For faculty who like Wikispaces, but prefer a more "dashing" color palate and layout, wikispaces.com has just added new tools to the service that facilitate simple theme and color-scheme customizations. If you would like to give it a try in your course wiki, click on "manage wiki", "look and feel", "themes and colors". Then select a new theme and click the "preview and customize" button. If the theme supports customizations, a menu will be presented with preset color palates and color-choice options.

For example, we have found that the "FlexFluid" theme offers a clean layout and the capacity to make room for any logo or banner image that you upload to take the place of the wiki's title at the top of the page. First, choose the "FlexFluid" theme following the steps listed above. You can choose a pre-made color set from the options listed at the bottom of the page, or you can customize the colors of the header/footer, sidebar, and background using the color wheel or Hex color codes, if you know them. Save your changes, and then return to the "look and feel" page of the wiki settings. Scroll to the bottom, where you will see an upload tool for a wiki logo. You can design an image yourself, use a logo from your school or department, or select an image from the web that suits your needs. For best results, this image should be wider than it is tall and about 100 pixels in height (any taller will push your content down the page). After you upload your image, you might want to return to the "themes and colors" page and tweak the site's colors to match the logo.