Thesis 1.7 beta: Early Thoughts

by Greg Rickaby on March 11, 2010

I’m gleaming with excitement, like a kid at Christmas to find Thesis 1.7 beta was released to developers late last night. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this version for testing for my skins. Here are some early thoughts:

The Good

Thesis was already King of SEO, now it’s approaching God-like status with the amount of options to control where/when robots can scan your site
JavaScript Libraries can be turned on/off on a page/post level. Ideal for increases in load times, as well as the ability to turn any post/page into a interactive work-of-art
Comments get a big ‘ol kiss, as you can turn features on/off, and arrange them via drag and drop
“Archive Page Options” gets a name change to a more noob friendly, “Category Page Options”. Plus you get to set options for each Category. Great when used in with conjunction with the JavaScript options on the page/post level, plus you can add some flair to your Archive, err, Category Pages
As a skin developer and PSD Conversion guru, the new Thesis Options Manager will be my new “killer” app. The ability export Thesis settings to a client will save long conversations about font hexes and sizes

The Bad

Still no “easy” way to add a header image or logo
Lacks the new WordPress Post Image support (however, Chris is working on designing his own)
Menu familiarity is gone. After working on hundreds of Thesis sites, I will have to re-train myself on where all the options are (I know, I’m big baby)

Final Thoughts

Aesthetically, Thesis looks the same on the front-end. It’s still a pretty blank canvas to which you can paint your own picture. This upgrade focuses heavily upon SEO enhancements and JavaScript inclusion right down to the page/post level. As always, a quality upgrade.