Themes

There are 3 posts tagged Themes (this is page 1 of 1).

Site Update: A New Theme

Writing about changes to my site theme feels a lot like writing a big "I don't have anything better to talk about" message; it feels like running around telling everybody about my fantastic idea to get rich without having anything to show for it. The truth of the matter is, all the talk in the world means nothing without action. I'll make this brief.

The site update is part of the rebranding I'm working on and it's meant to simplify my writing outlet. The new theme (a modified version of Cleanr) has larger fonts and less clutter.

There is something very motivating about writing a blog post with large font; it makes me feel as though I'd better get to the point and not putz around. It also encourages me to improve my writing. I'm all for getting to the point, so I really like the effect of this new theme. Continue reading →

Modified Grid Focus WordPress Theme

I modified and applied the excellent Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan to my blog. His sense of style is very similar to my own and I think I have finally found a WordPress theme that I like enough to feel satisfied, at least for awhile.

There were a few things about the theme that didn't work for me, so I made the following modifications:

  1. I like a wide content column (at least 650px) so I removed the third column to make space.
  2. Added Widget support so I could utilize the Twitter Tools and Get Recent Comments widgets
  3. To support my use of Asides, I added some CSS styles to the stylesheet and modified index.php to check if the post belongs to the Asides category and style it accordingly
  4. Shaded the left column to give it some definition and help it stand apart from the main content

You can download my modified version of the theme here. I'm still working out some of the kinks (like blockquotes not being styled to my liking) but I'll update the theme zip file after I make any changes.

Current Version: 2009-02-04

Older Versions

SimplrRaam – Modified Simplr Theme

As you can see, I am now using a modified version of the WordPress Simplr theme by Scott. It took me a good 4 1/2 hours to modify and to make sure everything was working the way I wanted it to.

Changes:

  • The sidebar has been moved from the bottom to the right.

  • Single post pages are shown without any sidebar to make room for actual post content when you're reading the post.

  • Each of the pages (About, Contact, Archives, etc) also do not show the sidebar.

  • From the main page, when you click one of the categories from the sidebar to browse the posts in that category, you will be provided with a sidebar to further navigate via categories while you're reading posts.

  • The theme is designed to stretch with the browser window, so it should work on many different resolutions (even 640x480, though that wouldn't be very usable)

  • Moved the title of the blog into the top left corner, on the same line as the page links

  • Moved the tagline (my quote) to the right corner, under the page links

Important Installation Notes:

  • You can no longer use the Simplr Layout Width or Sidebar Layout options.

  • You MUST change Layout Width to 95% once you have activated the theme.

  • I recommend you set the Base Font Size to 75%

  • If you change the Base Font Size option to something greater than 75%, you may need to increase the following in style.css: div.postcontainer { margin-right: 330px; }

  • The rest of the Simplr options should work.

Screenshot:

Download: simplrraam.zip (379kb)

Keep in mind that I did this in a hurry, so many of my changes to the theme files are not documented. I also plugged in extra CSS styles where I needed to get things working. Please feel free to post comments, fixes, or suggestions to this theme below.