ThemeShaper

  • Custom Menu Code Samples

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    Lance Willett
    in ,

    Do you find yourself taking older themes and adding support for Custom Menus? Here are code samples that you can use for just that. To be clear, this isn’t a full-blown tutorial for Custom Menus. See Justin Tadlock’s excellent post, Goodbye, headaches. Hello, menus! or the wp_nav_menu Codex page for all the juicy details.

  • Toolbox: An HTML5 WordPress Starter Theme

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    The Problem: You want to start hacking away at a WordPress Theme and get your site online. You don’t want to start with a Parent Theme, or a Theme Framework. You want to make your own theme—and you want it to be ready for HTML5. Only, you don’t know where to start. The Solution: Start…

  • A Sample WordPress Theme Options Page

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    Update: This post is crazy old and there are way better options for … options panels now. Like the customizer! Otto can tell you how to leverage the customizer for your theme options. Or, heck, just go ahead and check out the sample code we use all the time. Problem: You want to create a…

  • Using TextMate for WordPress Code Cleanup

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    Lance Willett
    in ,

    I spend a lot of time cleaning up WordPress themes. During the code cleanup I often perform certain cleanup tasks over and over, which makes them perfect for TextMate commands. In this post I’ll show you how to add two useful commands to TextMate, then move through the steps I take for theme code cleanup…

  • Quick and Dirty Widget Testing

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    Lance Willett
    in ,

    Testing widgets with your WordPress theme would be so much faster if you could enable all widgets at once, instead of dragging them one by one. Here are two small functions to help with widget testing. The first takes all “Inactive Widgets” and adds them to the first registered sidebar in the theme. The second…

  • What Is The Automattic Theme Team?

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    So, just what is this Automattic Theme Team anyway? In a nutshell, we’re a bunch of people who really care about WordPress Themes and want to see them get better and better on WordPress.com and for every WordPress.org user. And this is our blog. You’ll be hearing more from us individually in the coming weeks…

  • I’ve Joined Automattic

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    Ian Stewart
    in ,

    Today marks the first day of my employment as a Theme Wrangler with Automattic and it feels great. I’m more than excited to finally let you know what I’ve been up to for the last little bit. What can I say besides awesome, awesome, awesome? The enormous opportunity for learning and improvement; all the super-talented,…

  • Thematic 0.9.6.1 Is Live

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    Thanks to the always impressive Chris Gossmann we inch ever closer to Thematic version 1. Put your upgrade hats on and check out Thematic 0.9.6. As always you can download the latest version of Thematic from WordPress.org

  • The Perfect Blog Theme

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    What is the perfect blog theme? I’ve been thinking about it and I think I have the answer. For the blogger: The perfect blog theme disappears into the background and doesn’t hinder their writing in any way—in fact, it encourages it. For the reader: The perfect blog theme disappears into the background and doesn’t hinder…

  • An Idea for a New Default Theme for WordPress—Introducing Kirby

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    In 2010 WordPress will get a new Default Theme, replacing the beloved/hated Kubrick Theme with a new Theme called 2010. I’ve got opinions on the matter. Oh, do I have opinions. I’ve even gone so far as to create a working idea for a new Default WordPress Theme. Read on to find out more. Principles…

  • Registering New Sidebars for Custom Page Templates The Smart Way

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    Ian Stewart
    in

    One of the cooler ideas for a new WordPress default Theme that’s come up has been the idea of including a not-so-blog-ish custom home page template with the Theme. Something optional that you could use if wanted your home page to look a little different. Maybe more of a traditional web site look (whatever that…

  • Don’t Get Hacked: WordPress Security Tips

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    Ian Stewart
    in ,

    In case you didn’t hear ThemeShaper was hacked. You know what? It really sucks. I’ve got two tips and a plugin recommendation that I want to pass on to you so the same stupid thing doesn’t happen to your WordPress install. And these aren’t even my ideas! These are time tested and tried things that…