After working with quite a few WordPress themes both free and premium and continuing to hear about Thesis, I decided to give it a try with the new Refocusing Technology site. I really didn’t have an opinion either way starting the process. Premium themes are almost always better and easier to work with than free themes. The premiums I’ve seen have all been pretty decent. I like quite a few of the WooThemes I’ve worked with. So with that I went and downloaded Thesis and installed it.
I’ve read so many positive reviews. Some have said it’s a designer’s dream. Others have said it’s the theme that was really meant for WordPress. I read someone who said that Thesis definitely blurs the line between your web site and your blog. They go on and on.
After utilizing it for a short time, I was truly impressed. It is extremely functional and easy to use. It makes WordPress even EASIER to use which seems difficult.
The 8 Praises: Configuration Screens, Great Layout, Advanced Customizations via files, Hooks, Support available, Drop-Down Menus, Framework support, and the SEO capabilities.
Easy Configuration Screens
I am completely amazed by the work that has been put into the Thesis configuration screens. You have a huge amount of control over the look and feel of the site without knowing anything about the inner workings of WordPress like HTML, CSS, or PHP. This would allow users who are uncomfortable working with the undersides of WordPress to do quite a bit of customizing with just point and click. Given, it’s not complete customization and I don’t think that we’ll see that in any theme any time in the near future. It is a significant amount of customization and it’s a very cool feature. Take a look at the screens:
Thesis Site Options
Thesis Design Options
Thesis Page Options
Excellent Initial Layout
The theme really has a great initial layout. A simple blog could almost utilize it out of the box. Once you decide to start customizing it, you also see what a great initial layout it has. It is very simple to start re-arranging it and you notice that many pieces just seem to fit. It’s simple, somewhat minimalist, easy to use, open and readable. It is a fantastic foundation point to build from.
Customization Files
Thesis even more advanced customization more simple using it’s customization files. It gives you access to a custom CSS file (custom.css), custom functions file (custom_functions), and a layout CSS file (layout.css). These files really allow you to customize about everything in the Thesis theme framework. You can change the format, change functionality, add new capabilities, etc., etc., etc. Lots of power. You will need to know a little something about CSS/HTML/PHP to work with the files (or copy and paste info from the web).
To make your life simpler, they also provide an editor window which provides some level of syntax highlighting and keeps you from having to sort through all of the underlying files. It is not point and click, it’s a text editor but it does provide some level of assistance via the highlighting.
Thesis Custom File Editor
Hooks
Hooks are simply customization points. For you developers out there, they are events. They allow you to add things into the building of the page or remove things from the building of the page. This gives you a enormous amount of control over the site. By doing this you can connect to one of the hooks and control different events that occur. As an example, write something the header before the header is written out. Or (if you bought the right license) remove the attribution link at the bottom. Many options and huge opportunities.
Support Available
There is a significant following around the Thesis Theme. This is great because you can find a ton of information about how to customize Thesis to do what you want. I have utilized a ton of the examples and suggestions already in customizing and I know that I will end up using more. Here are a few examples of sites with a bunch of customization information on them:
Drop down Menus included
Want hierarchical drop down menus on your blog? Sure you do. Of course, you can find JQuery drop-down menus but they take some work to implement in your WordPress blog. Thesis 1.7 has the drop down menus built in to it. You simply turn it on it the control panel and start adding pages in a hierarchical fashion.
Built in Frameworks
For those of you out there in the web development and design realms, you know about the JavaScript frameworks (Jquery, JQuery UI, Prototype, MooTools, YUI, etc.). They are great tools for simplifying JavaScript that at times can be very lengthy and difficult. So for any site that you desire to utilize the tools on, you are typically required to download the framework and put it on the site. Then you need to include the references to it in every page. It’s a small thing but Thesis comes with them available. All you have to do is select which framework(s) to include on the site and Thesis takes care of it. It appears that you can do it at either a site level or at a page level. Another thing to simplify your life.
SEO
WordPress was built with SEO in mind. There are many plug-ins that can add SEO capabilities. That is great but Thesis comes with built-in SEO controls. You can set a bunch of configurations to make the site more SEO friendly. You have the ability to configure all of the necessary SEO information for the site, pages, and posts. For a great run down of the SEO features of Thesis take a look at this amazing article on DoubleMule:
Thesis Tutorial | SEO For Everyone
So…
Well, it must be obvious… I’m impressed with Thesis. It’s a very cool theme. I would definitely recommend it to people using self-hosted WordPress. Yes, it costs a little money but with all that it provides it’s a small price. Yes, I am an affiliate… because I’m impressed by it. Not vice versa. Go get it!
[Republished from RefocusingTechnology.com]
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