Basic WordPress themes, especially free themes, often need to be modifies to suit your purpose.  Luckily this is very easy to do when you know what you want.

With the amount of plug-ins you have available on WordPress there is always something to suit your purpose. There are the few that you just have to get but most blogs will discuss them I am looking at the more out of the way type of plug-ins.

Some of the options available to you

For most of these you will need to understand some coding. These tend to be hacks of what is already in WordPress but that you can alter to suit you a little better.
Say now you only wish to display particular categories in the menu so you want to take some of them out but not the others this little snippet of code works wonders.

Changing your Drop down menus

If you have to have stuff that you need to change on your menus you can do this with
some alterations to the codex if you want to make the changes it’s a good idea to read the relevant section in the WordPress Codex

This bit of code should help your to do some of the changes you want.

If you want to exclude the display of some categories, you can do so with the subsequent code by altering the exclude number you want taken out of the loop.

Mostly this one isn’t needed because usually the very recent posts are automatically display but if you want to make sure you can put this code in to make sure a particular post is shown in a particular category. For example if you want it displayed on your home page area.

To be category specific use this code.

If you want certain areas excluded from going out on your RSS feed use the following.

There are hundreds of hacks you can use and by going through the codex you can learn a whole lot about WordPress and how to set them up. These are just a few of the items you can do by altering the code. There are a whole lot more you can do by using the different plug-ins. And the function of WordPress can be done to suit your particular theme like it was tailor made and just for you. It can take days if not months to go through all the items that are available and unfortunately we really only see the ones that get written about on the net. Most people don’t take the time or the trouble to go through them one by one and try them out. It’s a pity really as so much good work can get lost when they aren’t used and continually upgraded to suit the latest WordPress update. More and more people really need to get involved looking at all the widgets and plug-ins to make sure they are actually made use of. I know that the original person who wrote the code is probably using them and updating them for their own use but that need for that code is probably not even seen by someone who needs it desperately.

I guess I am almost paranoid about internet security. My Facebook for example (My personal one that is) is so shut down that not even I can find myself. Personally I have heard of and dealt with too many computers that have been hacked or corrupted by viruses. I can never understand what pleasure people get out of being so spiteful to others that they cause them monetary harm by attacking their computers. Many of those folks really enjoy using their computers and it is their only link to the outside world. A lot of them are not really internet savvy and as a result they end up with so many Trojans and viruses their computers crash.

That being said you need to protect your website as much as possible from outside attacks. Some of the things you can do will be discussed below.

Your Basic Theme Info

Your theme has code in the head tags which really needs to be replace so as to make it non visible by taking a couple of steps  so no hacker with bad intentions make use of it to target vulnerabilities.
Head over to your themes header.php and see if this line appears in your code.

If it is there remove it.
You will also need to remove it from the hook. To do this you need to head over to the functions.php area and paste the following code in there

That should deal with that but there are other areas.

Your Login info

Your Login info should not show any error messages. You need to head on over to the functions.php and then place the following code in there.

no more messages should appear now about you incorrect logins or passwords.

Searching on your Theme

Rather than using the default search install a Google custom search or one of the other search engines. There is a whole tutorial on how to install Google search on your site.

Hooks and Calls Reduced

By reducing the number of hooks and calls on your blog you can reduce the slowing down of your site. Do not put stuff on just to have it because each time you increase the load you slow your site down. One way you can reduce it is by changing the call on your blog info to that of your blog name.

In your header.php there will be a particular line of code which you can change.

Take out this:

and replace it with this.

Obviously you need to change the section to your actual blog name.

You need to check all the various function calls which you might need to change because each one adds to the load on your server.

You should also look into using something like WP Cache as this lightens the load because by caching there isn’t such a large server load pull. This is available from WordPress as a plug-in. What it does is store the pages in a static file (rather than having to reload them in php and take them from you database) and thus it can produce them in a far faster time.

It’s always nice when one of the companies that create the pro themes for WordPress decide to do a free giveaway. The variety increases on a daily basis and the kinds that are becoming available become more sophisticated as WordPress grows.  And let us face it if you look back to where it was when it first came out it has grown exponentially.

