I'm curious by nature, so does your application already have a website? This is something that I've always felt would be useful.
Not yet, I want to finish most of it before revealing it. I know, developing in the dark is bad, but I'd rather do it this way and finish it rather than announce a half broken project.
Regarding your question, I agree with Mathew that the noun-->verb relationship is a bit simpler. If you decide to use the verb-->noun design, I'd recommend hiding the "Theme Name" field until the user actually clicks on "Create a new theme" or "Modify an existing theme." I would try to reduce the amount of unnecessary fields and boxes whenever possible.
Ok, thanks.
For all in the thread, I have for the time being abandoned the "all in one" dialog - just too many concepts at once. I currently have a separate "New" and "Open" dialog, but I may revisit it in the future. Wanted to get something in place to work and see how it felt rather than endlessly planning it!
thanks all,
dave