Author Archives: Thad Allender

Posted on by

Uno 1.2 Released

Uno 1.2 is now ready for download. This is a significant update and it includes the following new features:

Enhancements:

  • Added readme.txt file to accommodate for the new instructions menu in admin panel.
  • Update Sidewinder language template with WordPress language functions.
  • Changed few variable names to remove confusion.
  • Adding filter to the widget
  • Removed the unregister sidebar function.

Bugfix:

  • Leave a comment in blog page solved
  • Added image caption in case users need it
  • Pull sticky posts as well on top

To update from an earlier version of Uno to version 1.2, please make a backup of your existing Uno and Base themes and upload Uno 1.2 and Base 1.2 into your wp-content/themes/ folder via FTP.  Active, paid subscribers can download Uno 1.2 from their member dashboard. If you have automatic theme updates enabled on your Uno theme options, you can update in one click from your WordPress Dashboard.

Posted on by

Sidewinder 1.2 Released

Sidewinder 1.2 is now ready for download. This is a significant update and it includes the following new features:

Enhancements:

  • Added readme.txt file to accommodate for the new instructions menu in admin panel.
  • Update Sidewinder language template with WordPress language functions.
  • Widgets section populated with sidebar widget and footer widgets.
  • Changed few variable names to remove confusion.
  • Actual Alternate Text content is used.
  • Removed custom images option from homepage design.

Bugfix:

  • No collections bug fixed
  • Gallery post type comments enabled with default value set to off
  • No post and no collection issue solved
  • Global variables used for category and date archive pages
  • Margin-right bug fixed
  • Removed custom image feature due to lots of image path issues on different servers.

To update from an earlier version of Sidewinder to version 1.2, please make a backup of your existing Sidewinder and Base themes and upload Sidewinder 1.2 and Base 1.2 into your wp-content/themes/ folder via FTP.  Active, paid subscribers can download Sidewinder 1.2 from their member dashboard. If you have automatic theme updates enabled on your Sidewinder theme options, you can update in one click from your WordPress Dashboard.

 

Posted on by

Base 1.2 Released

Base 1.2 is now ready for download. This is a significant update and it includes the following new features:

Enhancements:

  • Added readme.txt file as new instructions menu in admin panel.
  • Update Base language template with WordPress language functions.
  • Widgets section populated with home widget, sidebar widget and footer widgets.
  • Changed few variable names to remove confusion.

Bugfix:

  • Specific page title not displaying corrected.
  • Author title issue solved.
  • Input tag width issue solved.
  • Navigation added in author archive.

To update from an earlier version of Base to version 1.2, please make a backup of your existing Base theme and upload Base 1.2 into your wp-content/themes/ folder via FTP.  Active, paid subscribers can download Base 1.2 from their member dashboard. If you have automatic theme updates enabled on your Base theme options, you can update in one click from your WordPress Dashboard.

 

Posted on by

How to Convert WordPress Custom Post Types

If you’re a photographer migrating to a WordPress-powered website, creating photo galleries as either Posts or Pages can be unintuitive.  You will probably be looking for a Gallery menu item on the left side of your WordPress Dashboard.  I know I sure would be.

Well, you can stop looking, because it doesn’t exist.

By default, you must post photo galleries as either a Post or a Page.  Thankfully, WordPress 3.0 introduced the ability for theme and plugin developers to create new custom post types (Galleries, Events, Workshops, etc.) with relative ease.  Each of these new custom post types can also have specific input fields beyond just the Title and Content (default WordPress Post and Page setup).  Both themes and plugins can register new custom post types in WordPress.

But what happens when you switch themes?  What happens to all the galleries you added to the Gallery Post Type (a feature that your old theme added to WordPress)?  This is the issue we are going to help you solve today.

The Problem

If your existing theme registers, say, a “gallery” post type and you decide to switch themes, your individual galleries will appear to vanish.  Voila.  Gone.  Nada.  They do still exist in the database, but, that doesn’t help you much.

