I was asked just over a week ago to give a presentation about wordpress templates for the mastermind group on Thursday 13th (Today). Unlike other mastermind meetings though, this one will be live across the world via a webinar. Time has flown by, but hopefully I have enough information to give a useful presentation.
If you do have any comments or questions about this presentation, please place them here on this blog post.
What I did notice was that some of the images may be difficult for some people to see clearly during the webinar. There is no need to worry though, as I will be giving the presentation away in a PDF format with more defined images. To obtain a copy of it, enter your details in the opt-in box on the right hand sidebar, just under my photo. The guide should be ready during the weekend sometime and it will be updated at times with answers to some of your questions.
Kerri Witt has been promoting the event on the SMCC forums and this is what she had to say.
“Bryan’s doing a much requested techie presentation on changing templates on your WordPress blog. You’ve heard me (Kerri) say like a broken record, “do PRISE, don’t pretty up your blog, do PRISE, understand how the recipe works”. We’ve got a lot of people in our Mastermind who have now finished PRISE, understand what Plugins and Widgets are and are ready to Pimp Their Blog (to borrow JP & Deb’s term). Bryan’s going to be showing us how you can do this for free using WordPress templates.
– How to test out a template to see if it will work for you
– Why just any template won’t do
– What’s important about Widgets
– How to redo your optin box for your new template”
I hope that you learn something from the presentation. Remember to leave any comments or questions on this blog post.
8 responses so far ↓
1 janet // Dec 13, 2007 at 9:25 am
Fantastic presentation
2 Raymond Chua // Dec 13, 2007 at 10:43 am
Hi Bryan,
That was a great presentation.
Thank you for sharing. I’m sure it benefits a lot of people who’s on the webinar.
3 Bryan // Dec 13, 2007 at 11:07 am
Thanks Janet and Raymond. It was certainly a learning experience for all of us.
4 Bryan // Dec 15, 2007 at 5:30 am
As promised, the guide is now available in PDF format. The pictures are of better quality than those shown in the webinar presentation.
5 Kashonia // Jan 8, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Hello Bryan,
Thanks for the PDF of your presentation. It was great.
One thing i really wanted to know more about was how to change the banner on a WP blog to my own banner. Like you have done above.
You just mention that it can be done on the last page without any real details.
For example, do i go to the theme folder and remove the current banner file? And that file is noprmally a php and yet I’ll be replacing it with a JPEG – will it recognise that?
Any help here would be really appreciated.
Thanks
Kashonia
http://www.LearningLovingandLaughing.com
6 Bryan // Jan 9, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Hi Kashonia
I am glad that you liked the presentation. 🙂
The question that you ask is tricky in some respects, as different wordpress templates will have varying solutions.
For instance, the template used for http://www.beatyourdepression.com/blog is quite simple to change. It has an option called “Custom Image Header”, which can be found next to the theme editior under “presentation”.
Within that you can “Here you can upload a custom header image to be shown at the top of your blog instead of the default one. On the next screen you will be able to crop the image.
Images of exactly 576 x 131 pixels will be used as-is.”
I believe that Kerri’s website http://www.organiclivinglifestyle.com has a similar easy way for changing the banner.
With the banner I used on this blog “bryanjamesstephens” I had to create the banner on fireworks, ftp it onto my server as a jpg file and then change some code in the theme editor. It is obviously a little more tricky.
Some themes may be even more difficult to change the banner. That is why I suggested that you pick a few themes so that hopefully one fits your style and practicality.
Cheers
Bryan
7 Marti // Feb 9, 2008 at 2:19 am
Bryan,
thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for taking away my sleepless nights.
I just couldn’t figure out where did I go wrong. Using the default theme it was all #$%^&*.
If I known that not ALL template fits!
Also a HUGE thank you for helping me with my wordpress blog at the SMCC meeting in Brisbane!
Marti
8 Bryan // Feb 9, 2008 at 6:15 am
Hi Marti
I am so glad that you got everthing sorted out. 🙂
I shall see you at the SMCC meeting when I am next available to attend.
Cheers
Bryan
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