Thematic 0.5 Ready for Download

Thematic 0.5 is ready for download. I’m not sure why I’ve held on to this one for so long. I guess I’ll have to just hurry up with 0.6 then, won’t I? Here’s a list of some of the most notable changes.

  • Removed the link to the IE8 Javascript library. It seemed, after all, to be a bit of bloat that Thematic just didn’t need (but I’ll show you how to add it back in below)
  • I added a new grid background to the images folder (960_grid_12_col_21px_height.gif). It’s the same grid I created for ThemeShaper when I did the latest redesign. Now it’s yours too.
  • Thematic is now fully translatable and localized (I’d forgotten about one errant “By” in previous versions). Indeed, it even includes a Français translation by Michaël Foussard. Merci, Michaël!
  • Probably most exciting of all, I went and did an SEO audit on Thematic (the definitive guide to WordPress SEO was a big help). And I’m mostly, pretty, 99.9% certain that there’s not much else I can do to optimize it. But prove me wrong, please! I want Thematic to be the best it can be.

Anything, else? Right. The IE8 business. Here’s how to add it back through your Child Theme—you are using a Child Theme, right? Add the following code to your Child Theme functions.php file.

function childtheme_ieupgrade() { ?>
    <!--[if lt IE 8]>
    <script src="http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/version/2.0(beta3)/IE8.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <![endif]-->
<?php }
add_action('wp_head', 'childtheme_ieupgrade');

That should do the trick. It’s what I’m using here on ThemeShaper.

Well, now that 0.5 is out of the way, are there any features, plugins, or ideas you’d like to see incorporated in 0.6? I have my own ideas, of course, but I’d like to hear yours too. Thematic is your theme, remember.

16 thoughts on “Thematic 0.5 Ready for Download”

  1. Thematic 0.5 is ready for download. I’m not sure why I’ve held on to this one for so long. I guess I’ll have to just hurry up with 0.6 then, won’t I?

    Heh. Just like they did with the last round of WordPress itself… 😉

    Thanks so much for this theme, Ian. I’m hacking away at it (responsibly, via a child theme) over on my site, and I really appreciate the short, useful tutorials you post here on ThemeShaper.

    One thing I’d like to be able to do is distinguish between “Featured” and “Non-Featured” posts, with a result similar to your (also beautiful) Theseus theme, but not tied to a WP Category (i.e. I’d like to be able to feature certain posts without putting them into a single “featured” category.)

    1. I need the exact same thing, in a widget. I’ve tried several featured post plugins – Featured Post, Articles, Those Were the Days, etc. – and couldn’t get any of them working in a widget, even using the Samsarin PHP Widget plugin.

      I also don’t want them in a Category — it’s not a category.

      If anyone finds/develops a solution, please post here.

  2. Well, it could be done with custom fields—but that would require editing the template files. I think. Unless … Maybe. I’d have to think about that.

  3. Ian,
    first: thank you for Thematic! I love the stylish and sleek layout – it was love at first sight. 🙂 You’ve done a great job.
    Since the latest WordPress 2.6 update, I’m experiencing the following problem: The site-meta panel always stays open. It is only completely hidden when I’m logged out.

    Any pearls of wisdom?
    Cheers,
    Sebastian

  5. You’re right. It’s the Lightbox2 Plugin, that messed up the site-meta panel. Deactivate it, now it works like it should.

  9. Hi Ian,

    I just wanted to thank you for thematic. I am just starting to get into wordpress themes (I’ve been developing websites for a couple of years now). I tried to develop my own theme a couple of months ago, and while it worked for my own purposes, I didn’t do a very good job of developing for “the consumer.” So, I’m starting again from scratch. Well, almost…

    I’ve set the theme of my blog to Thematic for the time being. What I plan to do is actually develop a child theme based on Thematic right in front of my reader’s eyes. I honestly have no idea if this will work or not, but I’m willing to find out. As I make changes I will ask for feedback, discuss other ideas, etc.

    Anyways, I thought that may be of some interest to you. I don’t expect you to follow along but if you happen to pop by once in a while to see how things are going, please let me know what you think. If not, once again thanks very much for the excellent framework!

  11. Pingback: It’s V9 part 2 | I'm Knight
  12. Pingback: Improvements to Website, plus “Great Oratory” Feature | Mahogany Finish

  15. Just a question about updating Thematic. When a new version comes out, what’s the best way to update? For now I’m just going to delete the old version and unzip the new one and activate it. But is there a better or more elegant way to do it? Thanks.
    jlp

Comments are closed.