Help - what theme is this?

[zactix]

If anyone knows what theme is being used on the site below please let me know

I like the sidebar menu and the very clean look and want to find out what theme this is.

Thanks

[ronniethedodger]

You know what theme that is. And why did you choose to link to a sales page from that site?

And if you are thinking it is a free theme, it is not. It is a custom Thesis theme.

[zactix]

Thanks for getting back to me Ronnie. I honestly didn't know what theme it is. I'm still new at wordpress.

If I buy the Thesis theme will this be easy to do?
Also - is there a free theme that does the same i.e. effectively just a side bar menu.

Thanks

P.S. - please accept my apologies. I have no affiliation to earn1k. In fact all those pages are informational pages from their pre-launch and I just so much like the clean look so I had to provide an example.

[ronniethedodger]

No problems. I get cranky sometimes.

If you just want simple, you can start simple. One of the easiest things to do and people don't realize it, is to just do a 'child' theme off of the TwentyTen. Just use your own stylesheet and mimic the theme you want to create. This requires a little CSS knowledge.

Use a basic CSS reset. The sidebar can be floated left, instead of right. Add your styling as you go.

I would beware of certain free themes out there, especially the ones that require links in the footer. But there is nothing wrong with using parts of those stylesheets for formatting purposes.

[mjtaylor]

So, are you saying a Thesis theme is not so simple? I, too, am in the midst of planning a new blog and I am looking at Thesis as the one with the most flexibility ... do you have any experience with Thesis?

[williamc]

do you have any experience with Thesis?

Talk to Optic. As I recall he develops using thesis.

[ronniethedodger]

So, are you saying a Thesis theme is not so simple? I, too, am in the midst of planning a new blog and I am looking at Thesis as the one with the most flexibility ... do you have any experience with Thesis?

I have worked on Thesis after a couple of people got into it and messed with the basic files. It is pretty simple if you understand the use of hooks and filters, which these guys didn't. They do have great documentation which is open to view for us guys who do not have a license.

One thing about Thesis is I really do not need the backend for styling. I could never really understand why that is there, if you are a developer. Reminded me of the styling panel for PhpBB. If you can use a stylesheet, why do you need a control panel for it?

I personally use Justin Tadlock's Hybrid Theme framework. Hook per hook-wise, and filter per filter-wise, it offers the same thing as Thesis. Both frameworks are comparable when it comes to SEO, like having the blog title an H1 on the home and just a DIV on other pages, Hybrid has an awesome breadcrumb function, Hybrid has a full set of standard CSS layouts that you can build from, an added built-in post meta box for Title, Description, Keywords, post thumbnail (deprecated now), and the ability to run "post series". Hybrid is free, but he does have a $25 year support forum which after a year in there, you can learn what you need to.

[Optic]

So, are you saying a Thesis theme is not so simple? I, too, am in the midst of planning a new blog and I am looking at Thesis as the one with the most flexibility ... do you have any experience with Thesis?

Thesis is really a tool for developers to build custom wordpress sites with. It's simple, but not for those who cannot code at all.

If you can code, Thesis is great. It saves a ton of time with both the heavy lifting and customizing. Check out http://thesishooks.com , this has a visual reference for the thesis hooks used for customization. Basically every place you might want to put something, there is a hook for it. There are filters to be used for modifying theme output as well. All customizations are made in one directory, which contains a custom_functions.php and custom.css file. These will contain all your custom code. It's a very clean way of building a site. There is a learning curve, but it is not nearly as steep as learning the wordpress Codex.

One major element of Thesis that I like, is the great markup and style base. It's just a perfect starting point for building a custom site in my opinion.

The support is also top notch. The forums are very active, and there are a handful of very knowledgeable people there who spend time helping people, even if the problem has nothing to do with the theme.

If you are using wordpress Multisite, Thesis is absolutely amazing. There is a mod for using a different custom folder for each site, using the same theme files for each site, yet completely custom. I actually just wrote another article about Thesis and multisite, showing how to use a Thesis master custom stylesheet for wordpress multisite networks.

If you can code, but don't want to spend all your time doing it, Thesis is a great tool. If you can't code, I suggest ElegantThemes, they have some very nice themes and a nice UI, with good support as well.

[Optic]

I personally use Justin Tadlock's Hybrid Theme framework. Hook per hook-wise, and filter per filter-wise, it offers the same thing as Thesis. Both frameworks are comparable when it comes to SEO, like having the blog title an H1 on the home and just a DIV on other pages, Hybrid has an awesome breadcrumb function, Hybrid has a full set of standard CSS layouts that you can build from, an added built-in post meta box for Title, Description, Keywords, post thumbnail (deprecated now), and the ability to run "post series". Hybrid is free, but he does have a $25 year support forum which after a year in there, you can learn what you need to.

I haven't tried Hybrid, but I've read Justin's blog. I might have used it had I not bought a Thesis dev license.

The styling interface is kind of interesting, as the only ones to really use it are going to be non coders, and that will be the end of their customization.

[ronniethedodger]

I haven't tried Hybrid, but I've read Justin's blog. I might have used it had I not bought a Thesis dev license.

The styling interface is kind of interesting, as the only ones to really use it are going to be non coders, and that will be the end of their customization.

Outside of the styling interface, they are quite similar except Hybrid uses child-theme templates which are bare. He has a whole slew of stylesheets that you can start out with (1,2,3 columns, sidebars on left or right, print stylesheets, dropdown menu stylesheets, typography for different font sizes,etc.) you just mix them the way you want and then you are off to the races. With Thesis, if I remember right, you have to load their stylesheet then tack on your custom stylesheet to over-ride it. Kind of weird.

He also added some plugins for Superfish menus, Cleaner Galleries, some kind of Member plugin (which looks interesting). His articles are really top notch too, can learn a lot from them before everyone else starts writing about it. He is one amazing dude.