The Homepage

Squid Work’s homepage sports a beautiful slider of your latest posts. Code credits go to Nivo Slider for the awesome transition effects of the images. Right below the slider are 6 additional thumbnails of your selected posts.

How to select a category for the slider and posts underneath it:

You can specify a post category for the slider as well as the 6 thumbnails right below it. All you need to do is open feature.php in the editor section in the admin panel (go to “Appearance” -> “editor”, and select “feature.php” in the right hand column). Once you have “feature.php” in editor – look for this code: “$cat_for_slideshow = ”” enter the category slug inside the quotes. Do the same for the posts underneath – but look for “$cat_for_six_boxes = ”” instead.

The Sidebar

Squid Work’s sidebar floats in the middle of the viewport – thanks to the jQuery plugin: stickyFloat. Note that if your sidebar is longer than the viewport – it won’t float as expected. I added a custom flickr photo feed – thanks to code by Barattalo. This feed can be configured by adding your own flickr group id inside functions.php. Lastly, the sidebar supports widgets. Widgets will show up right above the Flickr feed.

Everything Else

Notice the beautiful bokeh photography by gemedj89 of Photodune. The container of the site is a combination of CSS 3 and textured repeating patterns. Fonts are supplied by Google Web Fonts and finally – all code is XHTML valid. How about that!

So what are you waiting for! Grab Squid Work and use for your WordPress blog. Make sure you follow me in twitter or facebook. Enjoy!

The theme went for sale in Themeforest – and it did pretty well the first several months – but finally reached its non selling point. Today I’m selling this theme for a measly $10 (the .psd files are FREE and is a separate download). For this low price – its practically free! Read on to see why its a good deal:

homepage of eureka

Theme Features:

At first look, you will fall in love with Eureka’s balanced design. A solid black header with just enough room for your logo and page navigation. The large feature slider will sure get your message out: loud and clear. The sharp containers that house the posts and sidebars are classic and well crafted. You will notice the comments area, social buttons, icons and footer – all complete the design as part of the whole. Your visitors will love your website – and for that, will want your business. Give Eureka a try.

Features:

• A Custom Slideshow – sits in the home page, automatically switches through four images. These images are post thumbnails from posts assigned to a specific category. In other words, the slideshow pulls 4 posts from a category named “featured”. You can change the category by editing “feature.php” – look for the variable $myCat .
• Two Widgetized Sidebars – Each sidebar has a width of 140 pixels – just enough to house small ad spots, text and general widgets .The sidebars also sit on the center of the page as you scroll down.
• Custom Gallery Styles with Lightbox – The default WordPress gallery style is overridden to match the rest of the theme. Lightbox effect is also applied to all links leading to an image.
• Built in Contact Form – no need to install a plugin for a simple contact form, its already in the theme. Simply apply the page template “Contact Form” into your page

The theme also supports the WP 3.0 menu system, gravatars and threaded comments. The thumbnails for each posts, including the images in the slideshow are pulled from the post thumbnails.

How to Use:

Installing the theme is just like any other WordPress theme. Simply go to the “Appearance” > “Install Themes” section in your admin panel. Click the “Upload” link – browse to the theme .zip file and “Install Now“.

Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts:

To add images to your posts you can use the Post Thumbnail feature of WordPress. Simply go to the post in “Edit” mode. On the right side of the page – click on “Set Featured Image“:

This will trigger the image uploader. Upload your image and as soon as that’s done, click the “Use as Featured Image” link:

Note that you should keep the file sizes to a smaller size. The resizing script has a maximum size limit.

How to Activate the Slideshow:

The slideshow in the homepage pulls 4 posts from a category called “featured” (If you want to pull from a different category – see below). Simply go to “Categories” and one called “featured” – add 4 posts under it.

Visit your homepage and you should now see the slideshow area populated with the posts you just assigned to “Featured”. Now if you don’t see an image – that means you haven’t assigned a Post Thumbnail – so read the section above called “Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts“.

*If you want to change the slideshow to pull from another category instead of “featured”, go to “Appearance” > “Editor” and click “feature.php” from the right side. In the editor – change the word “featured” into your category slug that you want (see below). Save your changes.

How to insert a Photo Gallery:

Adding a photo gallery into agency is as easy as pie. Simply go to the post / page you want in “Edit” mode and click on the image uploader. Navigate to your local directory and highlight the images you want and click “Open”.

As soon as the images upload, click on “Save Changes” and additional settings will show. Select your options and click “Insert Gallery”.

Update your post / page and preview it. You should see your gallery in place. The lightbox effect should also automatically pick up. All images that are linked to another image will trigger the lightbox effect in the Agency theme.