The theme I looked at today is the work of Graph Paper Press and is called Fullscreen. It is available for a free download when you obtain an account with them. You have to sign in to download it.
The idea is nice but although the basics are there for a pro theme, it was a little disappointing to me. The only way I could actually read the theme demo was to run my mouse over the words to highlight them. I realize this might have been one of their design aims but with me it fell a little short.  I do not like to have to peer at something to see what is going on.

I am not usually so critical of work but the fact of the matter is I feel they should have been more critical of their own work that they were giving away as an advert for their company. An advert and lets face it a free bee is an advert An advert should be the very best you have to offer. Well thought out and well presented in every context of the word.

Here we have a good idea for a photographic blog but because it was so dark with the black background and the lettering was almost blacked out until the mouse hovered over it, it was almost impossible to see what was going on.

We all want to make our blog the very best out there. I know I tend to think I can always improve mine and maybe I can. I am on a continual search to find things that make it bigger and better than anyone else’s. But at the same time I keep in mind the need for quick loading of the site. I do not want to overload it with huge photos and long lines of script. One needs to keep in mind that the items above the fold are the ones that get read. Let us take a brief look at what we can do to improve it both for appearance and for loading time.

Photo Sizing

A picture is worth a thousand WordPress.  What a misquote! Its true though improving your blog with photos is very important because photos are the first thing that people look at. One of the biggest problems with photos is the loading time. The result is we need to optimize them for the fastest possible loading but reducing the image size helps tremendously.  Photoshop has an option where you can save for the web and I would use that for a copy of the original that you are going to be displaying in your blog.  Always keep the original intact only change the copy. You never know when you might need it for something else. Once changed you can’t go back. For example if at some time you want to sell that photo you will need the full photo as it was in the original RAW or Jpeg format. If you wish to get rid of more pixels and speed up the loading you can also use the smush.it program on line. It is important to download the image from there and then upload it to your blog or website as they do not retain the images.

Favicons

A professional website almost always has a favicon and the need for one is therefore important or you will look unprofessional. I realize favicons haven’t been out for that long a time but the business of branding yourself has been around for hundreds of years and this is one of the webs ways of branding you.
Make sure you make you own favicon either by making the icon your self and then reducing the sizing to the 16 x 16 pixels or the 32 x 32 pixels and then get it converted to the .ico extension at one of the many favicon generators. You can get animated favicons or static ones.

There are also on line tools for creating you own. One of the ones you can use is the original favicon.ico. Once you have your favicon you will need to upload it and then place the following code in your directory of your theme.

Change the location to find where you image is stored.  I personally like the idea of keeping the theme of the favicon in your logo and maybe even in the heading of your blog. This tends to add to the idea of branding yourself. This way when someone see your post with your logo behind it you will immediately be associated with your blog and website.

Those are just a couple of ideas you can easily implement to improve your website in just a few minutes of your day.

Suburbia makes you think of clustered spaces with patches of green in between. The feeling already appears just with the name. Many times the actual theme really doesn’t appear to have any connection with the name given to it but this is not the case with the current theme. Created by WPSHOWER, this is just one in their line of good examples of their good free WordPress themes. They seem to continually turn out good work on a regular basis and this appears to be their contribution to WordPress.

The majority of there themes are on a minimalistic basis and cover the essentials required for a blog.

This theme is a grid based theme suitable for a magazine. The entire theme has been optimized for search engines and includes areas where you can upload your logo as well as your favicon.

It is compatible with all the major browsers and is set out in such a way that you have good areas of white space around your typing and your photographs. Suburbia is ready to receive your widgets and is written in Xhtml and CSS. The theme is WordPress 3 compatible and includes most of the features you will need.

Opening the door on the theme you will find the menu on the left hand side of the three column layout. Your static pages for About (about you and what you do) your Biography and your Contact pages all appear under the logo.

Below this you will find various category areas. These obviously can be changed to the headings you require for your particular blog theme and will lead you into the various subject matters and photographs you wish to show.

Along side of this you will find two areas for you r main blogging discussions.

