Theme Q - has anyone used 'Thesis' successfully?

[Deb]

I am having a heck of a time finding a theme that works for my new blog within the available themes on WPD.

I went out searching, and found a theme that is supposedly customizable - it's called 'Thesis' - and you pay for it.

I'd be happy to pay, if it will work with WPD.

Does anyone have any info on this?

Thanks
Deb

Theme info can be found here: http://www.thesistheme.org/

[ddhamm]

Well, at least if you buy it, they are supposed to provide some support.

DeeDee

[IMStrong]

As long as it is widget ready, it will work.

Why pay when you can get so many free Wordpress themes?

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/?wptheme=1584

http://www.bestwpthemes.com/

[Deb]

Thanks for the info. I want a theme that is customizable - create my own header banner with picture, change the font size and color, etc. While I am not a total newbie at html, I do appreciate themes that have customizing support built in, so I don't have to hack the underlying html and other coding structures to make basic changes.

Also, I'm not clear whether the WPD WP themes are customizable in this fashion, or if we have to leave the colors, pics, headers, etc. as they were designed unless we are specifically told that we can change things.

Maybe there is something I'm missing about the ease of changing these blog theme attributes in a free WP theme? If you know of a site I should visit on this, I'd appreciate you pointing me in that direction.

Thanks again,
Deb

[ddhamm]

I don't know if there are "theme changing" programs that simplify it. And for a site you don't host yourself, I doubt there is much you can do. For a site you host, you can use the cpanel at your hosting account and edit files, or download the header graphic and make a new one (using the same size as the one you downloaded) and then upload your replacement file.

For changing colors, these are in the theme's CSS file. It's kind of a web code editing process to change those.

If you find a way that is more automated, let me know.

DeeDee

[ishabluebell]

Deb I've read brilliant things about the Thesis theme over the last few weeks. And according to this page it's widget-ready:
http://www.buywordpressthemescheap.com/2008/08/thesis-theme.html

:D

[ebenezer]

Every theme is customizable. It all depends on how much HTML and CSS you know (and PHP to a lesser extent). That is the entire idea behind these themes, that anyone can create one or change one or build upon someone else's or whatever. It's all encourgaed that people get creative with this. It's a beautiful open source concept that lets everyone collaborate together.

Now ddhamm, you don't necessarily need to go into your cPanel to edit everything. Maybe if you want to upload a new picture or something. You can do this through FTP too.

If you simply want to change the code, you can just go into your wp-admin. Try this link:
http://www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/theme-editor.php

There's all your CSS and PHP!

[tim27487]

Anyone know the easiest way to edit an existing WPD theme?
I have the same issue.

The options were using: cpanel in your hosting account, using Wordpress, or FTP.

Keep in mind that I only know html.

Your opinon would be much appreciated!

[contactpoint]

Hi all,

I suggest you look at http://www.themeshaper.com. It is a really useful site for people who want to delve just a little bit deeper into Wordpress.

The site shows you how to make your own theme in an understandable way in a small number of easy to follow tutorials with cut-and-paste examples.

Their professional quality "Thematic" theme is extened from the structure they presents in the tutorials.

Thematic encourages the use of "child" themes. This lets you leave the base theme unmodified and then have Wordpress clone it, and then apply some changes. All this is done for you by Wordpress. First, of course, you do have to create the changes, but that becomes relatively easy when you have looked through the tutorials.

I think this approach is a nice compromise with buying expensive modifiable themes.

Best regards,
Gren. Bingham