The month that disappeared

Thad Allender

Between the WordPress 2.5 upgrade, photographing the Kansas Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship, criss-crossing the U.S. from Omaha to Detroit to San Antonio, and making a photo book in the process, my life feels like it’s been set on cruise control stuck on 120 MPH. Along the way, I learned that:

Many courtside sports columnists blog using…you guessed it…WordPress.
The NCAA doesn’t understand blogging or new multimedia. Consequently, they have drafted silly rules that limit free speech.
Galeria is a very slick Javascript photo gallery script. I plan to use it in an upcoming theme.
Keeping up with hundreds of support emails takes time for this one-man show. But, I’m dedicated to giving all reasonable support inquiries the attention they rightfully deserve. If you are new to WordPress, please bookmark the WordPress Codex. If you are new to CSS, please bookmark the Blog Design and Layout section within the WordPress Codex. Your stock as an internet punk will increase, and you will soon be answering, rather than asking, questions in the forums. Either way, I’m glad you are here, regardless of skill level.
Planning for my wedding. Yep, I’m getting married to a wonderful, wonderful person.

The Upcoming Portfolio Theme
In the mean time, I’m still plugging away at the Portfolio theme. Since WordPress 2.5 now has gallery capabilities (not really fond of how it works, but hey, it’s a start), it has changed how I was planning on integrating jquery javascript into the theme. In mid March, I had three nearly complete Portfolio themes in testing mode. When WordPress 2.5 hit the streets, I decided against releasing them and instead decided to go back to the drawing board. All good things are worth waiting for. Cliche, but true. If you have a suggestions on which jquery photo gallery/slideshow script you would like to see integrated into the portfolio theme, please advise in the comments.

Graph Paper Press TV
Yep, you got it. I’m launching an online TV channel that will provide video tutorials in screencast format for all things WordPress. It will primarily be focused on how-to’s for novice and expert WordPress users and theme developers. Right now, I’m interested in targeting a few topics with mass appeal. So, please let me know in the comments what topics you would like covered on GPPTV.

12 responses to “The month that disappeared”

Soren at island Vacation Tips

April 29, 2008

You ask for ideas and comments related to your coming integration of photo galleries in your new WP themes.

As a stock photographer I have wondered how often even well thought out web galleries are poor concerning their optimization for Search Engines (SEO).
What need to be taken into consideration is:
– Text to each image, fine with some bolded headlines,
– ALT text for each picture
– Tags for each photo
– Titles for each gallery with plenty of space for adding additional text under the title.
– Easy linking, e.g. to pages where the image can be purchased / downloaded,
– listing of additional pictures related to the present gallery /presentation of each picture.
– Option to choose or avoid the black gallery background there is so bad for reading text.

And thenn, as the normal part of WP, some facilities for web 2.0 interactions /comments, rating, etc.

Hope this will be taking into account of your serious work.

Best regards

Soren Breiting
also http://www.azfotos.com with Stock photos

Reply
Soren at island Vacation Tips

April 29, 2008

You ask for ideas and comments related to your coming integration of photo galleries in your new WP themes.

As a stock photographer I have wondered how often even well thought out web galleries are poor concerning their optimization for Search Engines (SEO).
What need to be taken into consideration is:
– Text to each image, fine with some bolded headlines,
– ALT text for each picture
– Tags for each photo
– Titles for each gallery with plenty of space for adding additional text under the title.
– Easy linking, e.g. to pages where the image can be purchased / downloaded,
– listing of additional pictures related to the present gallery /presentation of each picture.
– Option to choose or avoid the black gallery background there is so bad for reading text.

And thenn, as the normal part of WP, some facilities for web 2.0 interactions /comments, rating, etc.

Hope this will be taking into account of your serious work.

Best regards

Soren Breiting
also http://www.azfotos.com with Stock photos

Reply
eRed

May 19, 2008

I just found your themes and loaded in the Momochrome Gallery theme! THANK U!! I’m a complete newbie to WP and am loving all the surfing as well as reading I’ve been forced to do to learn it:) Hope to be able to customize your theme in the very near future, it has soo many possibilities!

Just wanted to thank you for the free version and for the tips:) Congrats on your future wedding too.

Oh and I’d LOVE to see Graph Paper Press TV!! My request would be to do a complete tut about theme customization. I know a little css and html but it’s sort of throwing me for a loop to have the WP specific stuff (php) in there! Especially since I have it in my sights to turn this theme and my site into a cms with blog integrated! sigh…back to my reading!

Thank U again**
Martha from Kentucky

Reply
eRed

May 19, 2008

I just found your themes and loaded in the Momochrome Gallery theme! THANK U!! I’m a complete newbie to WP and am loving all the surfing as well as reading I’ve been forced to do to learn it:) Hope to be able to customize your theme in the very near future, it has soo many possibilities!

Just wanted to thank you for the free version and for the tips:) Congrats on your future wedding too.

Oh and I’d LOVE to see Graph Paper Press TV!! My request would be to do a complete tut about theme customization. I know a little css and html but it’s sort of throwing me for a loop to have the WP specific stuff (php) in there! Especially since I have it in my sights to turn this theme and my site into a cms with blog integrated! sigh…back to my reading!

Thank U again**
Martha from Kentucky

Reply
grant tucker

May 24, 2008

I use that free gallery theme you put out for my clothing line web site but the image thing on the home page randomly stops working when I add or delete a post or add new tags, what’s going on with it lol. If you could help me it’d be great..that black box ruins the great design.

Reply
grant tucker

May 23, 2008

I use that free gallery theme you put out for my clothing line web site but the image thing on the home page randomly stops working when I add or delete a post or add new tags, what’s going on with it lol. If you could help me it’d be great..that black box ruins the great design.

Reply
Mark Jones

May 28, 2008

Hi!

Where are the monthly themes at?

Regards,

Mark Jones

Reply
Mark Jones

May 28, 2008

Hi!

Where are the monthly themes at?

Regards,

Mark Jones

Reply
Thad

May 28, 2008

@Grant – You have conflicting javascripts in your header. Disable the plugin that is installing MooTools in your header and you’ll be good to go. Use JQuery powered plugins for compatibility reasons.

@Mark – On their way very soon. I’m adding some finishing touches this week. It’s gonna be a very different theme design, that is for sure. Forcing WordPress to manage images better within the theme has been a challenge, but I think I’ve tamed it.

Reply
Thad

May 28, 2008

@Grant – You have conflicting javascripts in your header. Disable the plugin that is installing MooTools in your header and you’ll be good to go. Use JQuery powered plugins for compatibility reasons.

@Mark – On their way very soon. I’m adding some finishing touches this week. It’s gonna be a very different theme design, that is for sure. Forcing WordPress to manage images better within the theme has been a challenge, but I think I’ve tamed it.

Reply
jeroen

June 2, 2008

Any updates on the Portfolio theme? Can’t wait to see it!

Reply
jeroen

June 2, 2008

Any updates on the Portfolio theme? Can’t wait to see it!

Reply