MIMBO is a clean, customizable magazine-style theme for WordPress. It’s also a simple framework which can be modified with child themes, discussed further down in the documentation. Read more about the latest features.
Live Demo
Download
Installation
- Download and unzip the file
- Move the folder into “/wp-content/themes/”
- Log in into your WordPress control panel
- Click Appearance->Themes
- Select the “Mimbo” screenshot
Requirements
Mimbo requires WordPress 2.7+ and GD Library installed on your host server. GD Library is bundled with any server running PHP 4.3+.
Support and Discussion
After 180,000+ downloads, Mimbo has an active forum community that largely supports itself when I cannot help.
If you are using Mimbo for a project and have emergency questions, I strongly recommend using one of the Experts over at WPQuestions.com, a problem-solving community for WordPress.
Donate
Mimbo first launched in August 2007, becoming WordPress’s first magazine-style theme. If you use Mimbo extensively, especially for commercial projects, please consider donating a few bucks to help this popular project evolve:
Getting Things Configured
- In your control panel, click Appearance->Mimbo Options and select your featured categories. This will insert content in the left sidebar of the homepage.
- Go to Users->Your Profile and fill out a bio
- The author photo also requires that you have an account at gravatar.com
- Go to Appearance->Widgets and add some content to the right column
Frequently Asked Questions
- I’ve installed the theme, but an error says, “Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() “.
See the first item in “Getting Things Configured” above. - How much do you charge for customizations?
Sorry, I am not available for freelance jobs currently. - How do I add images to the homepage?
Custom fields are longer required, as in past versions. The thumbnails you see on the homepage and category pages are automatically pulled from the body of your posts and resized dynamically–no extra effort is required. If the thumbnails don’t work, make sure permissions for /mimbo/, /scripts/ and /cache/ are all set to 0777. - Why does my lead image look funny?
Make sure you are starting with an image that is 260px wide or larger. Photos can be shrunk, but not stretched. - How do I add a post to the lead story box?
This makes use of the WP 2.7 sticky post functionality. In the control panel, select Visibility->Stick this post to the front page. - Why are some pages not loading?
Did you upgrade to WP 2.7? - How do I insert advertisements?
Install the WP125 plugin and drop the widget into your sidebar. Then go to Ads->Settings and make sure to unclick “Include default ad stylesheet?”, as Mimbo comes pre-styled for this plugin. - How do I make my homepage excerpts look neater?
By default, the_excerpt function uses the first 55 words of the post, including the original formatting. This can make things look messy on your homepage. If you’d like to write a separate excerpt for your posts, use the Optional Excerpt field in your Write panel. - How do I change the number of posts in the middle column and on the category/archive pages?
This number is set in the control panel under Settings->Reading->”Blog pages show at most”. - How do I switch on the custom Archives page?
Just create a new page and make sure to select “Archives” from the template dropdown menu. - How do I add a favicon?
Create a 16×16 image, name it favicon.ico and drop it in the theme’s /images/ folder.
Customizations and Child Themes
If you plan to customize Mimbo, please consider creating a child theme to make future upgrades easier. The following child themes are currently available:
What is a child theme? It’s a smaller theme which inherits most of its code/functionality from its parent. They also work in conjunction, example: Mimbo must be installed first before Vintage Green can be activated.
Why are child themes useful? Because they allow you to append simple stylistic changes (colors, typography) to your child theme folder, superceding the styles defined in /mimbo/, without actually touching them. Because the two packages are kept separate, your work does not get overwritten each time Mimbo is upgraded.
Since the release of WordPress 2.7, you can also add templates (ex: sidebar.php) to your child theme folder, thus overwriting the parent sidebar. But if you overwrite multiple templates and make significant modifications, it is up to you to track/compare your changes the next time Mimbo is upgraded.
