Update: I’ve finally gotten around to updating this Thesis Skin for Thesis 1.8! Unfortunately I can’t keep up with all the updates to Dynamic Content Gallery so please read the installation instructions provided by the plugin developer.

When I declared that Premium Themes Are Dead, I received a LOT of feedback arguing that there will always be a market for premium themes since they give you a head start on the design process.

My response was that skins for framework themes such as Thesis provide that same “leg up” on the design and layout, without sacrificing any of the flexibility.

And, while I firmly believe that, there is one slight problem… there just aren’t many skins available yet.

So in an effort to help my prediction about premium themes come true, I decided to create a free Thesis Skin that heavily mimics one of my favorite premium theme designs.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce…

The Network News Thesis Skin!

Feel free to click around the demo site to check things out.

As those of you familiar with premium WordPress themes world will no doubt notice, the skin is based heavily on the Gazette theme by WooThemes, but offers even more flexibility.

Note: Let’s go ahead and get one thing out of the way right off the bat. I did not rip WooThemes off. Their themes are released under the GPL license and this is exactly the kind of thing the GPL is designed for. Besides they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

If you’re already comfortable using Thesis as well as the custom.css & custom_functions.php files using the skin will be a breeze for you.

If you’re not quite to that level yet, I’ve documented the process below in as much detail as possible. Please don’t let the length of the instructions intimidate you, I just wanted to make it clear enough that even someone new to Thesis can use the skin.

Requirements:

So what do you need for this skin to work?

Well obviously, you need to have the Thesis theme (and yes, that’s an affiliate link *waves to FTC*).

Also, this skin is also built for Thesis version 1.8.

I left comments within the custom.css file for those of you using older versions of Thesis, but you really should upgrade to the newest version.

You’ll also need to install the Dynamic Content Gallery plugin which will create the featured content slider on the home page for us.

Installation (Updated for 1.8!):

In order to download the files for the skin you’ll need to enter your name and email in the form to the left.

Don’t worry, we won’t be spamming you or anything like that. We simply want to be able to alert you when we update the skin or release a new one you might be interested in using.

Anyway, once you’ve confirmed your information you’ll receive an email with a link to download a zip file.

Unzip the files into a folder that will be easy to find later.

Upload the custom.css, custom_function.php and layout.css files to the Custom folder, over-writing your current versions. While I didn’t make any edits to the layout.css file, it would be best to upload the version I’ve provided just to make sure we’re all starting from the same place.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Next navigate to the Manage Options page in the Thesis menu.

On the Thesis Options Manager page (as seen in the screen shot above), click the green Download All Options button to save your current settings as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

After creating your backups, click the browse button on the All Options field of the Upload Options section. Select the network-news-thesis-options.dat file and click Upload.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Logo

To display your logo instead of the big red block that’s there by default, you only need to make one simple edit to your custom.css file. Replace http://thesisdev.wpblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/logo-placeholder.jpg with the file path to your logo and save!

The default logo size is 384 x 100. The skin can easily accommodate a wider logo, however that will limit your use of the banner widget in the header .

If your logo is taller than 100 pixels, you’ll need to edit the height setting in the custom.css file one line above where you entered the image URL. You may also need to adjust the margin-top: value (currently set at -82px) for the sidebar_header in your custom.css file in order to keep it centered vertically.

Banner

The Network News was designed to incorporate a 468 x 60 banner advertisement into the header. To make use of the banner, add a text widget to the sidebar named Banner. Drop your banner code into the widget, click save, and you’re all set.

If you don’t want to use a banner, not a problem! Just don’t insert a widget into the Banner sidebar and the sidebar won’t be displayed.

Featured Content Slider – Warning: Outdated!

Last but certainly not least, we need to get the featured content slider working. Michael Gray has an amazing tutorial on how to create the slider and it’s actually his code that I’ve incorporated into the skin.

Note: The code on Michael’s site is slightly out of date. We’ve gone ahead and made this change to the code so be sure not to over-write it.

Setting the plugin up can be a bit tricky so I’ll try to walk you through a few of the items that are specific to this Thesis skin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the Dynamic Content Gallery (DCG) plugin (version 3.1), you’ll need to go to the DCG settings page and skip down to step 3 to specify what content you want to feature.

DCG gives you 5 “slots” to feature in the slider and allows you to mix and match how you want those slots distributed. Rather than mixing and matching across several categories, I just created a Featured category, and inserted the category id (in my case 5) into each of the 5 category id spots.

Since I want to display the last 5 posts from that featured category, I simply numbered 1 through 5 in each of the post select boxes.

Steps 4 & 5 let DCG know where to find the images you want to use in the slider. I’ve input /wp-content/uploads/ in both fields since that’s where my images are stored.

Tip: WordPress defaults to managing your uploads into month and year based folders. Unless you want to be continually updating this setting in DCG, I recommend unchecking that box and forcing WordPress to store your images in one large folder.

Step 7 is where you’ll need to set the desired width, height, and colors for your slider. Since I want the slider to take up the full width of my content section, I set the width to 595. The height is up to you but I used 270. The rest of the settings are fairly self explanatory and I’ve included a screen shot of my settings for easy reference below.

click for larger image

Tip: Make sure my post images are cropped to the 595 x 270 dimensions so the images aren’t stretched or distorted in any way.

Once you’ve entered the desired settings, click the update options button to lock them in.

Before the slider will work you’ll need to a) make sure to save a few posts into your featured category and b) create two custom fields on each post you  want to display in the slider.

The fields are as follows:

• Key = dfcg-image with a Value = Image filename including extension eg. myImage.jpg
• Key = dfcg-desc with a Value = Description text eg. Here’s our latest news!

After you enter each of the custom fields once, WordPress will automatically remember them for future use. When you want to put a new post into the featured slider, just make sure you add those two fields.

Also, make sure you only include the file name of the image in the dfcg-image field. The plugin is already set to look for the images in your uploads folder so you only need the myImage.jpg portion of the file name.

Customize to Taste!

I’ve said countless times that the best thing about the Thesis theme is the incredible flexibility it offers.

