If you’ve been around this site for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of the Thesis WordPress Theme. I use it for 4 of my sites because of it’s ease of use, superior SEO, and because it sets the gold standard for beautiful typography and awesome support via their forums.

It’s been a little while since the last release and update to the theme, but today the folks behind the theme released the version 1.8 Thesis theme update.

For those of you who have been holding off on purchasing the theme because it was still too tough for you to install header or favicon graphics, this version will be the one that probably gets you to take the plunge. As a part of this upgrade Thesis now includes header and favicon uploader tools, which means you no longer have to mess around with FTP sites, custom.css files or or other more advanced things in order to get your header graphic to show up. You just choose the graphic from your desktop, and hit the upload button. Done!

Features Of Thesis 1.8

Thesis 1.8 offers a plethora of great new features that will make it the easiest version of Thesis to use… Ever.  From the Thesis site:

1. Header Image Uploader

Adding a unique header image is a great way to personalize your site. The problem is, simply adding a header image does not ensure proper SEO or good usability. Web ninjas know that header images should be clickable, CSS-based, and SEO-optimized, and let’s face it—this all sounds pretty technical.

Fortunately, Thesis 1.8 steps in and saves the day. Instead of dealing with all that technical mumbo-jumbo, you only need to upload your desired image, and Thesis will do the heavy lifting for you. It’s easy, optimized, and oh-so-simple.

2. SEO Character Counters

Did you know that search engines will only show a specific number of characters in <title> and <meta> description fields?

No worries. Put your fingers away, because you don’t need to touch your computer screen to count characters anymore. Thesis 1.8 helps you work within these constraints by offering character counters on appropriate input fields throughout the WordPress interface.

3. New Google Fonts!

Who doesn’t love having a slew of fantastic fonts to use on their site? Thesis is now the first premium website framework to support the Google Font Directory, which gives you access to 28 web-fonts for free!

And the best part? These fonts are web-safe—they’re served directly from Google servers, so everyone can see your fonts no matter what browser or operating system they have!

4. WordPress Nav Menu Support

One of the most awesome improvements in WordPress 3.0 is the navigation menu builder, and Thesis 1.8 offers full support for this exciting new feature. Best of all, if you choose to use the WordPress nav menu, you’ll be able to tweak its design by using Thesis’ existing nav menu design controls! Win-win!

5. Category/Tag/Taxonomy Page Options

In version 1.7, I introduced a new “Page Options” system that allowed you to add SEO details like <title> and <meta> content to category and tag pages. There are three notable changes to this system in version 1.8.

First, I’ve moved all of these options to a more logical position: inside WordPress’ category and tag editing pages. Now, you’ll be able to edit everything in one place without having to bounce around between different pages inside the admin interface.

Second—and this is my personal favorite feature in version 1.8—you’ll be able to add a unique headline and unique content to every category, tag, or taxonomy page on your site! This has huge implications for SEO, and even better, it will allow you to create pages that are more useful for your users.

Third, Thesis now offers full support for custom taxonomy pages in addition to category and tag pages. Should you choose to use custom taxonomies on your site, you’ll be able to benefit from Thesis’ incredible customization controls and unmatched SEO prowess.

6. Favicon Uploader

Favicons are a great way to extend your site’s brand, and Thesis 1.8 contains a simple favicon uploader that you can use to add one of these babies to your site. Like the header image uploader, the favicon uploader is extremely simple—just upload your image, and Thesis handles the rest of the work for you.

7. Custom Loop API

As far as developers are concerned, the new Custom Loop API is probably the most exciting, powerful, and flexible tool that I’ve ever added to Thesis. The premise is simple:

The Custom Loop API allows you to target and modify the content area of every type of WordPress page and, if you’re so inclined, every page of your website.

In other words, this is the ultimate custom template system. For an in-depth look and some examples, check out the Custom Loop API documentation.

So if you’ve been holding off on buying Thesis because it still seemed to difficult to get your site to show up the way you wanted, now is the time to jump in on the deal – because you can easily customize your site with a custom header graphic and favicon – simply by uploading it via the WordPress dashboard.  So head on over to Diythemes.com and buy it today! (My recommendation is the developer’s option so you can use it on as many sites as you want. )

If you click on the link below I will get a small affiliate fee if you choose to purchase the Thesis theme. I thank you in advance!

Worked with Hank over at HankColeman.net to create a new header, twitter background, favicon and avatar for his personal site. I love how it turned out!

Worked with JustAsk.net to create a new twitter background that incorporated their contact information, their logo, and the names of their tweeters. I think it turned out well.

Created a new logo design based off of the old design for Rapid Green Tech. I really like how it turned out.

Put together a whole site design for the new personal finance blog called Smart On Money. The site has now launched, and in my humble opinion looks pretty good!