The Solution

Post Type Convertr is a plugin for WordPress that converts Posts or Pages to a custom Post Type (or vice versa). In addition to this you can also convert from one taxonomy (categories or tags that are specific to your Custom Post Type) to another.  Below is a video tutorial showing how it works:

http://vimeo.com/22609340

Common Use Cases

Our Sidewinder photo theme for WordPress adds a new post type called “galleries” to create beautiful side-scrolling slideshows, as seen on the Sidewinder demo site.  If you end up switching themes down the road, you will likely want to keep all the individual galleries that you added to the galleries post type.  You could use the plugin above to convert your galleries to Posts, Pages, or another post type added from another plugin or theme.  Some users might want to use the GPP Slideshow plugin, which adds a post type called “gallery”, after switching to another one of our photography themes for WordPress, like Focal Point.  Please note that the GPP Slideshow adds a post type called “gallery” while Sidewinder’s custom post type is called the plural form “galleries”.  Use the plugin above to convert your Sidewinder “galleries” post types into the “gallery” post type added by the GPP Slideshow plugin.

Suggestions

As always, we’re eager to hear your suggestions in the comments below.  Hopefully it will save you lots of time. Enjoy!

Posted on by

Need a photo theme for WordPress? Say hello to Focal Point.

Focal point photo theme for WordPress

Focal Point is a one or two-column photo portfolio theme for WordPress built atop our Base theme framework.  The design and functionality was conceived from feedback from our users.  When you speak, we listen.  Then we build!

Overview

Focal Point includes four optional styles to choose from (Centered, Centered Dark, Compact, Compact Dark) so you can easily change between light and dark, centered or top right menu navigation.  The homepage includes a special app, called Category Post Slider, which is perfect for displaying posts from your photoblog, blog or iPhone gallery beneath the main homepage area.  The screenshot and the demo site both use our free GPP Welcome Message and GPP Slideshow plugins in the Home widgetized area.

Main Features

  • Automatic theme updates – When a new version is released, you can update automatically from your WordPress Dashboard with one click.  You must have a valid license key (available on your Member Dashboard for paid subscribers) and use Base 1.1 or higher. Booya!
  • Category Post Slider App – Display posts in a horizontally scrolling list.  Perfect for displaying a photoblog or iPhone gallery.
  • Four Alternative Stylesheets – Choose from Centered, Centered Dark, Compact, Compact Dark styles so you can easily change between light and dark colors, centered or top right menu navigation.
  • Widgetized Areas – Up to 18 widgetized areas when paired with our GPP Base Hook Widgets plugin.  By default, Focal Point has six optional widgetized areas (Home, Sidebar and four Footer Widget areas)
  • Custom Fonts – Use any font from the Google Font directly.  That’s over 75 fonts folks, and the list grows each week.
  • Custom CSS – Easily add custom CSS to your theme options panel. This future-proofs your customizations.
  • Shortcodes - These allow you to easily add column layouts, boxes and buttons to your posts and pages without modifying CSS, HTML or PHP.
  • Drop Down Menu – Nestle links inside parent or child menu links for a clean, intuitive design.
  • Blog Page Template – Display all blog posts on a separate page.  This helps maintain clear separation between your portfolio and blog posts.
  • Supports GPP Plugins – Download and install any one of the GPP Plugins and use them in any of Focal Point’s widgetized areas.

Focal Point Contest

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing new themes deployed quickly to live websites.  To help encourage this, we’re holding a tiny contest for Focal Point.  Here is how it works:

The first three users who submit their Focal Point-powered theme to our Theme Showcase will win a free annual theme subscription.  Jump on it!

Submission Deadline: Friday, April 15, 2011 (12 p.m., EDT)

Posted on by

Base 1.1 Released

Base 1.1 is now ready for download. This is a significant update and it includes the following new features:

  • Automatic Updates – Active, paid subscribers will now be able to update Base and it’s child themes automatically from WordPress.  It’s a simple one-click update.  A License Key is required to update.  Active, paid subscribers can retrieve the License Key from their member dashboard.
  • Post-Specific Stylesheets - Allows users to add unique, per-post stylesheets.  This script was created so that custom stylesheet files could be dropped into the active theme’s ‘/css’ folder and loaded for individual posts using the ‘Stylesheet’ post meta key and the stylesheet name as the post meta value.
  • Dynamic Footer Credits – Footer credits for child themes are now controlled by Base.  Nothing fancy here, just minimizing theme code.
  • Semantic Hook Names – Hook names now more accurately describe their function.
  • Browser-Specific CSS Classes – Added browser names to the body class, allowing users to target specific browsers with specific styles.