I’ve tried to capitalize on that as much as possible with this skin offering all sorts of widgetized areas that should make it easy for you to mix and match the different content you want to feature on your site.

I really enjoyed the process and plan on creating a few more skins so if you have any questions or suggestions please leave them in the comment section below!

With this being a a free skin I won’t be able to offer support for every question or problem you might encounter. However, leaving the attribution link in the footer definitely won’t hurt your chances

BUY THESIS | DEMO

You’ll never guess, but the GPL has caused yet another controversy to erupt within the WordPress community. You’re surprised right? Yeah me neither.

So for those of you who haven’t been paying attention (read as: had something better to do) I’m going to try and summarize the events over the last few days as concisely as possible. I’m also going to strive to keep my opinion out of it as much as possible since there will be plenty of time for me to rant on that later.

So let’s get started…

History

It has long been Matt Mullenweg’s contention that all plugins and themes developed to work with WordPress should inherit the General Public License (GPL) which WordPress is licensed under. They are, in his estimation, derivative works, and as such should be released under the GPL or a GPL-compatible license.

Naturally, there are those who disagree. Chris Pearson, the creator of the Thesis theme, is one of those people. As a result, he licensed his theme under a different and non-GPL compatible license.

Note: The issue of debate is not for or against the GPL as a license. The issue is whether the GPL requires themes to inherit the same license, or not. While it’s much easier to classify the debate as pro or anti-GPL, that’s an oversimplification and skews the issue. Few if any people are arguing against the GPL as a whole.

The Spark

The initial spark for this latest explosion was Automattic CEO, Toni Schneider, kicking WordPress consultant Bill Erickson out of the CodePoet directory for supporting Thesis.

Wow, just got an email from Automattic CEO kicking me off the WP Consultants list because I promote #thesiswp (cc @pearsonified)

July 14, 2010 3:36 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@BillErickson

Bill Erickson

Bill then posted the expulsion on Flickr. Mullenweg left a comment on the image accused Pearson of having “verbally abused a female community member at a conference yesterday” (even though that female member, Jane Wells denies being abused), accused Pearson’s company, DIYthemes, of “break[ing] the law” and recommended that Pearson leave the WordPress community.

Mullenweg then took the fight to twitter saying:

Thesis site hacked, or inherently insecure? RT @dannyarr Here is the decoded string from admin.php http://bit.ly/97RWvw #thesiswp

July 14, 2010 10:57 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

This is what happens when non-coders think they can code. #thesiswp

July 14, 2010 10:59 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

Those tweets, along with the accusations left on Flickr were like a spark hitting a gasoline soaked pile of rags…

The Explosion

Matt quickly followed up his barbs with his first (of many) offers to buy a Thesis user any other premium theme as long as it was licensed under the GPL.

I recently had a client specifically ask that I use Thesis. It's not fun so far. #thesiswp

July 14, 2010 11:25 am via Tweetie for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@chexee

Chelsea Otakan

@chexee Tell them I'll buy them any other premium theme they'd like.

July 14, 2010 11:46 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

As frequent readers of this blog know, I’m never one to shy away from sharing my opinion. However, I didn’t expect my tweet to illicit Mullenweg to state a lawsuit against DIYthemes was allegedly being planned.

@photomatt if they're breaking the license, prove it in a court of law & stop with your childish hissy fit.

July 14, 2010 11:57 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Skitzzo

Ben Cook

@Skitzzo Working on it. Want to join? :)

July 14, 2010 12:00 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

As anyone who knows Pearson will tell you, it was only a matter of time before he responded. That led to this exchange between he and Mullenweg.

Well, I can't stop @photomatt from spreading propaganda and lies, but what I CAN do is be honest about the whole situation. Video coming.

July 14, 2010 12:21 pm via Tweetie for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@pearsonified

pearsonified

@pearsonified I can send you a WP shirt if you need one. #thesiswp

July 14, 2010 12:24 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

Is it fair that I should be patronized? RT @photomatt @pearsonified I can send you a WP shirt if you need one. #thesiswp

July 14, 2010 12:32 pm via Tweetie for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@pearsonified

pearsonified

@pearsonified I'm just so broken up that WordPress is useless without #thesiswp, best theme in the world, responsible for all innovation.

July 14, 2010 12:35 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@photomatt

Matt Mullenweg

Yo @photomatt, no one has claimed that Thesis is responsible for all innovation. Why are you handling your position so irresponsibly?

July 14, 2010 12:41 pm via Tweetie for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@pearsonified

pearsonified

The Confrontation

After several more shots were volleyed back and forth, both Chris and Matt agreed to be interviewed on Mixergy. Andrew Warner did a great job of moderating what was obviously a very passionate discussion.

Note: I’ll embed the video as soon as I can get it to work.

It’s interested to note that it seems this interview has been many people’s starting point when trying to figure out what this whole argument has been about. If viewed in isolation I don’t think Chris comes off all that well. He’s obviously worked up, while Matt is for the most part calm and collected. However, when viewed in light of the interactions that led up to the interview, it becomes clear both sides are heavily and emotionally invested in the debate.

A Proxy War

When two personalities as large as Pearson & Mullenweg clash so publicly, there’s never a shortage of people eager to chime in. Almost immediately the #thesiswp Twitter hash tag stream became over-run with people voicing their opinions on the issue.

I'm Team #thesiswp. [cc: @pearsonified]

July 16, 2010 12:00 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@jamievaron

Jamie Varon

Countless posts have been written on the topic in support of both sides of the issue, an incredible volume of tweets have gone back and forth, with Mullenweg and Pearson encouraging their supporters through liberal use of retweets.

In fact, Mullenweg has gone so retweet-crazy it prompted Lisa Barone to tweet the following:

Twitter needs to take away @photomatt's RT button if he's just going to RT everyone who tweets he's pretty. :) [he is, however, pretty]

July 14, 2010 3:33 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@LisaBarone

Lisa Barone

Copied Code?

The anti-Thesis horde was invigorated when developer Drew Blas ran a comparison of Thesis and WordPress’ code and found several snippets of WordPress’ code that were copied by Thesis.

Whether those snippets constitute plagiarism or simply fair use became the hot topic and the argument flared up with renewed vigor while the issue of GPL-inheritance seemed to take a back seat.

