It’s a small feature, but a useful one, and one that highlights the attention to detail and flexibility that the Catalyst Theme developers always strive to include throughout the theme.

Content Meta Options

These appear above and below your posts and contain the details of who the author is, the date of posting, the post category and tags etc etc.

Catalyst Theme allows you to switch each item on and off separately and to define the wording around them in the Catalyst Core Options > Content Meta Options.

And of course you can style them as you wish using the options in Dynamik Child Theme as usual.

The Content Meta options appear in two locations on a post. These are the Byline which is just underneath the heading of the post, and at the bottom of the Post after all your content.

Content Meta Options Areas on a Post

The Post Byline Meta Display Options

In the above example, all of the Post Byline Meta Display options have been included, namely:

• Who wrote the post
• The date of posting
• The number of comments
• An “Edit” link to open and edit the particular post within WP Admin for the site

All of these options are selected/deselected in the Catalyst Core > Content > Content Meta Options seen here :

Catalyst – Post Byline Meta Display Options

Who wrote the post is displayed as the user nickname of the post’s author (set in WordPress Users menu)

The date is taken from the time of the Post’s publication (and can be edited in WordPress if desired)

The number of comments made so far on the Post will be displayed after the date.

The “Edit” link is only shown (to you) if you are logged in to WP Admin already. You can switch this off if you prefer so that you only see what a normal visitor would see.

The Catalyst options shown above allow you to define the text that appears before the Author’s name and the publication date to suit your requirements.

Additionally, if you have selected the option to show the number of comments made on posts you may not wish new comments to show as having 0 comments so far. To avoid this, and to encourage the first to be made, Catalyst provides a “Zero Comment Text” option where you can enter your own text to be displayed instead.

There is also an option here to include a separator character of your choice before the Comments data.

The Post Bottom Meta Display Options

In the example Post shown above, all of the Post Bottom Meta Display options have also been included, which are:

• Categories
• Tags
• Author Info

As with the Byline Meta Options, each of these are selected/deselected in the Catalyst Core > Content > Content Meta Options as seen below:

Catalyst – Post Bottom Meta Display Options

This will display the Categories and Tags attributed to the post. Again the texts that precede these items (if selected) can be defined here, including a separator character before the Tags data, as well as the separator between multiple categories and/or tags.

If selected, Author Info will include the Author’s Bio box which displays information from the User’s Profile as set in the WordPress Users menu. Following this information, the Post Bottom Meta Options shown above allow the text for the link to that user’s author archive page to be set as required.

Another “Edit” link to open and edit the particular post within WP Admin is also available in this area.

Styling the Content Meta Options

Finally, whatever the Meta Options you choose to display can be styled using the appropriate settings in the Dynamik Child Theme.

The Post Meta fonts and links can be set within the Dynamik Child Theme > Content settings, allowing you to style the font type, size and colours etc as desired and the Author Info Box can be styled using the settings in the Dynamik > Author settings.

The ability to select and customize the Content Meta Options allows you full control over what is displayed here, and how.

This can typically be very useful where you have ‘evergreen’ content and do not wish to include the publication date for example.

Although this is a relatively minor feature of Catalyst Theme compared to others maybe, it’s another example of how Catalyst enables you to implement exactly what you want!

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.

David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

Because people who use it love Catalyst Theme, this week’s post provides a special Valentine’s Day Menu of some of the great features that help make Catalyst so special.

So here goes!

First Course

Font Selection

A huge choice of font types is available to suit any requirement. As well as the usual range of standard fonts, Catalyst includes integration with the Google Font Directory giving access to dozens more (often funky) font types as well as the ability to include other external font choices too. In conjunction with Catalyst’s Universal Font Control and individual element customisations, you have full font control!

SEO

Catalyst Theme provides all the on-site SEO options you need to give your site a boost in the search engines. Total control is provided for Page and Post Titles, Descriptions and Meta fields along with fantastic SEO options for Categories, Tags and Author Archives. Catalyst also behaves nicely with other SEO plugins if required.

