Tag Archives: Themes

So, I Changed my Theme Again…

If the series of theme changes makes it look that I am totally fickle, then I have to plead not guilty. I was quite happy with my old Vigilance and Pressrow themes for the longest time.

All this confusion started early this year when I got tempted by the series of themes being issued by the WordPress theme team. Each theme sounded more intriguing than the last and I got sucked into the vortex of the almost monthly theme change.

I did try out Coraline earlier this year and I really liked my blog look a lot. However, then the negative feedback rolled in…it’s too bright and brash, the 3-columns make everything look very cramped, and so on. I immediately made a jump to Paperpunch, but never really felt comfortable with it. It seemed rather dull after Coraline, and no amount of wallpapering could make me like the fonts.

So, yes, I have decided to switch back to Coraline, and to commit to it. Sure, it’s a bit brash/bright, and so on, but it’s more me somehow than the rest of the themes I tried out this year.

So, here in public, I state my intention of sticking to this theme (and its variations). I love the fonts, the customizability, the header appearance, everything in short…so I have decided to publicly state my preference (in the hope that it will stop me tampering with my blog appearance yet again). I have a feeling the constantly changing appearance is impacting my blog viewership, and that is something I definitely don’t want. Also, this theme makes me want to update my blog more. Isn’t that silly? but it’s true! I have been in a sort of blogging funk since the time I changed to Paperpunch (not that it’s a bad theme, but it just does not suit me).

So, Coraline it is for now…or at least until Vigilance,Pressrow, /Journalist/, or Twenty ten themes get some interesting upgrades

What do you think? Would you like me to stick to this look (or some other look that you liked?), or do you like the idea of a blog appearance that keeps changing?

Answering a Blog Customization Question

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Today, Su asked a couple of questions on my blog customization:

You have customized your WordPress blog with some pretty cool and funky features—the background, etc. from TCBOTB. I am relatively new to WordPress and can’t seem to figure out how to incorporate the background or buttons into my blog. Can you advise me on the process? Also, how were you able to add the My Stats counter? (I’ve been looking around for one of those.)

Well I started responding and then ended up having so much to say that I might as well create a new post out of it…especially considering I am running a little slow on blog post ideas

So, Su…thanks for sending in the question. And here’s hoping that I am able to help you a little bit with your blog

First up, the background:

The older WordPress themes (the one you are currently using) do not support adding custom backgrounds. You can only do that if you pay and upgrade to the CSS option.

If you want a custom background for free, change your blog theme to one that supports it. Some really cool ones out there that support custom backgrounds are:

Twenty Ten – A very neat, clean theme, which is very easy to set up.
Structure – A really attractive theme (especially the dark option), however a tad bit tricky to set up satisfactorily. I played around with it for a few days and regretfully decided that it was not for me. Still, exceptionally attractive.
And finally, we come to Bueno, which is my current favorite theme. It’s easy to set up, easy to customize, and generating questions regarding my blog, which I take as a compliment .

There are a couple of other themes that also support backgrounds. Search for them using custom-background keyword in your WordPress themes dashboard. Once you have selected a theme, all you need to do is go to Appearances -> Background and then upload any background you like.

Some good sites to download background / header / button imagery are:

Leelou blogs
Shabby Blogs here and here
And of course, some more sites that I have blogged about earlier here and here

You will need to play around and experiment a bit with combinations of themes and backgrounds till you are satisfied with the overall effect.

Using Buttons or Widgets:

I haven’t really used any buttons in my blog, but I have used a lot of widgets, and I think that is what the question is all about.

My Stats Counter widget is something I love, I never changed it since the time I added it, which is saying something considering how dynamic my theme’s appearance usually is. I selected mine from Amazing Counter. Just click on Create a Free Counter and choose from the various options available there. Fill up the form and then follow their instructions. It is a fairly straight-forward procedure.

Regarding the other widgets, they are pretty basic stuff – the standard WordPress widgets.

To find the widgets available for your theme, go to Appearance > Widgets. See WordPress widgets for information on how to use all the different widgets they support. Bookmark it, it’s one useful site!

Well, I guess this should be enough to get WordPress newbies up and running.

Hope this post was useful!

Exciting WordPress News

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So, last week WordPress announced the creation of a new theme team. You guys by now must know how much I love playing around with the appearance of my blog…so news that there is a dedicated team for theme-creation (how come it took so long) could only have me jumping up and down in joy.

This news was immediately followed by the introduction of the new Inuit Types theme. I immediately played around a bit with it before realizing it was not for me.