Pearson was quick to track down the code to former employee Rick Beckman who admitted to using copied code in this tweet:

When I was a Thesis dev & didn't know any better, I added big chunks of WP's GPL code to it. What a party I'm causing now. :S #thesiswp #wp

July 15, 2010 11:55 am via Socialite.appReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrazenlyGeek

Rick Beckman

While Pearson has vowed to remove the code before releasing Thesis 1.8 from beta, there are those suggesting that the codes’ inclusion poisons all of Thesis as inheriting the GPL until the entire theme is re-written. Beckman, for his part doesn’t exactly appear shaken up by his role in the dispute.

I look forward to a GPLed Thesis. It'd be a great theme to fork. #thesiswp

July 15, 2010 2:05 pm via Socialite.appReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrazenlyGeek

Rick Beckman

Editorial Note: I know I said I wouldn’t do many of these, but this seems like a scary situation for any software developers out there. Can one rogue employee effectively nullify your license by slipping in chunks of GPL code? Could a hacker break in and distribute a copy of your software including GPL code thus forcing an entire re-write or GPL adoption? Would Pearson have recourse to sue Beckman? It seems I’m full of questions but few answers.

The Fallout?

As is so often the case with online flame wars, very little has actually been accomplished. Matt Mullenweg has re-issued his threat to sue DIYthemes several different times, although as of yet, nothing has been filed. He’s also continued to be very vocal about his offer to give any Thesis prospect or user a GPL premium theme of their choice at no cost. I’ve not been able to confirm whether any of those themes have actually been purchased, or what the users are required to do in exchange for the theme.

Chris Pearson has vowed to remove the copied snippets of WordPress code from Thesis before releasing version 1.8. While the anti-Thesis mob seems to be having some success inspiring uncertainty amongst Thesis users, even if a lawsuit were filed, it would have little to no impact on Thesis users. The Thesis theme remains, in my opinion, the most flexible WordPress theme on the market and until a better option emerges, I plan on continuing to use it as my primary theme on all my WordPress projects.

One interesting development of note is that Headway has made the decision to dual split license their theme to adhere to the Software Freedom Law Center’s interpretation of the GPL requirements. While Headway’s creators had been vocal GPL-inheritance opponents in the past, the attacks Thesis is sustaining as well as the possibility of having Mullenweg purchase and then give away copies of your theme has to be a powerful incentive from a business perspective.

@Skitzzo We are now dual/split licensed accordning to the GPL. Something we been considering for some time. #headwaywp

July 16, 2010 1:32 pm via Headway ThemesReplyRetweetFavorite

@GrantGriffiths

Grant Griffiths

Note: Sorry for any confusion. The appropriate term is split licensed, not dual licensed as previously stated. Mark and Andreas explain the difference in the comments below.

What Next?

Personally I expect the issue to slowly burn out over the weekend. Even given the strong rhetoric from both sides I would be surprised to see a lawsuit actually happen. I would also be shocked to see Thesis adopt the GPL or even dual license it’s theme. But no matter what happens from here on out, I’ll try to keep things summarized here so be sure to check back often.

Other Relevant Reading:

• WordPress GPL Feud (Again)
• Thesis + GPL + WordPress = Pain
• WordPress, Thesis, GPL, and premium themes
• WordPress Thesis Conflict Highlights GPL Nuances
• Chris Pearson vs Matt Mullenweg (big thanks for the amazing Twitter Blackbird Pie WordPress plugin)
• Matt Mullenweg Fouls His Nest & Undermines His Credibility (a great read)
• The GPL is Marxist

image source: theparasiteguru

Everyone has a few icons on their site now. Whether it’s for social media, contact info, or other ways to connect with visitors, it’s become a standard. Now the question becomes, “Where do I put them?”

The sidebar seems like a logical place, but it’s already crowded as it is. So how about on the side of the screen, out of everyone’s way? There are some plugins that do this, but most of the ones I’ve seen include either some Javascript, IFrames, or a similar waste of code. We can do it clean with just HTML and CSS.

But enough from me, let’s get onto the code!

(Editor’s note: This tutorial is specifically for the Thesis theme, however it can easily be applied to other themes. Enjoy!)

Step 1: Decide What You’re Going To Display

For this example, we’re going to set 4 separate 48px by 48px icons for Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and email. But you could also have it display a single icon or ‘call to action’ if that’s what you want. So since we’re using icons, I’ve uploaded the 4 icons I want to use (all the same size) into the images folder in the custom directory.

Step 2: Setting The Functions

As usual, I like to set all my functions in a list at the beginning of my custom_functions.php file. This only requires one function, so let’s set it now.

add_action('thesis_hook_after_html','social_sides'); // Adds social icons that follow the side

Step 3: Create The Links

This will include the HTML we’re going to build at the very bottom of the page. Don’t worry, the CSS will put it where we want it. Here is where we are actually putting in the links and icons. Note the images aren’t linked here. They’ll be in the CSS later. Obviously, change the links for your own accounts.

function social_sides() { ?>

<?php }

Here I’ve set the Twitter, Facebook, RSS feed (using the built-in Thesis feed hook) and email. Nothing crazy. You can add / remove as many as you want. The important thing is the CSS in the next step.

Step 4: Position via CSS

There are a view pieces to the CSS setup that need to be taken into consideration.

1. The width in each section (48px) matches the size of the icons. Doesn’t matter what size you use, they just need to match
2. The position:fixed will keep them in the same location (in this example on the very left of the screen) as the visitor scrolls down
3. The top and left percentages will dictate where they are aligned. Start with those, and play around in Firebug until you find what you like

/* Sidebar Floating icons */
.custom #side_slide {
  background:transparent;
  left:0.25%;
  position:fixed;
  top:40%;
  width:48px;
}

.custom #side_slide a {
  display:block;
  height:48px;
  text-indent:-9999px;
  padding:5px 0;
}

.custom #side_slide .twitter {background:url('images/sd_twitter.png') no-repeat 0 0;}
.custom #side_slide .facebook { background:url('images/sd_facebook.png') no-repeat 0 0;}
.custom #side_slide .rss { background:url('images/sd_feed.png') no-repeat 0 0;}
.custom #side_slide .contact { background:url('images/sd_contact.png') no-repeat 0 0;}

.custom #side_slide .twitter:hover,
.custom #side_slide .facebook:hover,
.custom #side_slide .rss:hover,
.custom #side_slide .youtube:hover,
.custom #side_slide .contact:hover {
  background-position:0 0;
}

Here’s an example of it “in action”

That’s it! You’ll now have your contact and profile icons floating happily on the side of the screen, always available to the visitor without taking up room in the sidebar.

