Coming Soon: Origin Theme by Elegant Themes

Nick Roach has done it again! Origin Premium WordPress Theme is the latest WordPress theme released by Elegant Themes and it is indeed stunning. This grid-based theme is quite impressive both visually and function-wise. You can tell that every design element has been carefully thought of and meticulously designed details have been scattered all throughout the theme if you care to spot them.

Origin is a gorgeous portfolio-styled theme but it is also engaging and fun to navigate around. It’s like going on a treasure hunt where you expect to find some hidden treasure as you explore every item on every page. The overall experience is one of delight and surprise. Customization is quick and easy. This theme comes with 5 deliciously combined preset color schemes that immediately engage your eye. These pre made color schemes are good to go right out of the box but you can also create your own color palette based on your own branding preferences.

This premium WordPress theme comes with several built in page templates like an image gallery page, an advanced search page, a portfolio page with several display options, a blog feed page, a contact page, a secure member login page, and a sitemap for those concerned about content showing up in bot crawls and searches. There are also tons of shortcodes giving you more customization and functionality options.

Origin Premium WordPress Theme uses CSS media queries and AJAX infinite scrolling features to ensure that your website will display and function beautifully and intuitively no matter the screen size and device. If you are considering an upgrade to your own site or doing a project for a client, Origin has infinite possibilities and potential for turning your site from good to great.

More Features:

  • Responsive design
  • ePanel Theme Options
  • Large collection of shortcodes
  • Premade Page Templates
  • Perpetual Updates
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Complete Localization
  • Five Unique Colors
  • Unparalleled Support

Origin Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.

Preview the Origin Theme

The Basic Parts of a WordPress Theme

Language consists of words that are classified into different groupings depending on their function. The English language is divided into 8 parts commonly known as: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These words can be used in combination with one another to express a complete thought – a sentence. Other languages may have different classifications but generally, each language is comprised of several word classifications which when combined with each other express a specific thought.

We have been slowly laying the basic foundation to understanding WordPress these past few weeks. Last week, we learned common phrases that you hear in and around the WordPress community that you might not fully understand but have become familiar with because of common use. This week we shall be a bit more technical and try to introduce a little bit more of what goes on behind a WordPress theme, its basic parts, and how it is put together to function the way we normally see it.

A WordPress theme is quite similar to a sentence. It is a combination of several parts to express a visual representation of a design thought. Let’s take a look at these basic parts (not necessarily 8) to give us an idea of what they are and how they function.

A WordPress theme is comprised of as few or as many template files as you like. These templates are PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) source files used to generate the pages requested by visitors and are output as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). (source: codex.wordpress.org) Each of these template files can be configured to function according to a specific design.

WordPress Themes use a combination of template files, template tags, and CSS files to generate your WordPress site’s look. If you are currently a WordPress user (self-hosted or not) you can familiarize yourself by checking out the templates listed below in the backend admin panel of your site. You can look for them under Appearance>Theme>Editor. These may all seem Greek for now and and hard to understand but the goal for now is to simply observe how the codes are written in these templates. Just make sure you don’t edit them by mistake.

Below are the basic templates that you will find among the many other templates in your WordPress theme:

style.css

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language for defining the formatting used in a Web site. This includes things like colours, background images, typefaces (fonts), margins, and indentation.

The basic principle of CSS is to allow the designer to define a style (a list of formatting details like fonts, sizes, and colours) and then apply it to one or more portions of one or more HTML pages using a selector. To every CSS style definition there are two components: the selector, which defines which tags the style will be applied to, and the attributes, which specify what the style actually does.

CSS allows you to store style presentation information (like colors and layout) separate from your HTML structure. This allows precision control of your website layout and makes your pages faster and easier to update.

index.php

index.php is a universal template, it is what any page (home, archive, single post, etc) will use if no other template is available for it. The index file controls what the homepage looks like.

For the visual learners out there, a very helpful visual resource you can check out is this infographic Anatomy of a WordPress Theme made by Yoast. More on this next week!

