Add the new skin folder

Once in the portal_skins section of the ZMI, you will see the following screen, which I will describe below:

I want you to take note of a folder called custom in the listing above. We will NOT be using it in these lessons. The various Plone books and online tutorials often tell you how to "customize" various skin elements and put them in custom; however, doing so has one big drawback, especially for the beginner. Any skin change put into custom will show up in all the skins, even the Plone Default skin your site starts out with. That means that a mistake done in custom will potentially mess up all your available skins. It is much better to keep changes in a independent skin folder, which is what we will be learning to next. The only reason to use custom is to make a change that you WANT to show up in all other site skins. Just remember that in later steps when you "customize" anything, pick your skin and not custom.

The thing to look for in portal_skins is the pull-down menu (ends in the add button), which I have circled in red above.

Click on the arrow, and scroll down the list until you see the Folder object. Select it to add a folder to the portal_skins.

Enter in the folder's name with something meaningful to you. Could be something that indicates the style of the skin you will be creating or whatever takes your fancy. I always make sure it has the word "skin" in the name. In this example below, we will be using the name "a_first_skin" :

Click the Add button to finish this new folder.