Editor’s Note: This tutorial was a guest post by Andrew Norcross. He might just be the most tattooed person I know, and that’s saying a lot. Oh yeah, he’s also a kickin web developer, WordPress designer, & Thesis guru. If you need any web work done, you’d be lucky to hire him.

image source: Corie Howell

There are a lot of plugins out there that will create a ‘featured content’ gallery. But if you’re anything like me, you don’t like using plugins unless you absolutely have to. I want to thank Greg Rickaby for his tutorial. However, his didn’t quite work for me, so I modified it and changed / added a few things. So let’s roll up our sleeves a bit and do it ourselves. Let’s get started, shall we?

Step 1: Setting The Functions

It’s a personal preference, but I always set my functions in a list at the beginning of my custom_functions.php file. This helps me debug issues, choose load order (when there are multiple functions using the same hook) and if need be, comment out a function without removing the code completely. So let’s do that now.

add_action ('wp_head', 'slider_scripts'); // Adds slider scripts, etc
add_action('thesis_hook_before_content', 'featured_slider'); // Adds featured slider

Step 2: Calling The Scripts

One issue I ran into was using the default jQuery library in Thesis. They load in the footer, and for some reason that didn’t do the job. So I downloaded the libraries and manually uploaded them into a folder I labeled ‘js’ within the custom folder. You’ll need the full jQuery library (found here) and the jQuery Cycle (found here). Then add the function to load them in the wp-head.

    function slider_scripts() {
	if (is_home()) { ?>
            <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/custom/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
            <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/custom/js/jquery.cycle.all.2.72.js"></script>
            <script type="text/javascript">
            $(function() {
                $('#slideshow').before('<div id="nav" class="nav">').cycle({
                    fx:     'fade',
                    speed:  '3000',
                    timeout: '3000',
                    pager:  '#nav',
                pause:   '0',
                fastOnEvent: '0',
                    before: function() { if (window.console) console.log(this.src); }
                });
            });
            </script>
	<?php } }

Step 3: The Slider Function

This is the guts of the feature. It does the following:

• Determines how it will grab the posts (in the example, it uses the tag ‘featured’)
• Selects the number of posts it will retrieve, from the most recent going back
• Pulls the image from the Thesis Post Image field
• Sets the height, width, and image quality
• Adds the post title below the post

The function for getting the image
Note: this function is not required to be called in a hook, hence the reason it wasn’t included in Step 1

function grabImage() {
 global $post, $posts;
 $first_img = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'thesis_post_image', true);
 return $first_img;
}

The Slider itself

function featured_slider () {
if (is_home()) { ?>
    <div id="slideshow">
    <?php $featured_loop = new WP_Query("tag=featured&showposts=5");
    while ($featured_loop->have_posts()) : $featured_loop->the_post(); ?>
        <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" /><img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=<?php echo grabImage(); ?>&h=250&w=630&zc=1&q=80" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" /><p><?php the_title(); ?></p></a>
    <?php endwhile; ?>
    </div>
<?php } }

Step 4: Style It

The CSS included can obviously be changed for your liking. A few things to keep in mind:

• You’ll want to make sure that the height and width under the #slideshow match what you have in the slider function itself.
• I’ve included some rounded edges on the post numbers on the bottom of the slider
• Make sure the bottom margin in the #slideshow is big enough to include the post title, otherwise it may get washed out.

#slideshow {
	height: 250px;
	width:650px;
	margin: 0 0 50px 0;
	padding-left:0;
	padding-right:0;
	}
#slideshow p{
	margin-top:0;
	color:#0b486b;
	font-size:14px;
	font-weight:600;
	}
#slideshow a img{}
.nav {margin: 0;}
#nav a {
	position: relative;
	top: 235px;
	left: 10px;
	color: #ffffff;
	margin: 0 2px;
	padding: 5px 8px;
	background: #0b486b; /* sets the bg color of the nav box */
	text-decoration: none;
	font-weight:bold;
	z-index: 9999;
 	-moz-border-radius: 5px;
	-khtml-border-radius: 5px;
	-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
	border-radius: 5px;
}
#nav a.activeSlide {background-color:#ffffff;color:#0b486b; border:1px solid #0b486b; }/* sets the bg colors of the nav box when active */
#nav a:focus {outline: none;}

Editor’s Note: This tutorial was a guest post by Andrew Norcross. He’s a self described “freelancing web monkey” from St. Petersburg, FL. I had the chance to meet Andrew at Search & Social Spring Summit this week and let me tell you, he knows his stuff. I really appreciate Andrew sharing this tutorial with us and if you’re looking for a web developer, WordPress designer, or Thesis guru, he’s your man.

image source: kretyen

As many of you probably know, a new version of the Thesis theme (1.7) was released recently with a whole host of new options and features.

One of those features is a built in settings importer which makes installing skins an insanely quick process. To celebrate, I’ve decided to release my 5th free Thesis skin.

This one’s a little bit more playful in nature but I think you’ll enjoy it, especially if you’re a fan of the social media site, Twitter.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce…

Tweetish

As you can see from the demo site, this skin is designed to give your readers just a small taste of the content you have to offer in a relatively simple and easily digestible form. It automatically truncates the post excerpts to 20 words (a total you can tweak via the custom_functions.php file), strips out any possible line breaks to keep the formatting nice, and presents the posts as if they were tweets.

The skin also includes a widgetized bio area where the nice picture of the Twitter bird is located on the demo site. This makes it easy for you to include a picture of yourself, a short description, or both!

The finishing touch was to round the corners of all the major content blocks (header, content, footer) to give the skin that nice mellow feel to it.

