Thesis released an upgrade today. Cool thing about Thesis Theme is that you get a lifetime subscription to the theme upgrades along with the purchase. So when I heard about the new version release, I was very quick to download it and have already upgraded my blog to Thesis 1.4.
Thesis is very easy to upgrade. As all the customization you do on the theme is located in two files (custom_functions.php and custom.css). To upgrade you just upload the new version folder to your hosting account and move your two already customized files from your old version into the new folder.
So what has changed on my blog because of Thesis 1.4?
- New format of my front page and my category pages. The most recent article is now the featured article and the rest of articles are shown as short teasers only. Teasers are listed in two columns which saves a lot of space. There are now 21 articles on my front page and the page is still shorter than it was with my traditional 10 article blog front page. So my main page is now shorter and easier to load, and gives exposure to more articles.
- Thesis 1.4 completely removes the need of meta tags / title tags plugins. Now my blog title is fixed and it shows at the end of each of my article titles without a plugin. And when I want to write a post Thesis features the post meta tags options
below the post like the All In One SEO plugin does.
- Moving to Thesis WordPress Theme was a huge breakthrough for me in regards to styling of my articles, fonts, headlines, notes and images. My articles got a whole new modern and professional look after styling them with Thesis. Now Thesis 1.4 makes the process of styling articles with images even easier. When you write an article and want to insert an image, Thesis features image formatting like ALT text, frames, position within the post and wrapping of the text just below the text field.
These 3 are the 3 coolest new features I have discovered while playing with Thesis 1.4 today. I am sure I will discover some other cool possibilities in the upcoming days and will customize my blog even further. The $87 I spent on buying Thesis last month is worth it and gets more valuable after each free upgrade.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
It does look really nice, very clean and easy to read.
If I can ask is the sidebar on the left more effective than the sidebar on the right?
I am thinking about changing my blog to have a sticky post at the top detailing all the features of my site, forums, other blogs, etc. I like the way the Thesis theme has all the blog posts in two columns on the front – that might be an ideal solution. Do you know of any sites that are like this?
Sounds like some really cool upgrades Marko and considering some companies charges about a grand for a custom wordpress theme $87. really is very inexpensive.
@Gerald Weber – Definitely. When I first purchased it, I didn’t realise that it was lifetime subscription so now it makes even more sense to get it.
@Tracy – I did left sidebar because majority of blogs has it on right sidebar. People are too used to it and kind of do not take much notice, so I put it on left to mix it up and have a bit different user experience. I am not sure about the other themes with two columns for articles, first time I saw it was yesterday when the new Thesis was released.
@Rowell Dionicio – Yeah, very easy upgrade and all my customizations have moved over easily with those two files.
More the reason for everyone to get Thesis! All your edits are kept to just two files and then when you upgrade.. just migrate those two files over. With previous Wordpress themes I was tracking where all my changes were.
The blog looks awesome!
site’s looking good Marko! You’re really doing well with this, looks like lots of people are finding your articles super-useful! (Myself included!)
Meanwhile, I’m still working on that one… which I’ve been slowly putting together in my freetime…soon I promise
Hi Marko!
I found your blog yesterday and wanted to compliment you. I’m using Thesis as well and didn’t realize that 1.4 has been realized yesterday until I saw your blog post about it. So I quickly upgraded from 1.3.3.
I love what you’ve done with theme and wanted to let you know that I referred to your site on the Thesis Forum today. Someone had asked about cool sites that have started using the “Features & Teasers”. I mentioned yours!
I’m going to steal, er, creatively emulate some of the ways you’ve adopted the theme. Still trying to figure out how to add the “promobox” for Thesis at the bottom of each post….
Nevertheless, thanks for writing about the updates so quickly AND for this wonderful post (with pictures). You’re pretty good with the “so what?”
Thanks!
@afterman – Thanks! Glad I could help!
@Marian Sparks – Thanks for the nice comment and the link. You might want to subscribe to my RSS, I am just about to finalize the article on the ways I have customized my theme so you will get the answer to your question there.
Thanks for quick response. You’re so thorough! I’m now a subscriber. Cheers!
Alright, I’m finally going to take the jump and go with Thesis. I’ll clear my cookies to be sure you get the credit for the sale.
@john – Sounds good! Good luck with your Thesis blog!
This actually made your blog look more beautiful…
Simple and elegant
Even I will buy one this weekend.
meanwhile….If you have to say one biggest aspect of Thesis what it would be?
@P@r@noid – On the first day when I activated Thesis my biggest aspect was how clear, simple, modern and easy-to-read the layout of my content was. Huge change from the theme I used before, even without editing anything.
It was only some days after that I slowly started “getting” how to customize it even further by looking around the members only forum section of Thesis site. And as Rowell Dionicio says you just use two different files to edit anything on your blog. And most times you can just simply copy/paste stuff from Thesis forum and make your blog look better instantly.
@P@r@noid
I’d say the biggest aspect, to me, are that changes to your sites design are all kept to just two files. Makes life less stressful
I do like the overhaul. It makes it easier to see many posts at once…
You know, you really are effectively SELLING this theme. If I didn’t have the technical know-how to build my own themes, I’d definitely go with Thesis.
@Santosh Puthran – Thanks! Wesley commented on my Twitter plugin article saying that he has made an addition widget to Tweetbacks plugin which shows top tweeted posts.