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WPFreemium Theme 2.0 Released!

July 27th, 2008 under Wordpress

Now that school’s finally over (finals next week), I was finally able to put in some time to update the long over due WPFreemium theme 2.0. It fixes a lot of browser quirks and an overall face lift.

The fist release of this theme was a striped down version of what I had developed for bloggingtips so not everything was stable. With the 2.0 release, I’ve completely rewritten the HTML and CSS code from the ground up to give it a fresh start. In that process, I was getting acquainted with blueprint so I’ve still got some refactoring to do. Especially in the CSS.

I also made some very noticeably UI changes to the theme. Base on the feedback I was getting, several people were confused on how the three featured post section worked so I dropped it in replaced to the regular one stream of posts. In the future I might offer alternative layouts to bring back that custom layout but it’ll depend on demand. Also, I widgetized both the recent comments and author links sections so those are now pluggable anywhere instead of just showing up if you didn’t have widgets activated.

View the Demo or download WPFreemium Theme 2.0

Hope you like it!

31 Responses to “WPFreemium Theme 2.0 Released!”

  1. Lenny Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

    Hi Ptah ..

    It still seems broken in IE

    I totally would have just liked a clean up of the old theme .. Many configurable options.. Options should not be removed, if others are confused let them learn it or not use the theme.. Folks like me now suffer..

    No more recent comments? And the split between featured and regular articles doesn’t exist on the index anymore.

    Those features in the old theme were great.

    I added my google code to the index.php and now its showing the ad about 3-4 times. This leads me to believe that the featured articles setting needs to be modified

    Any luck with random categories?

    Also the fonts have changed colors which I don’t like also.

  2. Lenny Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

    Also something has made my site slower in loading when the new theme is applied .. Weird..

  3. Marco Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    Absolutely amazing theme, thank you so much. But after the praise “a” question. Actually it’s quite a few ;)

    I just replaced my old theme but there are some things that changed.

    Like:

    I prefer to put a centered image at the top of an article. Text begins one line later later justified (well, I can justify manually while writing). But somehow I cannot center an image. The next is always next to the image, but I want it at the bottom of the image.

    Then I inserted in long articles left aligned images. Next to the image I always had 2..3 px space so that it is easier that read. How can I do that using your theme?

    Same with right aligned images… some PX space left of the imaage. (I always use left aligned image, then right, then left again, etc.) Makes (at least I think that lol) me think it’s easier to read.

    Thanks again for such a wonderful theme, Ptah!

  4. Marco Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    Forgot something lol

    IE is broken.. tried IE7 see screenshot:

    http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1784/iewpsn3.jpg

  5. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    July 28th, 2008 at 2:51 am

    Thanks Lenny and Marco for your feedback, I’ve got to tell ya, I really don’t like adding support for IE6 but the bugs seem minor so I’ll fix it in the next release.

    I’m working on fixing that alignment problem you experienced Marco, and I keep getting emails from you Lenny (which says the same thing), what gives?

  6. Lenny Says:
    July 28th, 2008 at 5:48 am

    Ptah .. It appears that the mobile is the rogue and blank sender :)

    Sorry for the confusion!

  7. Marco Says:
    July 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    Thank you, Ptah!

  8. Mari Says:
    July 29th, 2008 at 12:26 am

    Really would like to use this them, but I cannot make the frontpage just ’snippets’ of the article. It keeps on showing the whole article. How do I make the theme do exactly the way it looks in the demo

  9. Marco Says:
    July 29th, 2008 at 1:37 am

    @Mari,

    have you tried the “more” button? Is that what you meant?

    ” “

  10. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    July 29th, 2008 at 5:38 am

    @Mari: I used a plugin called WP Limit Posts Automatically for that.

  11. Marco Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    Ptah,

    this is me again :-p Well, I found out a difficult way to resolve my problem.

    When I insert a photo and set it as a class “aligncenter” it does not work. But when I edit the HTML code and add a „center“ tag to the image it works.

    Here is a code I tested…

    Just adding a “center” tag ain’t that difficult… BUT when I go back to the graphic editor lol of course it deletes the “center” tag :|

  12. Marco Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    ouch… of course the code has been erased lol

  13. Marco Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 am

    Hello, I cannot use Windows Live Writer to post anymore. Does it have anything to do with the Theme or is it a WP bug?

  14. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 9:12 am

    @Marco - If your on WordPress 2.6, they recently turned off the XML-RPC settings by default (for security reasons) so any remote service like Windows Live Writer won’t work.

    You can turn it back on by simply go to Settings -> Writing: Scroll down and check the box where it says XML-RPC and save. That’s it.

  15. Marco Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 am

    Thank you, Ptah. My fault that I didn’t write more.

    I receive “Server Error -32700 Occurred parse error. not well formed” as error message.

    Microsoft says it’s definitaly not their fault, because the file was correct. So does the RPC have anything to do with the theme or is “only” a WP bug?

  16. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am

    @Marco - It curtainly isn’t a WP bug, it’s actually a feature. It’s just been switch from being on by default to off, thats why you probably didnt notice it before WP2.6. It’s got nothing to do with themes btw. Once you turn it back on, you shouldn’t have this problem again.

