Thesis 1.6b was released September 8 around 9pm Eastern to all developers. I raked it through the coals in a 7 hour session and what you are seeing on THIS WEBSITE IS Thesis 1.6b…
1. Post Options
Not much here, just the ability to change the ‘Read More’ text…
2. Thesis Options
Chris Pearson has gone and moved the Thesis Options out of “Appearance”, this took a little getting used too – but is welcome. “Appearance” was getting cluttered. Also new, is the “Drop Down Navigation” built in. (More on this below)
3. Design Options
This is where 90% of the magic is. “The Font, Colors, and More!” section has been completely overhauled and the crown-jewel of Thesis 1.6 is the crazy easy way to change colors.
Other very cool features are the ability to kill all Thesis Borders and add a cool shadow around your page box. (which only works in page-width mode)
4. Custom File Editor
Other than the font colors, this was my second favorite upgraded feature. Syntax Highlighting makes it easy to jump in quick and make a change.
5. Those Drop Down Menus
Now standard, automatic .CSS drop down navigation. All you have to do is create sub-pages or sub-categories and Thesis 1.6 will take care of the rest.
Also new, no more #tabs in the .CSS – the navigation is now .menu
6. Misc. Upgrades
According to Chris Pearson, on the Thesis Dev Site:
- IE-only styles are now cache-friendly: Version 1.5 included a CSS-based method of serving IE-specific styles, but this method proved to have one fatal flaw—it didn’t play nicely with caching techniques (and especially the WP Super Cache plugin). Because of this, I reverted back to using conditional HTML in the document
<head>, and now caching is money. - Fixed post image and thumbnail frames: These actually work now. Special.
- Suppressed warnings on all
getimagesizefunction calls: This PHP function has been known to trigger warnings on certain server configurations, and suppressing warnings will radically reduce the annoyance factor in these situations. - Moved the
/rotatorfolder into the/customfolder: Can somebody tell me why the/rotatorfolder, whose very existence suggests customization, was not located inside the/customfolder from the very beginning? Sigh. Fixed.
One other noticeably awesome upgrade note: All of my “Thesis” and “Design” options were unchanged when I upgraded! I didn’t have to re-do all my font sizes, meta tag info, or HTML Framework options. Beautiful.
7. The Bottom Line
A welcome upgrade. Thesis is moving in the direction of not needing ‘expensive design software’ or a ‘qualified designer’.
While the ability to change text, background, and content colors is freakin’ awesome; you will still need to edit custom_functions.php, use OpenHook, or tinker with custom.css to achieve more advanced design layouts. Things like: adding a Logo to the Header, fine-tuning the Sidebars, etc…will require some inexperienced users to seek help.
If that sounds like you, then you’re still going to need to hire a qualified designer. (Lucky for you, the guy writing this post is certified)
In the end, there will be less Thesis sites that look like it came right out of the box. That in itself is worth the price of admission.
Are you a Developer? Download Thesis 1.6b Now
Don’t Have Thesis? Download a copy!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah… Just checked your other post. I have some work to do on my custom.css
Interesting features. I am curious to try out the Navigation menus. Still waiting – as I don't have the Developer edition
By the way, do you says my custom #tabs styles won't work anymore?
Ah… Just checked your other post. I have some work to do on my custom.css
Interesting features. I am curious to try out the Navigation menus. Still waiting – as I don't have the Developer edition
By the way, do you says my custom #tabs styles won't work anymore?
Ah… Just checked your other post. I have some work to do on my custom.css
Interesting features. I am curious to try out the Navigation menus. Still waiting – as I don't have the Developer edition
By the way, do you says my custom #tabs styles won't work anymore?
Cynthia,
Your answer is here: http://bit.ly/BiARj
Greg,
AWESOME review – thank you! Haven't had a chance to get my feet wet with 1.6 yet. Key concern: Does this mean that my style sheets with #tabs won't work anymore? Is it just a straight up replacement of .menu for #tabs?
Also – will upgrading the theme on folks with images in the rotator box break that link, or is that automatically redirected?
I could test these on my own, but I feel that these comments can help more people than just moi.
Thanks!