Themes

Guide to Mixfolio

Posted by psao ⋅ March 3, 2013 ⋅ 30 Comments

A detailed guide to the Mixfolio theme – including how to use the gallery and image post formats (the feature that is hopelessly underdocumented in the official wordpress.com intro to the theme). Continue reading →

Full-width header image in Imbalance 2

Posted by Panos ⋅ January 18, 2012 ⋅ 91 Comments

The newly added Imbalance 2 is an unusual and interesting theme. Its main posts page normally displays post excerpts in four columns. The header area of the theme is also unusual: instead of displaying a full-width image and a horizontal menu, it conforms to the four-column concept of the main page. You can change that via coding in a Text widget or if you have the Custom Design upgrade. Continue reading →

WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (January 2012)

Posted by Panos ⋅ January 8, 2012 ⋅ 16 Comments

Stats: January 2, 2012.
Compare with Dec. 2010 & Jan. 2011 ranking, July 2011 ranking.

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Image captions with no dash in Twenty Eleven

Posted by Panos ⋅ November 29, 2011 ⋅ 27 Comments

Image captions in Twenty Eleven are adorned with a strange dash some users don’t like. Using the workarounds described in this post you can get rid of the dash and center the caption text. The same technique can be used to modify the styling of image captions in any theme.

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Blockquote style

Posted by Panos ⋅ November 19, 2011 ⋅ 16 Comments

When you quote a passage from another source, you can mark it as a blockquote. Doing so will automatically result in some differentiation, to make the quote stand out. The styling varies from theme to theme – see complete survey in the post.
The default styling of blockquotes can be modified in the HTML editor or if you have the Custom Design upgrade. Continue reading →

On the recent featured image issues

Posted by Panos ⋅ October 21, 2011 ⋅ 32 Comments

Two days ago users started complaining that their featured images stopped showing up. This post explains why this is happening, as well as what you need to observe from now on.

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WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular

Posted by Panos ⋅ October 7, 2011

• December 2010 & January 2011
• July 2011
• January 2012 Continue reading →

Gallery attachment pages: navigation links and image links

Posted by Panos ⋅ September 17, 2011 ⋅ 28 Comments

In almost all WordPress.com themes, gallery attachment pages feature previous/next navigation links; their style varies (thumbnails, text, or icons).
What happens when you click the image on a gallery attachment page also varies (link to real-size original, link to next attachment page, or no link at all). Continue reading →

Clickable header image in Clean Home

Posted by Panos ⋅ September 7, 2011 ⋅ 2 Comments

In all wp.com themes, the header image or the blog title works as a link back to your homepage. In Clean Home, the header image doesn’t work s a home link (as a rule, this happens only when the regular blog title is inside the image area).
If you wish to make the header image clickable, there are two solutions. Continue reading →

The Gallery format as custom excerpt

Posted by Panos ⋅ August 18, 2011 ⋅ 15 Comments

Some themes support custom excerpts on index pages – see The Excerpt function.
A new group of themes can now be added to the list: the themes that support custom excerpts when you use the Gallery post format.

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Customizing the blog title in Blogum

Posted by Panos ⋅ August 10, 2011 ⋅ 12 Comments

The blog title in Blogum is black, and it comes with a decorative dash. If you don’t like the dash, you can use HTML in a text widget to hide it. Using a similar technique, you can also color the title, if you wish, or you can reposition the tagline.

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Alternative post formats

Posted by Panos ⋅ August 8, 2011 ⋅ 38 Comments

In most wordpress.com themes, posts have the same standard format on the main posts page (title, content, plus metadata & comment tab), and all the posts in a theme have the same styling. Usual exception: sticky posts or other “featured” posts.
But in some of the newer themes, you can select alternative formats for a post, in order to distinguish or highlight particular types of content. Continue reading →