  17. Marco Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Sorry, Ptah. I already had it enabled.

  18. Lenny Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 6:16 am

    Hi Ptah..

    Any luck with random quotes?

    Why did the font color change?

    Why did the structure of the theme change so much? I think the old way was much better.

    Why does is it not as easy to hack either?

    Hope you can help change some of this around.

    Lenny

  19. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 9:48 am

    @Lenny - I’ve been in the works for a revision of 2.0 versions as far as the layout is concerned but one of the reasons why it *looks* so different is because I wanted to move away from what bloggingtips requested it to be and develop it with it’s own goals/feature set I have in mind. (being a multi-authored blog)

    But reading the commentary again, I’ll probably update the 1.3 version with all the fixes and changes that 2.2 (not released yet) has to offer that way those who liked the old style still reap the same benefits. As far as the other questions you asked, I’ll send you an email. :P

    thanks

  20. Lenny Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Hey Ptah .. That would be totally awesome. I think the layout, the management, the colors, fonts, hack ability of the old style are all things lost in the new version. I know I’m not alone :)

    good call to revamp that version.. I think it will continue to be the most favored theme.

    Lenny

  21. Marco Says:
    August 29th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Ptah, me again ;)

    I’d like to change something in your CSS but I don’t know where to change it.

    I’m using the “recent posts” widget and it’s showing the last X articles on my blog. Problem is that the titles are too long and so it going into the next line. It’s ok, but I don’t like it.

    So what I would want:

    1) Font size ONLY for the recent posts (not in the articles!) a bit smaller

    2) maybe some more pixel space between the lines? But not in the posts.. just the recent posts…

    Any idea where I can find that in the CSS?

    Thank you!

  22. Barb Says:
    September 4th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    I tried 2.0 and really don’t like it the way I like the original. The bar across the top showing catagories is messed up on my computer and I’m using IE7. I don’t like the new layout either. I’m going back to the first one. I’ve got a problem with the first one though that I can’t figure out. I’ve posted the question over on that post. I hope you can help me out with it.

  23. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 2:43 am

    @Barb: Don’t worry, I’ve got something for you guys, it’s coming.

  24. Lenny Says:
    October 4th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Hey Ptah.. Hope you have been well and busy :) Any progress?

  25. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    October 5th, 2008 at 5:59 am

    @Lenny - Of course. The design work has been done but I’ve switch the back-end code to the currently unreleased WP Framework which will help during updates/new releases. I’ll send you the pre-released copy once that’s done!

  26. David Lithman Says:
    October 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am

    I have installed this theme on my blog http://www.caneenvy.com, but I am getting many errors.

    In IE7, the top navigation bar is completely messed up.

    In both FF and IE7, on the single post page, the sidebar is messed up. But the sidebar looks good on the “index” and “pages” page.

    I planned on using this theme on a network of 20+ sites. Can you please email me and help me solve my issues?

    Thanks,
    David

  27. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    October 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    Hey David!

    First off, I’m glad you choose to use this theme for your network of sites and I’m sorry about those issues you ran into.

    I’m aware of those problems you mentioned and they have been addressed in the updated version which includes support for all modern browsers. It’s scheduled for release this friday Saturday but I can email you a pre-release copy if your matter is time sensitive. If you have any additional questions about the theme, I’ll be glad to answer them via email.

  28. Brian Robertson Says:
    October 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    I’ve been working with various themes tonight trying to find one I like the looks of, and Freemium looks fantastic for my needs.

    One question (and when it comes to this I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Usually I can go into the stylesheet and tinker with color, especially on background. That doesn’t appear possible with yours, unless I’m missing something. The page background needs to be dark to the point of black, not the blueish gray. Is there any way to get at the css?

    Thanks for a wonderful theme.

    Brian

  29. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    October 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    @Brain - yes it’s possible to change all the colors within the WPFreemium theme. Check out the “screen.css” file within the css/ folder. The current background color is defined at the top within the body {...} tag.

    Let me know if you have anymore questions about customizing the theme, I’ll be glad to help out!

  30. Brian Says:
    October 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    Oops — sent you a reply via email and probably should note it here. First, thanks so much for helping — I never would have found that since my own lack of knowledge sends me scurrying to the stylesheet.css

    I do have one question — I notice there are 3 individual ads on the top right. I am pretty clear on how I could put my own graphics/ads and links in. What I wonder is if there is a way to use that area for AdSense with either 3 individual or one thin tower ad?

    Brian

  31. Ptah Dunbar Says:
    October 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am

    @Brain, of course! Simply replace the code thats in the advertisement div (ads125×125.php) with the google ads snippets. Note that the width is 125px by default! Anything wider than that will need some more editing for it to show up properly.

    @everyone:
    Just a quick update on the WP freemium themes updates.
    First off, the bad news: due to a last minute change in schedule (I’m going to Europe), I wasn’t able to finish both themes in time for today’s launch.

    The good news is that once I return from my trip which should take about a week or two (max), I’ll have lots of time to dedicate towards the two themes and some other ones that I’ve got in the pipe! Trust me, the wait is well worth it and the themes are based off WP Framework so you won’t run into anymore browser quirks or errors. Thanks guys!