Requirements

The only requirement for using this skin is that you’ve purchased and installed a copy of the Thesis theme, version 1.7.

Installation

As I mentioned earlier, installation is even easier thanks to version 1.7!

Just enter your name and email address in the form to the left (make sure you any ad-blocking turned off) and be sure to confirm your request for the skin. We aren’t going to spam you, we just want to be able to alert you to new skins or updates of old ones.

You’ll receive an email with a link to the zipped skin files. Unzip the files, drop the custom.css and custom_functions.php files into the Custom folder of your Thesis install. The folder should be located somewhere like yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom.

Warning: The next step will overwrite any of the settings you may have already customized. I’d recommend creating a backup All Options file in case you decide you want to go back to your current settings at any point.

Next you need to navigate to the Manage Options page under the Thesis heading in your left sidebar. In the middle column (Upload Options) go to the bottom field (All Options) click the Browse button, find the thesis-all-options-20100408.dat file, and click the upload button. And believe it or not, that’s it. I told you it was easy!

Customize to Taste

Customizing the skin is fairly easy as well. I’ve left comments in the custom.css file to show you where to enter the URL for your own custom header image, and the Bio section is widgetized which makes customizing that a snap.

As I mentioned earlier, if you’d like to have more than 20 words of each post displayed, you can tweak that setting in the custom_functions.php file.

With a relatively simple skin like this, I’m sure you guys and gals will come up with some great customizations so be sure to come back and share them with us in the comments below. In fact, I’ll start us off with one. My personal site, Skitzzo.com is a slightly customized version of this skin. Hopefully that will get your creative juices flowing.

As always, if you have any questions or run into any problems using this, or any of my other Thesis skins, please feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you sort it out. Although, I will admittedly be a bit more motivated to help if you haven’t removed my small attribution link in the footer

BUY THESIS | DEMO

Throughout GPL Week we’ve dealt with WordPress developers that have adopted the GPL for their products. Today, we’re going to talk to someone who not only refused to use the license, but has been a vocal opponent of it.

Chris Pearson, the creator of the Thesis theme, has spoken out several times against use of the GPL and has even gotten into a few public exchanges with WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg over the subject.

Never one to shy away from stating his opinion, I was excited when Chris agreed to a brief interview. I was hoping for some fireworks and as you can see from the title, I wasn’t disappointed.

Chris, let’s jump right into this. Thesis is NOT licensed under the GPL and you’ve been very vocal about that. Why did you resist the lure when so many other theme devs made the switch?

From the onset, I intended for Thesis to be a sustainable product. I knew that I wanted to build a business around it, but more important, I was trying to solve a very specific problem with my business model. Before launching Thesis, I had become extremely disenchanted with income models that trade time for money, and I viewed Thesis as a vehicle that I could use to “rise above” this unfortunate scenario. For all intents and purposes, Thesis solved these problems within a few months after launch—long before the GPL issue ever reared its ugly, ill-informed head.

Now, let’s examine the GPL for a second. Although it covers other issues as well, the GPL basically stipulates that anyone can take your code and do whatever they want with it…legally. In other words, the GPL is legal castration for anyone who is trying to run a business that is in any way reliant upon unique, innovative code.

Couple this with the fact that I’d already been ripped off by a few imitators who were trying to use my work to gain attention for themselves (people had basically lifted Thesis’ HTML + CSS in the name of the GPL and had attempted to give it away for free), and this was strike one against the GPL, at least from my perspective. Obviously, if I’m going to run a sustainable business, I can’t have people ripping me off and distributing my work for free.

Although the GPL says nothing about “free versus paid,” it’s undeniable that the WordPress GPL environment has created an atmosphere where free is championed and paid products are often demonized. This is why you didn’t see any premium themes or plugins until late 2007, and this is a huge reason why the GPL debate still rages on today.

As I mentioned earlier, I was trying to achieve sustainability with Thesis, and in order to do so, I had to work against the prevailing sentiment that everything should be free. Therefore, ensuring that people were not freely distributing my work was of the highest importance to me. As I see it, licensing Thesis under the GPL would totally undermine this goal and give those same people who ripped me off a legal backing for doing so! Do you hear that? It’s the sound of an obvious, epic FAIL.

Also, I had to consider the fact that I am (and have been since 2006) a leading presence in the WordPress theme development community. My work has always received a lot of attention and scrutiny, and that has made it a prime target for copycats and people who are out to make a buck as easily as possible. In situations like this, the GPL gives all the power to the “little guy” while robbing the true innovators of any protection whatsoever. I’m an innovator, my work is creative, and the GPL is NOT on my side here; this is strike two for the GPL.

Finally, let’s talk about how the GPL breaks down in the face of a solid economic model. At its core, the GPL aims to improve/increase/extend software distribution, all under the premise that “software for everyone” is going to make the world a better place. In theory, that sounds good, but in practice, something very different happens.

In an environment where distribution happens at a breakneck pace, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish a product on the basis of anything other than attention. The public gets accustomed to having “solutions” delivered here and now, and developers modify their practices to respond accordingly. Ultimately, what happens is that products get delivered to market more quickly, and people compete on the basis of attention rather than on the true merits of their products.

The phrase “quality takes time” is especially appropriate here, because that’s a formula that never changes. Unfortunately, software development is more tied to the laws of supply and demand than it is to a pursuit of the highest quality results, and the GPL plays on this in the most destructive possible way. By creating an environment of unrestricted distribution and huge scale, the GPL increases market demand by a significant factor.

Increased market demand (especially the unnatural, inorganic increase that comes about as a result of free) causes most suppliers to do what seems natural—increase their supply. However, quality still takes time, and in order to keep up with increased demand, quality suffers in the face of getting a product to market and getting that much-needed attention in a competitive marketplace.

Over a protracted time scale, nothing is more important to sustainability and efficiency than the QUALITY of the results we produce today. In the end, this is why Thesis is not and will never be GPL.

Do you still get heat about switching to GPL now that so many other theme dev’s seem to have grown disillusioned with it?