How to Customize the Navigation Menu:

Agency supports the WP Menu System which let’s you customize the links any way you want. Go to “Appearance” > “Menus” and start by creating a new menu. Enter a menu name and click “Create“.

This will create a blank menu panel in the right side of the page. The idea is to select categories, pages or custom links from the left side, click the “Add to Menu” button – and it will appear on the menu panel in the right. In this panel, you can drag and drop the links so you can design the menu hierarchy. Links that are staggered underneath become the drop down links from the respective parent – you get the drift.

Once the menu is done – hit “Save Menu” and in the top most left column box called “Theme Locations“, select the menu you just created from the drop down called “Header Menu”. Click “Save” and view your website. You menu should now be in place.

Credits:

The contact form code came from Trevor Davis – which works like a charm. The lightbox effect for the images are from No Margin for Errors. The Javascript for the floating sidebar is from a plugin called “stickyfloat“. Finally, the awesome model photos from the demo site are from my friend Jigs Tambong.

Conclusion:

Agency is ideal for high content blogs with multiple post categories. Some HTML and CSS knowledge is required to customize, as well as Photoshop for the graphic elements. On the same note, my recent theme “Lucky Guess” is now FREE!. Please follow me in Twitter, Facebook or leave your comments below:

You can purchase Agency from this link.

BTW, you have to check out BlogEx for a large collection of WordPress Themes!

Features

The theme supports WordPress 3.0 featues such as post thumbnails, wp-menu system as well as widgets. A custom jQuery Tabbed Container is embedded in the sidebar. This showcases your posts which is randomly ordered, as well as post tags in the second tab. Custom styling for your photo galleries, with a built in lightbox functionality known as “Prettyphoto” – courtesy of No Margin for Errors. So all of the images linked to another image will pickup this plugin by default.

I’ve implemented plenty of CSS 3 techniques in this theme. You will notice both loud and subtle text shadows in the headings, text orientation and box gradients. I’ve used plenty of Google fonts – which renders faster than the popular Cufon. The theme is tested to work in IE 7, 8, Safari, Chrome and of course Firefox.

Conclusion

So what now? If you run a WordPress blog and need a real make over – this might be the theme for you. Install this puppy and you’re ready to go. I’ve mentioned that this theme is ideal for new blogs – only because its easier to attach post thumbnails as you create new posts. Although Lucky Guess will still work with or without thumbnails. So what do you say? Leave them in the comments section below.

So what has Changed?

As you see from the demo, I’ve tried to preserve Aparatus’ original design. The few things that I changed is more for performance rather than visual. I went ahead and removed the Tweetmeme buttons in the archive pages – which greatly improved page loads. There was a horizontal scroll bar bug in the old version – which is now fixed.

The theme still utilizes Cufon – but only for select areas of the theme such as the Logo and the footer. The logo now has an etched and gradient look – which is a big enhancement. I also added some Google fonts – to the post and comments headings. A few CSS 3 code is also used to improve the presentation of the text a little bit more.

A new post thumbnail handling code is used. Both feature images and custom fields still work, it just handles the resizing better. The feature image also appears in the single post page – this is something many users have requested for.

The theme now supports the new WordPress menu system. You can now customize the menu according to your craziest “navi-wishes”.

Lastly, a smarter theme options is integrated. If you don’t enter a Twitter account – no button or feed will show in the theme. The same goes for the large ad button.

How to Use:

Installing the theme is just like any other WordPress theme. Simply go to the “Appearance” > “Install Themes” section in your admin panel. Click the “Upload” link – browse to the theme .zip file and “Install Now“.

Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts:

To add images to your posts you can use the Post Thumbnail feature of WordPress. Simply go to the post in “Edit” mode. On the right side of the page – click on “Set Featured Image“:

This will trigger the image uploader. Upload your image and as soon as that’s done, click the “Use as Featured Image” link:

Note that you should keep the file sizes to a smaller size. The resizing script has a maximum size limit.

How to Use the Slideshow:

The slideshow automatically pulls your most recent posts (5 maximum). You can change this to pull from a specific category by going to “Appearance” > “Aparatus Options” and putting the category slug in the field: “Category Name for the Content Slider“. You can also take out the slideshow or choose to not automatically slide – by checking the appropriate boxes in the theme options.

Also, if you see the slider with the “Oops…Looks like” message (shown below) – that means you haven’t assigned a post thumbnail to your post. Read the section above called “Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts“.

How to insert a Photo Gallery:

Adding a photo gallery into Aparatus is as easy as pie. Simply go to the post / page you want in “Edit” mode and click on the image uploader. Navigate to your local directory and highlight the images you want and click “Open“.

As soon as the images upload, click on “Save Changes” and additional settings will show. Select your options and click “Insert Gallery“.

Update your post / page and preview it. You should see your gallery in place.

