If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve finally installed a new theme for TechTraction. I know that I’ve talked about making a custom theme for this site, but I simply don’t have the time at the moment and don’t see that changing anytime soon. Therefore rather than build from scratch I opted to modify an existing theme that was close to what I wanted.

Selected Envy from Wpdesigner

I’ve been a big fan of the theme’s created by Small Potato at his site Wpdesigner. The use of colors, open space, and overall layout in nearly all of his designs are some of the best themes for WordPress available today. I previously took his theme Pride and modified it for my daughter’s blog: Sisters in Blog. This time, however, I selected Envy and made several modifications to better suit the needs of TechTraction.

Theme modification: Good idea but not required

The theme Envy is prefect just the way it is. The original color and cool tab menus are awesome. I would have left the theme as originally designed, but decided to try and maintain a certain amount of similar look and feel from TechTraction’s original theme. With that goal in mind, I made basic color modifications and removed the very cool tab menus and replaced it with a basic page menu below the header image. I also reused the same font from my original banner image in hopes that regular visitors don’t arrive and say, “Whoa, this isn’t TechTraction!” I do doubt, however, anyone would say that — but I digress.

Overall happy with the new theme

Overall I’m very pleased with the final outcome of the theme modifications. The line spacing makes everything much easier to read and I think the sidebar is much easier to understand. I did remove the MyBlogLog and Bumpzee widgets because I thought they made the sidebar a little distracting. All of my ads are gone but I will put some back in after I do a little experimenting with placement. I want the ads but don’t want them to be too annoying.

I also plan to add at least two more things to my sidebar: a link back to my latest entry at my other blog and a Friday Find suggestion form. I’ll probably tackle both of those ideas after the holiday. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the changes and if you come across something I broke with my modifications. Thanks

Share, Bookmark, or Email this post

If you liked this post, subscribe to TechTraction's RSS feed or TechTraction's email feed

Filed under: TechTraction News