To update from an earlier version of Base to version 1.1, please make a backup of your existing Base theme and upload Base 1.1 into your wp-content/themes/ folder via FTP.  Active, paid subscribers can download Base 1.1 from their member dashboard.

Posted on by

Ten common mistakes made by photographers using WordPress

photographer shoots picture skyward

If you are a photographer or artist who relies on WordPress for your blog or portfolio, chances are you aren’t utilizing all the available tools or adhering to the best practices that could help your site stand out.  Below is a list of ten mistakes that photographers (including myself) make when using WordPress.

1. Non-readable image filenames

Image filenames are an important factor in optimizing for search engines. Below are a few examples of non-optimized filenames:

  • DSC000234481.jpg
  • picture1.jpg
  • 20110301-tda-0023.jpg

The filenames above might work well when archiving photos in your image software program, but they are useless on the web.  Including descriptive keywords in filenames on the web will give search engine spiders a clue about the picture.  For example, here are a few optimized image filenames:

  • shark-attacks-california-surfer.jpg
  • libyan-rebels-fight-qaddafi.jpg

Don’t go overboard with keywords or you will dilute the value of each keyword included.  Use - instead of empty spaces, which show up like this in urls: %20.

2. Empty alt and title attributes

Search engines have a difficult time interpreting the content of images.  The more relevant text you include around the image itself, the easier it is for search engine spiders to interpret the content of the image.

The alt attribute provides some alternate text to describe the image if a browser has image loading disabled and is important to the usability of your website in case your visitors have poor eyesight or are using assistive reading technology.  In photography terms, the alt attribute is comparable to the image title metadata.  Google confirmed in 2007 that the alt attribute is their primary point of focus when trying to understand the content of an image.

The title attribute is displayed on tags when hovering your mouse over an image (also known as a “tooltip”).  It should provide advisory information about the image for which it is set.  Below is an image tag with optimized filenames, alt and title attributes:

</pre>
<img title="Surfer attacked by sharks in California in 2011" src="http://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/shark-attacks-california-surfer.jpg" alt="Shark attacks California surfer" />
<pre>

Adding alt and title text to images in WordPress is easy. After uploading an image using WordPress’ Add Media button, click Show and you will see the Title and Alternative Text fields.  Click this screenshot for a larger view.

3. Squished images after changing themes

A common point of confusion is that changing the image sizes on the Media Settings page will resize all existing photos in WordPress.  It doesn’t.  WordPress creates thumbnails when you first upload the photo.  Chances are you set your Media Settings to a size required for your previous theme.  If you change themes, you might need to resize these previously uploaded images.

First, make sure that you have set your Media Settings to the correct size specified by your theme’s instructions. Then, install Viper007Bond’s Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.  It allows you to automagically resize all images that you ever uploaded into WordPress based on your new images sizes on your Media Settings page.  This will save you hours of work.

In some cases, the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin doesn’t work. This is typically due to the fact that you uploaded very large, sometimes even the original, image into WordPress and the plugin simply cannot process all of the large images.  If this is the case, ensure that your thumbnail sizes are set to the correct size according to the theme’s instructions and upload the photo again.

4. Website is not cached

Is a slow loading website hurting your photo business?  It could be.  Photography websites tend to load lots of large images, which translates into slow loading pages.  By creating a “cached” version of your website, you could speed things up to 10X faster.  Thankfully, there’s a plugin for that.

The W3 Total Cache plugin by W3 Edge will decrease the load time of your website, resulting in a faster page loads and happier visitors.  The W3TC plugin improves the user experience of your site by improving your server performance, caching every aspect of your site, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.  While there are other caching plugins available, my experience is that the W3 Total Cache plugin provides superior results when configured properly.

5. No CDN

The closer your visitors are to your content, the faster it will load.  A Content Delivery Network is a team of servers located around the world containing copies of your static media content.  When a visitor located in New York loads your website, they will be served content from the closest data center located in, say, New Jersey, instead of loading the data from your web server located in Hong Kong.

The W3 Total Cache plugin contains an option for hosting all static media content at the CDN of your choice.  There are many CDN options available, but the most popular by far is Amazon Web Services’ S3 account.  It is cheap and integrates with the W3TC plugin.