Worked with Mike at http://www.moneysmartsblog.com to come up with a new header and favicon for his re-branded site, formerly known as Four Pillars. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

I worked with the folks over at notmadeofmoney.com to come up with a header design and favicon. It turned out pretty good I think!

Worked on a header graphic and logo for a new site that is still under development. Look for it soon!

It’s been a while since the Thesis WordPress Theme has been updated, but just yesterday Chris Pearson over at DIYThemes launched the newest best and brightest version of the theme yet!   This version will include enhancements to the ease of upgrading your version of the theme through the new “options manager”, new SEO controls and 301 redirects, faster page loads, reorganized options pages, and more!  I just upgraded one of my Thesis sites last night, and it’s humming along faster than ever – and I love the new options!

If you’ve been waiting to jump on the Thesis bandwagon, now is the perfect time to dip your toe in the water!

New Features Of Thesis WordPress Theme Version 1.7

Insane new SEO controls and detail

The SEO customization in version 1.7 has been made even more comprehensive.   With 1.7, you’ll be able to control the robots tags (noindex, nofollow, noarchive) on every post and page of your site, and better still, the new Page Options will give you total control over all these details and more on your Category and Tag archive pages!

Options Manager

One thing that can be a bit of a pain if you’re upgrading a Thesis themed site is making sure you save all of your design and site options before you upgrade – or if you want to transfer your settings to another site.   Or if you’re using a thesis skin, it can be tough to go in and set every setting the way it needs to be.  With Thesis 1.7, you’ll be able to save and restore the Thesis Options just by downloading a settings file, and re-uploading it when you’re finished.   Piece of cake!

Completely reorganized options pages

From Chris Pearson: The more I organize the underlying code, the more I’m able to organize the controls you use to unleash Thesis’ potential. In version 1.7, you’ll find five main pages under the Thesis Options: Site Options, Design Options, Page Options, Custom File Editor, and Options Manager. These pages are all leaner, faster, and more sensibly-arranged in 1.7; simply put, my efforts here are designed to make it easier for users to do more with Thesis.

Increased efficiency from every angle

Pages should load faster with Thesis 1.7. Whether you’re browsing your site or navigating the reorganized Thesis Options, you’ll notice snappier interface behavior that can be attributed to two main things. First, Pearson improved the way each page is generated by implementing smarter, more efficient PHP object modeling. Second, Pearson changed the way options are delivered throughout the theme, thereby reducing the overall page load thanks to fewer function calls.

New home page controls

In the new Page Options, you’ll find a section dedicated to your home page. In previous versions, Thesis offered some home page controls, but the SEO options were somewhat insufficient. Now, you’ll not only have complete SEO control on your home page, but you’ll also have granular control over JavaScript libraries and post display (with more to come here in future releases).

Flexible new comment system

In the past, Thesis didn’t give you a choice in how your comments showed up. Everybody’s comment areas were rendered in the same order:   trackbacks, comments, and then a comment form.   In 1.7, you’ll not only be able to drag and drop the display order, but you’ll also have a few more fine-tuning display options that are sure to please. Make changes with the new controls in your Design Options.

Easy 301 redirects for affiliates!

Get rid of those ugly affiliate URLs once and for all by taking advantage of the new 301 redirects in Thesis 1.7. Using this functionality, you can turn any post or page into an affiliate URL that is sensible, clean, and won’t prevent users from clicking!

New hooks

The .post_box now contains hooks inside its opening and closing tags—thesis_hook_post_box_top and thesis_hook_post_box_bottom. I also added similar hooks to the #content_box—thesis_hook_content_box_top and thesis_hook_content_box_bottom.

New headline filter

Basically, this simple filter will allow developers to show/hide headlines, and you’ll be able to use this to create more diverse post styles on your site.

Beefed-up internationalization

Thanks to the help of our fans in other countries, DIY Themes has been able to identify certain parts of the code that were not so translation-friendly. Now, it will be easier than ever to use handy translation software to translate Thesis into different languages!

Improved core element defaults

Chris Pearson: This one is best explained by way of example. Take, for instance, the comment links that appear after each post on your home page—you know, the ones enclosed in the curly braces like this: { 0 comments }. Those curly braces are nothing more than typographic embellishments that are native to the default Thesis skin, but in the past, I had mistakenly included these braces in the core code for this element. In version 1.7, I removed the braces from the default code, and I used filters to add those braces to the default Thesis skin instead. Ultimately, moves like this will give skin developers more flexibility and allow them to modify Thesis’ look and behavior with less resistance.

Get Your Thesis Now!

So there you have it, Thesis WordPress Theme is now better than ever.  If you’ve been up in the air about whether you should buy it or not, let this release be the sign you’ve been waiting for. Get the theme, add it to your site, and start customizing with a logo from LogosForWebsites.com!

I worked on a full website identity package for Green-Talk.com. I did a website background, a header graphic, a favicon and a twitter background. I think they turned out very well.