This is the release that was never supposed to happen. Back in June, I began working on what I eventually dubbed Thesis 2.0, so I had no reason to believe we would ever see a Thesis 1.6. But then, a funny thing happened…
I dove into the 1.5.1 core files to solve a little problem with post image and thumbnail frames, and I got a little carried away. Next thing you know, I’m tweaking nav menu colors directly from the Design Options and dropping teaser images on Twitter.
Who knew image framing was so complex? 
Anyway, now that you know how we got here, let’s see what we’ve got here. New hotness you’ll find in Thesis 1.6:
- Oodles of design and color options! Control font colors all over the theme. Experiment with your background color. Customize the daylights out of your nav menu. Tweak all freakin day.
- Custom file editor in your WordPress dashboard: Sick of dealing with an external file editor and an FTP client every time you need to update that damned
custom.cssfile? Not anymore, ’cause now you’ve got a custom file editor inside your WordPress dashboard that totally solves this problem! WIN. - New options placement in the WordPress dashboard: Instead of existing inside the Appearances section, the Thesis Options now have their own dedicated module in the WordPress dashboard menu. Sadly, the options are relegated to the bottom because the native WordPress function used to hook them into place doesn’t do all of the things it purports to do (like positioning the new module). Meh.
- IE-only styles are now cache-friendly: Version 1.5 included a CSS-based method of serving IE-specific styles, but this method proved to have one fatal flaw—it didn’t play nicely with caching techniques (and especially the WP Super Cache plugin). Because of this, I reverted back to using conditional HTML in the document
<head>, and now caching is money. - Fixed post image and thumbnail frames: These actually work now. Special.
- Suppressed warnings on all
getimagesizefunction calls: This PHP function has been known to trigger warnings on certain server configurations, and suppressing warnings will radically reduce the annoyance factor in these situations. - Moved the
/rotatorfolder into the/customfolder: Can somebody tell me why the/rotatorfolder, whose very existence suggests customization, was not located inside the/customfolder from the very beginning? Sigh. Fixed.
Bold prediction: You will use the new Design Options in Thesis 1.6 more than you’ve ever used any other Thesis options to date. In fact, it’s quite likely that you’ll find them to be highly addictive, so proceed with caution (and bring your creativity)!
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Automatic dropdown nav menu!
This is a great change. Loving it already. However, there are often navigation menus that require parent pages and child pages both to be present on the navigation menu. Can you build in a switch between the old way (not the oldest way) and the new way?
Custom file editor in your WordPress dashboard
Absolutely fantastic. Saves me asking clients FTP details or installing OpenHook for a quick fix on their site.
IE-only styles are now cache-friendly
The only change I’m not overly happy with. While I love that it caches again, we now need to add an additional stylesheet for our own ie.css as editing the built in one would be editing outside the custom folder and many clients don’t like that. Any chance you can move this to the custom folder? Seems a waste to add a new stylesheet just for 1-2 fixes most projects require.
Great release and looking forward to Thesis 2.0!
Cool Updates ! Thanks, Chris. Drop down feature is what i’ve been waiting for. My clients like drop down nav, i had to code them. Custom file editor is a great idea, because we can’t edit custom.css via wp-admin > appearances > editor with prior versions
awesomeness to wait for !!!
So…err, when can us non-developer heathens get our grubby paws on this treasure? Do tell! Please?
Scratch that – temptation won out. Dev purchased, and it’s definitely worth it…
looking forward to trying out the new version!
Wondeful. I am so excited to hear about the new changes. I will be great to be able to do all these things. I can’t wait until Thesis 1.6 is availabe.
Excellent news!
Can’t wait to get my hands on the 1.6 release.
Cool! Can’t wait.
Awaiting the release yetttt!!
When is the supposed date?
I don’t own Thesis, but this sounds pretty awesome. I think I’ll have to pick up a Developer license soon.