Licence Options

All editions of Catalyst Theme provide for installation on unlimited sites.  With a choice of licence options and prices there is a Catalyst Edition to suit everyone.

Child Themes and Dynamik Skins

Catalyst is a Theme Framework. This means core functionality is provided by the Catalyst (Parent) Theme, with all the design and styling customizations provided by a child theme. As well as the super powerful Dynamik Child Theme included with Catalyst, there are a range of pre-set Dynamik Skins and other Child Themes available to give you a flying start to building a great looking site!

Main Course

Custom Page Layouts

Catalyst Theme allows you to create unlimited Page Layouts with different widths and sidebar layouts, et. for example. Need one Page, Post or part of your site to look different than the rest? – No problem as it’s easy with Catalyst Theme!

Custom Widget Areas and Hook Boxes

Catalyst’s Custom Widget Areas let you add widget based content where you like using the vast choice of ‘Catalyst hooks’ that are included throughout the site layout, or as Shortcodes. Likewise its Custom Hook Boxes allow you to add any content into a specific area using the same hooks or shortcode options.

EZ Widgets

Catalyst Theme’s unique EZ widgets allow you to define pre-configured widget layouts that appear across the top and/or bottom of the Homepage and/or other pages and posts, as well options for constructing a fully widgetized static homepage if required – all simply, quickly and easily.

No Coding Required

You don’t have to be a coder to build a great looking site using Catalyst Theme. Everything is easy to set up and with 800 design options available to implement through drop down selections etc in the super flexible Dynamik Child Theme you’ll be able to implement and customise your designs easily to get faster results!

Custom CSS Builder

If you do want to play with adding a little extra CSS styling (say on a heading font or whatever), or even across the site, Catalyst’s Custom CSS Builder makes it straightforward to implement – building up CSS Code automatically using its simple select and add functionality. And again – you don’t have to know how to code to use this super functionality – that’s the point!

Dessert

Support

Catalyst Theme comes with excellent technical support and access to a very active forum where technical queries and design issues can be overcome and resolved. This is a major and super strong feature of Catalyst!

Tutorials and Documentation

With dozens of clear tutorial videos that cover a huge range of topics and the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet that provides 250+ pages of reference material, finding out how to do something in Catalyst, and how to make the most of it, is easy.

Community

Catalyst Theme has a well established and loyal community of users who don’t just use Catalyst, but also regularly contribute to its support and development through the Catalyst Forum mentioned above. So with Catalyst, help and advice from those with experience is always at hand.

Share this Valentine’s Day with a Theme you’ll love!

In fun…

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.

David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas

The Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas allow for a fully widgetized Static Homepage to be used in place of the Default WordPress Homepage.

They come into effect when the Static Homepage option is set using the Homepage Type setting at the top of the Dynamik > EZ options as seen here:

Selecting an EZ Static Homepage

The next option allows us to define the layout structure of the Static Homepage Widgets, with every combination of EZ Widget Areas from 1 widget area to 3 rows of 3 widget areas catered for as shown in these examples…

Example of EZ Static Homepage Layouts

The remaining options in the Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas section allow for the styling of these Widget Areas, their fonts, backgrounds and borders etc.

Once the layout is selected, the EZ Widget Areas are added to the other Widget Areas in the WordPress Appearance > Widgets menu and into which any widget based content can then be dragged and dropped as desired.

Added to Widget Areas in WordPress Widgets Menu

The result you might get from something like that is shown below where a 3_3_3 Static Homepage Layout has been used.

Static Homepage with EZ Widget Areas

This example shows the basic EZ Widget structure and functionality for an EZ-Widget Area Based Static Homepage.

Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas

As shown in last weeks post, the Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas can also be included on a Homepage including a widgetized static homepage like the one shown above.

This could give a result like this:

Homepage with Added Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas

Static Homepage EZ Extras

What you might have noticed from the above example is that this Homepage lacks a sidebar!

