Hey, it’s WordPress Wednesday and I got more on the Thesis Theme for WordPress. Now, I’m not trying to stick to a strict editorial schedule but since it’s Wednesday and I’m trying to update my Thesis theme I thought I’d write about it.
Shortly after I talked about some of the stuff I would like to see in the Thesis Theme for WordPress it was released with some of those very features. Three column layout was already in the previous versions but now you can have a column on the left side of your content and on the right side of your content. The two column also allows you to put content on the left or right side of the sidebar. All with a click of a button. Pretty cool.
Layout Constructor
The layout constructor as it’s called allows for a lot of flexibility with varying column widths and order. Excellent. All this is provided by the Thesis Design Options page under the Design menu in WordPress. The Design menu is currently named Appearance in the soon to be released (November 10, 2008) WordPress 2.7.
The following screen shot might look a bit different than the current WordPress 2.6.3 since it’s the Appearance menu selection in WordPress 2.7 at this time. You never know what we’ll get with the final version of WordPress 2.7. But, notice the different layout options available with the Thesis theme.
Chris The Plumber
Developer Chris Pearson has also reworked some of the internal plumbing of the theme. These changes are necessary to provide ultimate flexibility in the theme. It might be a bit confusing now but going forward with Thesis updates the rework will allow for a more flexible framework for everyone to do good theme stuff easier.
Also, if you’ve customized some of the Thesis code you’ll have to figure out where it goes. However, as I take the time to move stuff around that I’ve customized and understand what’s been done, I am trying to use the custom.css and custom_functions.php files to provide the functionality I want without touching any of the core coding files. Make sure you head over to the support forums for help and reviewing other folks who might have some of the same questions you have.
The Hook System
At the end of my Thesis Theme 1.2 for WordPress post I wrote how I wished upon a star for more places for hooks. Guess what? The Thesis theme is getting tricked out with hooks. Again, hooks are spots in the core code where you can insert your own custom code. You can also remove existing code as well, using those built-in hooks. All of this is controlled in one file, the custom_functions.php file. Kind of a centralized area to do your customizing which is nice.
What’s needed now?
I don’t know what the plans are for future versions of Thesis but I would like to see hoards of menu structure navigation designs. In other words, for the designer challenged among us, we don’t design our Thesis theme too much unless we know design or hire someone to design it. A few different menu designs that act and look different than the stock menu navigation look and feel would be good.
Also, do the same thing with headers. Promote a ton of different header images that are sized right and slide right into Thesis. When you don’t do heavy redesign with the Thesis theme, everyone using the Thesis theme starts looking the same.
Actually they have revealed a magazine style fuctionality that will be included in the Thesis theme. This was going to be a separate project called Cosmo, but it sounds like we’ll see it in the next versions of Thesis. Looking forward to it.
So that’s it for now and go get the Thesis theme to help with your WordPress theme implementations.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Great theme… I’ve been using it on my website for months now. I really like the cleanliness and simplicity of this theme. Thanks for sharing!
I really like the theme of clean and simple. Thank you for sharing!
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I agree it as a great theme for its cleanilinees and simplicity, but i have heard alot about it excellent SEO performance and i m puzzled to hear it that how SEO matters with a theme ?? in what relation.. ??? SEO needs to be titile , tags, meta, etc..how it relates with theme ?
Promote a ton of different header images that are sized right and slide right into Thesis. When you don’t do heavy redesign with the Thesis theme, everyone using the Thesis theme starts looking the same.
Wonderful theme…
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I agree that some different menu options are needed for us non developers. I’m a dog trainer and have neither the time nor the knowledge to create my own.
I am using the sripy theme on my blog but now i want to change it and i think “Thesis” them would be the best alternate for it. I am going to apply it to my blog and i am sure it will give more professional look to my blog.