Newsworthy – Free WordPress Theme
Today we have an awesome news theme, originally designed by DemusDesign, which I then ported to WordPress. This theme requires at least WordPress 2.8 to function properly, and includes some standard features such as threaded comments and comment pagination. There are also over 10 widget-ready areas, including a widgetized footer, plus a custom widget for ad management.
And now onto the features in more detail…
Post Images
Featured images and thumbnails for posts are used in a number of places in this theme, including the main index page, single post page, archives, and search results. Thanks once again to TimThumb, you only need to upload one image to use in all of these places.
Once you’ve uploaded a 610×281 image, copy the full path to the image and paste it in the custom write panel. This image will automatically be resized and used in the multiple areas mentioned above.
Widgets
There are over ten different widget areas included in this theme. They are color coded in the screenshot below, click it to enlarge the image.
The following are descriptions of the widget-ready areas pictured above.
Sidebar
Tabber – That’s right, there’s a widget-ready tabber. It’s ideal for text widgets, tag clouds, and lists. There probably isn’t room for more than four or five tabs.
Sidebar Ads – This area, as you might expect, is designed for 125×125 advertisements. I’ve also included a very basic 125×125 ad widget which you can use to place the ads in your sidebar.
This widget is not limited to the “Sidebar Ads” widget, but it’s probably the best place to put it.
Sidebar Left and Sidebar Right – These are displayed directly below the “Sidebar Ads” area. It’s ideal for lists of categories, archives, etc.
Sidebar Bottom – This area is displayed directly below “Sidebar Left” and “Sidebar Right” and there’s nothing there displayed by default. It might be ideal for text widgets or a list of recent posts.
Home Left and Home Right – These areas are displayed on the homepage. By default there is nothing displayed. It’s best used with text widgets.
Footer – There are five different widget areas in the footer, with “Footer One” being the one on the far left and “Footer Five” on the far right.
Single Middle (not pictured) – This is displayed only on the single post pages, directly below the “Share This” box with the links to share the post on Twitter, etc.
Conclusion
Those who follow me on Twitter know I’ve been tweeting about this upcoming theme for a while now, so thanks for your patience while I got everything ready. I think themes like this prove that free WordPress themes are still alive, and hopefully you’ll agree with me.
I’ve tried to test the theme pretty thoroughly, but if you notice any bugs with the theme please let me know in the comments or in the support forums and I’ll see what I can do.
Posted in Theme Labs