And of course, Catalyst Theme caters for those occasions when you might want to include one here too!

The Static Homepage Sidebar is included in the Homepage EZ Widget Area Extra section and allows a single sidebar to be added to either the left or right side of the Static Homepage Widget areas.

Once activated, the widget area will appear in WordPress > Appearance > Widgets menu where widget content can be added (to match the widget content in other sidebar widget areas for example).

Here we see it added to the right hand side (highlighted with a bit of CSS code for effect):

With Added Static Homepage Sidebar

And finally, as shown in last week’s post, we can also add the Homepage Slider to this type of Homepage too for a totally maxed out Widgetized Static Homepage!!

Maxed Out Widgetized Homepage

I hope you’ve found these posts useful in highlighting the total flexibility that Catalyst Theme can provide for Homepage layout and structure options.

Have fun!

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.

David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

As well as catering for the inclusion of widgets in standard widget areas such as Sidebars etc, almost any other requirement for widgetized content can be included through the use of Catalyst’s Custom Widget Areas and its wonderfully powerful and super flexible EZ Widget Areas.

In this week’s post I’m taking a look at Catalyst’s EZ Widget Areas and in particular the functionality they can provide for use on the homepage of a site.

There are three main blocks of Catalyst EZ Widget Areas available to work with:

• The Static Homepage EZ Widget Areas
• The Feature Top EZ Widget Areas
• The Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas

as well as the Homepage EZ-Widget Area Extras!

The Static Homepage EZ  Widget Areas allow a fully widgetized Static Homepage to be used in place of the Default WordPress Homepage along with the Static Homepage Sidebar option to be found in the Extras section.

The Feature Top and Fat Footer Areas can be used in combination with either the Default WordPress Homepage or an EZ Widget Area based Static Homepage used in its place. These two areas can also be used throughout the rest of the site on Pages, Posts and Archives etc.

The settings for the various EZ Widget Areas are all to be found in their own tab of options in the Dynamik Child Theme Options.

For this week’s post I’m going to concentrate on those areas that can be used on any type of homepage, be it the Default WordPress, or EZ Static, Homepage types.

Feature Top and Fat Footer Bottom EZ Widget Areas

These widget areas each allow upto 4 widget areas to be displayed, as shown in the following examples:

Example Feature Top and/or Fat Footer EZ Widget Layouts

In the case of the Feature Top EZ Widget Areas, these will be displayed as one row of Widget Areas above the main Homepage content, and likewise one row of Widget Areas below the main Homepage content for the Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas.

Both, or either of, the Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Areas can be switched on independently of each other for the site’s homepage.

Here is an example of a site’s homepage with a feature_top_4 EZ widget area layout displayed above the normal content.

Homepage with EZ Feature Top Widget Areas Added

Both the Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas can be used in conjunction with whatever type of homepage content is specified, which can be any of:

• the default WordPress Homepage – displaying the latest blog posts
• or the default WordPress Homepage – displaying a selected static page
• or a fully widgetized EZ Static Homepage – displaying an EZ Widget Area based layout

If used, the default WordPress Homepage option is set in the WordPress > Settings > Reading options.

Alternatively, the EZ Static Homepage can be selected for use in place of the Default WordPress Homepage in the Dynamik Theme > EZ > Static Homepage settings.

Homepage Slider

The other Widget Area that can be used on any type of homepage in addition to the Feature Top and Fat Footer areas, is the HomePage Slider (to be found in the Homepage EZ Widget Area Extras section).

This allows an image slider area to be incorporated between the Feature Top EZ Widget Area (if activated) and the rest of the homepage content.

If used, there is a choice of whether this area stretches side to side across the site, or is constrained to fit inside the Sidebar (if applicable) as shown here:

Homepage Slider Options

Here we can see the Image Slider Widget Area added to the previous Homepage example:

Homepage with Homepage Slider Widget Area Added

You can find further details of implementing Image Slideshows in this previous Feature of the Week post on the EZ Homepage Slider functionality.

