It’s been a while since the Thesis WordPress Theme has been updated, but just yesterday Chris Pearson over at DIYThemes launched the newest best and brightest version of the theme yet!   This version will include enhancements to the ease of upgrading your version of the theme through the new “options manager”, new SEO controls and 301 redirects, faster page loads, reorganized options pages, and more!  I just upgraded one of my Thesis sites last night, and it’s humming along faster than ever – and I love the new options!

If you’ve been waiting to jump on the Thesis bandwagon, now is the perfect time to dip your toe in the water!

New Features Of Thesis WordPress Theme Version 1.7

Insane new SEO controls and detail

The SEO customization in version 1.7 has been made even more comprehensive.   With 1.7, you’ll be able to control the robots tags (noindex, nofollow, noarchive) on every post and page of your site, and better still, the new Page Options will give you total control over all these details and more on your Category and Tag archive pages!

Options Manager

One thing that can be a bit of a pain if you’re upgrading a Thesis themed site is making sure you save all of your design and site options before you upgrade – or if you want to transfer your settings to another site.   Or if you’re using a thesis skin, it can be tough to go in and set every setting the way it needs to be.  With Thesis 1.7, you’ll be able to save and restore the Thesis Options just by downloading a settings file, and re-uploading it when you’re finished.   Piece of cake!

Completely reorganized options pages

From Chris Pearson: The more I organize the underlying code, the more I’m able to organize the controls you use to unleash Thesis’ potential. In version 1.7, you’ll find five main pages under the Thesis Options: Site Options, Design Options, Page Options, Custom File Editor, and Options Manager. These pages are all leaner, faster, and more sensibly-arranged in 1.7; simply put, my efforts here are designed to make it easier for users to do more with Thesis.

Increased efficiency from every angle

Pages should load faster with Thesis 1.7. Whether you’re browsing your site or navigating the reorganized Thesis Options, you’ll notice snappier interface behavior that can be attributed to two main things. First, Pearson improved the way each page is generated by implementing smarter, more efficient PHP object modeling. Second, Pearson changed the way options are delivered throughout the theme, thereby reducing the overall page load thanks to fewer function calls.

New home page controls

In the new Page Options, you’ll find a section dedicated to your home page. In previous versions, Thesis offered some home page controls, but the SEO options were somewhat insufficient. Now, you’ll not only have complete SEO control on your home page, but you’ll also have granular control over JavaScript libraries and post display (with more to come here in future releases).

Flexible new comment system

In the past, Thesis didn’t give you a choice in how your comments showed up. Everybody’s comment areas were rendered in the same order:   trackbacks, comments, and then a comment form.   In 1.7, you’ll not only be able to drag and drop the display order, but you’ll also have a few more fine-tuning display options that are sure to please. Make changes with the new controls in your Design Options.

Easy 301 redirects for affiliates!

Get rid of those ugly affiliate URLs once and for all by taking advantage of the new 301 redirects in Thesis 1.7. Using this functionality, you can turn any post or page into an affiliate URL that is sensible, clean, and won’t prevent users from clicking!

New hooks

The .post_box now contains hooks inside its opening and closing tags—thesis_hook_post_box_top and thesis_hook_post_box_bottom. I also added similar hooks to the #content_box—thesis_hook_content_box_top and thesis_hook_content_box_bottom.

New headline filter

Basically, this simple filter will allow developers to show/hide headlines, and you’ll be able to use this to create more diverse post styles on your site.

Beefed-up internationalization

Thanks to the help of our fans in other countries, DIY Themes has been able to identify certain parts of the code that were not so translation-friendly. Now, it will be easier than ever to use handy translation software to translate Thesis into different languages!

Improved core element defaults

Chris Pearson: This one is best explained by way of example. Take, for instance, the comment links that appear after each post on your home page—you know, the ones enclosed in the curly braces like this: { 0 comments }. Those curly braces are nothing more than typographic embellishments that are native to the default Thesis skin, but in the past, I had mistakenly included these braces in the core code for this element. In version 1.7, I removed the braces from the default code, and I used filters to add those braces to the default Thesis skin instead. Ultimately, moves like this will give skin developers more flexibility and allow them to modify Thesis’ look and behavior with less resistance.

Get Your Thesis Now!

So there you have it, Thesis WordPress Theme is now better than ever.  If you’ve been up in the air about whether you should buy it or not, let this release be the sign you’ve been waiting for. Get the theme, add it to your site, and start customizing with a logo from LogosForWebsites.com!

This post is tagged Thesis