Progress on the Thesis Theme Tools Skins came to a grinding halt in June due to health problems, but now we’re all better and will be introducing our new skins in just a few weeks.

The skins themselves are ready and have been tested with WordPress 3 and Thesis 1.8 and are completely compatible with all the most popular modern browsers.

We’re working on the Thesis Theme Tools back end now — installation instructions, forum, affiliate program, etc — and will go live as soon as they are done!

We’ll be installing a redesigned site August 20-22, so if you drop by and we’re offline, that’s what’s happening.

Here’s a rundown on the skins we’ll be offering when we go live:

• Citrus Family — Orange, Lime and Grapefruit: innovative, fresh designs with advanced features such as flexible message box, rounded corner options, social media configuration, logo upload and positioning, special text widgets, configurable copyright/links line and more!
• Gratis is a free skin with many of the attributes of premium skins. Careful attention to detail, plus complete compatibility with any Thesis layout.
• The Sales Page is a new paradigm for sales and membership sites! Instead of one long sales page, you have up to 8 sliding tabs on the front page, plus the full capabilities of Thesis behind it. Features admin panels for front page setup, header upload, copyright maintenance and footer upload and configuration.
• ShapeShifter comes with nine different colors, configurable flash slider and static image for the front page, multiple choices of front page widgets, logo upload and much, much more. Can be configured 72 different ways with easy-to-use admin panels.
• Simplicity White and Simplicity Gray are minimalist designs that focus the eye on your blog using the latest scientific research on eye movement and user design. Feature packed with logo upload, copyright configuration, widgets at the end of single posts and more!
• Singular combines many of the most asked for features of popular blogs into a single handsome, dignified design. The initial offering will be in blue, with six other colors coming within a few weeks. Five widgets, logo upload and positioning, copyright maintenance and much more!
• Skinny Latte is a new kind of Thesis skin exclusive to Thesis Theme Tools! Six front page widgets, fat footer, header and logo upload, date and search, social media maintenance, and the list goes on and on!

On tap for quick release are more innovative, feature-packed skins with designs and capabilities never before seen in a Thesis skin!

So stay tuned … and thanks for your patience!

We’ve delayed the grand opening of Thesis Theme Tools Skins until July 2010 so we can bring you even more goodness!

We wanted to open with a bang and our new skins will certainly do that. Coupled with a redesign of the site and our new skins, we also will be offering even more of the quality articles that you have come to expect from Thesis Theme Tools.

Here are the new skins we will be offering in July:

• ShapeShifter can be configured in 54 different ways! Nine colors, a slider or static image on the front page, configurable widgets, and much more! You can upload your images instead of having to use FTP, too!
• Skinny Latte shown in the image is an innovative design never before seen on any Thesis skin! It has admin panels that let you control everything from the header to the logo to social media.
• Citrus Orange, Lime and Grapefruit offer a fresh look unique among Thesis skins. You will be able to do everything you want right from easy-to-use admin panels.
• Singular is a dignified, more conservative skin, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks features. Widgets, logo upload and placement, and copyright maintenance are among its many features.
• Simplicity comes in two colors: white and gray. It’s the kind of minimal design many people are looking for. Again, it has many features that make setup easy.
• The Sales Page introduces a new look in a sales page for entrepreneurs. Rather than one long page, it has up to eight sliding panels on the front page. It’s easy to set up and maintain, and gives you control of every aspect of its appearance and operation.
• And a Mystery Skin that will be way beyond the capabilities of any free skin ever offered!

In the coming days, I will be highlighting each of these skins — including screenshots — so you know what is in store for you!

So hold on for just a little longer. It will be worth it!

You might not have known it, but I have been writing skins for others for quite some time. Now I have decided to strike out on my own and offer them directly to you!

Thesis Theme Tools Skins will be launched on June 1, 2010. We will offer fresh new designs, innovative features, unheard-of user customizability, and rock-solid reliability and stability, all for reasonable prices.

Tired of the same old ho-hum skin designs that the others tout? Envious of the snazzy non-Thesis themes available?

Well, just wait until you see our designs! Created by the extremely talented Joel Thompson, our intent is to offer the best designs not only for Thesis, but to be found anywhere!

But it’s not all just a pretty face. As you may expect from Thesis Theme Tools, the leader in advanced customizations, our skins have advanced features that focus on easy customization and maximum flexibility so you can make your skin just like you want it to be.

