I was happy to be able to grab some time over this past weekend to upgrade my xMark theme for use with WordPress 2.3 and WordPress MU.
xMark did not work with WordPress MU prior to this due to a problem in the WP Theme Toolkit that xMark was utilizing for its functions. Big thanks to Jason Ling for providing the fix I was seeking to solve this problem - - now xMark is fixed and does work with WordPress MU. (I have tested it with WordPress MU version 1.2.4)
The following upgrades have been made to xMark:
- Upgraded for WordPress 2.3 : Added tag listing in the index.php and single.php templates; Added tag cloud display on the 404.php and Search Results page; Added some CSS styling for tags
- Cleaned up some CSS issues - mainly font handling. Also cleaned up the RSS Widget title display and the FlickrRSS widget title display. Some folks also wrote in about the too small text some have found in the Asides area and the comment section when using threaded comments - this issue has been resolved.
- Upgraded the functions.php so the the xMark theme now works with WordPress MU
- Previously xMark was released under a Creative Commons license and is now released under the GPL license.
A quick review of the original fuctions of xMark:
Welcome to xMark, a fully fluid, three column WordPress theme designed with the end user in mind. You know who you are - you bloggers who just want to get on with the business of blogging and don’t want to tinker with all the technical mumbo jumbo… Yea, you! I have done my utmost at making this theme as easy as possible. Straight out of the box, xMark will be a perfectly functional theme for you - however, xMark has numerous options and highlights available to you - check this stuff out:
- 3-column, fluid CSS layout
- A print.css files to maximize print output
- 2 sidebars, both fully widget compatible
- Admin options menu that gives you the option(s) to:
- Display the authors name in the post byline.. or not
- Custom date displays for the posts
- Display the authors name in the byline on static pages…or not
- Allow comments on static pages…or not
- Set up ‘Asides’ for your blog
- XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliance
- Successful cross-browser rendering
- Currently supports the following plugins:
- Includes optional coding for displaying an ad beneath the first post on the page. This site displays a 336×280 Google Adsense ad block - however, you can choose to display any type of banner ad you’d like. If you don’t want to display any ads beneath the first post - don’t worry, if you don’t add in the advertising code, nothing displays at all
- Category pages that display post excerpts with date, comment count and ‘read more’ link. Each Category page displays the name of the category you are browsing!
- Monthly archive pages that display post excerpts with date, comment count and ‘read more’ link. Each Monthly page displays the name of the month and year you are browsing in!
- Custom search results page gives a display of post titles, excerpts, date, post comment count and ‘read more’ link
- Custom 404 “Page Cannot Be Found” page
- An optional Archives page - - you can see my archives here
- An optional SiteMap page - you can see my sitemap here
A quick look at the documentation should answer any burning questions you have on installing and using this theme. xMark comes as is - free for you to use and relased under a GPL license.
The Credits page give an idea of some folks who indirectly helped make this happen. The Plugins page shows the plugins this theme currently supports.
Looking for a demo of the theme? You’re looking at it. Currently the xMark Blog Theme Site is using the current version of xMark on WordPress version 2.3.
Download the xMark WordPress Theme v2.0
I’ve done my best with testing this puppy out - however, that being said, if you find a bug or somewhere within the code that I tripped up, be sure to let me know and I’ll get a fix right quick!
I hope you enjoy xMark as much as I enjoyed creating it. Please do leave a comment if you end up using it on your site!
Download xMark v2.0
I realised I placed my comments on the wrong page…sorry about that.
This is a great theme. What I was wondering was if there was an easy way to make it a bit more web2.0.
On the sidebars,where the widgets are, how would we change them from square/rectangles to rounded corners?
Thank you
Great theme! I’ve started using in on my web log.
One minor note: the part in the docs ( http://blogdesignsolutions.com/docs/ ) on the Share-this plugin seems outdated…?
One of your hints to another person suggested that a plugin may require some “stylizing” to make it work in your theme.
I don’t know CSS but I used the FireFox extension “FireBug” (awesome!) to examine and edit your stylesheet in realtime and finally found a set of CSS hacks to make the wp-polls widget display properly in xMark 2.
I added these to style.css:
/* Hacks by shadow */
.wp-polls input {width:1em;}
.wp-polls .Buttons {background-color:#F3F6F8;border:1px solid #C8C8C8;width:4em;}
Cheers and happy new year!
Lisa,
I haven’t solved the WP-Polls widget width problem yet, despite some mild hackery on the stylesheet.
But, I wanted to say “thanks” for a really well-designed theme. I have a few blogs that use different themes and I’ve borrowed some of the CSS tags you used in xMark to make other themes behave properly. The “overflow:hidden” tag was just what I needed to make tag cloud items from spilling over the edge on another theme.
I’m an old-school HTML nerd, all of this CSS is still “magic” to me.
Cheers,
bill
The WP-Polls plugin doesn’t like xMark 1.01 or xMark 2.00. When I use either of these themes, the checkbox and radio buttons are REAALLLLY wide — they take up the entire width of the widget column and are not usable.
Anyone else notice this? I can’t seem to figure this one out. Switching to other themes works, but I like xMark on this website.
Cheers,
bill
Hi Lisa
I read your wordpress for dumies and was surprised to find that you also discussed MU in there. Thanks. It was great and a very useful resources for newbies and more experienced user of wordpress.
I have a question? Is it possible to integrate new blog creation with aweber? This will help me to create a new list at aweber and I don’t have to try and use the WPMU Mailer (that does not seems to work for me).
Regarding comment #54 and #57
I have just been experimenting in forcing a minimum with for both right side bars, forcing min width of 200px. If I use min-width then it works fine if the whole page is bigger than that. But if I run it with 1024×768 then the rightmost side bar gets moved below all posts.
The problem is that right now the graphics are cut off at the right side of the widgets, just like your WordPress for dummies is cut off when viewing in 1024.
Would like to set it so both sidebars uses 200 pixels as min width (and also max actually), and the left area uses whatever is left..
Do you have any solutions/suggestions?
Hi Bruce,
Yes I think is got to do with your pasting of the aweber html code try to remove it first and see the effect.
Cheers!
Lisa:
Been a while since I’ve communicated with you. I’ve told a lot of people about your new WP book. Hope it’s selling well for you!
Your theme continues to do well for me and I’m most grateful for having found it.
I am contacting you because I am wondering if you can help me clear up some confusion. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Do Follow plug in?
Up to now, I have not installed this plug in. But I’ve read everywhere that by default, WP disables the ability of commentators to link back to their sites after leaving a comment. When checking the latest posts, at least those that were created AFTER I migrated from Blogger.com to WP (then adopted your theme), the links all work fine. In fact, the Top Commentators and Recent Comments plugins both display commentator names and links to their sites (as a way of rewarding them for participating).
HOWEVER, when I go back in my archives, especially past the date of the migration, it seems that commentator links have all dimmed, meaning no links to their sites.
I’m puzzled - why is that?
This begs the question: If by default WP does not allow commentators to leave a link, then why would I need a “Do follow” plugin?
Is there a certain time constraint in the WP program that shuts down commentator links? If I were to install the Do Follow plugin, will that revive commentator links from the past (esp before the date I moved over from Blogger)?????
Hope you can guide me.
Stephen
Hi Lisa. I am having trouble with widgets in the side bar. The widgets keep appearing in ‘another’ sidebar and distorting my site and it also depends in what order they are in. Being on top position or bottom position can make a difference between displaying correctly and distorting.
Could this be related to my earlier post regarding posting aweber html code.
Bruce