Override default theme colour

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For custom themes, the default colour for the Mustache template needs to be overridden for the custom theme to apply. This change can be made via the user interface in Totara, or via a hard-code change.

In Totara

To override the default colours via the Totara user interface, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Quick-access menu > Appearance.
  2. Select the theme you wish to edit (e.g. Ventura) from the Appearance block. 
  3. Click Edit site brand (or click the edit icon for a tenant if you are using multitenancy with different themes).
  4. Select the Colours tab. 
  5. Toggle on Use overriding colours
  6. Enter the overriding colours.
  7. Select Save.

In code

If you are experienced with editing Totara code then you can hard-code the change into the background colour default in the server/theme/legacy/templates/core/email_html.mustache template, or override it in the theme's directory.

Course badgeThe Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Dashboards and basic theming in Totara. Here you can learn more on how to customise your site's appearance, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

Join the Totara Community for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara. 


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