The Business of WordPress

The root word of ecosystem is “eco,” a derivative of the Greek term for house or home, and “system,” is a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole. A closer look at nature reveals a highly integrated system of living and nonliving components capable of sustaining life. Each species, element, and energy source plays a crucial part in maintaining balance on our living planet. In the same token, there exists multiple layers of ecosystems within social and business structures that are interactive and interdependent upon each other. We have witnessed in the last few years a social networking phenomenon where our world has become more and more interconnected digitally and business environments are turning into digital ecosystems.

Caught in the midst of all this is a thriving WordPress community comprised of WordPress professionals, authors, developers, theme providers, marketplace vendors, web hosts, and other commercial entities that have evolved and conglomerated into this dynamic WordPress ecosystem we have today. These key players have all been instrumental in empowering the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) today, fueling this digital economy with WordPress powered websites, themes, plugins, and web consultancy services all around the globe.

One of the exciting events to look forward to in the WordPress scene is the upcoming Pressnomics 2012 conference in November. Pressnomics 2012 – The Economics of WordPress is the first of its kind gathering of the brightest minds in the commercial WordPress ecosystem represented by 7+ countries around the globe. The goal is to foster dialog, share and discuss business best practices, teach a mix of WordPress and general business strategy, et cetera, to help propel those who are active WordPress professionals even further as well as inspire those who are contemplating a future in the WordPress ecosystem. Among the list of speakers are familiar names in the WordPress community: Collis Ta’eed, Pete Davies, Alex King, Cory Miller, to name a few.

There is still much to learn and more room to grow in this realm as the world becomes smaller and smaller because of the recent technological advances especially in the mobile tech industry. The crest of this WordPress wave has yet to reach its peak and even as the wave rises so do the rest of the little boats floating along with it.

For more details about Pressnomics 2012, visit their website at pressnomics.com.

Upcoming WordPress Events – 4QTR 2012

2013 is just around the corner and it’s time to take stock of what you’ve accomplished the past year and what you can look forward to in the next. Keep abreast of the latest trends and participate in any one of these seminars or conferences to brush up on your WordPress, HTML5 and CSS skills to get you ready for 2013. Staying informed not just on WordPress matters alone but also web and business-related matters will keep you two steps ahead of your game.

Here’s a quick rundown of the latest WordPress events and other noteworthy conferences around the globe to help keep you on the cutting edge.

The Events:

  • Event: Pressnomics 2012
    Date: 8 – 10 Nov 2012
    Location: Phoenix, Arizona
    Description: The Economics of WordPress Conference.
  • Event: Visualized
    Date: 8 – 9 Nov 2012
    Location: Times Center Manhattan, New York City
    Description: VISUALIZED explores the evolution of communication at the intersection of big data, storytelling and design.
  • Event: HTML5 Mobile Mastery
    Date: 12 – 14 Nov 2012
    Location: London, England
    Description: Two-day HTML5 Mobile Workshop presented by Skills Matter.
  • Event: Handheld 2012
    Date: 19th Nov 2012
    Location: Cardiff, Wales
    Description: Big Ideas for Small Devices. Handheld is the conference for all things mobile, web and native.
  • Event: WordCamp Orlando
    Date: 1 Dec 2012
    Location: Orlando, Florida
    Description: One of the Largest WordPress Education Events.
  • Event: Trends Plus 2012
    Date: 4 Dec 2012
    Location: London, England
    Description: Consumer Behaviour | Marketing Strategy – A forum for ideas, creativity and a sprinkling of blue-sky thinking.

Nimble Theme by Elegant Themes

Nimble Premium WordPress Theme is a well balanced theme in a lot of aspects. The theme’s demo displays a combination of colors that is pleasing and attractive to the eyes. Its styling is bold but still effectively leaves makes clever use of white space giving the eyes a place to rest strategically. The overall design is balanced and looks beautiful on large monitors as well as on smartphone displays. It is indeed aptly called “Nimble” as it is flexible enough to adapt to various types of websites.

Nimble’s homepage is deliberately section giving it that clearly defined look. Each section has its own color scheme, effectively transitioning users from one section to the next as they scroll through the page. The top section contains a beautiful, full width slider for showcasing attention grabbing works and taglines. Clicking on a slide takes you to a page that contains details of the featured work or post. This section transitions into another section which can be used to give a bird’s eye view introduction about important information such as the company, mission, vision, product/service summaries or other types of information. This is further enhanced by call to action buttons at the bottom of the boxes that take you to pages where you find more exhaustive descriptions. There is also a section that can be used for special quotes, taglines or announcements. The next sections can be configured to contain recent news and updates, recent blog posts, recent portfolio additions, and even a price table to complete the whole layout. All these customizations can be easily handled via the ePanel Theme Options feature included in all Elegant Themes WordPress themes.

Nimble’s responsive design is quick and impressive. Images and content quickly resize to the width of your browser or the screen size of your handheld device. This means that your visitors can expect a pleasant browsing experience all the time.

More Features:

  • Responsive design
  • ePanel Theme Options
  • Large collection of shortcodes
  • Premade Page Templates
  • Perpetual Updates
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Complete Localization
  • Five Unique Colors
  • Unparalleled Support

Nimble Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.

Nimble Theme: $39 | Demo & Download

The Beginner’s Guide to Learn Almost Everything About WordPress

So you’ve been blogging for quite sometime now and you’ve been posting random personal and business stuff on one of those free hosted sites. Everything has been going on well so far until one day this free hosted site suddenly announces that it is shutting down and all your content including all your contacts, posts and thousands of images will no longer be available after a certain date. Horrors! You now scramble to download every last post you’ve made and backup all your data before the clock strikes twelve or else everything disappears forever. Have you ever had that happen to you?

And then you stumbled upon WordPress. The thing is you know very little about it and so you start googling about it which is also probably why you ended up here and you are now reading this post. You want to know more.

Below are some useful resources to help jumpstart your WordPress journey. These resources are mainly aimed towards the novice or beginner level so WordPress savvy professionals might find some of these a bit elementary. Nevertheless, these references can someday come in handy whether you are a beginner or a true blue WordPress guru. We would also like to ask our readers to join the conversation by leaving a comment, any helpful suggestions or additional resources to add to our list.

For those who are about to begin their WordPress journey, check out these resources we have compiled to help you get started:

Websites to Bookmark

  • WordPress.com – A blog web hosting service (free) powered by the open source WordPress software. A good starting point on how to learn the how WordPress actually works at the backend and also to familiarize yourself with running a WordPress site. You can always upgrade to Premium status once you know your way.
  • wpmu.org – The number one source for WordPress news, tips, plugins, and theme reviews.
  • WPBeginner.com – A WordPress resource site providing quality tips, tricks, hacks and other resources for the WordPress community.
  • Speckyboy.com – Web design magazine that offers tutorials, time-saving techniques, inspiration, and useful resources for the web including WordPress.
  • wp.tutsplus.com – A site dedicated to teaching people how to use WordPress, develop widgets, plugins and themes.

Books to Read

Channels/Videos to Watch

  • WordPress.tv – A visual resource for all things WordPress including tutorials, updates, and the latest news.
  • WordCamp.tv – Presentations, highlights, and behind-the-scenes look at WordCamps around the world.
  • Lynda.com – Online courses and tutorials on anything WordPress.
  • StudioPress.tv – Step by step video tutorials for the Genesis Framework for WordPress.
  • Youtube WordPress tutorials

Authors/Developers to Follow

Straight from the Source

  • WordPress.org – the ultimate source for all things WordPress.

There are so many resources out there and so many tutorials that can help you get started. These are just a few to help point you in the right direction.

Learning the ABC’s of WordPress Grammar

“Code is poetry” – the WordPress mantra that’s been read by probably every WordPress user on the planet. If you haven’t then maybe you’re on a different planet or probably using another Content Management System apart from WordPress.

It is kinda romantic if you really think about it. The challenge is, not everyone understands the code. We all know Shakespeare wrote great poetry, as did Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Browning, Alfred Tennyson and so many other great poets and authors. But how many who belong to this current generation truly understand what the sonnets and the verses mean? How many can dissect and decode the true meaning behind the words and symbolisms these authors used? We can all give our opinions and interpretations about these works of literary art but unless we “decode” and study the context behind those words that have been so beautifully strung together, in accordance with generally accepted standards, we might create a mental image quite different from the author’s intent. These standards need to be the foundation from which these “works of art” can be evaluated and interpreted.

How does all that apply to our understanding of WordPress? A WordPress theme is actually a unique “work of art.” It is a combination of both the literary and the visual. It is quite easy to appreciate the visual product that results from the string of commands and codes that have been strung together by a WordPress author or designer. But the true beauty behind this visual delight is the code or language that brings it to life. Every line of code is a brush stroke that layers on top of each other to create the functional art we know as WordPress themes. Perhaps that is why some WordPress purists are so passionate about what they do. They are in fact modern-day technological artists who use code as their medium to express their art. Hence, to them, code is sacred. Code is poetry.

In order for us to understand and appreciate code we need to learn the language. We need to study its vocabulary and apply grammar rules that will help us interpret it. For many of us we still need to learn our ABC’s. Many of us are scared to touch code because we fear making mistakes. How many times have we messed up our websites because we took out a portion of a code without fully understanding why it was there in the first place?

The secret to learning a language fast is by immersion. One needs to be immersed in an environment where one is forced to communicate using whatever language is available. We will attempt to do that in the next few weeks. Our goal is to learn the language of WordPress and make it easily understood even by the most novice of beginners. Hopefully, we can help you, our readers, achieve a level of fluency or perhaps spur you on to start creating your own WordPress themes, your own works of art. If that sounds exciting to you, then make the journey yours as well. Stay tuned!

Wedding WordPress Theme 2012 by ThemeFuse

Bring out the bubbly because she just said “Yes!” But wait! Walking down the aisle isn’t that simple nowadays what with all the preparations and planning that has to be done. One of the most challenging things you’ll ever go through in life is to plan a wedding. But what if you had a tool that could help you address all the logistical challenges that go with it? A simple solution is to create a website just for the event that way you can manage certain aspects of the wedding wherever you are.

Many times, coordination and information dissemination can be a challenge as you plan your wedding or even somebody else’s. Just Married Premium WordPress theme is a theme indispensable during wedding preparation activities. This premium WordPress theme is an effective means of communicating the progress of wedding preparation, invitations, attendance, as well as bookings and gift registry. It is also perfect for wedding organizers as they coordinate activities that may be logistically challenging to accomplish.

Just Married allows you to manage information relevant to the wedding. With the theme’s built-in templates, you can post all the information about the ceremony, sponsors, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and the entourage that guests might want to know. You can also post information about the bride and the groom’s story and how the story continues along. Confirming guest attendance is also much easier with Just Married’s RSVP feature. With this feature, guests can fill out the RSVP form to confirm attendance making it easier for the bride and the groom keep track of their budget. The theme also allows you to connect to the couple’s bridal registry pages to their stores of choice making it convenient for guests, whether local or international, to give gifts to the couple. Out of town guests can take advantage of the accommodations feature to book hotel rooms at group discounts set-up with partner hotels.

This premium WordPress theme’s responsive design allows guests to visit the site while on the go. This is perfect for friends and family travelling to the event. Planning a wedding need not be such a stressful activity if you have the right tools.

Features:

  • RSVP Module
  • jQuery Image Lightbox
  • Auto Image Resizing
  • Cross Browser Compatible
  • jQuery Image / Video Lightbox
  • Font-face custom font
  • Powerful Admin Options

This theme includes documentation, video tutorials, as well as access to an AfterCare Forum for theme support. Check out Just Married Premium WordPress Theme today.

Just Married Theme: $49 | Demo & Download

35 of the Best eCommerce WordPress Themes 2013

Believe it or not, 2013 is right around the corner, and we want you to be prepared. Thanks to some big advancements in eCommerce functionality for WordPress in 2012, the Best eCommerce Themes of 2013 are sure to be amazing. eCommerce is simply the commerce conducted through the Internet. With millions of websites, blogs, and Internet users, more and more businesses are taking their products online. The successes of sites like Amazon and Ebay has dispelled all skepticism about eCommerce websites – not to mention the scores of “mom and pop” operations selling everything from ebooks to digital hugs…yes…some people are making money selling completely made up things.

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