I am extremely vocal about my distaste for the GPL and my choice to avoid it, and I think just about everyone who knows me is aware of my position on the matter. As a result, almost nobody says a word to me about the GPL anymore

What would your advice be to someone considering the GPL for their work?

If you intend to release your work for free, don’t care about the fact that you created the work, and have no plans to drown yourself in product support, then I think releasing it under the GPL is totally fine. Honestly, most of the stuff that gets put under the GPL (plugins, themes without options, etc) is so inconsequential that it really doesn’t matter anyway.

Basically, if you’re serious about having a real, sustainable product, then the GPL is not for you; otherwise, go nuts!

Which side of the GPL debate do you think will win out in the marketplace where it matters most?

Despite the fact that people want everything right now and for free, QUALITY is what wins in the end. My position on the GPL is the one that will win out in the end, simply because I’m focusing on the things that matter on a scale that transcends any scale that the GPL attempts to achieve.

Call it a hunch but I think this interview is going to elicit a few responses. So, rather than giving you my opinion on the interview, I’m giving you the floor.

Is Chris right about the role of the GPL? Is it “legal castration”? Can you create a sustainable business while using the general public license? Let’s hear what you have to say via the comment form below!

Image sources: KayVee.inc & Ben McLeod

* This Thesis Skin has been updated. Scroll down for update details. *

Well folks, I’ve been at it again. I’ve created another free Thesis skin!

Now I know, this blog is about WordPress and there’s actually been a release (version 2.8.6) since my last post but frankly, the news in the WordPress world hasn’t really been all that exciting to me lately.

I mean, how many GPL and Update your Installs type of posts do you guys really want to read anyway?

So instead, I decided to spend my time creating something that I hope most of you will get some actual use out of.

Now of course, if you haven’t listened to my constant gushing about the Thesis theme and you’re still not using it, well I just don’t know what to do with you.

For the rest of you, I’m pleased to introduce the Affiliate Skin for Thesis!

Affiliate Skin

BUY THESIS | DEMO

As the name suggests, I designed the skin with affiliate marketers in mind. The excerpt and post image of your latest featured post, say one promoting your highest converting offer, is dropped into Thesis’ built in Feature Box and displayed front & center on the home page. The goal of the skin is to draw attention to the featured offer, provide a clear call to action & help increase your conversions. Other than that, it’s a fairly simplistic skin. And, thanks to Greg Boser & the team over at 3 Dog Media, installing it is a pretty simple process as well, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Requirements

The only requirements for using this skin are the actual theme, Thesis 1.6, and Greg’s Thesis Import/Export plugin (v 1.2). That’s it!

Installation

Enter your name and email address in the field above. Don’t worry, we’re not going to be spamming you. We simply want to be able to alert you when we’ve updated the skin or released new ones you might be interested in. Once you’ve registered your information you’ll receive an email with a link to the zip file. You’ll need to unzip the file and drop the custom.css and custom_functions.php files into your custom folder.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Drop the affskin-bg-vert.jpg file (in the images folder) into the images folder inside your custom folder (should be something along the lines of thesis/custom/images). Install and activate the Thesis Import/Export plugin. On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), select browse under Thesis Options and select the affiliateskin-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options. In similar fashion, under the Design Options section select the affiliateskin-thesis-design-options.dat file and click the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something. The final step is to create a category titled “featured” and add the post of your choice to the category. This will determine which post & image is pulled onto the home page in the featured section.

Using the Skin

As I mentioned earlier the featured post function is placed within Thesis’ Feature Box and as such, you can decide whether to display the section site-wide or just on the home page. I’ve opted to only display it on the home page but once again, the flexibility that Thesis offers makes it a simple option to change. Also, I’ve made use of the built in thumbnail function to automatically crop any image used as your featured post to 560 x 282. This prevents larger images from breaking the layout while not requiring you to do any of the cropping manually.

Disclaimer: Images smaller than the 560 x 282 dimensions, or long excerpts (for those of you who drop the excerpt in manually) will cause some display issues in the featured section. There might be a better method for handling these types of irregularities but to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t figure one out. If you’re a CSS & PHP guru and have suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments or drop me a line via the contact form.

Customize to Taste

As with any of my Thesis skins, please feel free to make any changes or modifications that your little heart desires. But be sure to come back and share your adaptations here so we can all ooh and ahh over your fine work.

Of course, if you have any questions or run into any problems using this, or any of my other skins, please feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you sort it out. Although, I will admittedly be a bit more motivated to help if you haven’t removed my small attribution link in the footer

BUY THESIS | DEMO

Update 1.31.2010: If you’ve had a problem with the Featured Post section pulling your image automatically, you’ll probably want to redownload the skin. I’ve updated the zip file so if you have an old link to it, that’s fine. If you need to download it again, you’ll need to register using the form to the right. This is going to allow me to update you guys any time a problem like this crops up again.

If you want to make the change yourself, you’ll need to go to your custom_functions.php file and replace this code:

<?php
echo ‘<img id=”feat” src=”http://affiliateskin.wpblogger.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=’.$image.’&w=560&h=282&zc=1&q=100″></a>’;
echo ‘<div>’;
?>

As WordPress design has evolved over time there’s been an emerging trend of cramming more and more information into designs.

With the advent of “magazine style” themes bloggers were able to give their readers glimpses into almost every facet of their site.

And, while there are several visually stunning magazine style themes out there, it’s easy as a blog reader to begin suffering from information overload.

If crisp, clean designs are more to your liking, I think you’ll enjoy my newest Thesis skin…

Simplicity

As you can see from the demo, Simplicity is designed to put the focus on one thing and one thing only… your content.

Using a vertical menu and a single sidebar, Simplicity blends the structural elements of the theme into the background allowing readers to instantly be drawn into the content you’re presenting.

While the skin can certainly handle a 3 column design it, in my opinion, loses a little something in the transition.

Similarly, child menus in the navigation are a possibility, but the design admittedly doesn’t handle them as gracefully as a single layer.

Requirements

The only requirements for using this skin are the Thesis theme (naturally), and Greg Boser’s Thesis Import/Export plugin. That’s it!

Installation

Installation of this skin is almost as simple as the design.