How to Customize the Navigation Menu:

Go to “Appearance” > “Menus” and start by creating a new menu. Enter a menu name and click “Create“.

This will create a blank menu panel in the right side of the page. The idea is to select categories, pages or custom links from the left side, click the “Add to Menu” button – and it will appear on the menu panel in the right. In this panel, you can drag and drop the links so you can design the menu hierarchy. Links that are staggered underneath become the drop down links from the respective parent – you get the drift.

Once the menu is done – hit “Save Menu” and in the top most left column box called “Theme Locations“, select the menu you just created from the drop down called “Header Menu”. Click “Save” and view your website. You menu should now be in place.

Switching Stylesheets

Aparatus comes with 4 different color styles – also known as stylesheets. Go to “Appearance” > “Aparatus Options” and in the top most section is a drop down called “Style Sheet”. Select Maroon, Black, Blue or Green and “Save Changes“.

Adding the Twitter Badge and Latest Tweet:

Still in the theme options, right underneath the Style Sheet drop down, is the Twitter account field. Enter your Twitter user name in this field.

Save your changes and view your website. You should see a nice Twitter Badge in the Header – and your latest Tweet in the sidebar area.

Advertising Blocks:

You can ad advertising blocks in the sidebar area right in the theme options. You can do 1 large 300 x 250, and 4 small 125 x 125 squares. Go to the theme options page – and see the “Advertising Blocks” area. Enter the image source of the ad (where the image is coming from), and the destination (where the link goes when the image is clicked).

Save your changes and view your site. You should see the ad blocks in the sidebar nicely lined up:

Frequently Asked Questions:

I’ve gathered a several most asked questions in regards to Aparatus. Read below to see if your question is one of them.

Modify the Twitter Badge Image

Many want to modify the large Twitter Badge in the header. Please note that the font I’ve used in this badge is called – League Gothic, and you need to download that in your Fonts folder to twiddle the .psd file.

Slideshow is not showing images

If you’re using custom fields – make sure you have GD library installed. You also have to make sure that the cache folder inside scripts (themes/aparatus/scripts/cache) is fully writeable. In addition, you need to enter at least a couple of posts to kick start the slideshow.

How To make posts in the slideshow appear below the slideshow

By default posts inside the slideshow does not duplicate underneath – where the rest of the post are. Many like it this way – but some have asked how to make them show below as well. To do this look for this line of code inside gallery.php and delete it:

$saved_ids[] = get_the_ID();

How to fill the Author Box Information

The “About the Author” box right in the single posts page grabs information from your profile. Go to “Users” > “Your Profile”, under Biographical Info – enter your stuff there.

The Header Text takes too long to convert into the logo

Sometimes Cufon takes a bit of time to do its thing. Aparatus uses this to use your site name and automatically convert it into a decent looking logo. But sometimes – due to client browser constraints, it performs poorly.

For this issue it would probably best to use an image for your logo. If you really like how it looks with Cufon – just take a screenshot and convert the image into a jpeg and replace it inside the header.php.

Conclusion:

Enough of the FAQ! Download already! I hope you enjoy this theme as much I’ve seen it in many blogs. If you want to visit the original release post, click here. Otherwise, leave your comments and questions below. Happy blogging!

The Holy Grail

So I thought it was easy to have three columns, with both sidebars static widths; while the center column is the only one that expands according to the browser. Boy I was wrong – I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me! And through some serious searching I finally discovered “the Holy Grail” – from A List Apart. The funny thing is – I’m probably one of the last ones to find this “sacred” code. Thanks to Matthew Levine’s article – I achieved my layout.

Breadcrumbs, Buttons and CSS3

I started to implement my own breadcrumb function – but discovered Dimox’s solution – was far more complete. I needed a breadcrumb navigation that doesn’t require a plugin and Dimox did the job very well. Zurb’s Super Awesome buttons are what’s styling all the buttons in Maximus. You should notice the resemblance for each button – with only the base color that is different from one another.

Lastly, I’ve adopted quite a few CSS3 techniques from all over the net. From box shadows, text shadows and overlays – all contribute to the visual effects of Maximum.

Conclusion

I hope you find good use for Maximum. I did enjoy experimenting and discovering new ways of doing things. I imagine this type of theme would suit the serious content writers (ones who need all the real estate they can get). It may also be used for ecommerce, or “wiki” types of layouts – who knows. If you do decide to use it, don’t forget to leave your url in the comments section below! Happy Blogging!

Features

The layout itself is very modern. The page is housed in a beautiful etched container with very subtle textures. The large feature section showcases the “Apps” main message with large “call to action” buttons to get the viewers to instantly join.

