First Read: How to modify PatternSkin templates

If you need to change any of the elements that are visible on the common 'view' pages, you need to change the 'view' template: /templates/view.pattern.tmpl. The quickest way would be to simply change the text in the template. A safer way - strongly recommended, because it will survive a TWiki update - is to create your own custom skin. That may sound like an awful lot of work, but in reality a skin may be as much as 1 file that consists of only a few lines of code.

Example
Let's say you want to simplify the bottom toolbar and remove all links except for "More topic actions". You would need to target %TMPL:DEF{"topicactionbuttons"}%, which is located in view.pattern.tmpl.

The steps you would need:

1. Think up a name for your skin. Let us use myskin for now.
2. Create a new (empty) view template file in /templates called view.myskin.tmpl.
3. In view.myskin.tmpl you write:
   %TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"topicactionbuttons"}%%TMPL:P{"activatable_more"}%%TMPL:END%
4. Now the skin is set. For testing, view any topic and append to the topic name: ?cover=myskin. You should see an effect now.
5. To make the changes visible on all pages, go to TWikiPreferences (to keep TWikiPreferences intact) and write:

   * Set COVER = myskin

or write

   * Set SKIN = myskin,pattern

Logo

• Copy the above instructions ("Redefine your custom variables") and insert your logo name.

• Copy the above instructions ("Redefine your custom variables") and insert your logo name.

Only change the number from 64px to another value.

Top bar

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"page"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewtopbar"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewtoolbar"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewleftbar"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewrightbar"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewtopicactionbuttons"}%
%TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewbottombar"}%

Each included template draws a part of the screen.
Omit %TMPL:INCLUDE{"viewtopbar"}% to hide the top bar.

Another approach is to clear the contents of module topbar; for example in view.myskin.tmpl:

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"topbar"}%%TMPL:END%

and add:

%TMPL:DEF{"topbardimensions"}%#patternTopBar,
#patternClearHeaderCenter,
#patternClearHeaderLeft,
#patternClearHeaderRight,
#patternTopBarContentsOuter {
	height:0px;
}%TMPL:END%

Left bar

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%
%TMPL:DEF{"topicaction"}%%TMPL:END%
%TMPL:DEF{"toolbar"}%%TMPL:END%

   * Set COVER = customer

I want to remove the History button from the bottom

All action buttons are defined in viewtopicactionbuttons.pattern.tmpl. Remove module revisions from %TMPL:DEF{"topicactionbuttons"}%.

%TMPL:DEF{"topicactionbuttons"}%%TMPL:P{"activatable_raw_edit"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{context="WysiwygPluginEnabled" then="activatable_edit_wysiwyg"}%%TMPL:P{context="WysiwygPluginEnabled" then="sep"}% %TMPL:P{"activatable_attach"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{"printable"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{"raw"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{"backlinks"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{"revisions"}%%TMPL:P{"sep"}% %TMPL:P{"activatable_more"}%%TMPL:END%

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%

%TMPL:DEF{"topicactionbuttons"}%Raw edit |  | 
%TMPL:P{context="WysiwygPluginEnabled" then="activatable_edit_wysiwyg"}% | 
%TMPL:P{"activatable_attach"}% | 
%TMPL:P{"printable"}% | 
%TMPL:P{"raw"}% | 
%TMPL:P{"backlinks"}% | 
%TMPL:P{"activatable_more"}%%TMPL:END%

Remove all newlines if you copy-paste above text.

I want to insert text outside of the topic content

PatternSkin has 2 'buckets' to write additional content to: beforetextcontents and aftertextcontents, both defined in view.pattern.tmpl. These containers can contain text or html and are placed directly before and after the topic text.

Both modules are wrapped in CSS containers:

• beforetextcontents - wrapped in div of class twikiBeforeText
• aftertextcontents - wrapped in div of class twikiAfterText

To put contents before the main text, use the custom skin approach as described above.
So our view.myskin.tmpl file contains:

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%

%TMPL:DEF{"beforetextcontents"}%This is the text before%TMPL:END%

Use the same procedure for contents to be put after the topic text:

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}%