New training to help you learn how to build Drupal themes is available online from Lynda.com. Drupal: Creating and Editing Custom Themes shows how a Drupal theme can alter the look and feel of a web site. Drupal evangelist and author Chris Charlton introduces the core themes that ship with Drupal, how to install and administer new themes, change color schemes, and add sub-themes. Also demonstrated is how to build a custom theme from scratch, what templates are possible in Drupal themes; integrate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; and how to theme specific nodes, pages, and blocks by building a theme step-by-step for a fictitious online flower shop.

My new book, Drupal for Dummies, is now available. My intended audience is non-technical, so if you've got a friend who wants you to build a Drupal site for them, this might be worth mentioning to them. The companion Web site, http://drupalfordummies.com was created using only the information presented in the book.

You can find out more about the book here:
Click for Drupal Association affiliate link to Amazon!

I'd love to hear from you with any comments or questions.

With 2009 closing and 2010 coming, it is time to look back over our shoulder and see what a great year we had. And it is time to look ahead and predict where the future of Drupal will lead us to in 2010.

2009

Lets start with looking back. Drupal turned eight and in CMS years this means we are young at heart while grownup in our soul.

At Dries' site, you can find a selection of sites that Dries found worthwhile mentioning, maybe because he liked the site, the implementation or the usage or the owner of the site can potentially influence other prospects to see the Drupal light. Let us take a look at that list and see what they have trends we can conclude from that list combined with the knowledge about our community.

Many big name sites switched to Drupal in 2009. In the media / entertainment market, some of the names include:

• Virgin, Slate, Monthy Python and Lucas Arts

Over the last year, the redesign has been progressing with many infrastructure and feature improvements. We have had 6 drupal.org sprints in both Europe and North America. On January 8th, 2010 we are going to have a drupal.org redesign virtual sprint. Many members of the Drupal community and the drupal.org infrastructure team have participated in the redesign so far.

Genomeweb, a print and online publisher for the molecular biology research community, has successfully migrated its web site to Drupal. Cyrve built the Drupal site and migrated data into it from a legacy Microsoft SQL Server application. Drupal craftsmen Moshe Weitzman and Mike Ryan developed the site, and Maureen Lyons authored the theme.

At 12.30pm on November 5th 2009, John E McGrath Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales (NTW) announced the company’s first year of work at a press briefing in Cardiff. It was simultaneously broadcast through video streaming to the world. Attracting nearly 3,000 internet users from all around the world, they joined staff, guests and artists that were in attendance at the live event, at the company’s shop/office at Castle Arcade, Cardiff.

NTW's first year of work intends to theatrically map Wales. Twelve shows over one year (plus an additional finale), will take place in locations across the country, bringing the very best of Welsh writing, performing and directing together with world class artists and world class ideas from across the globe.