Thesis 1 revolutionized WordPress themes by introducing world class SEO tools with extensive design and layout options. Last fall Thesis 2.0 again revolutionized WordPress by creating a drag and drop template editing system that transformed the way we design and layout websites. Now Thesis 2.1 features the same unlimited customizability in a streamlined interface. The videos below will introduce you to all the latest features of Thesis 2.1.
Six Reasons Thesis 2.1 Will Knock Your Socks Off
Thesis 2.1 is the most powerful, most customizable theme framework available for WordPress. It gives very easy access to lots of customization options to the beginner. It provides unlimited customization to DIY website builders who are willing to get their hands dirty and it provides incredibly powerful tools for the professional web designer. It has something to offer everyone who is building a WordPress website or blog. Here are my top 6 reasons why Thesis will blow your socks off.
1. Thesis 2.1 Makes a Responsive Site EASY
Thesis 2.1 comes with the new Classic Responsive skin, enabling your site to look good on all mobile devices. Something that makes it stand apart from other responsive themes is that it empowers you to make changes to the appearance of the skin without breaking that responsiveness and without any special knowledge. It includes code that automatically resizes elements like pictures and videos to make them fit within mobile device browsers. It also include a very light weight and snappy responsive menu that works flawlessly even with several levels of navigation.
2. Thesis 2.1 Exploits the Latest SEO Strategies
If you are paying any attention to modern SEO you know that “Schema” is playing a huge role in helping search engines like Google identify the main content on your site and classify it. Thesis 2.1 fully embraces schema and automatically embeds the appropriate codes into your web pages to help search engines figure out what your site is about. In addition it still has the fullest complement of SEO meta tools available, enabling you to customize the SEO meta tags of every concievable type of post or page that WordPress creates. Finally, new in 2.1, it makes establishing your Google authorship a snap. No more code added to theme files or cross linking necessary. Just enter your Google+ author id and Thesis handles all the rest for you. It could not be easier.
3. Thesis 2.1 is Infinitely Customizable
This should actually be the title of this post because all of the videos below are about how you can customize the content, layout and appearance of your site using Thesis 2.1. Thesis 2.0 offered infinite customizability but it required a certain level of skill in order to access that. Thesis 2.1 has simplified the process and now offers varying levels of customization for varying levels of skill.
To the beginner or the non-techie type of person it gives complete control over every font on your site. You can control each and every font family, font size and font color – all without using any code at all. It now includes a hoopy new color scheme generator that allows you to test different color combinations, easily swapping colors to find just the right combination for your site. It also gives beginners tons of control over the layout of their site, all while maintaining its ability to display in mobile devices.
To the DIY techie and Web designers it blows out all the stops by demolishing all HTML limitations. It gives them the ability to create custom templates for EVERYTHING. You can create custom templates and apply them to posts, pages, custom post types, post type archives, category & tag archives, custom taxonomy archives – you name it. Any template WordPress can understand can be created and customized using the new streamilined drag and drop interface. This gives you the simple power of creating widget areas any where you want them and placing them in any template you see fit. You can have unlimited widget areas and unlimited combinations of widget areas in any template. The same thing is true for menus. Create as many menus as you like and place them anywhere you want in the site. This is all possible without writing a single line of PHP or HTML.
4. Thesis 2.1 Allows Very Complex Customization Via Drag and Drop
What? No PHP or HTML?! That’s right. Thesis allows you to create very complex web pages simply from the drag and drop interface. Remember registering sidebars, creating theme locations for menus, registering menus, writing custom secondary loops? All of that is a thing of the past. Thesis now does all the heavy lifting for you with the click of the mouse and a drag of a box. Sure there may be some cases where you will still resort to good old PHP but that will be the exception and not the rule.
5. Thesis 2.1 Almost Entirely Eliminates the Need for FTP
It used to be that you needed to use FTP to install anything in WordPress. Thesis 1 required you to be able to set file and folder permissions and rename the custom folder. With Thesis 2.1 there is none of that. All installation and configuration can be done from the dashboard. This includes most code based customization you may be doing. You will no longer be editing your custom.css file and then uploading that custom file to the theme using FTP. That can all be done inside the skin editor. Now I’m not saying it isn’t an essential skill to have. Every WordPress website owner/manager needs to be able to use FTP. However, you won’t need it for routine operations in Thesis 2.1.
6. Thesis 2.1 Almost Entirely Eliminates the Need for a Separate Code Editor
I didn’t see how this could possibly be the case when Chris first suggested this. Now I’m sold. In the first place you will almost never need to write any PHP because all of the things people have done that for in the past have been replaced with drag and drop. In the second place, Thesis 2.1 comes with a shiny new CSS editor that includes syntax highlighting. It even includes some totally cool point and click code completion features that developers are going to love.