6. Poor lead generation

Make it easy for your site visitors to call or email you.  Put your phone and email (or link to contact page) in the footer or sidebar (or header) of every Post and Page.  Better yet, include a short personal bio, with photo, to make your site a bit more personable.  Use the GPP About You Widget plugin to add a bio box to help generate leads and connect with potential customers.

7. Create an opt-in, opt-out mailing list

One of the best ways to piss off past or potential clients is to send unsolicited email.  Even worse, if your email doesn’t contain an unsubscribe link, amongst other things, your well-intentioned email marketing campaign is technically, well, spam.  The CAN-SPAM Act is a must-read if you market your business to a list of email addresses.  Not surprisingly, there is a plethora of email marketing services available.  Here are a few that integrate well with WordPress so so you can turn site visitors into regular readers and potential customers:

8. Resize images before uploading

If you are uploading your original, high-resolution images in WordPress, you have essentially just given the entire world access to your digital negatives.  Any image that you upload to the internet can be downloaded, period.  Resize your images to the maximum size required by your theme before uploading them into WordPress.

9.  Forgetting to assign Featured Images

WordPress 2.9 introduced the ability to assign “Featured Images” to specific Posts, Pages, and Galleries.  Many themes now use this feature for creating thumbnails on the homepage and archive pages.  If are using a theme and you can’t figure out how to give your posts a thumbnail, chances are you haven’t set a Featured Image.

WordPress 3.1 hides some screen options (including Featured Images) on Posts & Pages edit screens by default.  To show the Featured Image box, click the Screen Options link in the top right corner when editing a Post or Page and check the Featured Image box.  Here is a video tutorial that shows how to use Featured Images in WordPress.

10. Don’t use Flash

Flash is like a black box to search engines.  It looks nice, but isn’t searchable.  If you choose to use Flash content on your website, make sure you have included a description in HTML nearby your Flash content that describes the content contained inside the Flash.

Posted on by

Workaholic Themes Updated

Workaholic and Workaholic Pro themes were updated this weekend to fix a conflict with the version of jQuery packaged in WordPress 3.1.  To upgrade, please download the latest versions of these themes from your member dashboard.  Below is a list of the exact files that changed:

Workaholic

  • workaholic/js/jquery.gallery.js
  • workaholic/style.css

Workaholic Pro

  • workaholic-pro/js/jquery.gallery.js
  • workaholic-pro/style.css

 

Posted on by

How to create a child theme for the Base theme for WordPress

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to customize our Base theme framework for WordPress so you can protect your code changes from any future theme upgrades that we release.  Before we started, please download this Base Custom Child Theme (a starter child theme for Base, used in the examples below).  Lets review some basic concepts regarding WordPress theming:

What is a child theme?

From the WordPress Codex:

A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme, and allows you to modify, or add to, the functionality of that parent theme.

A basic child theme consists of only a style.css file.  If you plan on using the available Action Hooks and Filters in Base (more on this later), you will also need to create a functions.php file.  I always add a screenshot.png file, too, which shows up on the Appearance -> Themes page.  Instead of making changes directly to your Base theme, we recommend creating a child theme, so your code modifications are protected from theme updates.

BEGINNER: Creating a style.css stylesheet for a child theme

Every child theme needs a style.css file.  It tells WordPress specific required information about the child and parent theme.  Here is an example:

/*
Theme Name: Base Custom
Theme URI: http://graphpaperpress.com
Description: A child theme for Base Theme Framework.
Author: Graph Paper Press
Author URI: http://graphpaperpress.com
Template: base
Version: 1.0.0
License:  GPL
*/

@import url("../base/style.css");

/* ADD YOUR CUSTOM CSS BELOW THIS LINE */
body { background-color: #000; color: #fff }

Everything located between the starting /* and ending */ comments tell WordPress important information about the child theme.  These are mandatory:

  • Theme Name: Base Custom – the name of our child theme
  • Template: base – the folder name of our patent theme (in this case, base).  Case matters!