The bottom area of the page is divided into 5 where you can either place lesser subjects with text leading to other items of interest. The same number of columns appears below these in the footer area.

Here you will have your site navigation area. Navigation is where you can put your site map of your theme. You can probably place the navigation widget there if you wish. I haven’t tried it but I am pretty sure it would work. Next there is a section for links which has the documentation for the theme at present as well as plug-ins. Here you can put in links to all the great people who have helped you on your quest for a good WordPress site. In the center you have an area again for a contact link where you can link to your Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites. The WPshower link is in the 4th one. Please do not remove this as it is asked to keep their contact in and it is only respectful. In the last of the five you will find a link to a comments and feeds area. Many of these areas can be customized to suit just you and you will end up with a great site in a very easy manner.

Have fun using this theme. I think it seems to have everything your need.

Being the individual that I am, I prefer to do my own thing but there are certainly times when a framework speeds things up. With several, available and on hand, it’s sometimes a lot quicker and easier to grab one you know will more or less fit what you have in mind. At the end of the day, as they say, time in money. Anything you can do to speed things up is useful, especially to someone on a budget.

With this in mind I decided to take a look at a few frameworks on the net and see what was on offer. I found that some of the items I looked at are extremely useful.

The first to come up is 1kb CSS Grid

This is very adaptable and easy to configure.  In fact, you can configure it on line and download it in different formats. It’s not over heavy on the CSS being only the basic structure necessary.

The next I had a look at was YAML

Again there are different formations you can apply. It is also CSS but this time it includes some of the necessary in the form of typography and the other needed things like forms. In addition there is a YAML builder which allows you to create your own layouts. Are you thinking of making your own templates or themes? Download this now.

Simpl is as simple does

Simpl is next up on my list. Again we are using CSS frameworks. This provides you with forms tables and the ability to nest should you wish to. It’s pretty easy to make your own template using one of these and your imagination.

A grid of modern design

The golden grid is CSS as well but built with a purpose in mind. It’s very light and built on a 6/12 system. Several demos are available on the site as well as all the browsers it has been tested with.

Do your own thing

Unlike the other systems or grids, this one that doesn’t offer you layouts. What it does is give you a good styling option as well and the necessary and tedious bits completed for you. This comes to you courtesy of Kilian Valkhof and is called SenCSs.

Yahoo UI is next up

This is a Rich Text Editor that belongs in the Yahoo UI library.  If you are already using this library this is ideal for you.

Are you using .net?

If you are this is the one for you as it adds editing to the things you can do. It is called FreeTextBox and its got a built in gallery for Images as well as a very full list of features you can utilize for building tables lists both ordered and unordered. It even has spellcheck. Where would I be without spellcheck?
This is available in both a free version and a Pro version and also works on the drag and drop principle. It has an impressive lineup of clients.

Hope you will find those as useful as I have.

Well, I am on the run today. My schedule is going to be hectic for a couple of days. The garden project is coming on a pace, and today I am going to the nursery to choose plants for the rockery as well as the pond. The whole project has developed as he has gone along. I now need a bridge or timber for one and a few more extras, but I must say I am extremely pleased with the result. It is looking very good.  I think timber would be a better idea as to find one to fit exactly might be a difficult task. When I told him that he looked pleased as if that was the way he wanted it. I think he really likes doing the whole thing himself.

You realize of course I am being pulled head first into the new age, even if I am a stick in the mud. I have even got the latest in cell phones which I am still learning to use. I have become interested in how to actually develop items to display on the Ipod and the rest of the phones. There is a whole new web out there. You really need to make your website accessible to them all.

To do this, there are several available programs out there, and you really need to implement one of them on your website.  The first we are going to look at is WP Touch. This is available from BraveNewCode.
Here we have a whole program lined up ready to install on our site to make is available for phone applications. Unless we have it there they can’t see your website easily if at all. WP Touch switches to the mobile application should a mobile try to access your blog. They do this automatically. It is a fast loading application which has been recently upgraded and improved. It in no way interferes with your web theme but instead reduces the size of the images or videos, etc. to fit with your mobile screen data when using the phone to access the site. Interestingly they include new themes for mobiles as part of the package in addition to on going support. The software falls under the GLU license.

