If your site is category driven, creating navigation tabs for each category is a good way to drive readers to the specific categories they want to read.

My lifestyle design blog has a number of category links in the navigation bar. The default navigation bar, above the header, has a tab for the “Goal Projects” category, along with all its subcategories. In addition, I have added a secondary navigation bar below the header (a technique I’ll document in a later tutorial) that includes all a navigation tab for all the major categories used on the site. The process of adding a tabbed category link in the default navigation bar is a fairly simple process with the Thesis theme.

After you have created your WordPress categories, go to your dashboard and navigate to Thesis>Site Options>Navigation Menu>Categories. Then just select those you want included and save.

Yes, it’s that simple.

Note that if you include a category  with subcategories, any subcategories you select will show up as drop down submenu items. For example, see the Goal Projects category with it’s associated specific subcategory projects.

After you have created a WordPress page and added the page to your navigation tabs, you may want to change the words that display in the linked tabs. You can do this while keeping the page title just as it is. This is an easy change with the Thesis theme.

Log into your WordPress dashboard.

Click on Thesis>Site Options.

Click on the + sign next to Navigation Menu>Pages.

Double click on the name of any of the navigation tabs. Type in the name you want displayed.

Click Save and you’re done.

Note that this doesn’t change the actual page name (as seen from the list on Edit Pages), just the way the link displays in the tab. I tend to use this feature mostly to shorten page names that are too long. For example, you might have a page titled “Advertising Disclosure” — which you want to leave intact for clarity — but may change just the tab navigation to “Disclosure.” Or perhaps you have a page titled “Order Form” but you change the tab to read simply “Order.”

Be careful when changing the tab name because it’s easy to confuse which tab goes to which page.

After you have created a WordPress page and added the page to your navigation tabs, you may want to reorder the tabs that are displayed. This is another easy process with the Thesis theme.

Log into your WordPress dashboard.

Click on Thesis>Site Options.

Click on the + sign next to Navigation Menu>Pages.

Hover over the menu item you want to move until you see the crosshairs cursor. Then click and drag the menu item to to desired order.

Click Save and you’re done.

Changing the size of your clickable title text in Thesis is easy as long as you like the limited choices. If none of those sizes works for your blog, you can set the size to anything you want with a little custom code.

I’ll show you how to change the font size of the title text to one of Thesis’ options and how to use any other size you want as well.

Thesis Theme Title Font Size

Go to Thesis>Design Options in the left navigation bar.

Click the box with the + sign next to Header.

Choose your size from the drop down menu. You are limited to: 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46 point sizes.

Click the Save button.

Custom Title Font Size

Go to Thesis>Custom File Editor in the left navigation bar.

Make sure custom.css is selected in the popup menu under Currently editing:…

Scroll to the bottom of the field. Add the following code, where x is the number and y is the unit:

.custom #header #logo {
font-size:xy;
}

For example, if you want your linked title text to be 50 pt you would add this code:

.custom #header #logo {
font-size:50pt;
}

If you wanted your linked text to be 6 em, you’d use this code.

.custom #header #logo {
font-size:6em;
}

Click the Save button.

The much-anticipated version of the Thesis theme for WordPress is now ready for download. It’s got a great new features set.

• Control robots meta tags on every post/page of your site
• Control robots meta tags on category/tag archives
• Save and restore Thesis options
• Five options pages: Site Options; Design Options; Page Options; Custom File Editor; Options Manager
• Faster loading with cleaner PHP
• JavaScript libraries
• New home page controls with better SEO options
• Flexible comment system for better customization
• Easy 301 redirects
• New hooks for more precise positioning
• New headline filter
• Beefed up internationalization

If you are a Win with 1 client (or have purchased your own version of Thesis) and would like help updating to Thesis 1.7, we can do it for only $12.50 for the month of April.

At Win with 1 our goal is to provide our valued clients with a premium blog setup at the very best price in the world. When we setup a new blog for a client, it’s the same blogging setup we use ourselves.

One of the most important pieces of our blogger package is the premium Thesis theme.

Thesis is the “skin” that creates the visual elements on your site. In over seven years of blogging, it’s the absolute best theme we’ve ever used, bar none. Here are few of the current features that make Thesis such an amazing WordPress theme.