For more on child themes, check out these posts:
- “How to make a ‘child theme’ for WordPress”
- “Any WordPress Theme Can be a Blank Framework”
- “Creating WordPress Child Themes”
- “Ian Stewart on Child Themes”
- “Parent/Child Themes in WordPress”
- “Exploring WordPress Frameworks and Child Themes”
- Theme Inheritance
Localization
Mimbo is fully localized to make it available to a wider international audience.
Download the Language Pack (90KB)
Languages included:
- German – thank you, Simon
- Slovenian – thank you, SpinX
- Malaysian – thank you, Feratik
- Hungarian – thank you, Dezso
- Spanish – thank you, Frank
- French – thank you, Jerem
- Indonesian – thank you, Muhammed
- Greek – thank you, Evangelos
- Farsi – thank you, Hadi
- Brazilian Portuguese – thank you, Guilherme
- Simplified Chinese – thank you, imycard
- Polish – thank you, Karol
- Russian – thank you, Dmitriy
- Swedish – thank you, Thomas
- Norwegian – thank you, Lars
- Danish – thank you, Mads
- Romanian – thanks, Sebastian
- Finnish – thanks, Antti
- Italian – thanks, Playmos
- Betawi – thanks, Gon
- Dutch – thanks, Matthias
- Turkish – thanks, Kartal
If you want to contribute a translation to the pack, there is a blank en.po file included with Mimbo. Open it with an app like PoEdit, translate it, save it with the correct filename and email it back to me.
New to translating? View more extensive instructions»
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9:33 pm
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
1:27 am
This is an amazing theme! Really – you did such a good job with it. I love it!
10:36 am
Very unique theme!
I never thought you will release it when I first read your tutorial. :D
9:38 pm
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).
2:06 am
Great theme Darren.
I’m trying it out on a music blog/net label site.
8:30 am
Nice theme, i like the magazine style. I’m already using it on my site.
1:07 pm
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?
1:14 pm
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.
7:47 pm
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?
11:05 pm
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.
4:57 pm
Great theme, love the simplicity of it. Thanks for sharing it.
9:43 am
Thanks for making this theme!
7:08 pm
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.
10:09 pm
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.
8:45 am
Wow, its so clean and neat. i will be using it.
11:47 pm
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.
8:52 am
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 !!
4:30 pm
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.
3:29 pm
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??
10:26 am
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…
3:50 pm
Fantastic Theme
My blog http://www.cycling-challenge.com using Mimbo 2.0
Many thx
12:28 am
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/
2:30 pm
Wow. Amazing one. Very covenient desgin! Upgrading my blog right now! ;)
Thank you for the tremendous job.
7:52 pm
Men I love this one, how much you want for add one more column, wigetize both columns and footer and make it liquid?
8:03 pm
I mean, I think It worth pay something for a amazing concept. Please sont take it wrong.
4:40 am
one word!….AMAZINE!
11:09 am
good theme, iam going to use it. can i modify it
6:32 pm
This looks fabulous! :D Thank you! I was wondering if the menu features any dropdown function for sub menus at all please?
7:01 pm
@sms_sunder: please modify it as much as you want – Mimbo is very unstyled on purpose.
@Mosey: you could edit the CSS to incorporate Suckerfish menus, or you could edit the sidebar to incorporate code like this:
< ?php if(wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=2")) { ?> < ?php } ?>
That will print a list of sub-level pages for category 2 (in this case). You can also see it in action here (”Explore”).
7:44 pm
Well, what I just read is nothing like what I expected from the kid who climbed trees and chased my daughter, his sister’s best friend. Actually, I understood your chasing better than whatever the heck it is I read above. Mimbo, bimbo…one day ya gotta clue me, buddy!
12:37 pm
Congratulations Daren,
Can I use this magazine theme like blog theme? I want the main page in sequence , like a blog, the first post at the top(lead story), after the second, third, (right col) etc. I want to preserve the “features” at the left side. Victoria Theme at http://www.writerspace.net/index.php/2007/05/24/victoria-wordpress-theme/ have this structure.
