Mac OS X Server

Customizing the Wiki Banner

One of the best features of Mac OS X Server is the built-in blog and wiki services. While it is not the right solution for every type of environment, it is a very good medium for internally hosted user generated content. Especially if you are using Active Directory or Open Directory. One of the most common requests I get when setting up a blog and wiki server is to customize the portal so that it is branded to the organization that it’s being set up for. One of the easiest ways to do this is to just edit (or more likely replace) the banner-bg.png file located in /usr/share/collaboration/css/serverhome_static/img directory.

There are other items here that can easily be replaced with items of the same size; however, the most impactful is the huge banner sitting atop the screen when users visit the page. Your new banner-bg.png file should usually be 990 by 197 pixels and be trimmed down to be as small a file as possible. I have to admit that I’m not great at Photoshop, so I often cheat a little and use Art Text, by BeLight Software. In order to make this easier for others who might do exactly this, here is a template (forgive my utter lack of any graphic design skills whatsoever) that you can use.

Happy Customizations (and feel free to submit any images/links that you’re proud of and I’ll be happy to post/link to them)!