Thesis Options

Without hacking into files of code, this set of options allows you to select which pages to include in your navigation bar, choose a home page, or determine how many blog post teasers appear. You can set your feed (I use FeedBurner) and add footer and header scripts (for analytics, etc.). You have options to hide or show most elements on your pages, like your site name and tagline, bylines, and tagging.

All sorts of customizations are as simple as clicking a checkbox.

Design Options

If you don’t know CSS, HTML, or PHP, don’t worry. You can still customize the look of your site easily. These options allow you to select fonts and sizes for most page elements as easily as you do in a word processor. You can choose a one, two, or three column layout (and the size of each) by just using a popup menu and filling in a couple of fields — and you can choose where you want each column. Use the multimedia box and the feature box, or don’t. Your choice and the change takes just seconds.

No code hacking, just the same easy selections you use in other programs.

Thesis Openhooks

This WordPress plugin — designed specifically for Thesis theme users — provides an easy way for you to add just about anything you want (images, text, even php) to just about any location on your posts and pages. Each area on your site has a name (like “before title” or “after media box” or “footer”) and if you want to add something to that section, you simply place the information in the field with the same label.

Every Win with 1 blog has Thesis openhooks installed and activated.

Updating

My first blog went live on January 1, 2003. It had a free theme and, over time, I hacked it to the hilt. Read that to mean I customized it to the point that I can’t upgrade without breaking it. It’s a nightmare and in order to get it up to date, I have to right a script to pull the data out and put it back in a different way.

Don’t worry about the technical issues, the point is that without knowing it, I put that blog on a deadend and it needs to be completely redone. When I do it this spring, it will be a Thesis blog. Why? Because Thesis was designed to be customized in a way that allows updates while leaving customization intact. Genius.

[Update: In January of 2011 I finally took the hacks apart and changed the site theme. You guessed it, it's now running (happily!) on Thesis.]

Bottom Line

After years using other themes, we finally found what we were looking for. We’ll never go back. We can focus on what we do best with the most efficient theme out there. We love Thesis. It works for us.

Sometimes you don’t want the most recent blog posts to be the highlight of your web site. The typical blog aggregate page works well on our custom home blog, because we’re highlighting the construction process and the progress is marked by the current phase. But your site may be best suited to feature something else.

Some examples:

• On this site, for example, I create blogging tips and blog tutorials for my clients. But when someone arrives at the home page, the featured item they see is the service we provide for those who want to start blogging.
• An engineering company uses a blog to keep customers updated on firmware updates, new products, and promotions, but features it’s LonTalk router on the home landing page.
• A Utah County community theater uses a blog post for all it’s changing information (new shows, auditions, etc.), but wants to keep the currently playing production front and center, so theater goers can easily find out the details.

If you site is best suited to have a static landing page to feature your products or services on the home page, with a regularly updated blog on a back page, this tutorial is for you. Follow this step-by-step tutorial to create a static landing page in WordPress with the Thesis theme.

Login into the WordPress dashboard area.

Create a new WordPress page for your new landing page. Enter the info you’d like. Publish your page.

Create a new WordPress page that will be used as the blog aggregate page (typically seen as the home page in blogs, with most recent post listed first). Publish your page. [This step is optional if you're going to use this as a static site without blog entries.]

Click Settings>Reading in the left navbar.

Click the radio button Front page displays>A static page.

Select your landing page from the Front page popup menu.

Select your blog aggregate to appear on (if any), from the Posts page popup menu.

Click Save Changes.

Click Thesis Options>Thesis Options in the left navbar.

Expand Navigation Menu>Select pages to include in nav menu by clicking the + on the right side.

Uncheck the box next to your landing page name.

Check the box next to your blog page name.

Now you have a static landing page on the home page of your site and a blog aggregate page on a less prominent page.

On January 1, 2003, two other women and I began blogging. We had been writing a popular Q&A column together for over a year on a large web site and decided to go solo. We wanted more freedom, more timely updates, more interaction with our readers.

In truth, I don’t recall whether any of us had ever heard the term “blogging” at the time. But what we envisioned was a site where we accepted questions, posted our answers, and then allowed reader feedback to be posted below the original post.

