Theme hell...

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[Sakuralulu]

Well I am definitely going to be moving my blog over to wordpress in the next month or so (with the help of snoksred...I will be emailing you soon I promise!) and was told that the hardest thing to deal with first is choosing a theme.

Oh my god, I did not realize it would be so difficult. In my mind I know exactly what I want but can not find it but have found a couple of themes I am sure I could work with.

It needs to have some pink in it (It may sound lame but it is important to me!), it needs to have an inter-changeable header so that I can put one of my own photos in it, and I would prefer it to have 2 or 3 columns and if it was three then to have one on either side of the main text (similar to my current blog) and I would like the tabs to be at the top of the page instead of on the sidebar (Does that make sense?). I can picture what I want in my head but haven`t exactly found it. At first I was searching for a cherry blossom/sakura theme although while there is about 4 or 5 out there that feature cherry blossoms in the end none of them were suitable!

And while I adored the Pink for October theme that Snoskred talked about in another post I did it turns out it can only be used in October.

So I have a couple I have been looking at but really have no idea....how customizable are these things anyway? (I am a total novice!) I think the ones that I am going to list all have the option to change the header...

Here are some links...What do you think?

http://test.wpthemesfree.com/?preview_theme=flower-10

http://wordpress.bytesforall.com/?page_id=34 You will have to press test yourself to see it

http://test.wpthemesfree.com/?preview_theme=violet-girl

http://www.bgthemes.com/theme_test/?preview_theme=Violet_Bay_980 (I am not sure if changing the header is an option here or not...and it if is not I guess it will no longer be on the list)

http://test.wpthemesfree.com/?preview_theme=pinksunset

It is doing my head in! Some outside advice is definitely called for!

Thanks!

ps: Can an all white clean looking theme have font changed to a different colour? Anyone know of a good one that fits into the sort of thing that I am looking for?

[neerav]

Overall I'd say http://wordpress.bytesforall.com/?page_id=34 has a good balance of what you want + a clean easy to use design

[Snoskred]

I like bytes for all which is on that page Neerav mentioned, rather than willy the cat because willy the cat is too narrow - looks like it is optimised for 800x600?

As far as how customisable the themes are - all you need to look for is a theme that has what you want where you want it - as far as columns and layout. All the colors of the blog are pretty much changeable either as graphics or in the CSS. If you want something with a background color make sure you get a theme with a background color and the columns and layout you want.

Like you can see that version of bytes for all which is run on that blog has the pink colors rather than the green that is standard with the theme? Stuff like that is simple to do.

[Lani]

When looking for a theme, the best thing to do is find the one with the layout and functionality closest to what you're after.  Don't worry about finding the right colour.  Of all the things you might want to customise on your blog, colour is by far the easiest.  Make sure it works the way you want it to, that the sidebars and pages and comments etc.. are laid out the way you want. Colourr takes five minutes to fix.    It's everything else that can make it tricky.

[Sakuralulu]

ARGHHHH! Now I am even more confused....well confused is the wrong word. More like I have no idea what I am doing....I didn`t realize they were so customizable...so now I am looking for something that I like the design of more....This is going to take me awhile.

I looked at the one you suggested snoskred but I didn`t really like it that much, but I do understand what you said about the size of willey the cat....and I no now that is not for me.

Back to the drawing board!!

Thanks for the advice!

[Lani]

Hey, you named the thread.  It's pretty apt.  Too many choices.  When I started, I chose a theme based on looks alone.  In fact, several themes.  At least you've got some blogging experience when you're making the choice, and know what to look for in terms of functionality.  I had no idea.

You've got some useful things on that list of needs already, just strip away any of the colour/image ones and you'll have a great place to start.

Oh, and this is how dumb I was when I first started blogging...

June - You can’t judge a blog by its lipstick…
August - Another day in the WP theme mire…

Yup.  Took me a while to get through theme hell.  (Not entirely sure I'm out yet.  )

[Snoskred]

When you're looking at a theme, I think you basically need to keep this in mind -

are the sidebars where I want them
is the image/header graphic where I want it
Is it fluid width or fixed width (and am I ok with what it is)
Are the sidebars widgetized (I wouldn't pick one if they weren't but maybe that's me)
does it have a background color - Kelley can tell you of the nightmare she experienced with her theme trying to make the sides coffee colored.

So do you want sidebars on either side, or two sidebars on the right or left, or just one sidebar on the right or left? That's the starting place, I think.

[Meg]

I'm not sure if this will help, or be more confusing, but I wrote about 5 steps to choosing a blog theme.

