Help choosing a theme

[Marney]

I've been pouring through all the themes, and the more I see how distinctly each can be customized, the more unclear I get as to what the deciding factors should be when choosing one.

Can anyone give me any tips re things to look for? The ones I am most focused on are Allure, Education, maybe Magazine.

And a specific question: I like things about Allure but much prefer the navbar in Education. Can I somehow have the Education style if I get Allure?

Thanks!

[John Flynn]

Here's my advice to you for what it's worth....

1. If you have a lot of graphics skills using photoshop then pick the theme that has the closest layout to what you want, don't worry so much about the look.

2. If you are good at coding php and css but no so great at graphics then pick the one that looks the nicest and then change the layout.

3. If you are good at neither...
a. pick a theme that is closest to what you want and try and do some minor customization with the help of the forum and tutorials OR
b. pick a theme and modify it but prepare to spend a lot of time learning and growing in your coding knowledge OR
c. pick a theme and hire someone to modify it for you so it's exactly what you want

Basically in summary....
1. They are all GREAT themes.
2. The tutorials and support forum will help you immensely in getting your theme set up and running properly.
3. If you want to do things like meld 2 themes together or extensive customizing it's going to either cost you time or money.

Hope that helps!

[Marney]

Thanks John.

Were I able to go through some of the tutorials, it would probably make more sense to me. Appears you have to make the purchase decision before you can see how it works. I've got photoshop and css, and a rusty understanding of programming, just not php. Guess I'll just pick one and dig in like everyone else! Thanks again.

Marney

[John Flynn]

If you got photoshop and css then pick the layout you like and making it look pretty will be a breeze...

[Marney]

Ok, thanks:) I can do pretty but I'm sure I'll be moving the layout around just like I keep moving the furniture! Will have to get good at...what?....php?

[John Flynn]

yep, php

You may have already decided, but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents for what it's worth. I started w/ church, then got allure and eventually bought the all theme package and am glad i did.

I did my first site w/ allure because I wanted to feature video on the main page, but found it didn't have enough columns for the content I wanted to feature. So after great deliberation, I just switched it over to Magazine this week.

So the first thing I'd suggest is deciding on the "areas" of content you want to provide on the main page. If you have several areas of interest, go w/ one that has a main and then 2 columns below or vice versa. (like Church, Lifestyle or Magazine).

The second thing to consider is the navigation. Do you want links for categories of posts and pages? Both Lifestyle and Magazine offer 2 auto navigations for those. I used Lifestyle for another site, but found that the more recent Magazine theme is easier because you don't have to direct the url for the thumbnail by typing in the size - not sure but I think this may be a timthumb advancement? Based on my experience, I found that the newer the theme, the easier the use.

Bottom line is that purchasing the all theme package gives you the flexibilty to change as you build - i used a theme test drive plugin that allowed me to evaluate a different theme to see which one would be best. It didn't work completely in allowing me to redisign the site tho' so I basically had to dive in and make the fixes in one day after switching the themes. That's when I realized the difference between Lifestyle and Magazine w/ the thumbnails - you just add the thumb and the url to the jpg and it calls the right size image.

The other benefit of the All Theme package is that you have full access to all the forums and can get all available upgrades. If you like to rearrange the furniture alot, go all theme.

[John Flynn]

That is a wise choice.

[Marney]

Mary, I was just going thru emails and am horrified to realize I didn't reply to your post. A big SORRY! I really appreciated your taking the time to outline those things to look for. I didn't quite "get" it all but did do as you suggested and got the bundle. Now the pieces of understanding are falling into place and I'm starting to have fun with it. Thanks for taking the time to help!

And John too. Once I got in there to see what it all looked like, I realized I could customize easily. A friend got me to use Firefox and showed me how to use Firebug to identify the css code attached to any given element. What a brilliant tool, can just whiz through the style sheet to the right entry and make whatever changes. Am I the only one that didn't know about Firebug?

[goldkey]

Marney,

You can't go wrong with any of the themes, but the all-themes package is your best bet by far. It's a great value.

All of the themes look great out of the box, and then you can customize them further with the theme options. The new Genesis framework makes it even easier to customize many things.

To do further customizations, you can adjust CSS and edit PHP to meet your needs. It's easy to learn the basics, with many tutorials on the web. It may seem intimidating, but if you start with small tasks and work up, it isn't that hard.

In summary, you can't go wrong with anything you'll find here. Great themes, great support, great prices.

Mark

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