HeadsetOptions Web Design, SEO, WordPress, Etcetra

The “Smear Campaign” has started. No we are not talking about the US presidential race, we are talking CMS! Have you visited Planet WordPress lately? For a new comer, it will look more like a Movable Type blog than WordPress, and if that were not enough, the MT folks can’t seem to keep their egos in their pants and try endlessly to add fuel to the fire.

For the sake of history, here’s how the events unfolded.
First there was Movable Type
For what it is worth, Movable Type is responsible for the popularity of WordPress. The licensing debacle of MT resulted in defectors opting …

Not a big fan of Adobe, but this is worth the post. The new offering from Adobe packs more firepower than any other social media network (including Flickr). With their competitive edge in the media manipulation market with Photoshop, it is no wonder that they decided to call this online application “Photoshop Express”. I suggest you check it out, it has tons of cool features that only Photoshop can offer, it’s like having your own copy of Photoshop, only its online. You will not be disappointed. P.S. I created a gallery with a few images, all of which are “Photoshopped” using this very online application. Check it out!

CNN projects that Nevada will go to Hillary. I thought it would never come to this, but I must say this to get it off my chest. I rather have Bush run this country down the toilet than Hillary, I am not sure what I dislike about her, I guess everything. Anyone but Hillary please! Tell us who you would vote in the polls.

I guess folks at WordPress.com start talking about copyright violation only when it hits home. When we cried foul about WordPress themers ripping our work and calling it their own, no one cared except Thomas (and Lorelle).

The reality is, you can’t stop people from stealing content or code, it pinches those of us on the receiving end and it sucks. Google can de-index a few sites, but many more will pop-up.

Although Google is the search engine leader, how many …

The results are in, Arpit’s SandPress design takes the top place. Surprising second was Moo-Point by Will Wilkins, surprised in a good way that is. Prima, a design by Sunaryo Hadi took third! In all, there were 46 themes submitted and many of my favorites were in the top 20, of course they are all winners in my opinion and I wish them all the very best!

P.S. Now that the competiton is over, I might publish my top 10 picks in a later post!

For those making the final submission of your CSS designs for the competition either tomorrow or the day after, I compiled this quick (should take less than 15 minutes) and a short checklist to help ensure your theme gives the rest a run for the money. At the risk of being called “Captain Obvious”, here it is:
Style
Hierarchy: Make sure your h1, h2… are all styled using commonsense formats to create a meaningful visual hierarchy. Sandbox does not use h2 in the sidebar like the Widgets do, so think about both scenarios, that is, users using your theme as is and those using sidebar widgets. (Time: Should take you less than 1 minute for this)

Dropdown menu usage: If you plan on using the default dropdown in Sandbox, leave the pages list intact for IE 6 users. If you plan on hiding the sandbox_globalnav, the div id is “menu”, make it “display: none;”. (Time: Again, should take you less than 1 minute to check)

This ‘how to’ tutorial was written for beginners/users designing a Sandbox based theme/CSS redesign using minimal CSS hacks and imagery. The objective of this exercise was to do “as little work as possible” while ensuring the result appears “significantly different” from the starting template. This is not the end-all strategy to design a Sandbox theme/skin, but merely a guide to get started. Enjoy.

Tools needed: Notepad, FTP (SmartFTP or similar) and PhotoShop or similar (any image editor should do).

In less than a couple of weeks, the Sandbox theme competition will decide a winner, but if you are anything like I am, you would probably wait to the very last day to create and submit your entry. So I feel it’s the perfect time to have a “how to” demonstrating the endless possibilities of CSS redesigning for those procrastinators waiting for a sign to get started. And no, this demo theme will not be submitted to the competition but will be released freely for Sandbox users sometime soon. Here’s a quick reminder of the rules.

Just to briefly touch on the Sandbox theme, as described by its creator(s), “The real feature of the Sandbox is its markup. The use of class-generating functions in key elements (the body, post div, and comment li elements) creates the most extensible WordPress theme available”. So all you need is some basic understanding of CSS and you should be ready to roll.