.

Will you have X layout?
There's a list of layouts under consideration for porting into our system on Layout Portability. However, please know that we're not just taking styles available on LJ and putting them up. Each imported layout requires work to bring it up to our standards with regards to features and CSS classes. Additionally, not all of LJ's layouts are even available to take. This affects what we'll be able to offer.

What about S1 styles?
Dreamwidth has retired the S1 system; it won't be available. It's not even supported anymore on LJ and only kept for legacy reasons; we're starting from a clean slate, and we don't have the resources to support it, either. It's time better spent on other improvements.

We know a lot of people find the S1 system a lot easier to customize in, and we'll be moving forward with that in mind. Eventually, we might try and make something that would bridge this gap, but keep in mind that we've made great strides to let you change things in S2 that used to only be done in S1. All users will be able to customize their styles with CSS. There will be also be more standardized features across layouts that will reduce the need to tweak the style itself to get what you want--all you'll have to do is change the options in the wizard!

What extra customizations do paid accounts get?
Just like on LJ, paid accounts will have access to extra style customization that basic accounts don't. We'll be figuring out.

However, we're also making sure all our available styles are feature-rich, have easy to use wizards, and are very customizable using CSS. You'll be able to do a lot with your style even if you don't have a paid account.

Can I use my custom themes and styles from LJ?
It depends. We'll have a lot of feature-full styles designed to be very customizable with CSS, but your specific customizations might not translate over. Any customizations you've made might require modification, because we're doing so much standardization across our styles to try and make developing themes easier. The result will be a better system, but it will mean that some of the CSS classes from your favorite LJ layout won't work right off the bat. Not all LJ layouts can or will be ported, either--see Layout Portability for more information.

If you have an S2 style of your own, you'll need a paid account just like on LJ to use it. It will probably work, but there's a chance changes we're making to the S2 core will require some tweaks on your part.

Can I do X with my style?
We're still working out which features layouts on DW will have. See Style Features for current information about which features we've gathered from LJ and are under consideration.