Galen Evans

2.1.56 appears to have resolved the problem.

Thanks to all of you for your recommendations, as well as your praise. I think I’ve been able to incorporate all of your recommendations, including ditching the right-click copy protection. Never knew that was an issue until I Googled it, but I guess that’s how we learn. ??

Regards,
G.

kantoi09,
When I looked at the Modern Business template, I noticed that the general layout would work well with the theme I designed, so I just took the pieces that I wanted to add – specifically the front page slider and the tabs below – and dropped them into my header.php. He used background images for a lot of things that I prefer to do with CSS, so I adjusted my theme to look like his, but did it using mostly CSS. I replaced the slider background image with my own, but used only the visible area and not the black portion (since you have the template, you should know what this means). I did use his template images for the Lavalamp effect on the menu and for the tabs below the slider, but I think that was about it.

To make all of this work, I just broke it down into pieces:

– A top container for the header and the navigation menu
– A slider container for the slider and the slider background
– A content area for the tabs and text below the slider
– A bottom container, in case I want to show bottom widgets on the page
– A footer container for, uh, the footer.

Each main container has a width of 100% to span the entire page and has a sub-container set to 960px to limit the view.

If you’re using FireFox with the Web Developer toolbar, you can view the HTML to see the layout of the <div>s.

Since so many people have asked about this and my previous iteration – which are basically the same on the theme side of things, I’m working on a vanilla version that I can share. It may take some time though, because I want to make sure that the code is well documented so people can understand what to do and enable/disable what they want.

Regards,
G

I can’t seem to help myself – I’ve gone and reworked my theme again, even though I said I was happy with the last iteration. lol

This is based on an HTML/CSS site template by Jonathan Atkinson at Themeforest.net, but built on the theme framework that I originally started this post with.

For those who are interested in this design, Mr. Atkinson tells me he will soon be releasing his own WordPress version of his template, so keep an eye on Themeforest for availability.

Regards,
G

I’d start by looking at the end of your header.php file and the beginning of your sidebar.php file. My guess is the beginning of the sidebar.php, but it’s hard to tell without seeing the contents of the file.

Using WordPress.com Stats on mine and it works fine with 2.8.5.

Only installed themes will appear in the Dashboard. But you can search for and install new themes from there.

From your Dashboard, go to Appearance, then Add New Themes. In the Search bar, type in Minimalist, then click the Search button. The theme will appear in the window, along with lots of others. You can install from there without having to mess with FTP.

Wow – lots to follow up on.

Starting with dunerider: I’m using the NextGen Gallery plugin, as jonimueller has pointed out.

esone and mfields: The viewing of images is a “quirk” of NextGen, in that it’s not obvious how to close an image. It would be nice if there was something as simple as an “X” to indicate a control to close the window but as it is, the only way a user knows what to do is to hover the cursor over the image, at which time a message appears that says, “Click to close”. I’d love to see the feature added to a future version of the plugin. I’m so used to using it that I don’t think about it, but I can see how visitors might have problems with it. I’m torn because NG meets my specific needs in just about every other way.

mfields: Don’t worry about being mean. I appreciate and consider all comments, both positive and negative. And this type of discussion helps not only me, but other users looking for direction in the design and implementation of their own sites, as well.

Check line #26 of your header.php and see if you’re missing a “>”.

Sounds like that plug-in is just what you need, particularly if you’re not comfortable doing the redirects manually.

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

TigerD7: I did what you suggested and made links out of the tabs at the upper right, and put them in <h2> tags while I was at it to help with SEO. Every little bit seems to help.

othellobloke: Uh…I don’t know how to answer that. ??

TigerD7: I’ve been thinking about that, but those tabs are my blog tagline and I can’t have links in it (that I know of). For now, its main purpose is to serve as a secondary title with <h2> tags for SEO purposes.

kumarsaran: I started off with a blank WordPress theme, but the design was highly influenced by the Tweaker2 theme. The front page had its inspiration in f8-lite.

In order to keep it as lean and quick as possible, I only added bits of code as I needed them, and have taken bits and pieces of code from perhaps four different themes. CSS was done pretty much from the ground up, with only a reset section to begin with.

Another note, which I didn’t mention in my original post. As a photographer, my old website(s) – as with those of perhaps most photographers – featured only a menu and slideshow on the front page. The problem with that approach is that search engines have almost nothing to work with. My current solution allows me to have very specific word content targeted for search engines, while still showcasing my work. The result has been a significant increase in my page ranking in a ridiculously competitive, if not bloated, profession.

G.

Thanks for the kind words! It’s nice to hear, with all of the work I’ve put into the site. ??

Galen