Lines from Linda

When All Else Fails…

Read the directions!

I've spent far too much time this year re-designing a web site that I had exactly the way I wanted it.

Why?

I made it disappear.

The WordPress powers that be have warned about updating to new versions without first deactivating all plug-ins and returning one's site to the default theme. Frankly, I'd forgotten that little tidbit of info, but I bet I won't forget it on the next WP update.

The site I annihilated was my humor column, Overweight & Underorganized. I'm still struggling with a theme selection. I've found several I really like, including the current theme, Block Magazine by Adii.

I'm nearly done uploading content. Content, by the way, that I had to search for from three different computers because the word "Underorganized" isn't just a cute word in a column title; it's my life.

I may test drive a few more themes before settling upon the "right" one. And it may be Block Magazine. I really like the theme. I'm just not sure it "fits" what I hope to portray with the site. I want something a bit more whimsical, but yet I want the structure of a magazine theme.

Luckily, I don't have to make this decision tonight.

In a Web Working Mood

I know that today is the anniversary of the invention of basketball. And, yes, I'm a huge basketball fan. I've been doing a great job of achieving my basketball watching quota. In fact, I've been gone most of the evening watching our high school teams play. (Girls won; boys came within 3 points near the end of the 4th quarter, but fell by 9 by the final buzzer.) However, I've also spent quite a bit of time doing some web work.

Those of you who have hung around my blog for a while (thanks!) know that I love playing with web sites, even though I have a lot to learn. I'm getting fairly comfortable with WordPress and .php, although I still use themes & templates. I doubt I'll dip my toe into the developer's pool, but I've had a lot of fun learning about magazine-styled WordPress themes.

You may have noticed the redesign of my main site, LindaFulkerson.com. I've also completed a redesign on our church's site and am nearly finished with a new web for our church youth group. I'm very pleased with the looks of all these sites.

On my site, I'm using the Structure theme by Jason Tadlock. The church site was created with Michael Polluck's WordPress Magazine Theme 1.0, and I used Brian Gardner's Revolution Magazine theme for the youth group's web. Please note that some of these themes (all by "Structure") are "premium" WordPress themes, which means they are not free.

But, like L'Oreal, they're worth it!

WordPress Magazine Themes

I've been test driving a few magazine themes for WordPress in hopes of redesigning my main site. I'm currently using a Joomla! template on that site, but I really like WordPress. Since I have a variety of content on that site, I think a magazine-style theme would work well.

I purchased a couple of premium themes, Block Magazine (see screenshot) and Premium News. I also downloaded the free themes Mimbo and WP-Polaroid.

I'm still trying to figure out how they work but I haven't had much time to go through the how-to information. Maybe this week. I have several WordPress sites, so once I figure it out, I may use several of the themes. I'd like to use Block Magazine on this site. I think I like it the best, but so far my thumbnail images are too big, even though I've sized them to the 64X64 pixels required by the theme. Or at least I thought I did. I'm sure I've done something wrong. When you see the theme on this site or my main site change, then you'll know I figured out how to make it work.