The second one I looked at was MoFuse. This is a free account, and you know how I love free. What you do is input either your URL or your RSS feed into the space provided and then click on Mobilize. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It seems as if a lot of people are using it already. I guess I am slow on this bandwagon.

Number three on my list is Mippin.  Again this is a freebie and all you have to do it type in the blog address or your Rss Feed. You can then select the layout you want for the mobile to see. And you are sailing on the web or surfing on your phone.

The following one is a little different as this actually encourages you to design specially for the application and takes you through the steps one by one. You use the same content but just choose which to show. It works with CSS so it helps if you know something about how that works. What you actually do is click on the part of your live application to incorporate it into the template you are working on. You need to do this for all your pages. Take a guided tour on Mobify.

Mi casa su casa.  Well, my house might be your house while we are on here but unfortunately right now I am not in Spain. Maybe it’s time to take a holiday? I would surely enjoy seeing Spain again: Those old Moorish castles and the lovely free and easy atmosphere.

Some days I miss my globe trotting. Then I missed home and now I miss traveling. We are never satisfied are we? 

However, to get back to Castles in Spain, we are going to talk today about a Theme for Real estate. The theme is called DeCasa.

DeCasa theme is produced in Germany by ThemeShift, which means it is sold in Euros: 39 of them in actual fact.  As per normal they have produced a totally professional job.

Searches

The theme has the search panel feature to enable property searches. Here you have the availability to search by either keyword or by a dropdown menu.
There is a display across the front of the theme which allows you to search by property, price, region and type. Below this you would have your featured listings.

Photographic display and gallery
 
You have all the ability to display the properties you have for sale both with photographs as well as, by description and price. They make is a really useable site with all the assets one needs to sell a property.  There is a built in Contact form as well as a built in Google Maps. It is also ready for the WP PageNavi plug-in.

Custom Menu

You know that new feature that came with WordPress 3? The one where you can use drop down custom menus? Well, this theme is totally ready for it. You don’t have to touch one scrap of code. All you do is drag and drop it in place.

The Options you Have

A theme options panel allows you to change things to suit you. Color can be changed but to be honest the light grayish background already gives a professional feel to it. Of course your Real Estate logo has to go up, and that’s really easy. You can customize your CSS and put in a track code, and you don’t have to even know what code is.

The little pictures

We all know that thumbnails give you a small preview of the bigger picture and the ability to show them on a Real Estate site is very important. You can’t show a million large pictures to a prospective buyer, but they don’t mind browsing through a slideshow of little ones in case something takes their fancy. This theme takes the new WordPress feature into account, and you have the thumbnail feature which, when you add a photo to a property page, automatically allows that photo to be seen in the jQuery lightbox feature.

Basically, this theme has the usability for a virtual novice as no coding is really required. It is all common sense and drag and drop or upload of photographs. Any estate agent wanting to produce their own website would find this extremely useful. You have the front page where you give the client the option of what they are looking for and where, Plus the featured houses’ area below this. You have your main page for your property which displays the main photo plus more below. You have the description of the property, and more photos. Below this the Google map displays where the property is to be found. And then we have a description of the agent and a contact form. It is all very professional.
Well, if you know of an estate agent in need of a website, head on over to them and sign them up.

Interesting how things happen isn’t it? I have been so busy doing up the house with a few to may be in the spring, I might put it on the market. I haven’t really been thinking overmuch about where I might go if I did except that it would be somewhere warmer. (My old knees are feeling it) and also closer to my daughter. I miss seeing Megan grow up. They grow up so quickly at that age. I am told she has grown another half an inch. I still talk to her on the computer every evening, but somehow it’s not the same. I do see the way she is growing in leaps and bounds with her learning abilities though.

Today, however, we are going to get down to business.

Business on Line that is

We are going to be looking at our friend in Germany’s Theme, he is offering to the business community. It is called DeNovo.

Business and the internet go together. It’s a way of life on here. If you are in business, and you don’t have a website, you are dead in the water.

So let us take a look at what DeNovo offers us. For a start, it has recently been updated so it’s totally up to scratch with WordPress 3. All the normal things required are there, but we will go through them one by one.

