Graph Paper Press

Visualization

Thad Allender

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Visualization is a grid-based, magazine-style theme for WordPress 2.3 and higher that is easy to customize and make your own. The theme utilizes Blueprint, a CSS framework, which streamlines development time by utilizing an easy-to-use grid and sensible typography. Visualization can transform your blog into a full-blown magazine or news Web site.

Visualization Includes
  • Widgetized sidebar and bottombar
  • Optional custom header images
  • Dynamic sidebar to maximize homepage real estate
  • Nine spots on the homepage to pack with content
Getting Started

To get Visualization off and running, you will need a minimum of 9 categories. The main section on this page is the latest article posted in category 1. The other sections display the latest articles in their respective categories. If you want a post a Sports article and have it show up in the main section, you would simply put the article in category 1 and Sports categories. The Sports section below will offset by one, enabling the main page to never publish duplicated content. See the screenshot below for reference.
Visualzation tutorial

Using Photos

Visualization utilizes WordPress’ custom fields to display and manage each individual entry’s thumbnail photos. These include the 270 X 100 px skinny horizontal images (custom field key value=thumbnail) and a 75 X 75 pixel images (custom field key value=square). The screenshot below demonstrates the custom fields used for Visualization. The “photo” key value is optional if you prefer to program in additional lead photos measuring 590px wide into your theme design. Visualization Custom Fields

Common Issues

JQuery, the javascript framework used in this theme, and Prototype, the javascript language that powers some WordPress plugins, don’t like each other. To create a pleasant user-experience, deactivate all plugins that use the Prototype javascript framework.

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44 responses to “Visualization”

  1. Mr WordPress Avatar
    Mr WordPress

    Hi, this is a comment.
    To delete a comment, just log in and view the post's comments. There you will have the option to edit or delete them.

    Reply
    1. Wayman Avatar
      Wayman

      Is there a working demo for this theme?

      Reply
  2. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Hi Thad

    Great looking site. I am considering using it to replace an aging Joomla site for a Business Magazine http://www.dynamicbusiness.com we run but I have a few questions.

    Sorry about the length but willing to pay for developer license and only use it on one site

    1. Social Tagging Plugin – ie Digg, Technorati, etc, can we put in one of the standard plug ins?

    2. Link to site plugin – Any issues with implementing this as well

    3. You have put day/year into the URL, is there any problem with adding time? I assume its just standard permalink /%/ syntax (we are being syndicated by Google news which requires a unique number in the url, Joomla cant do this with SEF enabled and so we are missing out on 1000s of visitors a week)

    4. Can we have author profile photo for one of the categories on the front page (we are trying to implement Entrepreneur Blogs and dont want them to have to change/add photo each new post)

    5. Assume we can add Feedburner plugin without problems

    6. Can I add Magazine Cover images for each month

    7. Does it support multiple pages per article for long articles (and more ad impressions)

    8. Can I simply put openads Javascript tags into the header and sidebar widgets to display ads.

    9. Can I put Openads Javascript tags between the articles running down the front page?

    10. Would you consider assisting for a fee to move Joomla Articles to WordPress (and keeping month and categories tags)

    Great design, hope we can work out these questions, I think our site would be a great reference site for your designs

    Thanks

    Mike Nicholls
    Dynamic Business Webmaster

    Reply
  3. admin Avatar
    admin

    Hi Mike

    I’ll answer your questions sequentially:

    Hope this helps! It should be known that plugin compatibility has more to do with the version of WordPress that you’re using, rather than the theme. Chances are, if it’s something that you need for a site, the WordPress community already has a free solution available for download. Let me know if that covers your questions!

    Thad

    Reply
  4. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    I just bought the $99 deal – these do look great. But I am a little foxed by these instructions. When you say ‘The main section on this page is the latest article posted in category 1.’ Do you mean I need to create a category called ‘category 1’. Or is this Category ID 1?

    The problem is this means I need to make a category just for that spot – say, Latest – and it hten appears in Departments and at the top of the page.

    Sorry for basic question – fantastic themes.

    Reply
  5. admin Avatar
    admin

    Hi David

    Glad you like the themes. You are correct. It is category id 1. The logic behind this goes like this: Sometimes publishers don’t want their latest news item to be the main feature on their website. You can change the category id # to the category of your preference by opening home.php or index.php and changing the cat=1 number referenced in the first loop. Happy publishing!

    Thad

    Reply
  6. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    Thanks for the superfast response Thad. Two quickies and then I sit down… I have a number of categories and sub categories. In the top menu I need to get rid of them – and the sub categories which are showing. Also the articles pages have no sidebars. Please excuse the ignorance – these are like no WP themes i have ever seen!!! So exciting..

    Reply
  7. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    I seem to be making some progress with this Thad but one thing puzzles me In the documentation above you say the main home page feature is the latest article in category 1, In fact it just seems to be the latest article, whatever the category. Also – is there some way to get sidebars on pages please?