In order to download the skin, you’ll be required to enter your name and email in the field to the left.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to spam you. I just want to be able to alert you to future updates and any new skins I release.

Once you’ve confirmed your email address, you’ll be immediately sent an email with a link to the zip file.

Unzip the contents into a folder and drop the custom.css and custom_functions.php files into the Custom folder of your Thesis folder. (It should be something like yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom).

Next you’ll need to install the Thesis Import/Export plugin. You can do that quickly and easily by going to the Plugins/Add New link in your WordPress sidebar.

On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), you should be sure to download your current settings and save them as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

Once you have backups, select browse under Thesis Options and select the simplicity-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options.

In similar fashion, under the Design Options section select the simplicity-design-options.dat file and click the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something.

Once you’ve imported both option files, you should be all set!

Note: I personally would recommend also changing the number of posts that display on your home page to a lower number (I picked 6) to further reduce the clutter on the home page, but that’s obviously up to you.

Customize to Taste

As with any of my Thesis skins, please feel free to make any changes or modifications that your little heart desires. But be sure to come back and share your adaptations here so we can all ooh and ahh over your fine work!

Of course, if you have any questions or run into any problems using this, or any of my other skins, please feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you sort it out. Although, I will admittedly be a bit more motivated to help if you haven’t removed my small attribution link in the footer

BUY THESIS | DEMO

Update 2.20.2010: If you have long list items in your sidebar that spill over onto a second line you may want to institute this fix.

In your custom.css file search for the line .sidebar li.widget li {
text-indent: 15px;

and replace the “text-indent” with “padding-left” so the new version reads:

.sidebar li.widget li {
padding-left: 15px;

That will ensure all lines of your list items are indented.

In my continuing effort to provide quality pre-coded designs for the Thesis community , and after the success of my first skin, Network News Skin, I’ve decided to release another free skin for all you Thesis theme users out there.

If you’re not yet using the Thesis theme, I really don’t know what more I can do to convince you to buy it. My endorsement has only grown stronger since my 4 out of 5 star review, and as evidenced by these skins, it has helped me learn CSS at a rate I never thought possible.

Besides, without Thesis you can’t make use of all these kickin’ Thesis skins I’ve been working so hard on lately

This time around I decided on a completely unique design that would cater to photographers, artists, and just about anyone else that would want to showcase their work. I present:

Exhibit

The image above should give you a pretty good idea of what the skin looks like but I’ve also set up a Demo Site so you can take a look around and see if you like it.

Once again, if you’re already comfortable using Thesis as well as the custom.css & custom_functions.php files using the Exhibit skin will be a breeze for you.

However, if you’re not quite to that level yet, that’s ok! I’ve documented the entire process, from installation to actual use of the theme, in as much detail as possible.

Note: Please don’t let the length of the instructions intimidate you, I just wanted to make it clear enough that even someone brand new to Thesis would be able to use the skin.

Requirements:

As I already mentioned, you obviously need to have the Thesis theme for this skin to work. Also, this skin was designed for Thesis 1.6 which is out of beta and has been released to all Thesis owners. While the Network News Skin was backwards compatible, I’ve not gone to that length with this skin.

Besides, you should upgrade anyway.

I’ve also once again made use of the fantastic Dynamic Content Gallery plugin that allows us to achieve the “slider” functionality without a ton of coding of our own. I’ve updated the skin to use version 3.1 so be sure you have the latest version.

And last but not least, you’ll need to install Greg Boser’s Thesis Import/Export plugin. This will save us a TON of time in configuring the skin.

Installation:

In order to download the files for the skin you’ll need to enter your name and email in the form to the left.

Don’t worry, we won’t be spamming you or anything like that. We simply want to be able to alert you when we update the skin or release a new one you might be interested in using.

Anyway, once you’ve confirmed your information you’ll receive an email with a link to download a zip file.

Unzip the files into a folder that will be easy to find later.

Upload the custom.css, custom_function.php and layout.css files to the Custom folder, over-writing your current versions. While I didn’t make any edits to the layout.css file, it would be best to upload the version I’ve provided just to make sure we’re all starting from the same place.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Next you’ll need to install the Thesis Import/Export plugin. You can do that quickly and easily by going to the Plugins/Add New link in your WordPress sidebar.

On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), you should be sure to download your current settings and save them as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

After creating your backups, select browse under Thesis Options and select the exhibit-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options. Then do the same for the Design Options section by selecting the exhibit-design-options.dat file and clicking the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something.

Logo

Displaying your custom logo instead of the default Exhibit image requires just one simple edit to the custom.css file.

Simply replace http://exhibit.wpblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/exhibit-logo.png with the file path to your logo and save!

The default logo size is 955 pixels x 75 pixels and is a transparent png. You don’t have to use a logo this wide, and the theme can accommodate taller images as well, but you will need to edit your custom.css file if using an image that’s not 955 x 75.

Featured Content Slider

Last but certainly not least, we need to get the featured content slider working. Michael Gray has an amazing tutorial on how to create the slider and it’s actually his code that I’ve incorporated into the skin.

Note: The code on Michael’s site is slightly out of date. We’ve gone ahead and made this change to the code so be sure not to over-write it.

However, I do need to walk you through a few of the items that are specific to this Thesis skin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the Dynamic Content Gallery (DCG) plugin, you’ll need to go to the DCG settings page and skip down to step 3 to specify what content you want to feature.

DCG gives you 5 “slots” to feature in the slider and allows you to mix and match how you want those slots distributed. Rather than mixing and matching across several categories, I just created a Featured category, and inserted the category id (in my case 5) into each of the 5 category id spots.

Since I want to display the last 5 posts from that featured category, I simply numbered 1 through 5 in each of the post select boxes.

Steps 4 & 5 let DCG know where to find the images you want to use in the slider. I’ve input /wp-content/uploads/ in both fields since that’s where my images are stored.

Tip: WordPress defaults to managing your uploads into month and year based folders. Unless you want to be continually updating this setting in DCG, I recommend unchecking that box and forcing WordPress to store your images in one large folder.

Step 7 is where you’ll need to set the desired width, height, and colors for your slider. Since I want the slider to take up the full width of my site, I set the width to 955. The height is up to you but I used 500 as I think it provides the best ratio for most images. The rest of the settings are fairly self explanatory and I’ve included a screen shot of my settings for easy reference below.