You will see features such as:

• Multiple widgetized areas
• Custom sidebar widgets
• Built-in slideshows
• Built-in featured content galleries
• Admin panels that let you upload and position your header, logo, footer graphics, and other graphics, as well as maintain tab panels, the footer, the copyright line, rotating galleries, and more!
• And some big surprises never before seen in Thesis skins!

In the coming days, I will be previewing some of our new designs so you can get a taste of what is awaiting you on June 1st!

So buckle your seatbelt! You are in for the ride of your life!

Feedburner is Google’s free service that makes having attractive RSS feeds a snap. It’s not hard to set up an account, but some of the more important services are hidden away under lots of menu tabs and sidebar menus.

The new article, “Feedburner Setup,” makes it all easy for you. It shows you in five illustrated steps how to set Feedburner up in under five minutes!

Also included is the way to set up RSS email subscriptions and why you should.

The article is catalogued in the Tips section under “Google Services Setup.”

Many of you have requested an update of the article about coloring individual menu tabs in Thesis 1.5.1. Your wait is over!

Thesis 1.6 offers even more ways to color your menu tabs, even without the dropdown menus. You can color the unselected tabs and hover colors individually, the selected tab, and each tab’s dropdown and dropdown hover colors. Even the RSS Subscribe word can be colored.

Color Individual Tabs on the Thesis 1.6 Nav Bar shows you how to do all this with many illustrations and code examples. The tutorial is clear and easy to follow, with each type of coloring having both an image and the code showing you how it was done.

Now you can exactly match your menu with your color scheme, or color your tabs by the categories they represent as I did with ChampagneGossip, which is still under development at this moment.

See, I do listen to you! On tap are many more articles that you, the readers, have suggested!

If you are a Firefox, Chrome or Mac user, you might be familiar with this scenario: Your Thesis site looks great and you are all proud. Then a friend emails you that your page is a mess in Internet Explorer. You gaze at the attached screenshot in horror. What can you do?

A new article, “Tutorial: Browser Detection to Execute IE Hacks” gives you two solutions. They will allow you to detect the Internet Explorer browser and include CSS code just for them to get them looking right. You can detect all IE browsers, or individual ones to target the problem.

Cross-browser compatibility is a big issue for developers. Clients insist on their sites looking the same in all browsers. These methods give you the tools needed to make the sites appear the same in all versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome both on the Mac and in Windows.

These tools are not always needed, but when they are, they are essential!

How many times have you wanted to customize just the Home page, or just one page, or only posts? You’ve heard about Conditional Tags but don’t have a clue how to use them!

Well, you will after reading this new article!

“Tutorial: Customizing Just Your Front Page, Pages or Posts Using Conditional Tags” provides all you need to know to be a master of Conditional Tags in your custom_functions.php file. Fully illustrated with code examples, it walks you through using Conditional Tags for the Home and Front pages, posts, and pages. It even shows you how to use CSS on selected pages!

This article will surely become one that you come back to again and again to get ideas for your customizations!

It is filed under the “Tips” section in a new grouping called “Code You Can Use.”

Sometimes we need to execute CSS within the PHP of our custom_functions.php file. This article shows you how to use the “style” statement to do so!

“Quickie: Executing CSS in custom_functions.php” is a clear and concise article on how to use the same CSS statements as you use in the custom.css file within your custom_functions.php file. It has an example that illustrates the method.

Yet another “Quickie” filed under the “Tips” section in the “Tips” grouping.

A frequent question in the DIYthemes forums is how to find the number of a page or post. It’s really simple, but more or less hidden in the bowels of WordPress!

“Quickie: How to Find a Page or Post’s Number” is an illustrated article showing you how to find the number in about 30 seconds! And it takes about 30 seconds to read!

This is the first of an ongoing series called “Quickies.” They will all be gathered in the “Tips” section under the grouping “Tips.”

Favicons are the little icon next to your domain name in your browser URL bar. Take a look at the one for Thesis Theme Tools, which is the hammer in our header.

A favicon of your own is a great way to make your site appear more professional and credible.

Creating a favicon is easy, and a new article, “How to Create and Use a Favicon” shows you how to do it. It is fully illustrated and compares the results of two leading favicon generators.

So, take 15 minutes and make your site look like you mean business and create a favicon!