Another boring WordPress theme post…

Ok, I talked about where to find themes, Footer Links to be wary of and the basic types of layouts for WordPress themes.  Now I want to talk about some of the details of themes…  Kind of a glossary of terms that one might run across while looking at themes for their self-hosted WordPress blog.

Just a note here.  There are tthings to consider when looking at themes for WordPress.org.  This is the version where you load WordPress onto your own hosting account, not WordPress.com… the hosted type.

Fixed Width – As the name implies, the width of the theme is fixed.  The good side of this is that the blog owner knows how the site will display… it is the same regardless of the viewers computer.  The bad side is that if they have a wide screen, it will be a band down the middle.  If they have a narrow screen, they might have to scroll to the side to see everything.

Fluid Width – Instead of a fixed width, the theme expands or contracts to fit the monitor of the viewer.  On the good side, the display generally looks good… it fits where it sits.  But… that also means that different people will see different presentations.  Pictures may move around a bit.  Things might not fit the alloted area.

Widget Ready – This means that the sidebars are able to be modified.  The blog owner can add widgets to their blog… Even if a theme isn’t widget ready, it might be modifiable to accept widgets.

Plug-ins Required (or not) – Some themes need other plug-ins to be installed in order to function.  Others don’t.  I would select a theme based on that criteria… plug-ins are easy to deal with.

Picture Menu - Instead of having a post represented with text, the posts are represented with an uploaded image.  I am working on one here.  Each post will have a descriptive picture.  Of course, I won’t be posting every day…  These might also be called Graphic Menu or Image Posts… or a variation.