Antbag.com

Since I started offering WordPress themes, I’ve noticed that a far majority of new bloggers want to customize their theme. I don’t blame them, that’s what I did too. Many of these new bloggers who are using one of my themes, contact me when running into things that they can’t figure out. I realize that there is a real blind-spot when it comes to how a page is laid out. In this post, I hope to shed a little light and hopefully clear up some of the confusion.

All Themes Are Not The Same

Generally speaking, I think that most of us have probably tried to change a few things on a CSS stylesheet before. It would make sense that what works on one, will work on the next. Unfortunately, there’s a little more to the equation. I’ve noticed that many will assume changing the width of the header, for instance, will have the same effect on all themes, however, this isn’t the case. It truly depends on how the theme is laid out in the first place. Remember, any styles applied on the stylesheet, are adding style to the HTML elements as they are defined within the HTML. So header isn’t necessarily the same from one theme to the next. It depends on how that component is defined within the HTML.

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 6 Comments »

Have you noticed a new trend in blog design? There are several actually, but it seems to me that blogs are getting wider. I think this is due to the fact that more people are now using larger computer monitors that easily handle a wider screen resolution, and also to make room for more information and sidebars. However, there are still those who prefer a more narrow view. Here I’m gonna take you along as I actually make one of my free WordPress themes more narrow.

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, How To, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 13 Comments »

This post is the 2nd installment in my WordPress Theme Tips series.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that practically all themes that you can download for free, have text in the header which links back to the blogs homepage. I’ll just bet you’ve visited other blogs that have a logo instead of this title text. Trying to figure out things like this can drive you nuts without a little direction. In this post, we’re going to look at replacing anchor text with an image. Creating a logo is not covered here, so we’ll assume you already have an image you want to use.

The easiest way to make this replacement would be to simply delete the text out of your document, and put the image there in it’s place. The only problem with that is the fact that a search engine can’t read what you’ve written in an image. So, the better practice would be to disguise the text with an image. Using CSS, we can leave the HTML text in place, and use a background image to hide it. Sound interesting?

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, How To, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 71 Comments »

Almost every blogger would like their design to be different from everyone else’s. After all, that’s one more thing that can set you apart from the crowd. However, not every blogger has experience with CSS. If you fit that description, I’ve written this just for you!

This isn’t really an introduction to CSS. It’s more of a guide to change specific elements within your theme. Over the course of several posts, I’m going to cover some things you can do to your current theme to add your own flavor and style. In this post, we’ll take a look at the text.

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, How To, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 15 Comments »