This line:

@import url("../base/style.css");

Imports the style.css file of our parent theme (Base) into our child theme stylesheet. The ../ tells WordPress to “move up one directory out of the base-custom folder and then move down into the base folder. It’s important to include this @import rule before your custom css. All css rules that show up after this rule will override the parent theme styles.  Now, you can override any CSS class in the parent theme.  Using the Custom CSS panel in Base also overrides default Base CSS styles.  To find and located the specific CSS class you want to override, use Firebug.

BEGINNER: Creating a functions.php file for your Base Child Theme

The functions.php file is where you can define your own PHP functions for your child theme.  To start, we will use this file to  declare the name of the child theme (populates the Theme Options page with your Child Theme name).  A basic functions.php file looks like this:


<?php
// Lets declare the name of our child theme
$themename = "Base Custom";

Comments in PHP code start with this // or this: /*.  They are used to make code easier to understand.  Now that we have a functions.php file and we’ve declared the name of our child theme, lets write a basic PHP function in our functions.php file that creates a simple message:


function gpp_base_custom_message() {

    echo '<h2>This is a short message that will appear below our header</h2>';

}

Now that we’ve created our function, we need to “hook” it into one of the available Base Action Hooks.

INTERMEDIATE: Using Action Hooks to Extend Base Functions

Action Hooks are essentially empty placeholders that can be injected with stuff.  ”Stuff” is added using a PHP function.  Once you understand how to write a simple PHP function and you know the exact Base Action Hook location that you want to hook into, you can literally override anything you want in Base.  Here is the Base Theme Documentation that lists all Action Hooks.

Lets add our welcome message to the gpp_base_below_header() Action Hook.  In the functions.php, add this:


add_action('gpp_base_below_header', 'gpp_base_custom_message');

Above, we are adding the function we wrote above gpp_base_custom_message to the gpp_base_below_header action hook.  Important Note: Some Base action hooks are already defined in Base, so it’s important to use the remove_action function if you want to, say, change the main index loop in Base:


add_action('wp_head','remove_gpp_base_actions');

function remove_gpp_base_actions() {

    remove_action('gpp_base_index_loop', 'gpp_base_index_loop_hook');

}

You can override as many functions in Base as you want, as long as those functions are listed on the Base Action Hooks Documentation.  To see where these Action Hooks are called in Base, view the Base Structure Guide.

INTERMEDIATE: Overriding Parent Template Files

If using Action Hooks is confusing, simply rely on the WordPress template hierarchy and template inheritance to override specific template files.  From the WordPress Codex:

Templates in a child theme behave just like style.css, in that they override their namesakes from the parent. A child theme can override any parental template by simply using a file with the same name. (NOTE. index.php can be overriden only in WordPress 3.0 and newer.)  Again, this WordPress feature lets you modify the templates of a parent theme without actually editing them, so that your modifications are preserved when the parent theme is updated.

If a child theme contains, for example, an index.php file, it will take precedence over the parent theme’s index.php template file.  This only pertains to files that fall within the WordPress template hierarchy.  You can’t override all parent theme files simply by recreating them in a child theme.

And that’s all folks

Well, actually that’s just a jumping off point.  Feel free to use the example Base Custom Child Theme to create you own child theme for our Base Theme Framework for WordPress.  In the next tutorial, we’ll show you how to essentially build child themes of child themes, so your modifications to child themes are never overwritten.

Posted on by

Widescreen 1.4.0 Released

Widescreen 1.4.0 is now available for download from your member dashboard. This version includes the following enhancements:

  • iPhone CSS stylesheet added for improved display on iDevices.
  • Added support for custom Google fonts
  • Javascript combined and minified
  • Updated jbgallery javascript
  • Custom CSS output in header instead of style.php for performance improvement
  • Changed background image
  • Improved PhotoShelter integration
  • Updated Google Tracking code integration
  • Removed PHP notices from admin
  • Stops loading colorpicker JS on admin pages
Posted on by

A tribute to early theme adopters

Users who adopt version 1.0 of anything deserve serious respect.  Without early theme adopters, we would be permanently stuck in beta testing mode.  They help pave the way for the users that follow, helping to find and squash bugs if and when they are found.

Today we’re paying homage to these pioneering users who have adopted early releases of our themes as a way to say thanks.  Plus, you get a sneak peek at their sites, some of which are under development, some of which were completed shortly after installing our themes.  Sit back and enjoy!