If you have any idea, send-me one feedback.
thanks…
2:42 am
Hi
i have a question
the homepage.php file where´s save?
i don´t configure yet im newbie!
6:14 am
i will try this one, looks promising!
10:11 am
I get this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: the_tags() in /home/bycoddot/public_html/tinerisararie/wp-content/themes/mimbo2/archive.php on line 39
10:21 am
We’re getting a lot of the same comments about tag errors. Please read the config instructions closely before posting:
“Mimbo 2.0 is built to support the current version of Wordpress (2.3). If you get fatal errors related to tags (â€?Call to undefined function: is_tagâ€?), please upgrade.”
11:09 am
Great theme Darren. I’m already using Mimbo 1.x on my photoblog/site. Here is how I have built/think my site: phimagery relooking. Note: my site is for private use, i open it for some days as demo of your fantastic template. PhG
12:31 pm
hi Darren !
It’s really an amazing theme !!! REALLY !!!
I modified it a little to work with WPmu (no is_tag and other features).
I’m using it for an online communities and a french association (don’t know if it’s the correct word in english).
Really thank you for releasing it.
Mat_
4:08 pm
Darren,
Thank you for the theme design. It is a logical layout which provides maximum content for a limited space. It is now in place on the U.S. Common Sense web site, and I look forward to using the design to its maximum potential.
8:28 pm
Hi,
I want to use this theme really bad, but I am hosting with Godaddy and their wordpress package is still the older version. Is it compatible yet?
Thanks,
1:20 pm
Phillip,
Sounds like you need to ask GoDaddy to upgrade your wordpress version.
6:16 am
we really like the theme.
and a question…
is it possible to showing ads in sidebar only in post pages?
12:11 pm
Hoodgrown is nice!! I love the site and the splash screen loads quick. You will have to email me to tell me how you did it. I’m loving the look of it and how professional the template looks.
Great work on the template Darren. I haven’t installed changed things over yet for my site but I’m working on it.
Does anyone know if there is a sandbox feature for Wordpress?
10:20 am
Thanks for this theme. It’s by far been my favorite to work with yet. :) I just set up a free press release writing guide on Mimbo yesterday, and it’s absolutely perfect for it. :)
3:41 pm
Hey Darren, I love this theme, but I cant get to load on my homepage properly. I have upgraded to the latest version of wordpress. And it gives me this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function language_attributes() in /mounted-storage/home28b/sub002/sc25305-JTLA/www/wp-content/themes/mimbo2/header.php on line 2
What on earth is the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
THx, and keep up the good work.
7:57 am
MC ,
You need to be running Wordpress 2.3. I had the same problem and the minute I upgraded.. it went away…
BJ, thanks for the comments… I could tell you.. but then I’d have to kill you… lol
Jenn, I think your site would be of great interest to the visitors of my site.. i’m going to add a link sometime today.
2:42 pm
Hey Hoodgrown Magazine.. How did you get the categories on the top menu? You have pages in the top menu and shows blog items from each site there..
You know what I mean? I loved it.. And i want to do the same thing on my site so please tell me :)
3:43 pm
I wondering in the same as sunipeyk does.
Is it possible to have ads in sidebar only in posts pages and not on the frontpage?
8:58 pm
Hey Darren, just wanted to drop a note and let you know that I’ve installed this theme on my blog. It’s a great theme, and it’s written so well. I’m not a theme writer, but I was able to modify it quite easily to meet my needs. Thanks for the great work!
11:20 pm
Darren,
Great theme!
I am preparing me to use this issue, but it would be better for SEO, if you put the title of the posts tagged in the index.
What do you think?
12:22 pm
Hi, Darren
I’ve just finished tweaking your theme to the look that i want. There’re some of my friends want it, and i cheer them to use it, can i redistribute it. I’ll just add my link on the css file and leave your credit intact. And i will not do that if you say no.