    Reply
  8. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    Sigh….. unfortunately this theme breaks badly under IE7. The navbar is positioned to the right outside the frame. I thought this was something I’d done but the demo page does the same thing here.

    Reply
  9. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    Is this theme ever going to be compatible with IE? Also there is another major issue with it. If you add another post after the Category 1 post (which you don’t want to be featured) its headline will become the headline of the front page featured post, while the featured post text remains below.
    I would appreciate a response here. I paid $99 for all these themes in the belief I was supporting something worthwhile. But if this isn’t compatible with IE and a simple thing such as a headline and a story don’t match up it seems to be money wasted.

    Reply
  10. admin Avatar
    admin

    David

    In the MAIN INDEX TEMPLATE underneath the , change this:
    <div class="column span-8 last">

    to this:
    <div class="column span-7 last">

    In styles.css, find ul#page_nav and change this:
    margin-bottom: 15px;
    margin-top:0px

    to this:
    margin:0 0 15px 0;

    The featured post problem that you experiencing sounds like a problem with your database, likely caused by a plugin that is incompatible with your version of WordPress. WordPress themes simply query what exists in the database. If your titles and post bodies aren’t lining up, disable or upgrade the plugins that interact with your database.

    For future reference, it’s best to contact me directly if you have a specific support request. Plus, you will get a quicker response.

    Reply
  11. David Hewson Avatar
    David Hewson

    Thanks Thad – all working now and looks great!

    Reply
  12. The Fine Insides Avatar
    The Fine Insides

    Hello,

    Great theme, however I’m having a rather large problem. The native wordpress post break breaks the design, as you can see here: http://thefineinsides.com/

    It forces the right hand content below the post on the left.

    How can I fix it?

    Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Bruce K Avatar
    Bruce K

    I really like the design as well as the monochrome series. Is it easy to add an ajax slideshow plugin to this theme ?

    Reply
  14. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Hi, I have kind of the same question that Bruce asked. I would like to combine the functionality of this theme with an ajax slideshow for the featured article. Is that possible maybe with a plugin or by copying some code out of the free monochrome theme?

    Your help would be much appreciated and if it is possible I would to buy this theme. Thanks, Simon from Germany

    Reply
  15. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Thad?

    Reply
  16. Carlos Sant'Ana Avatar
    Carlos Sant’Ana

    You can put a slideshow using NEXTGEN gallery. check our website.
    Best
    CP

    Reply
  17. ricland Avatar
    ricland

    This looks really smooth. Ready to dump Joomla.
    This guy’s site really works for me:
    http://thefineinsides.com/

    Do you have any other samples of live sites?

    I need to design “news sites” that are very reliable and user-friendly.

    Is this the ticket?

    ricland

    Reply
  18. dennis meyer Avatar
    dennis meyer

    is not like putting the post in the “nocategorias” on the homepage. not how to solve this problem. please help me.
    I buy the theme of visualization.

    If we say a factor again.

    Dennis Meyer

    Reply
  19. ana cancela Avatar
    ana cancela

    Yesterday I bought Visualition theme but I don’t receive any e-mail to procede the download (I also chek my spam folder). I don’t know what I have to do to get this theme.

    Reply
  20. RP Avatar
    RP

    You said “it sounds like a problem with your database, likely caused by a plugin that is incompatible with your version of WordPress.”

    I bought the visualtion theme.
    Using WP 2.5
    Activite the latest Riffly Video/Audio Comments plugin

    And the tabs on the front page don’t work anymore.

    There are a couple of other plugins that kill those tabs

    Also in the header.php the code for the catagories drop down has “get icon” function hard coded into – The icons are bigger than the space allowed for the menu items
    what is the code that I need to just have the words there.

    Overall this a great theme it just doens’t like it takes well to hacking/changing the way things are layed out.

    Reply
  21. Monica Avatar
    Monica

    HI Thad,

    This is is my 2nd GPG theme, and the first one works fabulously! However, i don’t get why there is not a “Theme Options” just like on the Monochrome theme, that allows you to set your category placement? Im having trouble figuring out how to change the category name and location.

    Also, the latest, most commented, departments, and contributors section – is there a way to change this to render categories, instead of pulling the predetermined “latest” most commented” etc?

    thanks! love your themes!

    Reply
  22. admin Avatar
    admin

    @Denis – You figured this out, correct?

    @Ana – sent you this a while back…just letting the comment readers know….

    @RP – Visualization uses JQUERY javascript framework. Plugins that use other javascript frameworks will “break” the tabs. Javascript libraries are kind of like batteries: You can’t use AA and AAA together and expect things to work right. More info:

    http://docs.jquery.com/Using_jQuery_with_Other_Libraries

    @Monica – Glad you like the themes! At the time I built Visualization, I expected that most users would be comfortable editing the category numbers in the theme files. Sometimes, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I will be be adding Theme Options to Visualization soon. I’ll send out an update when I release it.

    Reply
    1. Michelle Avatar
      Michelle

      Hello,

      So glad to have found your themes, totally love them.

