How far do you go with developing themes for simple site with a couple of pages?
I usually only import HTML and CSS files into Drupal tpl system and add those mandatory variables in page.tpl.php and node.tpl.php. I never edit CSS for admin pages (e.g. posting/editing node forms, tables, ...), because I use admin theme like Root candy and Administration theme with them I can make other pages like "/users/*" and "/user" to use admin theme as well.
The problem is that there is usually too much stuff that I need to clear away. Do you have you own base theme to remove unneeded variables?
Do you make new navigations for site editors? I figured it out that using Admin menu or Admin module is still too much for them if they actually only need Add Page and Content links.
I hope that we can all throw some ideas on how to make our lives easier when low budget projects come to us.
Comments
A couple things
Good choice. Also check out http://drupal.org/project/seven and http://drupal.org/project/cleanr for a couple other options.
I use starkish which is basically JUST those variables in the .tpl.php's (i.e., no divs or other markup whatsoever), so it's really simple to prune them down quickly.
I like using simplemenu for this. It lets you use a custom menu and add only the basic stuff (add/edit content/users, etc.), and it sticks to the top of the page like admin_menu. Also really easily theme-able. Other options include http://drupal.org/project/toolbar and http://drupal.org/project/admin (the 1.x branch)
Have you seen
Have you seen Mothership?
http://drupal.org/project/mothership
Maybe it's the starting point you're looking for?
-h
Have you tried this "Drupal 6
Have you tried this "Drupal 6 Theme Starter" http://groups.drupal.org/node/9787 ?
I'd prefer to hand-code them tough, or using framework as starter theme.
TotalTheme - Free Drupal Themes