In next week’s post I’ll look at how to implement a fully widgetized front page using the Static Homepage EZ Widget Areas.

In the meantime, have fun!

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

This showed how images can be used as the basis for the background of the buttons and how using Catalyst Theme as your WordPress theme vastly expands your options for designing a site incredibly simply, easily and quickly.

Of course, the use of images as part of the integral design of the site structure itself is not just restricted to the Navbars, but is typical of the comprehensive design flexibility that the Catalyst Theme (and the Dynamik Child Theme that is included with it) provides for all aspects of a site.

Also typical of this design flexibility is how easy Catalyst makes it to change and adjust virtually all the design characteristics for areas such as the Navbars, Header, Footer, Content, Sidebars, Comment areas and more.

Once again, the Navbars provide a good example to show this.

Firstly in the Catalyst Theme Core Options for the Navbars, you have the choice of using one, two or no Navbars. You also have the choice of whether to use the default Catalyst Theme settings to configure the layout of the content for them (what Pages or Categories get included or excluded from each or either of the Navbars), or to use the Custom WordPress menu functionality to be found in the WordPress Dashboard (under Appearance).

Catalyst also provides choices for the location of the Navbars including above, below or beside the Header, and the ability to use the right hand area of the Navbars for extra content such as links for subscription and social feeds (or indeed anything).

These options were covered in previous Feature of the Week Posts on Navbar Design Options and Navbar Extras.

The Catalyst Core options also include a checkbox to allow for jQuery type drop downs which give a nice ‘unrolling’ effect for any sub-pages under a Navbar menu item.

Catalyst Theme Core Options for Navbars

As last week’s post showed, the styling and design of the Navbar area(s) can then be implemented using the Navbar settings in the Dynamik Child Theme options, including the ability to use images for the various backgrounds involved.

As well as setting the fonts (including the font type, colour, size, etc) on an individual basis for the Active, Inactive and Hover states for the pages on the Navbar, these options also allow you to specify the border colour and thickness around the Navbar, what sides of the Navbar have a border included, or indeed whether there is a border at all.

Dynamik Settings for Navbar Borders

Likewise borders for the individual Page items on each Navbar can also be specified in terms of what sides have a border along with their colour and thickness.

Here we can see an example where Navbar 1 has been included beside the Header. It has a plain white background and has no border around it, but there is an individual border for the right hand side of each page item. Navbar 2 has had an image background included, a border around the whole Navbar and also includes borders for each page item.

Example of Navbar Flexibility in Catalyst Theme

Along with being able to set the Margins and Padding for various aspects of the Navbars, the options provided within Catalyst’s Dynamik Child Theme allow you to comprehensively design and style the Navbars for your site super easily.

And all this without coding!

Although this post uses the Navbars to highlight all this functionality, similar options are provided by Catalyst/Dynamik throughout the settings for the other areas of a WordPress site.

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

This is distinct from the standard functionality that WordPress provides to upload (or insert from the Media Library) images directly into the content for Posts and Pages etc.

Catalyst Theme allows you to include images throughout the structure of the site itself simply and easily.

For example, throughout the various tabs of settings in the Dynamik Child Theme, you will notice drop downs that allow the Background type to be defined for a given element.

These include background areas for the Body area, the Wrap, Header area, Navbars, Content areas, the Footer, Sidebars etc

The choice provided in the drop down is to use a solid colour, to leave it transparent, or to use an image as the basis for the background concerned.

Here’s an example of using solid colours for the various states of the Navbar Buttons.

Example Navbar Backgrounds Settings

This provides for a very plain colour effect for the area concerned as we can see here where the Navbars are solid red.

Example of Navbars using Solid Colour Backgrounds

The Main Navbar Background colour is set to a solid deep red with the Inactive Pages set to be Transparent so that these let the colour of the main background come through, and the Active Page is displayed as a solid grey colour.

If a more ambitious effect is required, this can be achieved by using images for these backgrounds instead.