There’s a blue ribbon separating the main section and the latest posts / sidebar. I imagined this to be an expanding area for categories and what not. Typically a little javascript should do this trick. The rest is pretty conventional, icons, typography, grid spacing and pixel perfect alignment.

The .psd file itself is grouped, layered and organized. Feel free to use – under creative commons license. I would like to know if this type of design still suit clients out there. If you feel it’s a bit “played out”, out dated – whatever, Please let me know in the comments section. Download the file from this link.

Corporate Blue Home Page

The design is a modern layout ideally for a financial or business institution (anywhere a progress chart can be represented). A large feature area with a colorful bar graph sits right below the header. Underneath this area are three even columns with large thumbnails that can house summaries of your company profile, links or even the latest news.

Finally, the page includes a mid-size footer with a grayscale version of the logo, page navigation and copyright information. All buttons are vector shapes for easy customization. Page elements are professionally spaced using the 960 grid system, while text layers are anti-aliased to represent how real web fonts look in a live browser. You can download Corporate Blue from this link

Bang Business Cards

This second template is a submission from one of my followers: G S Vineeth. The Bang Business Cards is ideal for start ups, graphic designers or even a product. The design features bright rays of green as a background, topped with a rounded container with subtle gradients. The text elements are beautifully etched, also with the same green shade.

The fonts used are called 20th Century which can be downloaded from this link. You can view additional work from GS Vineeth from his Graphic River portfolio. Download the Bang Business Card template from this link.

Conclusion

So it has been a good couple of years. I have a steady rate of readership, a number of downloads as well as a few followers. My posts keep coming, client work is steady – all is good. Once again, I ask you to keep me going – by simply leaving a nice comment below or follow me in twitter and facebook. I hope you make use of the .psd files and maybe make your next project a little bit easier.

Below is a screenshot of Rotary’s glorious homepage. The roundabout carousel sits right on the fold – with images that are pulled straight from your post thumbnails. Click to view the Rotary Demo page:

Custom Post Type

You like that carousel / slider in the home page? Well that is due to the amazing code known as the roundabout by Fred LeBlanc. You can easily change the contents of this carousel in two ways:

1) Using a custom post type

In the left hand side of the admin area you will notice a section called “Roundabouts”. Simply add a new roundabout and give it a title, some content and attach a “feature image”.

The images are automatically resized to the right dimensions. Also – you’re only allowed up to 5 roundabouts.

2) Change the static code

If you decide you don’t want to use the custom post type feature – you can simply change the HTML. Inside home.php you will see an unordered list with each item as follows:

1

<li><a href="#"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/586x360.jpg" alt="Need Image Here" /></a><div class="hiddendesc">Need to Enter Image</div></li>

Simply replace the values of your images, title and link and you’re set to go.

The Navigation Menu

This by far is my favorite 3.0 feature – custom menus. It’s simply amazing. I’ve added the code to Rotary that lets you design the main navigation of the theme.

Simply drag and drop items to the menu builder and save.

Feature Images

Just like the roundabout items – all posts in this theme can have its own feature image. Simply use the “Set feature Image” option for each post:

This image will show as thumbnails in the archive pages, and a medium photo inside the single page template:

Conclusion

Truly by using the features above – you can utilize the power of WordPress 3.0 as well as turn your blog into a cool CMS. Give Rotary a spin – it’s cool, it works and it’s only $10! Please leave your questions and comments below.

Let it be known that is is one of my older themes that I once had for sale in Themeforest. It did quite well in the beginning. Although I noticed the decline in sales as time passed, therefore I decided to give it away for free.

So what’s so special about it?

Monte Cristo is clean, sharp and minimal. Yet the subtle graphic effects give it a bit of modernity and heightened class. I especially like this theme because it kind of reminds me of the older style of web pages – with the borders, and the “page-peel” effect (which was quite big a couple of years ago). It comes with an options page where you can tweak the slideshow settings, switch stylesheets etc. It also comes with an alternate homepage template, as well as a “portfolio” page. Read my old sales pitch page for more details.

Creative Commons Who?

I’ve changed all my giveaways to have the Attribution Type of Creative Commons licensing model. What this means is that you can use the theme however you want – as long as you leave my credits in the footer. *But if you REALLY must take off the credits in the footer (i.e. you’re installing it for a client website): contact me – we may be able to work something out (hint: a small donation of some sort).

Conclusion

So go ahead, install Monte Cristo and have a blast. I’ve tested the theme to run on WP 3.0 and all major browsers. Also, make sure you read the “ReadMe.doc” file in the theme folder for additional instructions. Lastly, keep an eye out for more of my freebies. I shall be releasing more real soon!

Note: Since I created the theme almost a year ago, it doesn’t utilize the newer features of WordPress 3.0 such as post feature images, custom post types and custom menus.