Sites using Sidewinder

Samantha-Murphy.com

Samantha Murphy is a photographer based in Chicago whose work takes her around the world. Murphy has worked on projects for Revelar Los Enlaces (Chile documentary), Svara (India documentary), Time Out Chicago and Emol Online.


NickKrug.com

Nick Krug, Lawrence Kansas photojournalist

Nick Krug is an editorial photographer based in Lawrence, KS. Krug has worked for the Lawrence Journal-World since the summer of 2005. He spends the bulk of his time covering KU basketball and football, but relishes his time spent on long-term projects.

Weddings.DustinWaller.com

Dustin Waller travels the U.S. for wedding, editorial and documentary assignments. Waller began shooting five years ago when he picked up a camera to capture scenes in Waveland, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. That year those images among others helped him land a job at Northwest Quarterly Magazine where he now shoots full time.

JayWestcott.net

Jay Westcott has worked as a photo tech/editor at The Washington Post and as a staff photographer at The Washington Examiner. Before joining TBD, Westcott spent three years freelancing for a variety of publications. His work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Politico, Newsweek, Time, etc.

AScottWeddings.com

Scott Kingsley is a photojournalist, multimedia producer, dabbling web designer and experienced wedding photographer. Since 1998, Kingsley has photographed more than 150 weddings in all the best places in the Newport area, Providence and nearby Massachusetts.

JameyPriceWeddings.com

Jamey Price is a photographer from North Carolina whose award-winning images have appeared in the Charlotte Observer, South Park Magazine, the Raleigh News and Observer, Living North Magazine, and many other national and international publications.


Sites using Base

JaredSoares.com

Jared Soares is an independent documentary and portrait photographer based in Roanoke, Virginia. At the time of publication, Soares was in Paris interning at the VII Photo Agency. From 2006-2010 he worked as a staff photojournalist at The Roanoke Times.

JeffKorte.com

Jeff Korte has been practicing photography since receiving communications and visual arts degrees from St. Cloud State University in 1983. Experimentation with alternative photographic processes includes the construction and use of many types of lens-less (pinhole) cameras. Korte has been published in Black and White magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Pinhole Journal, and featured in the 2005 “Year in Black and White” calendar in the New Yorker magazine.


Sites using Uno

ElevenToSeven.de

ElevenToSeven.de is a photoblog by German photographer Alexander Heil. His site features photographic themes ranging from landscapes to cityscapes to surfing, all displayed in black and white.

KastleLoft.com

Kastle Loft is a photoblog by David Stephenson, a photojournalist by trade who races homing pigeons in central Kentucky for the fun of it. Yes, you heard right. Check his site to learn a thing or two about pigeons and photography.

And that’s a wrap!  I hope you enjoyed viewing these sites as much as I did.  The collection above only represents a small fraction of the sites using our new themes Sidewinder, Uno and Base.  To share your site, please post a link to it in the comments below or add it to our theme showcase.  Looking forward to seeing what you create!

Posted on by

New WordPress plugins for creating About, Welcome, and Testimonial sections

Graph Paper Press WordPress plugins

Overview

Have you ever wanted to create an eye-catching testimonial page celebrating positive customer feedback? Perhaps you want a simple welcome message alerting your site visitors to something important. Or maybe you need a biographical about section in your footer so visitors and potential customers know how to get in touch with you.

If so, these free WordPress are for you. Continue reading →

Posted on by

Base 1.0.6 Available

Base 1.0.6 is now available for download for all paid members. The update includes the following changes:

  • Enhancement – Blog title on Blog Page template is no longer hard-coded.
  • Bugfix – Image calculation fix for dynamic image resizing.
  • Enhancement – Added image type on Theme Options.  Currently not used.  Will use when WP 3.1 is released.
  • Bugfix – Post metadata displayed twice.
  • Bugfix – Added new image size add_image_size 940×200 for header images and single featured images.
  • Bugfix – Include correct reference to [three_fourth_first][/three_fourth_first]
  • Bugfix – Removed query string conflict with child themes.
  • Bugfix – Disable CSS file reading.
  • Bugfix – Added break at end of foreach loop if match found.
  • Enhancement – Updated New Themes RSS Feed parsing.
  • Enhancement – Updated Update Alerts RSS Feed parsing.