Using the Image Uploader in Dynamik Theme we just select and upload suitably sized images.

Now, as you’d maybe expect from everything you may have read in other Feature of the Week posts by now, Catalyst Theme provides a great deal of flexibility in how you can utilize the uploaded images.

For example, you can use an image so that it is used in the area concerned just the once and does not repeat.

Or you can set the image to repeat horizontally to fill the space, or repeat vertically, or both.

When using an image, any part of the area involved that is not covered by the image can be set to fill with a specified colour, or to be transparent.

And this can be done for each and every background area on an individual basis as required!

As we can see here in the Image Uploader in the Dynamik options, I have uploaded two small image files, both 40 pixels high and only 5 pixels wide.

The Image Uploader in Dynamik Options

We can now select these images in the settings for the various backgrounds in the Navbar options in Dynamik.

Navbar Backgrounds Settings with Image Type Selected

Although the height of the images is set to match the Navbar height, the images are purposefully narrow so they can be set to repeat horizontally to fill whatever the various widths of the Navbar buttons might be.

Now the result is a site with Navbars that now look a little nicer maybe, with the gradient colours of the images providing a degree of highlight to the Navbar areas.

Navbars Using Image Based Backgrounds

Catalyst allows you to incorporate images like this throughout the site, simply, quickly and with dramatic effect.

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

For the uninitiated, a Breadcrumbs Trail is a means of showing a visitor where they currently are in the hierarchy of the site’s structure of levels and sub-levels.

In a Breadcrumbs Trail, each level of the hierarchy is shown as a hyperlink, so that a visitor can jump back up one or more levels.

Here is an example where three layers of Category and sub-Category have been set up in such a hierarchy  – that is a Post may be assigned to a Category that has a Parent Category (containing it and other Categories) and that Category itself also belongs to a higher level Parent Category of its own.

The Catalyst BreadCrumbs Trail

This shows the visitor that the point they are at on the site is the post called “Catalyst Document Title” which has a Category of “In Page SEO” which has a Parent Category of “SEO Features” and which itself has a Parent Category of “Features”.

If the reader wants to, they can now simply click on the link for the Category “SEO Features” in the Breadcrumbs Trail for example.

That will take them straight to that Category’s Archive Page of Posts and thus provides a simple and fast method of navigation that may not be so readily available elsewhere on the page.

Higher Level in Category Level Hierarchy

As well as Posts and Categories, the Breadcrumbs Trail also applies to Pages and Sub-Pages in a similar manner.

SEO Benefit

As well as providing a useful indicator to the visitor of their location within the site, and an additional means of navigation through it, one of the other main benefits that implementing a Breadcrumbs Trail can provide is regards Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

As the Breadcrumbs Trail appears near the top of the page content, it is one of the earlier items on the page that the search engines will encounter and so provides an excellent opportunity to legitimately include plenty of keyword rich phrases that are all related and relevant to the topic for the search engines to digest!

Catalyst Theme Breadcrumb Options

Catalyst Theme provides a great deal of flexibility for implementing a Breadcrumbs Trail.

The main options for it can be found in the Breadcrumbs Options section of the Catalyst Core Options > Content settings.

These allow you to exclude the Breadcrumbs Trail from say, the Home Page while including them on every other type of page… or just including them on Archive Pages etc…

There are also options to amend the text for the different elements and instances of the trail along with specifying the separator character between each part of the trail.

Catalyst Theme Core Breadcrumb Options

Finally, there is a comprehensive set of options to style and design the Breadcrumbs area including fonts, colours and borders etc in the Dynamik Options > Breadcrumbs section.

Dynamik Options for Styling the Breadcrumbs Trail

Once again, Catalyst Theme allows you to implement great functionality with maximum flexibility and design choice.

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

Normally these Feature of the Week posts focus on some aspect of functionality provided within Catalyst Theme such as SEO options, Custom Page Layouts, Widgets, Header options etc, but I’d like to kick off the first of this year’s posts by taking a look at something less functionality based but still very important as a feature in its own right.

