Is that right? You need a Pro licence to be able to rename or create new Themes?
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Yes. It makes no sense.
The difference between Plus and Pro is one of commercials (the latter is required if you’re getting paid for the websites you create but otherwise they are functionally identical). Sad to see functional improvement inducements being used to up-sell.
Andy
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Andy this applies to every business these days so why should Realmac be any different?
This is very disappointing
I’ve been looking forward to this feature even before it was released. I think this is a bridge too far. It’s not a pro feature. It’s a basic, core feature that should be included.
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this is a question out of ignorance so please see it at face value.
If I could create my own themes why are there so many theme makers making themes that I can buy? If themes was a basic surely this would put them out of business?
The power of CSS is that you can have a “theme“ that you can reuse over and over again, this is a very powerful feature of CSS. I understand what you’re asking, but as a common user that will not resell anything such as websites or themes, maybe Realmac should have the pro feature be able to export the theme only and have the middle tier be able to create it and save it for your own use. This would be a good compromise. I believe .
This feature sets elements apart from others and it makes life very easy if you want to use the same theme on another website for friends or family. I understand you can override the current themes, but having the ability to have your own custom theme is preferable and more effective.
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Steve THANKS for taking the time to explain as a copier and paster type of person I have just bought a theme I have liked and supported the developers - most probably as I did not see that this was something I could accomplish or most probably they look nicer than I could possibly ever do 
THANKS again and have a great weekend!
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Yes that’s a great idea.
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It would be nice to be able to rename the themes (so they make more sense to me) with a Plus licence even if new ones cannot be created
Paul, I think you are confusing Themes with Projects & Templates. I’m not aware of anyone selling Elements Themes at the moment, but if they did they’d need a Pro licence now in order to create them. I don’t want to sell Themes, I just want to name and organise my own Themes for the (non-profit) sites I create. I don’t need a Pro licence for that until I graduate to being a commercial site developer (as a paid hobby in retirement )
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There are quite a few companies selling projects that would be themes if Realmac allowed them access to store. I am very aware of themes, projects, stacks etc. as I have been using RW and stacks since v5. I reqs playing devils advocate as there are developers who are chomping at bit but are restricted to projects only as away of getting their work out there.
I’ve been using RW for a long time as well - RWC “themes” were a combination of RWE projects and RWE themes. The two have been separated, quite rightly in my opinion, in Elements and I guess if a third-party developer wants to provide one or more themes to go with their project then all well and good (I assume that up to now they’ve been overriding one or more of the built-in themes in their projects). I can’t see much of a market for standalone themes.
Themes have little value in their own right - they are simply a convenient packaging of colours, fonts and styling that can be applied to whole projects, templates or components. I simply want to be able to create themes for use in the sites I build - customising existing themes with overrides is a hack.
I fail to see why that’s considered the privilege of a “pro”.
I think, @dan, you should perhaps re-consider this particular decision (it is a Beta after all, as you’ve said elsewhere). It’s not going to cause anyone acting as a “Pro” to try to get away with a “Plus” licence, and it’s simply frustrating “Plus” licensees who have ambitions to become “Pro” licensees one day.
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Andy please forgive me I have been lost in focusing on new tabs element which I think I have now cracked and ready to go onto my live site. So brain switch at my age - retired Gen-Ancient too!
So to rid me of my confusion you initially commented “no Elements themes” and that I was confusing “Themes/Projects/Templates” but I said I wasn’t. So now I am confused more in your opinion theres “not much of a market” for pre built themes, yet there are theme developers on here in market place with “Elements Projects” that re IMO Themes but until this beat they had no access to do theme development. Now you say they are of “little value” which implies to me it doesn’t matter were they are in terms of Elements Hierarchy as third parties are not going to use Tham and you see little value in them anyway?
Old man is now going back to Tabs project or do I need to lie down as you’ve made my head spin!
Not exactly. As I tried to point out on the announcement page, anyone can still create a Theme. The question is whether or not you can do it semi-automated within Elements, or have to create it manually outside of Elements using the published open-source material that’s documented on the Elements manual site.
Someone doing their own sites probably isn’t always creating new Themes. The reason it’s in the Pro version as a semi-automated tool is that someone designing for others does create new Themes all the time.
These are what elements calls “Themes”, in my post above 
All Elements themes are is the settings for fonts, colours, spacing etc etc…
No one has yet shipped a theme (3rd party). I can only create them because I grabbed an un-encrypted theme that shipped with a very early Elements beta, and I just copy and edit that file to create new themes.
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Hi Paul, no need to apologise for being “experienced”
I refer you to Doobox’s post earlier: Create new Themes only in Pro? - #12 by Doobox
There are components, templates and projects in the Store and on the Marketplace. There seems to be no consistency in naming things - I see things described as “page”, “website” and “project” on the Marketplace (under a headline that says “Start with a Professional Template”) and “component”, “template” and “project” on the built-in Store. I don’t see anything described as a “theme” though I concede that in RWC “Theme” was the dominant type of page structuring and styling product. Elements themes are not the same at all.
My point is that, on their own, Elements “themes” are unlikely to be marketable in their own right, so why make it hard for “Plus” users to create them for their own use - I see that it is possible manually outside of Elements with the API but why make it harder than it needs to be?
“Basic” is of course restricted, but “Plus” and “Pro” have been distinguished to date by what they can be used for, NOT their functionality. This is now a mixed message which I think will harm, not help, Elements as a product.
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mine is purely so I dont have to got into page - custom background color
If you are in need of a theme to reuse over and over again on multiple websites, shouldn’t you already have a Pro Subscription?