These files changed from version 1.0.4 to 1.0.6:

  • admin-interface.php
  • admin-style.css
  • admin-theme-page.php
  • admin-update-alerts.php
  • admin-js.php
  • theme-options.php
  • page-blog.php
  • images.php
  • content-extensions.php
  • header-extensions.php
  • functions.php
  • archive.php
  • sidebar.php
  • instructions.html
  • style.css

This is a highly recommended update to all previous Base versions.  If you are running Base, please upgrade to the latest version.

Posted on by

Introducing Sidewinder, a photo portfolio theme for WordPress

Sidewinder photo theme for WordPress

Sidewinder photo theme for WordPress

We are seriously pumped to announce our latest photo theme, Sidewinder, into the wild.  Sidewinder is a horizontal side-scrolling photo theme that resizes with the browser as it expands and contracts.  It is ideal for photographers looking for a holistic photo portfolio and blogging platform.  Sidewinder is available for paid subscribers here at Graph Paper Press.

Main Features

  • Theme Options – No coding knowledge?  No problem!  Upload a logo, change homepage designs from a dynamic display of your Posts or Galleries to a static display of up to ten hand-picked photos.
  • Black and White Design Options – As Michael Jackson sings, “It’s black, it’s white, whoo!” Change between a black or white design on the theme options page.
  • Shortcode – Sidewinder’s shortcode makes adding column layouts, boxes and buttons to your Posts and Pages dead simple. There is no need to modifying CSS, HTML or PHP. Read Shortcode Documentation »
  • Widget Options – How many Widgets you want, fella?  Choose the number of footer widgets you want on the theme options page
  • Gallery Post Type – Forget about forcing photo galleries into WordPress’ default Post and Page logic.  Sidewinder adds a new Gallery post type for adding and organizing photo galleries.
  • Font API – Personalize the theme by choosing a custom font that fits your style.  Choose from any one of the available Google Fonts by adding it directly on the theme options page.
  • iPhone Ready – Simply put, this theme freaking rocks on the iPhone.  Flip your phone horizontally and let your images take over the iPhone screen real estate.  The side-to-side navigation is clean and intuitive.

Video Tours

http://vimeo.com/19142795

http://vimeo.com/19145013

Design Philosophy

We’ve wanted to build side-scrolling theme for a couple years now.  The challenge was two fold:  First, we needed to nail the user-experience and make the interaction intuitive for visitors.  Second, we had to make it work technically (duh) on a variety of browsers and mobile devices using jQuery javascript effects combined with CSS, PHP, and HTML to bend the theme design to our will.  After three months under development and three weeks undergoing testing and tweaking, the theme is ready for public consumption.

We have been incredibly picky along the way:  Sidewinder is actually the second horizontally scrolling theme that we’ve developed.  We couched the first attempt, despite user requesting otherwise.  In late 2010, Chandra revisited our initial side-scrolling theme concept, but this time, it would be built as a child theme for Base, our theme framework.  We think Sidewinder has been worth the wait.

We hope you are as happy with the outcome as we are.  We look forward seeing what you create with Sidewinder!

Posted on by

Base 1.0.4 Available

Base 1.0.4 is now available for download.  It adds the following enhancements and fixes for earlier versions of Base:

  • Lots of changes for upcoming child themes
  • Blog page template is now hookable for child themes
  • jQuery loading improvements
  • Meta robots change
  • Taxonomy title additions
  • Updated instructions

This is a highly recommended update to all previous Base versions.  If you are running Base, please upgrade to the latest version.

Posted on by

Base 1.0.3 Released

Base 1.0.3 is now available for download.  It fixes a bug reported in the footer widgets of Base version 1.0.2.  Here are the files that changed between version 1.0.2 and version 1.0.3:

Modified /base/footer.php
Modified /base/library/extensions/footer-extensions.php
Modified /base/library/options/theme-js.php
Modified /base/style.css

Added /base/library/js/base.js

Deleted /base/library/js/nav.js
Deleted /base/library/js/search.js

To download Base, please visit your member dashboard here at Graph Paper Press.