When will non-developers see this, and why only let them have it? I just purchased Thesis and although I have yet to dig deep, I’m a bit um, apprehensive. Have you seen Atahualpa? It’s had drop-down nav for a while and it’s free. Matter of fact, it’s got TONS of features that Thesis doesn’t and you don’t have to touch the css files to say, add a banner image. I’m still hopeful Thesis will pull through as I like it’s more ‘modern’ and clean look.
Ian, Thesis does things differently. No doubt about it.
However, Atahualpa and Thesis should not be mentioned in the same sentence.
Ever see the car Homer Simpson designed? That’s what happens when features are priority.
Ian, I was also looking at Atahualpa. My Church bought Thesis (Developer) and I’m supposed to be setting it up now, but just heard about 1.6 – but, also wondering about the issues you bring up. I would be interested in hearing what you’re experiences with the two themes are.
Thanks!
Deborah – Atahualpa is very impressive. It’s got literally tons of features you can customize. There is a very active forum for support as well.
I’ve literally just loaded Thesis so I can’t really give a fair opinion yet. There are definitely some things I like, such as the built in featured section as well as the overall clean UI for the options pages. I’m looking forward to 1.6 because I hope it includes some updates that appear to be standard options on Atahualpa. I’m not a coding expert, but I know just enough to get in trouble. So I’m willing to put in a little work to make a site look good; but if you have two similar options, one paid, one free, which one do you take?
@deborah take Thesis, despite the occasional challenge, having an amazingly well optimized code base is worth the few bucks.
I haven’ t been disappointed and I dont think you will be either.
+1 on that recommendation.
I’ve not been using Thesis all that long but what I’ve seen (and been able to do) in that time leaves me feeling I’m going to be hard pressed wanting to build more sites on anything else.
The key to remember is that Thesis is a framework, not a ‘theme’ per se, and I’d suggest that if you’re looking for a level playing field, you should compare a ‘traditional’ theme to a Thesis ’skin’ (e.g., this site).
With Thesis, while the initial curve may be steeper than the norm, what you learn the first time can be re-used over and over again; yet you can design radically different ‘looks’ for your site each time. Something that cannot be said of pretty much every free theme I’ve had the pleasure / frustration of coming across.
I’d suggest reading Michael Gray’s review – his words re: Thesis being a “huge time-saver” were what tipped me over the edge.
And of course, this is without consideration of the upcoming version 2, which I sure is gonna open up a whole new can of whupa**! (No pressure though Chris…)
HTH
Dan
Excellent Dude!
I was just going to be looking for a way to do drop downs and you came up with one. I just tested it and it’s working smoothly, even moved below the header.
Do you ever sleep?
Even though it’s not perfect, every time I turn around there’s something better about Thesis! Keep up the good work!
nice improvements Chris! looking forward to the release version.
Here’s a bug:
“Add a cool shadow effect to your layout” throws a php error Fatal error: Call to undefined function: str_split() in /wp-content/themes/thesis_16b/lib/classes/css.php on line 630
the error persists until you uncheck “Add a cool shadow effect to your layout”
Also noticed some color settings reverting to default, not sure why yet though.
Request:
Could you add a hook that allows me to remove the headline area of a post, please.
Why? On http://SitesPress.com, I have to use .headline_area { display: block; } to hide the page title because I have a separate one that is included in the static page which has been set as the home page.
~ mel
Oops, I meant .headline_area { display: none; }
Please use maxlength=”6″ for Design Options color fields.
I guess it’s all about what you’re looking for. Before Thesis I had Atahualpa. It’s certainly not a bad theme. And it does a lot of things for you. But it wasn’t for me and I continued seeking other solutions.
I’m certainly no expert, but I’m more of a ‘from scratch’ kind of person. I don’t want a million color options in a control panel. I’d rather have some core options and edit CSS for the rest. That’s just me. No solution is going to fit everyone.
For me, Thesis is the perfect mix of automation and customization. I consider it more of a ‘framework’ than just a theme.
Thesis’ support is unrivaled IMO.
Trust me, Thesis is worth every single penny. You can’t even describe what it can do, it is better you try it. I’m setting up my page right now and I’m playing with it.
