Admin themes

I typically use the browser nav bar to move from place to place on my sites so I just set the admin theme to Garland and go about my business.

I love admin menu and I always add it to my projects. Rootcandy adds too much unnecessary "stuff," and I've found that generally clients are more comfortable if the admin theme is similar to the main theme. Garland (or any of the shipped themes) is a great fallback, however, if your custom theme goes south and you have to troubleshoot.

I've used both Admin_Menu and Admin (1.0 and 2.0). Here's my take on them:

Admin Menu = Great for Drupal Power users to quickly jump to the admin screen you want. But hard to subset if you want to limit the menu for a role with limited admin powers. The "always inserted" format can sometimes hide theme issues from admins. E.g., what the admin sees isn't what the user sees because it's shifted some stuff around.

Admin 1.0 = Very pretty... but menu options depends on what is defined in the code... this means that you can't get to some of the admin screens directly. Nice but recommend 2.0.

Admin 2.0 = Not so pretty out of the box but now shows links to all modules, etc. just like admin_menu. I generally follow the suggestion to use the Rubik theme. This makes for a quick to implement professional look.

Some things I like about Admin 2.0:

Nice low impact on look and feel (only see corner wrench until you expand it).

Since I tend to use 960 Grid layouts with borders, you can set it ups as an expandable left nav bar and the admin bar and content fit nicely on the page.

You can add other menus and blocks to the bar. I've used this to create some limited site "manager" menus. It's also nice for sites that you don't want to place the default navigation menu in the theme. E.g., keep the content area looking the same for all users with the special menus on the slide out bar.

Some things I don't like about Admin 2.0:

Navigation is slower and "picker" than Admin Menu. I.e., you have to click on the plus signs to see sub menus as opposed to just mousing over. If you click on the text, you go to the main admin section menus. So, if you're trying to remember where something is, you may have to click around more.

The default look is OK but a little dark and if you have access to multiple menu, the layout could be better. I understand there are ways to improve this with CSS and some code methods... I just haven't taken the time to figure them out.

IMHO Bottom line is that Admin Menu is great for sites with Drupal power users for admins. Admin 2.0/rubix adds flexibility and a little pzazz for more non-technical users.

Sorry haven't used RootCandy yet...

Each one of you provided valuable intel that really helped me move forward.
@Allen: I really should do that more. And I started yesterday. Instead of going to Site Building, Modules, I just typed modules in the na bar and bam! there is the url.

@Sheena: yes, Vert Tabs is great and a staple of any site I set up. Can't wait for D7 to become stable for production sites!

@Kyle: Yes, I like Admin Menu, and I know the good folks at mustardseed/Geeks-n-God use it almost always, but for end users I think it's not very intuitive or "pretty".

@CGMonroe: great compare and contrast! You need to post that somewhere on drupal.org. I was too noticing that Admin was a little slow, but it's a trade off for the usability for end users indeed.

@CGM and lattimore: Rubik is definitely a sweet admin theme. I went and dl'ed that and tried it out, fancy pants! simple but with nice icons for everything and works well with Admin 2.0.

So, again, thanks everyone for painting the big picture for me. I'm going to give Admin 2.0 with Rubik a try and see how it goes for the peeps entering content, editing nodes, and managing users. I may disable it for me and go with Admin Menu, b/c that is more straight forward IF you know where you are going and don't need pretty and cute functionality.

I have tried all the above but I think of all I like the new Seven theme for D6.x to be my favorite.