Posted on by

Widescreen 1.3.4 Released

Widescreen 1.3.4 is now ready for download.  This release fixes a bug for PhotoShelter integration.  If you don’t integrate Widescreen with PhotoShelter, there is no need to upgrade.  For those upgrading from versions 1.3.2 or 1.3.3, simply replace these files:

  • widescreen/includes/photoshelter-meta.php
  • widescreen/includes/custom-styles.php
  • widescreen/style.css

Subscribing members can download the latest version of Widescreen from the member dashboard.

Posted on by

Introducing the Base Hook Widgets plugin for WordPress

Base Hooks plugin for WordPress
Base Hook Widgets is a plugin for WordPress that adds nine new widgetized regions to the Base theme framework and Base child themes.  We created this plugin so users could utilize the various action hooks in the Base theme framework, without writing any PHP code at all.  Simply install the Base theme framework and this Base Hook Widgets plugin and you will have 13 areas where you can add widgets.  (A widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from your WordPress site).

Why is this plugin useful, you ask?  Widgets can include things like:

  • Slideshows
  • Welcome Messages
  • About You
  • Social Icons
  • Videos
  • Client Testimonials

Here is the really, really good news:  We are building all of the widgets listed above as plugins that you can add to your site. Combine the Base theme, the Base Hook Widgets plugin and any one of the widgets listed above and you will have a seriously flexible theme design. Simply drag/drop any one of the widgets listed above into any one of the 13 available widgetized areas to build a custom theme in no time flat.  We will be releasing the plugins during the month of January, 2011.

Here are the various places that this plugin enables you to add widgets to:

  • Before Header
  • Header
  • After Header
  • Before Title
  • After Title
  • Before Sidebar
  • After Sidebar
  • Before Footer
  • After Footer

This plugin is free and can be downloaded from your member page here at Graph Paper Press.  If you don’t have an account, please sign up,  The Base theme framework is a paid theme and can also be downloaded from your member page if you have an active, paid account.

We would love to hear what widgets would be most useful for you.  Your comments will help us decide which widgets we build next.  So, speak up in the comments below!

Posted on by

Announcing Uno, a photo gallery child theme for Base

Say hello to Uno:

Uno photo gallery theme for WordPress

Uno theme for WordPress

Uno is our very first child theme for our newly release Base theme framework for WordPress.  Uno is primed for photographers, artists and bloggers who want to display sleek photo galleries, create a photoblog or simply need a clean, one-column theme.

Back Story

The concept for Uno was hatched after chatting with Will Yurman, an accomplished documentary photographer from New York state.  Will and I were instructors and roommates at NPPA’s Multimedia Immersion Workshop in upstate New York earlier this year.  Will wanted a platform where he could maintain a photoblog, a blog, post galleries, post client galleries, add videos, add multimedia and create pages all under one roof.  For years, Will has relied on a combination of web software to make his current site function: Pixel Post for photoblogging, static files for pages, WordPress for writing and Flash for client galleries.  The new platform needed to be holistic, he said, simple to use and and designed elegantly.  I  knew it was possible within WordPress, but, I told will, I would need a few months to make it happen.

That day has arrived.

Design Philosophy

As with most of our themes, Uno’s design fades into the background and allows your content to take center stage.  We have removed all distractions from this theme so your visitors can focus on your content.

You can choose from one of three pre-built color palette styles:

While the design is simple, the underlying theme framework that powers Uno is both flexible and bulletproof.  You can add custom CSS to override any of the pre-built styles and use your favorite font from the Google Font Directory without touching a single line of code.

Separate Blog

A common request we hear from users is the need to have a dedicated “Blog” page.  This page contains all Posts, typically assigned to specific categories that you select on your Theme Options page.  This way, your photo gallery Posts don’t get mixed in with your writing, or vice-a-versa.  If this isn’t and important feature, no worries, simply don’t create a Blog page or assign a Blog category on the Theme Options page.

HD & Mobile Video

Uno can even be a video blogging theme.  Huh?  Yep, it can.  Uno comes packaged with a built-in HD video player for self-hosting videos.  To serve mobile-friendly video files to users with Flash either disabled or not available, simply enable the Mobile Video option on the theme options page and upload your mobile-friendly video files into the Post (see instructions).

Getting Started

To download Uno, you will need a subscription to Graph Paper Press.  We look forward to seeing what you create!