I then thought a little bit about the various themes I have used and what I loved about them, and then tried to put it all together in the following wishlist…

Love the dreaminess and the fonts of Misty Look
Love the crispness and the look of the header text of the Pressrow theme
Absolutely love the flexibility of the Vigilance theme – the ability to change colors, the ability to add 2 sidebars as well…this is my favorite WordPress theme by far
Love the colors of Motion and the ability to add categories to your header. Love the rich color and texture of the theme.

So, why did I try these themes and eventually discard them if I love them so much?

Well, I left Misty Look because with Pressrow, my photos displayed to better advantage. I left Pressrow because of Vigilance’s awesome customization options.

For a long time, I was very content with Vigilance, but when WordPress introduced Motion, I just had to try it out and I was hooked. I loved the bottom sidebar widget, as well as the option to have Categories displayed on the header. It also displays photos to great advantage.

The only problem was with the text. When I wrote a post with a lot of text and no photos, I found it a bit hard to read. So, I eventually moved to Titan, which is quite similar to Motion, only with a lighter background and more clear text.

I do find it a bit dull though, and so I am really looking forward to more theme options coming from WordPress.

And if you theme team guys are reading, here is a wishlist of features I would like to see in a WordPress theme:

A 2-column theme that allows me to display large photographs (similar to what is available with Vigilance/Pressrow/Motion)
An ability to use the theme with a white/black background (similar to what you have with Inuit Types)
Also provide excellent customization abilities like Vigilance
The ability to display Categories on your header as well as to have drop-down header menus (like Motion). I don’t want to give Titan as the example here, because 2 rows of Categories on a Titan header displays really awfully.
And whatever other awesomeness you would like to add

So are you WordPress users as excited by the possibility of new themes?

Over the weekend, I also noticed that there is a new Surprise Me option that I immediately signed up for. I then went to my blog wondering about the surprise, but so far nothing yet…did anybody else try this out? did something happen?

Addendum: I finally saw the surprise when I published this post. Meh! my suggestion is don’t bother with it…

Going Dark and Some Other Random Blog Changes

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I know my blog has been going through a lot of changes recently. And the latest one is especially dramatic. I have moved from a predominantly white/light theme with dark text to a predominantly dark theme with lighter text.

So, I am curious, how do you feel about the change? Like it? Is it easy to read, does it display well on your browsers?

This theme also highlights the various categories up front at the top of the page – something I quite like because it highlights the variety of topics covered in this blog.

Another change is the addition of a new WordPress plog. Couple of weeks back, the folks at WordPress introduced a new “Import from Posterous” feature that I used to import my Posterous plog into WordPress. Well, the Import feature worked well, and now I have two WordPress blogs linked together .

While doing all these hi-jinks, I realized that WordPress photoblogging themes could use a lot of improvement. They are just not as easy as Posterous. Although Posterous does not have many customization features, the basic Gallery display is excellent and does not require any manipulation at all. With WordPress, I loved the Monotone and Duotone photoblogging themes. They display the photos really beautifully but really they are not suitable for Gallery style of pictures at all. I eventually settled for the Steira theme, just because it displays Gallery photos quite neatly. If you are not very sure by what I mean when I say Gallery, see this.

By now, you must be wondering why I am moving my blog from Posterous to WordPress if I am happy with Posterous. Well, the simple answer is I was just curious as to how my photos would display in WordPress; and just wanted to play around and experiment with the Import feature .

Some other rough edges I saw during the Posterous import process:

Videos embedded in Posterous appear as attachments in WordPress. This sucks big-time because I then need to manually edit the posts and embed the video, which kind of defeats the purpose. I definitely would not recommend importing a Posterous blog to WordPress if you have a lot of video/audio content.
Posterous has a lovely option that allows users to download all the images in a post as a single zip file. WordPress does not have this option. It only provides a link that allows you to download them through Posterous, which makes me suspect that deleting my Posterous blog would result in a bunch of broken links in my WordPress blog – not something I want, which is why I am ending up retaining dual blogs with the same content.

I am sure there are probably many other gotchas that I haven’t spotted just as yet. In short, if you are considering moving your blog from Posterous to WordPress, do not delete your Posterous blog. Also, play around with a variety of themes. The traditional photoblogging themes provided by WordPress may not always suit everyone’s needs.

How about you guys? Has anyone attempted the move from Posterous to WordPress? If so, how did it go for you?

