Wordpress Magazine Theme Released
August 05, 2007 ( 901 )
Mimbo is a magazine-style Wordpress theme which makes extensive use of WP’s template tag system to create a non-traditional layout. It contains no images and only minimal CSS styling. Mainly it exists as a clean, grid-based starter layout for designers to install and style to their own liking:
Live Demo
Download
Installation
- Download and unzip the file
- Dump the theme into your “/wp-content/themes/” folder
- Log in into your WordPress control panel
- Click the Presentation tab
- Select the “Mimbo” screenshot
Support and Discussion
Getting things configured
- Mimbo is built to support the current version of Wordpress (2.3). If you get fatal errors related to tags (”Call to undefined function: is_tag”), please upgrade.
- In the “index.php” and “sidebar.php” templates, you will find a series of query_posts functions which refer to specific category ID numbers from my database. Example:
<?php query_posts('showposts=1&cat=4'); ?>You will need to change them to reflect the ID numbers in your own database. They can be found in your control panel under Manage->Categories. Read more about this process.
- Images on the homepage are displayed using Custom Fields. Read more about this process.
- For the layout to work, some image dimensions must be exact. The “Feature” images are 255×88 pixels while the various category thumbnails are 51×51 pixels each.
- For the author bio photo to work, you must upload a photo with the author’s first name (ex: “Darren.jpg”). Read more about this process.
- If you are upgrading from a previous version of Mimbo, please view details in the Changelog to see what’s new. Most importantly: if you are having trouble displaying the homepage, please note that this configuration step is no longer necessary! The latest version of Mimbo works like any other theme - it uses index.php as its homepage template.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much do you charge for customizations?
Sorry, I am not available for freelance jobs currently. - How do I add images to the homepage?
As mentioned before, the images are pulled in using Custom Fields. For this to work, images must be stored in the /images/ folder of your theme. You can either upload them there via FTP, or go to Options->Miscellaneous in your control panel, set the correct path, and upload them through the Upload panel below your Write->Posts editor. - Why does the formatting of my excerpts look strange?
By default, the_excerpt function uses the first 55 words of the post, including the original formatting. This can make things look strange on your homepage. If you’d like to write a separate excerpt for your posts, use the Optional Excerpt field. - How do I add my own logo to the masthead?
First make sure your logo image is no wider than 625px. After it’s been uploaded, open the style.css document and make this change to the H1 properties:h1 { text-indent:-9999px; background: url(images/logo.gif) no-repeat; width: whatever; height: whatever; } - How do I add photos and formatting to the body of my posts?
There are two CSS classes, .picleft and .picright, as well as styling provided for blockquotes and lists. See this post for examples. - Why do I see errors saying, “Call to undefined function: is_tag”?
The Mimbo templates contain references to tags because tags are now a Wordpress feature. I’m currently trying to make Mimbo backwards-compatible but in the meantime, you’ll need to upgrade to version 2.3.
Changelog
• Version 2.2 | Nov 27, 2007 | Details
• Version 2.1 | Nov 3, 2007 | Details
• Version 2.0 | Oct 18, 2007 | Details
• Version 1.1 | Aug 11, 2007 | Details
• Version 1.0 | Aug 5, 2007
Popularity: 100% [?]
Darren,
Thanks for your generous effort with this. I’ve been playing around with the WP tags since your previous article in this series, and having a reference example like this theme is a great help.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers - GD
This is an amazing theme! Really - you did such a good job with it. I love it!
Very unique theme!
I never thought you will release it when I first read your tutorial. :D
Thanks for the feedback, guys. If you choose to use the theme for an online magazine you’re launching, send me the link and I’ll include it in a roundup of Mimbo-enabled sites sometime soon (I’m already seeing a few popping up in the referrers).
Great theme Darren.
I’m trying it out on a music blog/net label site.
Nice theme, i like the magazine style. I’m already using it on my site.
I’m using this theme for my upcoming magazine. Check the link out. I promise I’m actually going to do some customization of the theme soon, I’ve just been busy. What is the license on Mimbo by the way?
Mimbo is under the GNU/GPL license, for what that’s worth. I urge people to do whatever they want with the theme — leaving the credit link in the footer or in the CSS is always appreciated.
A few people have asked about the “Read More” function inside the Lead Story. Please see item #8 in the Release Notes for further explanation.
I still don’t know how to make the features images to show up. I’ve uploaded them into the main article but didn’t worked. How do I do this?
Bruno, check out #8 in the original article. The images should be referenced in the_excerpt (make sure to use an absolute path), or you can always create a custom field for them instead.
Great theme, love the simplicity of it. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for making this theme!
Hey. I should have said this much earlier (I was one of the people who requested this), but I got sidetracked with other stuff. Anyway, I want to say thank you for putting the theme together. I really appreciate it. Thanks again.
I’m trying this theme out for a new blog that I’m working on. I really really like what you’ve done with the custom homepage template. It has gotten me to look at templates in a whole new light. It really goes to show the extendability of good old Wordpress.
Wow, its so clean and neat. i will be using it.
It looks really good in fact. I am planning on a redesign of my site and your layout is some what similar to what I had in mind for my site.
i have been looking for sometime for a theme that does just this, awesome…however being a bear of very little brain i find it a leetle tricky, as my daughter would say. any chance of a “dummies guide to mimbo” for thicko mountaineers like me! seriously i think it is a swee piece of work and will no doubt spawn a thousand on-line magazines - Rock on !!
Darren this theme/cms is great and I have also been looking to do something like this for my tech site and for a video game site I’m launching. I’m sure this it straight forward to a lot of people but I’m pretty new to WP. What would you charge to get my layout done and arranged so I can work on writing and reviewing products.
I can learn it on the back in and take it apart to figure it out, but putting it together is my challenge.
how to insert widgets? i’ve inserted it into the sidebars wizard in the WP dashboard but the widgets don’t show up.. can anyone help me??
Man… thanks… I’ll be converting my current magazine blog - http://www.hoodgrownonline.com to use mimbo over the weekend….
if all goes well… i’ll have it done by Monday…
Fantastic Theme
My blog http://www.cycling-challenge.com using Mimbo 2.0
Many thx
I’ve got my Mimbo site up and running… A LOT quicker than I thought I would…
though I’m still making improvements here and there….
thanks for a great template…
you can check out my modifications to the template here:
http://www.hoodgrownonline.com/online/
Wow. Amazing one. Very covenient desgin! Upgrading my blog right now! ;)
Thank you for the tremendous job.
Men I love this one, how much you want for add one more column, wigetize both columns and footer and make it liquid?