Thesis 1.6 Final Has Arrived!

The new hotness in Thesis 1.6 has been bottled up long enough, and now it’s time for all that sexy to hit the masses. You can go download this puppy right now, or read on for a list of the notable revisions to this final version:

• Major nav menu enhancements: In addition to adding more flexible class names to the menu elements, I also added parent/ancestor highlighting (and corresponding design controls!) to the nav, which is all-new for 1.6!
• Two new nav menu hooks! I’ve added hooks both before and after the list items (<li>) in the nav—thesis_hook_first_nav_item and thesis_hook_last_nav_item.
• Fixed multimedia box font and color controls: In previous versions, if you used the custom box to display stuff, you had to create your own font styles and color settings via custom.css. Now, that looks like the dark ages because you can style your multimedia box directly from the Design Options panel!
• Removed the !important declaration from the .top class: This one’s pretty technical, but it will prove useful to those of you who are intense CSS tweakers.
• Post images and thumbnails are now faster and more efficient! Thanks to @garyj‘s keen eye and Thesis user “quill,” I was able to eliminate a redundant HTTP request for each post image or thumbnail that loads on your site.
• Relegated IE8 compatibility code to its own function: Even better, this function only runs when Thesis detects that the user is browsing with IE8.

The Bottom Line About Thesis 1.6

Thesis is unique because it solves a wide array of problems that affect everyone who runs a website. In addition to conquering mission-critical tasks like SEO, site speed, and layout flexibility, version 1.6 now offers design controls that allow you to change the look of your site—think colors, borders, and backgrounds—without touching a bit of code (not even copying and pasting CSS!).

In short, if you run a website, then you can use Thesis to make your site better.

Thesis 1.6 has arrived. Make it yours!

About the Author: As the creator of the Thesis Theme Framework for WordPress and the founder of DIYthemes, Chris is obsessed with optimizing the web and making sure every last detail receives the attention it deserves. You should follow him on Twitter here.