Tip: Cropping your images to match the settings of your slider (in my case 955 x 500) will make sure the images aren’t stretched or distorted in any way. It will also avoid any cropping issues when Thesis generates the thumbnails to display in the Teasers on the home page.

Once you’ve entered the desired settings, click the update options button to lock them in.

Before the slider will work you’ll need to a) make sure to save a few posts into your featured category and b) create two custom fields on each post you  want to display in the slider.

The fields are as follows:

• Key = dfcg-image with a Value = Image filename including extension eg. myImage.jpg
• Key = dfcg-desc with a Value = Description text eg. Here’s our latest news!

After you enter each of the custom fields once, WordPress will automatically remember them for future use. When you want to put a new post into the featured slider, just make sure you add those two fields.

Also, make sure you only include the file name of the image in the dfcg-image field. The plugin is already set to look for the images in your uploads folder so you only need the myImage.jpg portion of the file name.

Customize to Taste

Since this skin aims to cater to the artistic community I fully expect you to want to make significant changes and customizations to the skin.

I’ll try to help you through the more common issues you may encounter but I simply don’t have the time to answer all of the questions and issues you may encounter when heavily changing a free skin. Although, leaving the attribution link in your footer will definitely help your chances of getting some support for the skin.

Fortunately, the Thesis support forums are absolutely top notch and I’ve never failed to get the help I needed. That’s one of the things that makes Thesis great so be sure to take advantage of it!

BUY THESIS | DEMO

What do LaVar Burton, Copyblogger and this blog all have in common?

We’re all rocking the Thesis theme (and you’d better believe that’s an affiliate link).

Over the last year, Thesis has taken the WordPress community by storm, quickly becoming the premium theme of choice of many top bloggers.

While it certainly doesn’t hurt to have people like Darren Rowse (TwiTip), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Matt Cutts (Google egineer), and Chris Brogan using and promoting your theme. But, if you know anything about these bloggers (or myself for that matter) you kow they won’t promote a product that they don’t strongly believe in.

So what is it about Thesis that makes it so special? We’ll take a look in our second installment of WordPress Theme Reviews.

Design

The “out of the box” Thesis design is one of the most clean & crisp designs you’ll find.

Thesis "out of the box"

It’s minimalistic look and feel assures your content is always the center of attention.

There’s no denying that WooThemes’ 36 different themes are a more diverse offering out of the box. Their image heavy designs are a stark contrast to Thesis’ sleek default design.

However, Thesis incorporates the site’s title and description into the design so you don’t have to create an image for each new site as you do with Woo.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Flexibility

The flexibility of Thesis is where this theme out-classes every other theme on the market.

With just a click of the mouse you can go from a 2 to 3 column design and move those columns to the right or left sidebars.

Another built in option allows you to use featured posts, post teasers, or a mixture of the two. WPblogger for example doesn’t make use of the teaser function. MLBrumorblog on the other hand, relies solely on teasers. And, as you can see from the screen shots below, those are just a couple of the plethora of options Thesis gives you in the theme dashboard.

Thesis options

Thesis design options

When you begin to consider the added flexibility Thesis offers through its use of custom.css and custom_functions.php files, the possibilities become nearly endless.

Want to add one of those fancy sliders to your home page that WooThemes uses in several of their themes? You can, as proven by Michael Gray on his SEO blog.

Would you like to utilize the 3 column widgetized footers that seem to be all the rage with blogs over the last year or so? Alex Frasier does just that on his young entrepreneur blog. Basically, you can replicate practically any look or feature of other themes utilizing the Thesis framework.

If you have any doubt about the utterly incredible flexibility of this theme, take a stroll through their showcase and check out the amazing diversity.

a sampling of the Thesis showcase

In all honesty, since I’ve purchased a developer license of Thesis, the only reason I’ve found to buy other themes has been this series of theme review posts.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Ease of Use

While Thesis does have a plethora of options to figure out, they are, for the most part, self explanatory.

Now, there is a bit of a learning curve once you get into making serious customizations. But, you’re not really learning Thesis per-say, you’re actually learning CSS and PHP to use within the Thesis framework.

What you learn while customizing your site, is applicable to any site built with CSS. And of course, if you already know CSS and/or PHP you’ll probably find Thesis a breeze to use.

For those of us who aren’t CSS inclined, the free Thesis OpenHook plugin is immensely helpful and, among other things, allows you to make customizations within the WordPress dashboard. Since nearly all the customizations take place in either the custom.css or custom_functions.php file, swapping, sharing, and testing code is incredibly easy.

And, if you decide you don’t want to take the time to learn, there are a growing number of skins (ready made custom.css and custom_functions.php files) available that are easily applied to your Thesis installation to customize the design.

All in all, I would consider Thesis fairly easy to use. You can customize your design with a minimal amount of effort and if you get stuck, there plenty of places to turn for help. Which, conveniently, brings us to our next category…

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Support

Customer support is yet another area where Thesis checks in at the head of the class. The theme of course, comes with a manual to get you started and there’s a very active support forum where every one from beginner to expert congregates to ask questions and help with any issues that you may encounter.

And, if that’s not enough to quench your appetite for support, there are an increasing number of Thesis tutorials that walk you step by step through all sorts of customizations. The tutorials stretch from how to add a header image, to how to create a Gawker type carousel, to using different ads for pages of different topics.

If there’s something cool you want to do with Thesis, chances are there’s already a tutorial for it. And if not, I’m willing to bet someone in the forum can show you how it’s done.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Total Rating

I’ve used countless themes in my blogging career, and even helped design and sell one, and Thesis has an answer for almost every issue I’d encountered with any other theme.

The flexibility is unparalleled and the community surrounding is both knowledgeable and helpful. The price tag isn’t cheap ($87 for personal use, $164 for developer) but there are no monthly fees to remain a member and updates are free.

Look, if it seems like I am falling all over myself to say good things about Thesis, that’s because I am.

It is, quite simply, the best WordPress theme available, coming in at an impressive 9 out of 10 stars.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars