Announcing the release of Manifest v1.1 for you downloading pleasure. Here’s what’s new:
New Features
Updates
I know it’s been a while, so here’s a brief update on the state of Manifest. I had planned on releasing a substantial update to the theme about a month ago (think Manifest 2), but work and life as usual kept getting in the way. So I’ve decided to forgo the big update for small incremental updates. This way everyone can benefit from the added features as I finish them and not have to wait for substantial releases.
You can expect the first update in the coming weeks. After some tiding up of the code, this update will include features such as threaded comments and support for Wordpresses native photo galleries; along with other minor improvements.
I’d also like to thank everyone who has downloaded Manifest, sent encouraging comments and donated. Since it’s release a little over a year ago, Manifest has been downloaded over 15,600 times. Far exceeding any expectation for a theme I released just so it wouldn’t wither away in my hard drive.
To keep update with the latest on Manifest, be sure to follow @manifest_theme on Twitter.
It’s been two months since I released my first Wordpress theme, Manifest. And in those two months the response has far exceeded my expectations. Since it’s release, Manifest has been listed on various Wordpress theme blogs and used on countless personal blogs. It’s also enjoyed over 1100 downloads. Which still boggles my mind.
I’d like to say Thank You to everyone who’s commented, downloaded and enjoyed Manifest. I really do appreciate the support.
That being said, I’m considering making some updates to Manifest based on how I’ve seen it being used in the wild. While I have my own list, I’d like to hear from you as to what you would like to see (if anything) in an updated version.
One of the key features of my recently released Wordpress theme, Manifest, is that IE6 is unsupported. This hasn’t been an issue with the vast majority of people using the theme, but there have been a couple of comments and emails asking about IE6 support. I figured I’d clear the air on the subject.
I wanted the process of making my first publicly available theme to be fun. I also wanted to use it as opportunity to use some of the CSS3 (and even CSS2) features that I don’t normally get to use. IE6 was a roadblock to both objectives. There’s been some chatter recently in the web design community about when and how IE6 support should be phased out. Some elect for a more progressive approach, while others elect to drop support entirely. For Manifest, I went with the latter.
If you view a Manifest based site in IE6, you’ll be presented with an unstyled (but completely functional) site with polite message at the top informing your users that they should upgrade their browsers to something more current.
Here’s some common questions/comments when it comes IE6 support.
It’s not that IE6 support can’t be added. A good percentage of my day is spent getting complex web applications and ecommerce sites working in IE6. But it’s not a very fulfilling portion of my day. I’m not going to go into detail as to why IE6 is the bane of every web developer, there are plenty of other resources available that go into that. Here are a few:
I’m proud to announce my first publicly available Wordpress theme, Manifest. Manifest is based on a previous design of my personal site. It’s a theme I rather liked and didn’t want to see go to waste. So instead of letting it die off in a folder on my hard drive, I decided to clean it off, polish it up and release it into the wild.
My goal with Manifest was to create a clean and streamlined theme that focused on the content and not the distractions. It utilizes a single column, 500 pixel wide layout. No sidebars. No widgets.
Some highlights:
Feel free to use as you please, I just ask that you keep the Manifest link at the bottom. Thanks and enjoy.
Today marks the release of Pronto - All is Golden. Pronto is the side project of Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen. Don’t let the Wilco association give you preconceived notions of the sound of the record. It’s less of the Wilco alt-country sound and more of a grass roots Americana sound. I’ve heard some refer to it as AM Radio rock. I’m not exactly sure what that is (I hear the older folks used to listen to it), but what I do know is that it sounds damn good and you should pick yourself up a copy at the the Contraphonic web store, iTunes or Amazon.
In addition to the new album, today also marks the launch of the new Pronto site. I assisted in the XHTML/CSS development and Wordpress implementation. Visit today to find out the latest band news, tour dates and sign up for their newsletter. They’re also on that hip new thing called Twitter, so you can follow them there as well.
Full Disclosure: The exceptional drummer of Pronto, Mr. Greg O’Keeffe, is not only a friend of mine, but also my employer. While that may insinuate some bias in my opinion of the album, it doesn’t. I’d just as openly let him know that it sucks if I thought it did… right after my yearly review.
It’s been a while since my last major redesign, so I figured now was as good a time as any to launch this one. I’ve ditched the single column stream of news format for a more traditional approach. With this design I was aiming to get a bit more organized in how I’m presenting content on the site. Two sections in particular that I wanted to break out were my photography and projects I’ve worked on. Each of these now have there own separate sections on the site.
I’m not going to go too much into detail with what’s changed visually or technically. I’ll just invite you to check it out and let me know what you think. I’m still cleaning up a bit of the code and will probably be making tweaks over the coming weeks, but overall I’m pretty happy with this one.
One thing I will mention though is that I’ve completely dropped support for IE6. So the 36 of you out there who are still using it to visit this site will get a completely unstyled experience. It’s time to upgrade people.
This weekend I launched my latest freelance project. A website redesign for a local day spa, Simply Skin. The redesign included a complete information architecture and aesthetic makeover.
The goals of the project that were achieved are:
My role in the project was that of a one man band. Design, Development, Wordpress Integration, Paypal Integration, Project Management & Photography (for Spa Orientation & Spa Tour).
The site can viewed at http://simplysdayspa.com
I’ve made a couple additions to the site this past weekend. The first being an about page. As much as a hate writing about myself, it was necessary. The second being the contact page. I wanted to highlight something in regards to the contact page.
In past attempts to create my site in Wordpress, everything would go great until I got to a need for a form. I know a bit of PHP, but I don’t have the gusto to write a Wordpress plugin or the time to try and wrangle a regular PHP form into Wordpress’ world. With the abundance of Wordpress plugins out there, I’ve never been able to find a decent contact form plugin. They were either too simple and riddled with “known issues” or they were far too complex. Requiring everything just short of a thumbprint authentication to send the form. But finally, I’ve found the one I was looking for. Secure Form Mailer Plugin For Wordpress.
The beauty of this plugin is in it’s customization. All the other plugins I looked at pretty much forced you into what that developer felt should be on a contact form. This one allows you define which fields you want and even the level of verification you want on each. It also has the random character generator to fend off spam. But if you don’t want to, you don’t have to use it. I’ve setup a pretty basic form on my contact page, but from the options available, more tweaking will ensue.
I just wanted to give a tip of the hat to Dagon Design for their excellent Secure Form Mailer Plugin For Wordpress. I just wish I’d found it sooner.
Created for the Kenyon Chapter of the National Association for the Education for Young Children, the site aims to provide it’s existing members with news and information on chapter happenings. The site also provides potential members with information about the chapter and how to join.
The original site was severely dated and very time consuming to update. The goals of the new site were for the design to be clean and for it to be easy to update by it’s board members. For this, I utilized the Wordpress content management system. This has allowed the Kenyon Chapter board members to easily update the content of the site, add new content, and add new pages themselves.
The site can be viewed here: http://kenyonchapter.com.