Tag: themes

I’m trying yet another theme here at WordPress.com:

Hemingway by Kyle Neath

A staggered-column theme with excerpts on the front and a customizable footer.

PROs:

• Tagline underneath the blog title, which to the top left.
• Search bar to the top right.
• Excerpts of the most recent two post entries  on the top.
• Time/date stamp for each post entries.
• RSS feeds for `Entries` (or posts) and `Comments` on lower right.
• Color option for white or black, which I chose because I’m PISSED!
• Three bottom widgets, of which I used only one widget per bottom bar.
  • Text widget of my favorite quote.
  • Text widget of notices, including a `sitemap`, which should `force` only the most curious readers to select and navigate in order to find pages that are hardly read.
  • Archives template available `by month` and `by category`.
  • Links template available.

CONs:

• Too simple for more busy minds like moi.
• Fonts too small but using ZOOM-IN feature of browser helps.

Eh! I’ve switched themes back to `Dusk` and edited my paid CSS upgrade. So now the sidebar is full of widgets. For slower connection this might take awhile to load because there are a few images in the sidebar.

The meta data is my main concern. I needed the time stamp on both front page and single view. Plus I like the way the theme handles the listed, unlisted and unordered elements; the caption element; the colors and font styles and sizes.

I’m trying dark-colored themes, such as the new `Structure` but I simply couldn’t get the `feel`. Therefore, I’ve selected another WordPress.com theme:

Inuit Types by BizzArtic

A crisp and clean theme with alternate color schemes, your choice of sidebar on the left or right, a one or two-column post layout on the home page, and sharp feature post styling.

PROs:

• Different colors. I chose the `Color Scheme` of `6-dark-black`.
• `Show sidebar content to left.`
• `Front Page Intro` widget – Use a Text Widget in this widget area to add an introduction to your front page.
  
• Easy to read family font of `Georgia`, `Times New Roman`, `Times`, `serif`. I love it!
• Two-column for `Normal posts`. I set my `Blog pages show at most` to 4 posts.
• `Normal posts` show two-columns on front page but four-rows on `older posts`.
• Top navigation bar sports drop-down menus.
• An RSS feed icon is available on the upper right hand corner of the theme.
• Archives template available.
• Sitemap template available. It has sections for `Pages`, `Last 60 Blog Posts`, `Monthly Archives`, `Categories`.
• Excerpts for front page and successive views. Good for lining up with sidebar widgets.

CONs:

• Wanted time stamp for each post on front page and single page views!
• `One column feature posts` and `Single Post Featured Image` not useful. Just a larger link towards the top.

I’ve been switching several themes here at WordPress.com for the past friggin’ hours!

Here is my vision of the `perfect` theme for moi. Take the theme sample – Mistylook by Sadish.

• Narrow width for screen resolutions of 800 by 600 pixels.
• Light colors of white, tan, cream, brown, et al.
• Fonts should be easy to read with Arial and Georgia types.
• Blog title and description; search bar and feeds should be inside `Header` elements.
• Top navigation bar with drop-down menu should be below `header` element.
• Switchable sidebars between right and left columns and four footers would be nice.
• Post entries must include my favorite meta data – time stamp – for front pages, too.
• Post entries must be fully visible (not excerpts) when doing searches, etc.
• Sub-pages in the sidebar would nice like the `Sleepable` theme.
• Custom header, custom colors, toggles for various elements.
• Shortcodes for `pages`, `links`, `categories`, `tags`, recent comments, etc.

That night I’ve tried new WordPress.com themes:

Dark Wood

A gorgeous three-column theme with a dark wood background, two widget-ready sidebars, and nested comments.

INove

A simple yet very stylish, widget supported, and feature rich theme.Inuit Types

A crisp and clean theme with alternate color schemes, your choice of sidebar on the left or right, a one or two-column post layout on the home page, and sharp feature post styling.

monochrome

This theme supports widget, threaded-comments, theme-options,and translation is ready. Also including page-navigation and multi level dropdown menu.

Motion

Dark and colorful theme with sweet transparency characteristics. Drop-down categories menu, 2-column layout and widget-ready footer and sidebar.Neutra

Grid-based with a focus on typography and simplicity. A simple and elegant theme.

NotesIL

Two Column theme with different color schemes. Based on the original design of http://notes.co.il and built on top of the sandbox theme.

Steira by Made by Elephant

Titan

A refined, balanced, and exceptionally handsome WordPress theme. The sidebar and footer are widget-ready, and you can use the theme options menu to customize the main navigation, show a link to your Twitter account, and set a custom homepage message.

I guess I’ll keep looking and trying.

Eh! I’m trying another theme here at WordPress.com:

Under the Influence by Spaceperson

Minimalist theme with admin panel for custom colors, two- or three-column-layout and various other options. Comes with optional German translation.

PROs:

• Lots of settings!

CONs:

• I still prefer the time/date stamp to appear for each post entries of the `front page`.

After the past few days of trying different WordPress.com themes and editing my paid CSS upgrade, I gave up and as a result, reverted back to the `NotesIL by Jordan Lewinsky and Automattic` (Two Columns theme with different color schemes. Based on the original design of http://notes.co.il, built on top of the sandbox theme).

I’m still looking for particular elements of a weblog theme but can’t get satisfaction. But I think I prefer `The Journalist v1.9 by Lucian E. Marin (Journalist is a smart, minimal theme designed for professional journalists.) Using `Archives` and `Links` pages save space from the sidebar.

Okay, I’m trying a `Sandbox Theme` here at WordPress.com and using the CSS stylesheet from a previous theme. I may like this one, only because of the tagline appearing below the blog title and the fact that the time/date stamp appears under the post title, giving it the appearance of a news article. The meta data is below the post entries. The colors are still pastel pinks and blues with the blog title in green against a light brown background. It almost looks like a seabreeze color theme. I should add an image sporting some seashells, huh.