Headlines ­ Front-of-Site Themes ­ Textgarden.org

TXP version: 4.3.0+ Ported by: ProText Themes Designer: Magnus Jepson Category: zine Demo · Download url

A smart looking “zine” theme from the boys at WooThemes with a couple of little extras thrown in by yours truly. Installation uses Manfre’s mem_templates plugin to import all page, form and CSS templates plus it installs all plugins used by the theme and activates them.

No theme images need to be uploaded to the “Images” tab. All aspects of the theme remain external to Textpattern itself.

The theme includes the “tbs_variables” and “tbs_widgets” plugins. Once installed you will find that you have 2 new tabs – “Presentation/Theme Variables” and “Presentation/Widgets” – both of which enable you to modify the set-up of the theme without the need to go anywhere near any code.

The theme comes with extensive documentation and includes a plugin to display part of that documentation in admin under the “Home/Documentation” tab. Here are some details about Headlines:-

• Comes with 15 colour variations which can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The theme uses it’s own theme logo by default but if you have your own logo image, upload it to the site-design directory that you uploaded during theme installation and enter it’s name on the new “Theme Variables” tab. If this field is left blank the theme will display a styled text version of the site name and site slogan that you entered in the “Preferences/Basic” tab.
• If you wish to display a horizontal Google Adsense block in the header this can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab. By default a warning block will be displayed until you have replaced it with your Google Adsense code in the head_google_adsense form template. A simple copy/paste job.
• Or you could display a couple of tweets from your Twitter feed instead.
• Failing those 2 you can display a banner ad or other banner-type image. Simply upload your image to the new “ads” directory and enter it’s name on the new “Theme Variables” tab. You can also add a URL if you want the image linked.
• You can switch the email link on or off on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can switch the category display below the topnav on or off on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can switch the display of the search block on or off on the new “Theme Variables” tab. This could be useful to those who need more space for their categories. There is a search sidebar widget available as a replacement.
• You can switch the display of the slider on or off in the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can set the quantity of articles displayed by the slider on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can set the slider to static or automatic on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• If you have the slider set up for automatic operation, when a visitor uses one of the side navigation links automatic operation is stopped, however you can set the time elapsed before automatic operation restarts on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The slider employs 2 different transition effects. The first is the slide effect. The speed of the slide transition can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The second transition effect is fade which is employed when using the title links in the side navigation block. The speed of the fade transition can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can set the quantity of articles displayed below the slider on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can switch the display of the sidebar to the left or to the right on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can set the main articles section on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can set the quantity of articles displayed by a listing page on the new “Theme Variables” tab. This does not apply to archive, search, tag and default sections.
• The “share” block displayed in individual_article view can be switched on or off on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• You can decide whether or not to use article adverts on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• If you do you can add a “global” advert to all articles in the main article section when in individual_article view with a link as well. This is done on the new “Theme Variables” tab. There are 2 custom_fields on the “Write” tab to allow you to add adverts on a “per article” basis. These fields will override any “global” setting made on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• Articles in the main articles section, in article_list view, will use an article_image if one has been allocated, however they don’t use the original image, they use an auto-generated thumbnail instead. The width of the thumbnail can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The height of the above mentioned thumbnails can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• Styling is included to set the position of images centre, float-left or float-right. For images within an article just add the class to your image tag. For article_images the class can be added on a “per article” basis using a custom_field on the “Write” tab.
• Both YouTube and Vimeo videos can be added to articles though only one per article. All you need to do is pop the video URL into one of the custom_fields provided. Videos will be displayed at the top of an article. If an article has a video attached it will not display an article_image or an advert. You can of course still add images to the “Body”.
• There are gallery pages to display all your Vimeo or YouTube videos and also all your images.
• The “Image Gallery” page, by default, will call all of your images from the “Images” tab however it can be filtered by category. You can add a “comma-separated” category list on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The display of the contact form on the “Contact” page can be switched on or off on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
• The contact form email address is entered on the new “Theme Variables” tab. If you have set the above field to display the contact form but haven’t entered a valid email address the form will not be displayed as it is pointless to do so. An “info box” will be displayed instead telling you to get the job done properly. This setting is also used by the “Email” link.
• By default the theme will use the standard textpattern feed tags however if you have a Feedburner account you can enter it’s name on the new “Theme Variables” tab and feed links will point to that instead. This field is also used by the “Feedburner Subscription” sidebar widget.
• A full-width page template is included.
• The “mem_templates” plugin needs to be installed manually but once that is done all page templates, form templates, CSS templates and remaining plugins are imported with a couple of “clicks” plus all plugins are “activated”.

All widgets can be used in either the sidebar or the extended footer. Widgets are included for Twitter, Feedburner email subscription, Flickr, advert, archive menu, blogroll, calendar, search, text (x2), YouTube videos, Vimeo videos and the “Woo tabs” box which includes popular posts, recent posts, recent comments and a tag cloud.

Now requires Textpattern 4.3.0 minimum.

Please note that this theme is not free and is only available for download from ProText Themes.