A WordPress theme with a retro Norton Utilities / DirectoryMaster aesthetic. Dark blue background, cyan headers, monospace font throughout, and the beveled-border UI elements of classic DOS-era software.
Requires WordPress 6.6 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. Tested against WordPress 7.1.
- Norton Utilities-inspired visual design (circa 1991)
- Responsive two-column layout (stacks to single column on mobile)
- Primary navigation with OS-style raised/pressed button borders, including drop-down submenus that open on hover or keyboard focus
- Norton Box, Norton Box Invert and Norton Alert blocks, plus matching shortcodes for classic-editor content
theme.jsonpalette and type scale, so the block editor offers the theme's colours and nothing else- Matching block editor styles — what you write is what readers get
- Full template set: index, single, page, archive, search results, 404 and threaded comments, with paginated post listings and prev/next post navigation
- Widgetized right sidebar, featured images and wide/full block alignment
- Customizable footer status text via the WordPress Customizer
- CRT edge-fade effects via CSS pseudo-elements
- Translation ready, with a POT file in
languages/
From a release (quickest):
Download norton-simple.zip from the latest release
and upload it via WP Admin → Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme.
Every tagged build is produced by the same script CI runs.
From source:
git clone https://github.com/mark-iid/NortonUtilsWordpressTheme.git
cd NortonUtilsWordpressTheme
npm install
npm run buildThen upload dist/norton-simple.zip the same way.
Manual:
Copy the theme folder directly to wp-content/themes/norton-simple/ on your WordPress install and activate.
npm install # install the single dev dependency (archiver)
npm run build # → dist/norton-simple.zip
npm run clean # remove dist/The zip is self-contained — just the theme files, no dev artifacts.
The Build theme workflow runs the same build on
every push and pull request to main. Pushing a v* tag additionally checks
that the tag matches the Version: line in style.css, then attaches the zip
to a GitHub Release — so bump style.css and package.json before tagging.
Three blocks appear under the Design category in the inserter:
| Block | Effect |
|---|---|
| Norton Box | Raised bevel — content sits proud of the page |
| Norton Box Invert | Inset bevel — content sits recessed |
| Norton Alert | Status panel with an [!], [✓] or [✗] glyph |
All three accept inner blocks, so anything can go inside them. They are
registered from blocks/<name>/block.json and rendered server-side by the
matching render.php, which means markup changes take effect on existing
posts without re-saving them.
For content written in the classic editor:
[norton_box]
Content displayed in a raised blue box.
[/norton_box]
[norton_alert]Generic alert with yellow [!] prefix[/norton_alert]
[norton_alert type="success"]Operation complete[/norton_alert]
[norton_alert type="error"]Operation failed[/norton_alert]
Appearance → Customize → Footer
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Footer Status Text | [SYS] OPERATIONAL |
norton-simple/
├── theme.json Palette, type scale, spacing, layout
├── assets/
│ ├── css/
│ │ ├── norton-components.css Tokens + box/alert/table chrome (shared with editor)
│ │ ├── norton.css Front-end layout, header, nav, sidebar, footer
│ │ └── editor-style.css Block editor canvas adjustments
│ └── js/
│ └── blocks.js Editor-side block implementations
├── blocks/
│ ├── box/ block.json + render.php
│ ├── box-invert/
│ └── alert/
├── inc/
│ ├── setup.php Theme support, enqueue, sidebar, nav fallback
│ ├── customizer.php Customizer controls
│ ├── shortcodes.php [norton_box], [norton_box_invert], [norton_alert]
│ └── blocks.php Block registration from block.json
├── languages/
│ └── norton-simple.pot Translation template
├── template-parts/
│ ├── content.php Generic post/archive content partial
│ ├── content-single.php Single post full content
│ ├── content-page.php Page full content
│ └── content-none.php No results / 404 content
├── 404.php
├── archive.php
├── comments.php
├── search.php
├── footer.php
├── functions.php Thin bootstrap — requires inc/ files
├── header.php
├── index.php
├── page.php
├── sidebar.php
├── single.php
├── style.css Theme header only (WordPress metadata)
├── build.js Build script
├── package.json
├── COPYRIGHT Theme copyright notice
└── LICENSE Verbatim GPL-3.0 text
This theme is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later).
LICENSE is the verbatim GPL-3.0 text as published by the Free Software Foundation; the theme's own copyright notice is in COPYRIGHT. Both ship inside the built zip, which is what the GPL requires of anyone redistributing the theme. You are free to:
- Use this theme on any website
- Modify the code
- Distribute modified or unmodified versions
Under the condition that you:
- Include the original license and copyright notice
- Disclose the source code of any modifications
- Use the same license (GPL-3.0 or later) for any derivative works
For more information, visit https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
Colours, typography, spacing and the link/heading/button element styles are
declared in theme.json, and reach the browser as --wp--preset--* custom
properties. assets/css/ styles only what theme.json has no field for:
layout, and the beveled chrome.
No stylesheet in the theme contains an !important. If a rule looks like it
needs one, the value almost certainly belongs in theme.json instead — that
is what makes the theme win the cascade without fighting it.