WordPress was just a glimmer in Matt Mullenweg’s eye and I hadn’t even graduated from hand coding to GoLive (not to mention DreamWeaver). My 16-year-old was trying to help me grasp CSS over table-based web design. So our original “blog” consisted of a groovy web site featuring our column and emailed replies entered daily — by hand.

That was ancient history. Things have improved.

Today starting a blog is exponentially easier and — with some guidance — requires little more technical skill than using a word processor.

The WordPress backend is elegant and straightforward. The Thesis Theme allows for one-click customization and has built in search engine optimization. Having your own domain and hosting means you control your blogging destiny and you present a professional face to the world.

If you’ve always wanted to start a blog, if you have ideas and stories to share with the world, if you want to take the next step in your business — make the move. Start your blog today! In one week, you’ll be sharing your ideas with the world!

Are you looking for a new theme for your WordPress blog? Here are seven deadly things to avoid.

1. Unsupported Themes
   Free theme providers often move to other projects or don’t have time to fix problems or modify design. Generally this isn’t a problem for premium themes, but always check the track record of the author before basing your brand on a particular design.

   Before finding the Thesis theme, I used a few free themes by Sadish. He provides very consistent support to his customers. In return, you must link back to his site.

2. Outdated Themes
   The corollary to unsupported themes is an outdated theme. Many older themes don’t support the latest features of WordPress. If they haven’t been updated recently, the chance that they will be updated in the future is probably slim.

   Having a theme that keeps up with the the WordPress application is an important part of keeping your site upgradeable.

3. Themes that Don’t Validate
   Validation isn’t the end-all, be-all in site value. Ultimately most users don’t care if you site validates, they only care if it works for them. But validation is a relatively good indicator of how much care a designer puts into their coding.

   If you aren’t a programmer, using a markup validation service to check your site may give you some useful information about the expertise of the designer.

4. Themes with Dark Backgrounds/Light Text
   While there are some folks who prefer a dark background with light text, the vast majority of web users find such sites hard to read and less appealing. Most blog readers — even those who favor dark backgrounds — find dark text on a light background to be readable and acceptable. Almost no one objects to such sites.

   Given these facts, there is an easy way to please most every reader: use a light background and dark, legible text.

5. Themes with Navigation Nightmares
   Nothing turns me away from a site quicker than non-intuitive navigation. There is so much good information on the internet, there is simply no reason that I should have to waste my time poking around, hunting, and searching for what I need.

   When you choose a theme, it must fit your content and your presentation. Make it easy for visitors to find what they need and they’ll be back for more.

6. Incomplete Themes
   Some themes have great looking home and post templates, but no options for static pages, pages without sidebars, etc. Choosing such a theme will severely limit your ability to present your material in the most attractive and sensible way.

   Look for templates that offer the full suite of options. This will give you flexibility and room to grow.

7. Ugly Themes
   Certainly beauty is in the eye of the beholder and site design is a subjective exercise. But some themes don’t appeal to any significant portion of the population. Avoid designs that most people hate, even if you don’t.

   When I designed this site, I showed it to over a hundred other professional bloggers for feedback. Even with years of blogging experience, some of the feedback surprised me. Similarly, when Men with Pens redesigned their site, they accepted feedback from readers and made changes to suit. Good idea!

Over the years, we’ve used many themes. Early last year we settled on the Thesis theme. We love Thesis and install it on every client site. It has a clean look that’s easy to customize. Upgrading is simple. And support is second to none.

If you’re looking for a new theme that can grow with your site, we highly recommend Thesis.

Creating a custom image for your blog header requires tools and expertise that are — as my college professors would say when I asked a question they didn’t want to answer — “beyond the scope of this text.” But if you already have the image you want to use, adding it to your Thesis theme is a breeze. Follow these steps and you’ll have it done in just a few minutes.

Upload your image onto your server in this directory:

…wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/images

Login to your Dashboard.

Click on Appearance>Thesis Openhook in the left sidebar.

Scroll down to the field labeled Header. In this field, insert the following code with the two specified changes:

<a href="http://yourdomainname"><img src="http://yourdomainname/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/images/yourfilename" alt="" /></a>

yourdomainname = the URL to your site (such as www.win-with-1.com)

yourfilename = the name you gave to your header image (such as logo.png)

Click the checkbox next to Remove Thesis default header.

Click Save.