The slider option

This is your first option given to you to choose the way you want it to display. You have the option to hide the slider if you so wish. If you decide to display it, you are given options like effect timer content, etc. The effect section you can decide how to move to the next section. At present, it is set to fade. The timer is obviously how many seconds you want it in view. If it’s something to be read you need to allocate more time to it. Then decode what content you want to display and how many items. It’s all pretty straight forward and no coding to be done.

Next is Custom Layout

Here you have the option of how you want your home page and archived pages to be displayed. Simon Rimkus has excelled himself this time. You have the options here of either a one or a two column layout.

Shortcodes

As we all know shortcodes tend to make posting things quicker. These shortcodes enable you to place buttons on your pages, and they do look extremely good.

Theme Options
Your normal basic theme options are there, but you can change them very easily and without even having to code a thing. It’s all been set up for you so it’s just a case of decide what you want. Color, background, the amount of columns that you want: All that sort of thing is available for you to choose.

Menu

With WordPress 3.0 having made Custom Menus possible it stands to reason that they are going to be incorporated into the themes, and this one is no exception. This makes it possible to drag and drop your menu into the theme.
Home, News, plus sub categories, and then Features with all the Content, Action bar and layout as one requires.

Posting of thumbnails and your lightbox with the builtin jQuery all make building your site very simple. Additional plug-ins for WP PageNavi and the Contact form are waiting for you.

Well, if you want to set up business on line, or you just want a change of theme, you are in for a treat if you use this theme.

That’s all for now, I am going to go back to fixing house.

I am getting seriously down to business here.  Chuckling. You know what I mean. All this fixing up of the place has gone to my head. Oh I got another pie. The person obviously doesn’t think I eat enough. I asked my neighbors if they saw anything but no one is admitting a thing. Too mysterious, oh well eventually it will all come out in the wash.  Megan is still learning more and more words to type. That little one is amazingly bright. I am sure I wasn’t as clever at that age. It’s incredible the way she works that computer and she’s only four. We are going to look at some premium business themes today. Well actually one theme.

The theme itself is called De Signum
This is a business theme which was created by Theme Shift under the auspicious of Simon Rimkus. It really is extremely well done and covers everything a business could want in a theme.

Let’s take a look at it more closely.

Running down the options we start with Custom Menus. You don’t need to change any code at all as WordPress 3 is set up for you to just use the drag and drop function.

It comes with four different color options. This means you can suit it to your mood.

You can really showcase your goods in a professional manner with the Jquery slider.

You can nudge your client into action with the action bar.
Then we have a widget area. We all know about widgets.

Of course you have Home and you have features. Then you are asked place your Logo and to select which color you would prefer. Sliding on down the page you are asked to add pages to the jquery slider.

Going back to the top we are presented with the option to create a custom background. You are given a screencast of how to set about it. Unfortunately to my old eyes it was a little blurry.

The home page can be customized to suit you. You can have the side bar or not, just as you want.
In the archived pages section your reader can decide whether to view the side bar or not. This is quite a neat little feature.

Last but by no means least, there is a section where you can use shortcodes.

All in all this is an extremely comprehensive theme which means you can get down to loading your content immediately without any extra plug-in really needed although of course that is totally up to you.

When you run across the top buttons there are drop down menus which have various items in them for you to complete. The features section is the most important to get you started. It is well ordered so you can do it step by step without having to worry about what should be next. The short codes come after the features and then you can upload content under the News section. Next is a very important section. It’s testing. It’s vital to test to make sure every thing is working as it should. Finally you need to enter your contact info. I did not see a shopping cart area so that might be something you need to add. Of course with so much going on I might have just missed it but I don’t think I did.
Overall it seems well though out and to cover almost everything.

Well folks that’s all for today. Do take a look at this theme if you intend to put a business on the web.