Fooling Around with WordPress Themes

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Since I started blogging on WordPress, I have taken full advantage of the various themes they have on offer. I started off with Thirteen – a lovely green theme, before moving on to the very popular Misty Look and Pressrow themes.

Three themes in three years! But, change is good, right. And, I love how differently my blog can be perceived when the theme changes.

Of late, I have been covetously eyeballing two very different themes on various blogs – Spring Loaded and Vigilance.

Spring Loaded reminds me of my first Thirteen theme – only with a playful edge. Unfortunately, when I previewed the theme with my blog, I realized that all the widgets on the right column did not appear so good. The green frames that were supposed to encase the widgets correctly were either too big or too small. Even more surprisingly, the standard WordPress widgets for tags, archives, and so on did not display properly. After fiddling around with the settings (to no avail), I just gave up the effort and moved on to Vigilance.

I love the Vigilance theme. It looks beautiful in a very unfrivolous way. Unfortunately, one glitch spoiled it for me. The custom header options in Vigilance do not allow me to put my blog title over or below my header image. The title comes bang on the image, and completely spoils the look. Although, I can change the font colors, nothing I did seemed to lessen the effect. Vigilance does offer me an option to remove my blog title completely. This is a nice option because it means that I can create my own header image with my blog title, something I will definitely do some day.

However, for now, it is back to the Pressrow by Chris Pearson theme. I think it will live on as my theme of choice for a lot longer than I planned to. At first, I thought Pressrow was pretty bland, but as days go by, I am just more and more impressed by it’s simplicity and ease. I have never had any problems with widgets, they all display pretty decently. I love its navigation. I love how all my pages are displayed so boldly right at the top of the main page. And yes, I also love that I have a separate blog title and custom header image.

After all this playing around, I did eventually retain one change I made. I have included a Rating button at the bottom of my blog posts (you can see it when you click on the blog title, or the Comments button). So, if you don’t want to comment, you can still rate the blog post.

Looking forward to seeing some ratings on my blogs, starting from this one

Blog Customization Options

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When I first decided to start a blog, I was torn between WordPress and Blogger. I just did not know which option to go for. So, I just flipped a coin and ended up with Blogger.

Turned out to be not a bad option. It was easy to use and setup, and I liked the overall experience. However, I was just not that happy with the quality of themes that they have on offer. They were always a little dull, and I felt that the WordPress blogs that I followed have a much crisper layout.

So, I moved my blog to WordPress and I have never looked back … i.e. until now.

While slowly getting accustomed to the blogosphere, I came across some unique and lovely blogs on Blogger. Only then did I realize the extent of the customization options provided by Blogger. You don’t even have to be a CSS guru to personalize your Blogger blog to reflect your taste and individuality. This is a good thing because the default themes are not the greatest anyway!

WordPress also allows users to customize their themes, but at a price and that really sucks. I hope a day comes when the WordPress folks allow users to customize their blogs without any charge. However, the basic themes are pretty good, which sorta makes up for this.

There are tons of lovely sites on the web that help you customize your blogs, and here are a couple that I love:

The Cutest Blog on the Block (henceforth called TCBOTB)- This site offers you some lovely backgrounds, blinkies, and headers that you can easily customize and incorporate into your blog. Even better is that they provide options that complement each other, so you don’t have to get a beautiful background and then struggle to create a header that suits it.
One lovely blog that has used its elements so beautifully is My Fluttering Heart …I just love the beautiful romantic background she has used. I also love the beautiful Alice in Wonderland header (a photo taken from a fashion magazine). After seeing this blog, I was inspired to try something on my still-existing Nishita’s Nonsensical Ramblings blog. I chose a much plainer background, and a “Life is Beautiful” blinkie, and I think this blog looks a lot better than it used to. If I had known about TCBOTB earlier, I just might have reconsidered my decision to move to WordPress.

Note: Currently TCBOTB only supports Blogger. Also, male bloggers may find the choices offered by TCBOTB a little too girlie for their tastes.
The Background Fairy – Unlike TCBOTB, The Background Fairy supports Typepad, WordPress, and Blogger. They have a large number of backgrounds that you can use (I did not find any blinkies or headers though). Not as beautifully romantic as TCBOTB, but a good start nevertheless. Also, a good option for people who like their blogs to not look too cutesie.
A nice example of good customization is Passions & Soapboxes. You can hardly make out that the basic theme of the blog is the good ole Pressrow by Chris Pearson that I also use. She has done an impressive job.

Have you customized your blog themes in any way? Did you use any sites that helped you ? Do you know any beautifully designed blogs you would like to share? I would love to know…