So this week’s post is about the Catalyst Theme licensing options and the flexibility they provide to suit the requirements of different users.

There are three license options for Catalyst Theme, namely the Basic, Personal and Developer Editions.

Each edition has a different price point with access to additional resources included accordingly.

Catalyst Theme License Options

However, ALL editions include the same great Catalyst Theme features, functionality, settings and options that allow any user to design and build great looking websites quickly and easily.

For example, they all include the Catalyst Theme framework and its associated core functionality for SEO, Header layout, Navbar composition, Content and Page Layout formats with Advanced Options to cater for Custom Page Layouts, Widget Areas, Hook Boxes and Custom CSS coding.

They also all include the Dynamik Child Theme.

This is a powerhouse of a child theme which provides literally hundreds of design options covering almost every aspect of site styling and design, all through drop down selections and simple text fields that require no coding.

And all this functionality can be used on any number of websites whatever edition of the Theme is licensed, including Basic.

One difference between the editions is that the Basic Edition includes the provision of technical support for one site, the Personal Edition includes support for two sites and the Developer Edition for unlimited sites.

Other child themes (usually pre-designed to provide a specific feel for a given purpose, but often still very adaptable) and pre-configured skins for the Dynamik Child Theme itself are available in the Catalyst Theme Marketplace where both free and premium (paid) options are available.

Catalyst Theme Marketplace

As well as the premium products which are available for purchase by owners of all Catalyst editions, owners of the Personal and Developer Editions of Catalyst also get access to the free products in the Catalyst Marketplace including the free child themes and Dynamik skins available there.

The free products in the marketplace are not available to owners of the Basic Edition however.

Likewise, owners of all editions have access to the members forum for advice and ideas on implementing Catalyst Theme.

Only owners of the Developer Edition however, also get access to an additional exclusive section in that forum, the Catalyst Developer Resources area.

Catalyst Theme Forum Developer Resource Area

The Developer Resources area provides an area for those who want to talk about the deeper workings of Catalyst Theme and things like plugins, code snippets, templates, shopping cart integration etc and to find and share useful resources for site development with each other.

The Developer Edition also provides those owners with additional resources for developing their own child themes and allows you to become a Catalyst Marketplace Contributor where you can share, or indeed sell, your work to the wider Catalyst community.

This includes the Vanilla Child Theme which is exclusively available free of charge to Developer Edition owners only and can be used as the foundation for child theme development.

So, three editions at three prices to suit different requirements. And if you find your requirements change over time, you can just upgrade for the difference in license price at the time.

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

That showed how Catalyst makes it a simple job to change the Header from being fixed within the width of the site, to being fluid so that it fills the whole width of the window.

It also showed how the fluid area could be extended to include the menu navigation Navbars so that they too fill the width of the window if desired, as well as some of the different location options for the Navbars in and around the Header area.

This week, I’m going to examine some of the options that Catalyst Theme provides for the Header itself.

These provide such a degree of flexibility that they enable anyone to implement almost any header design they wish!

First, the Header settings in the Catalyst Core options allow for the choice of a text or logo based Header.

Catalyst Core Header Settings

If choosing the Text option, it will use and display the Site Title and Tagline as shown in the WordPress General Settings.

WordPress General Settings

Or, if you have a correctly sized logo image you want to display, this can be uploaded using the Image Uploader and selected using the Header options (both found as separate tabs in Dynamik Options).

In either case, the text or image will fill the Header from the left hand side – so a 500 pixel wide image will fill the left-most 500 pixels etc…. (there are also easy to adjust settings available in the Dynamik options for padding and margins to push them in from the edge as required).

There is also an option to split the Header area into separate Left and Right areas by activating the Header RIght Area. This therefore gives you the ability to use both areas for different purposes.

So for example, you might use the Header Left Area for a text based header and the Header Right Area for a logo image – or vice versa, with a distinctive image in the Left Area and your company contact details showing in the Header Right Area.