      Using Visualization and would like to know if there have been any developments with the tabs?

      Also can you tell me how I change the standard horizontal image on what looks like the homepage. Sorry for the basic questions but I’m quite new to all of this.

      Many many thanks,

      Michelle

      Reply
  23. milar Avatar
    milar

    great work . . keep up the good work.. .

    Reply
  24. Frex Avatar
    Frex

    Hello,
    I have just bought the Visualization template and noticed the Categories navigation on the top menu of The Visualization template isn’t working on internet explorer 6. Please how could I solve this, given that most of my users have internet explorer 6.

    Thanks

    Reply
  25. associate Avatar
    associate

    nice, very nice, well done

    Reply
  26. Saida Avatar
    Saida

    Hi!
    Does the theme have tags? Can’t find them.

    Reply
  27. Angeliska Avatar
    Angeliska

    Hi there..
    This is the first theme I’ve seen, in several weeks of searching
    that comes even remotely close to what I’m looking for!
    It’s lovely! Great typography.
    This may be a goofy question, but could you explain
    how customizable it is? Would it be possible for me to change the colors, say?
    I really am hunting for a classic, clean old fashioned
    white type on black background theme.
    Basically, this one- just inverted.
    Thank you!
    -A.

    Reply
  28. Akshay Avatar
    Akshay

    Thad,

    I am using the visualization theme for itsadifferent.com and ‘am facing too many issues with it.

    Listed below are some of the burning issues:

    1.The Lates/Popular/Contributors area does not expand
    2.There are 9 categories if we include un-categorized as a category, the 9th category does not show up on the front page.
    3.If you click on the contributors link, the info is totally askewed on the page that follows.
    4.If thumbnails are not used, excerpts on the front page are not correctly formatted and look a bit askew.
    5.The list of posts by a contribtor that appears on the contributors page below the profile info is also askewed/in-correctly formatted.

    Can you help me fix these/Point me in the right direction?

    Also, don’t you think a Tag saying “Beta” should be placed next to Visualization, to tell the buyer that this theme is not completely production ready yet?

    I look forward to your response.

    Best,

    AK

    Reply
  29. Stian Avatar
    Stian

    is there a solution to the ie 6 categories problem that Frex also asks about, given that 1/4 of the webbrowsers is ie6 at this time it would be nice if the theme worked with that.

    thanks Stian

    Reply
  30. Thad Avatar
    Thad

    If the navigation doesn’t work for your user base, than you might want to look into this plugin:

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-navigation-list-plugin-navt/

    Lots of options, jquery drop downs, etc.

    Reply
  31. lauren Avatar
    lauren

    i dont know what i did wrong…. i bought this back in feb/mar but forgot about it til now. i went to update one of the posts that appears on the front page and now it is gone. everything in the dashboard looks correct. what happened! thanks

    Reply
  32. lauren Avatar
    lauren

    ok, im not getting any help here! the website is http://westernwisconsinmagazine.com thanks

    Reply
  33. mixey Avatar
    mixey

    May i resell template to another person? Of course just once. I mean buy it from you for 24.99 and then sell it to a client?

    Reply
  34. rigdonia Avatar
    rigdonia

    Hi – I am considering purchasing this theme today but would like to know when it was last updated? I suppose I’ll also send an email in this regard….thanks!

    Reply
  35. subi Avatar
    subi

    demo not working .. is this available ?

    Reply
  36. Liza767 Avatar
    Liza767

    i was at Bella Scraps Magazine blog she said can enter to win $25 gc here i not see it?

    Reply
  37. Anthony Morrow Avatar
    Anthony Morrow

    Hi Thad,
    You get allot of questions: I have a very basic one, or two or three???

    1. posts/blog: i am writing posts but they are not showing in the blog section
    2. custom homepage: made one but when it shows up I loose the great header image from the main page
    3. You Rock! are you available for freelance on this theme?
    http://www.anthonymorrow.com/art

    Reply
  38. aisha Avatar
    aisha

    Having trouble getting the images to show using the custom key values.
    Is there something I am missing.

    Perhaps the images need to be in a specific location or use only
    /wp-content/blogs.dir/20/files/…..

    Instead of the entire URL.

    Ive tried both, neither work. 🙁

    Aisha

    Reply
  39. Usdating Avatar
    Usdating

    Very very usefull info. I think this is a ‘TOP1 Article into Build Link Popularity. Keep going!

    Reply
  40. Andrea Avatar
    Andrea

    I’ve downloaded and installed the visualization theme successfully, but when I activate the theme, it tells me that the theme is broken. When I view it, it quite obviously has something wrong.

    Any ideas?

    Reply
  41. wes Avatar
    wes

    hi, as you can see ive tried to mod a few things on the purchased blog template, could you tell me why im not getting any displays in the category feeds at the bottom, also how do i make the text in the roll over boxes (latest, poular ect.) black? , thanks wes

    Reply
  42. Ankita Agrawal Avatar
    Ankita Agrawal

    fantastic work done guys. Bravo

    Reply

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