Don’t you have to love the way the weather treats us? For days now we have had perfect or almost perfect weather and today, when Megan arrives and wants to play outside, it’s raining. I feel like going outside and shaking my fist at the clouds. In fact, I would do it if I thought it would help. Oh well, I guess it’s an excuse to take her to the mall and let her choose some new toys. The cookie jars are full, the house is shipshape, and I have even put flowers in the rooms. I wanted to put some vegetables in the bowls, but I thought that was taking it too far. I was viewing the condo theme. Megan’s mom was talking to me last night trying to tell me about this lovely condo she said is for sale just a little way away from her. I know she’s going to try to get me to think of moving down there. I can’t say it hasn’t crossed my mind when my knees creak. We will see. Anyways about condo’s, I found this lovely theme for a condo that I wanted to share with you. Shall we take a look at it?

It’s called Real Estate Theme Condo.
You can get hold of it two ways either you go direct where you will pay 39 Euros, or you can download it if you become a member of WDL. Personally, I would opt for WDL. You have three choices there Monthly ($7) quarterly ($15) or yearly ($50), and you get all their themes as well as help and tips for that price. I think that is a great deal. You also have the freedom to opt out anytime you like. You are not tied to them at all.

The real estate theme is really something special. It is what I would consider a classic. It is going to live forever. It will probably be upgraded from time to time but like a true beauty the structure of the beauty lies in the bones. And these bones are classy. Many an item can be built on these bones by just changing the outer shell slightly.
That aside this theme is great not only for estate agents, but I can think of many things I could adapt to for. It has a slider for photos on the top half or the page, which is an idea I love. Then it has place for three static photos below with the place for descriptions.
The search panel is something I could definitely adapt. You can see my mind is buzzing here. You can customize your page to either have a side bar or not.
You can use thumbnails. And it has a built in contact page just waiting for your details. I am sure you are getting the idea. There are so many things available here it’s almost mind boggling. The best thing about it and this is saying a lot. It has a clean fresh line, but they aren’t clinically white and stark.
Well, that’s all for today folks. Hope you enjoyed viewing that as much as I did. I am sure that theme will do extremely well. See you in a bit.

I visited the Pantheon years ago. Admittedly, it’s not the pantheon we will talk about, but I just thought I would share that with you. A few more days and my little one will be here. Megan has a computer now so she logs on to talk to me on a daily basis. I really enjoy the fact I am seeing her grow up, even if it is via a cam. At least that way it’s not a shock to see the two years old suddenly appear in front of me as 4. I suppose if I really wished to be on hand I would sell up and move closer. However, you see, the fact of the matter is I am staid in my ways, and although I moan about it, I love my garden. It has grown with me over the years. I have put a lot of me into it. Maybe in a few years when I need to move to a warmer climate I will think about it.

Let’s get back to the Pantheon Idea.

Pantheon is a Premium Theme which has been made for the Web design ledger Premium club. You have to belong to the club to be able to get it through the club. Being a member does give you advantages though so you might want to look at it. It is available to be purchased direct from Viva Themes as well.  In the meantime, we will look at the features available with this theme.

For a start, the theme has been made for the club by one of the leading theme designers, in the form of Viva Themes.
The theme itself is a functional design of three main sections. What I really like is the single plain stripe down the left which is narrow but has been kept plain. The whole layout is done in a CSS design which is table less. The seamless slideshow that shows in the main photo areas is an excellent example of craftsmanship. This theme has all the class and distinction it needs in layout and applications. Its well worth the $48, they are asking on Viva. Maybe I was just swayed with nostalgia as I saw the various sites in Rome that I saw back when I visited the Pantheon.  However, seriously the menu is situated on the right with all the about this blog and company news, etc. that you need, as well as the, always present, widget area. There was a slight distinction in color down the side panels, I was not quite sure why. However, possibly it’s to enable a widget area or something similar. By clicking on the various names Poseidon which is the blue themed background:  Artemis which is the Olive green background: And Athene which is the red background, you can see the three color selections available.
The theme is fully compatible with WordPress 3.0 and has a multi level dropdown as well as an advanced panel option. The blog, of course, is there, and it has a thumbnail facility. All in all, it’s a very nice theme for anyone who is looking for a fresh face for their WordPress.

Take a look at it folks, you will be pleasantly surprised. I am off back to the cookies in the kitchen.