If the Header Right Area is activated, the content for it can be easily included in a Catalyst Custom Widget Area or within a Custom Hook Box which can then can be hooked into the Header Right Area (as seen below using a Custom Widget Area).

Creating a Custom Widget Area for the Header Right Area

As shown in a previous Feature of the Week post on Custom Page Layouts, Catalyst’s Custom Widget Areas and Hook Boxes can be specified for inclusion on individual Page Layouts.

This means that you can effectively include or exclude the content for the Header Right Area for different page layouts so that it only appears on those pages you want it to (or all of them too of course!).

The final option in the Catalyst Core settings for the Header Area is to allow you to specify where the Header content links to when it is clicked on – including to nowhere at all!

Normally, this would be left as pointing to the site’s Homepage, but as with most things Catalyst – the choice is yours!!

The Catalyst Core options for the Header are very versatile and cater for a great deal of design flexibility when forming the Header area content.

Have fun.

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

A Growing Community

Something we’ve really enjoyed this past year is being able to watch our community grow, both in number and diversity. We have all kinds of folks from web designers to mommy bloggers, lawyers to affiliate marketers, real estate agents to fashion designers, etc.. etc..

Yet one thing that doesn’t seem to change is the quality of people we find in our forums. Super helpful, very friendly and always ready for a challenge. I’ve said it over and over again, the Catalyst Community is one of the best around…period!

Catalyst Basic Edition

To kick off the beginning of year two we’re introducing a new Edition to the lineup.

Up until now there has only been two versions of Catalyst, Personal and Developer, but starting January 1st Catalyst Basic will be added to the bunch. What this will do is provide an even more affordable option while still providing the core benefits and features you expect like the full version of Catalyst, the Dynamik Child Theme, access to the support forums, access to the Catalyst Cheatsheet, updates for life and so on.

The main difference between Basic and Personal, however, will be the level of Catalyst Marketplace access. While Basic still allows you to purchase Premium products from the Marketplace, both Personal and Developer open the door to the dozens of free Dynamik Skins, Child Themes, Plugins and Graphics.

We’ve put so much into adding more and more value to the Catalyst “Product”, with the most recent addition being the Marketplace, that we felt it was time to make some price adjustments. But instead of just increasing prices we moved in both directions, providing price points for everyone.

So essentially, Catalyst Basic gives you everything that Catalyst Personal offered before we launched the Catalyst Marketplace, at a more affordable price. So we’re confident that these price adjustments and the addition of the Basic Edition will be a win-win. (See our new pricing table in the Catalyst Theme Store for more details.)

Celebrating With A Sale

So to kick things off we’re having a sale throughout the rest of December, pricing Developer at the new Personal price and Personal at the Basic price. This means whichever version you choose you’re getting a killer deal on an amazingly powerful WordPress Theme Framework! And for those who already own Catalyst Personal you can upgrade to Developer for only $50.

A Boost In Commissions

We couldn’t leave out our amazing affiliates in the celebration so we’ve added a nice little bonus for them as well. During this one year anniversary sale all commissions will be bumped up to 50%. So not only do you have the sale to work with in generating commissions, but you will receive half of each purchase in profits!

Looking Ahead To Another Amazing Year

I can’t express how excited I am to dive into 2012! WordPress just keeps growing by leaps and bounds while theme and plugin developers keep pushing out higher quality products in new and innovative ways. So to be a part of this massive online marketplace with a community that is nothing short of amazing is a blessing and a privilege to say the least.

We have many exciting new projects lined up with many new ideas that have been steaming away on the back burner, finally looking to get our attention. We hope to increase the exposure of Catalyst while expanding the resources that surround it. And as always it’s our number one goal to provide the most value possible in a WordPress Theme Framework, knowing that it’s not just the theme that matters, but also all the other bits and pieces that support it.

So to everyone in our Catalyst community and to the entire WordPress world as a whole we hope these last few weeks of 2011 are the best so far and the following 52 are even better!

Regards,

Eric