Any release date for 1.6?
Having some problems with Google Adsense and 1.6. Namely, the ads won’t show up. Must be doing something silly.
Hey badasses, could you please tell me if there’s a step by step guide to upgrading? (backing up, etc).
I’m dying to update http://www.hamellontrial.com to 1.6, but I skeeeeeeeered.
Already LOVING the simple color and nav customizations on my own site.
Thanks for all you do!!!!
Aha, got teh Googley to work. I think the database had a hiccup.
Kristoffer, all I did was upload 1.6b to my themes directory, replace the custom-sample folder with my own custom folder from the earlier version, and select the new theme. Everything works fine so far.
Oddly, I tried going back to 1.5 and it didn’t work for some reason. So I’m stuck out here on this beta limb, but so far it hasn’t broken.
There is a lot of talk about having to redo or edit customizations to upgrade to 1.6. I have not seen specifics but that scenario is a bit scary for us that do not work with the custom css and functions files every day. I am wondering if this procedure will be necessary with future released like 2.0 also? Maybe a post or reply addressing those of us that are worried…(panicking?) would help alleviate, or substantiate, fears.
I noticed this does not seem to get answered, but I’ll try anyway. How close is 1.6 to final?
Yes!!!!!!! Just took out the in page border with a check box! As a marketer with just enough web-design knowledge to be dangerous this upgrade is outstanding.
Thanks!
I think the developer team should also think about some additional layouts that bloggers can switch when needed.
My lord! Where do you find the time?
I would second the addition of some different layouts. While I do like the default layout, it’s will become the Kubrick before long o_O
Very, very cool. Thanks for these awesome changes…. love the menu flexibility.
Still can’t re-order the NAV Menu the way I want. Always defaults to alphabetical ASC.
**annoying**
That’s not a true statement. Pages are fully sortable; categories aren’t yet fully sortable because they’re tied to a WordPress function that I still need to rewrite
A simple hack I’ve found is to just create Pages for categories and redirect the pages to the right place using a tool like Redirection. It works surprisingly well. Of course native support for categories just the way pages are used would be better… but until then, this solution can work.
By tool, I mean plugin.
Chris, how do you sort the pages? I tried to do it in the typical wordpress fashion (numbers) and it isn’t working for me. I really would like to fix it.
Danni, all you have to do is drag and drop the pages in the nav menu section of the Thesis Options page, as demonstrated in this video.
Great, I’ve just updated, and busy playing with the new toys
Great!! I am going to upgrade 1.6 and try out the new feats.
Great Job Chris and Team.
~BK
can’t say that i get a warm-and-fuzzy when the zip file contains duplicate files, e.g., 2 of each: comments.php, header.php, footer.php.
I am trying to help a friend who is using Thesis to customize her header. How can we insert our own header image. Is it done through the customized css file? If someone can explain this, and where the code is that designates the header image, that would be great.
Also, getting ready to upgrade to the 1.6. What is the best way to do this? Make a backup of the rotator file and images, then upload the new theme, and activate it? Is it necessary to backup the entire blog?
Thank you very much for any help.
Did you figure out how to upload the banner as a header image? I have been searching for a couple of hours and I still can’t figure it out. I can’t find any directions anywhere. Yet obviously through the examples, this should be pretty easy.
I would also love a link to how to include thumbnails above each blog post, like featured on http://simplemom.net/
I have looked under images, but the info isn’t as clear as I would hope.
The thumbnails on the blog posts is done under Thesis Options. The ones you are speaking of, I think, are the teaser posts.
Just go to Thesis Options > Post Images and Thumbnails > choose “centered” and “above headline” in the default thumbnail settings.
Hope this helps!
I have done this using Thesis OpenHook plugin. In OpenHook, choose the header hook and put in the image source you want in the header. Ex.
Will probably need to “turn off” header Site Name and Tagline under Display Options (Thesis Options page)
I thought it was not a big change. But … I like it. 1.6 is super
. Thank you for it!
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