I think it's the most time consuming part of setting up a blog - once you find one you are happy with (and of course the obligatory tweaking ), the rest is easy easier.

[Jaycee]

Meg, I should have read your post about the 5 steps. The theme choosing was my most time consuming task in changing over to Wordpress. I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted, but just couldn't find the theme to suit and I didn't feel like coding it myself. One day I'll try that I reckon. One day when I get some time - oh right so it might never happen.

[Bam]

I am havign the same issues ... so it is good you brought this up

[Sakuralulu]

Thank you for all your advice! I am still looking (Your post was really helpful too Meg!) Will come back with more links if I need help choosing. This might take awhile!!!!!

[Sakuralulu]

I think I am slowly falling in love with these themes.....Not  huge fan of the colours but I like the way they both work...Any good do you think?

http://wpthemepark.com/themes/paalam/

http://wpthemepark.com/themes/fallseason/

Still finding it hard though. So happy to have the forum to post about my theme worries though!!!!

[ShadowKnight]

Both are clean and functional.  However, I thought pink was a must?

[Sakuralulu]

I have been told I could change the colours?!?!? If I can`t change the colours then they both will go out the window.....

[Lightening]

I can't tell the difference between those 2.....

Yes, Snos said you can change the colours.

Maybe I'm not fussy enough but I had a general idea about what I wanted and once you start tweaking the colours and the header, it becomes yours and you fall in love with it.  At least that's what happened with me.

When I was originally looking at themes I was hesitant to use the same theme as Snoskred had, even though it had the general layout that I liked.  I didn't want to look like a "copycat".  But if you look at her blog and mine, you'd have to look hard to even realise they use the same theme.

I guess what I'm saying in a way is maybe you need to relax a little.  A "perfect" theme isn't necessarily what will make a blog as long as the general layout etc suits you.

Then again, maybe I'm not fussy enough.....

[Lightening]

Okay, ignore the bit where I said I can't tell the difference between the 2!!!!  That's because there is NO difference and you have to scroll down to see the second one.    *sigh*  Maybe I'm not quite awake yet!

[Lightening]

The other consideration is to think about "why" you want the particular features you want.

For instance, when I was first looking at a theme I knew I wanted 3 columns so that if I decided to go down the monetising route I could use one sidebar for that and still have a sidebar free for my regular sidebar type stuff.  However, I found a lot of 3 column designs a bit "busy" and overwhelming so the freedom green having the "about" box sit across the 2 sidebars seemed to just calm that "busy-ness" down a little.  They "why's" helped me to narrow things down a little and made it clearer what features were more important than others.

[Bettina]

I got to agree with Lightening. The layout is just your framework, then you "tweak" it to make it reflect your personality. When you are choosing your layout you are looking for a good frame to base your blog on, not the final product.

[Meg]

I think I am slowly falling in love with these themes.....Not  huge fan of the colours but I like the way they both work...Any good do you think?

http://wpthemepark.com/themes/paalam/

I like this one  (I'm using an older version of paalam, and I managed to pinkify it somewhat)

[Snoskred]

I love Nigarila but I would, it is basically Freedom Green with another font.

These should be fairly simple to modify, Sakuralulu. But just think about where you want your sidebars to be. Right tends to be the norm on the web for the most part.

Have you seen Lightening's site? I could redo it to be a lighter shade of pink for you and create your own header image..

[Meg]

I should have added Jen is using Palaam as well, in a three column format. You can see it's quite customisable...

[Sakuralulu]

Great advice. (I wrote a list...I am big on lists) and I have thought about what I want and I definitely want it to be customizable...definitely want a changable header, definitely want the tabs for the pages on the top near the photo...Starting the thing three colomns might be better because I want to include links to my flickr photos still.


I also like freedom green now also... It is a toss up between Paalm (I really liked Paalm at seminatically driven.....with the three colomns!....Is that easy to do?)

I think I am almost there on deciding!

Thank you so much for all of your help.  The forums are awesome! I am getting very excited about the whole thing...moving my blog I mean

[Kelley]

does it have a background color - Kelley can tell you of the nightmare she experienced with her theme trying to make the sides coffee colored.

Don't remind me.  Wish there was a rocking in the corner smiley...

Believe me when I say.  Pick something you love that only needs a little tweaking to make it yours.

Big deal changes will send you to the nuthouse!!!

I must say though, I wanted 2 sidebars, one on either side and that was hard to find!

[Sueblimely]

I have just kept mine really plain until I decide what I really want.
Was thinking of having some boxes across the top, a bit like magazine style - containing maybe latest posts, most popular - do you think if I then had normal posts underneath this that it would annoy people having to scroll down to my current posts?