Additional features and custom controls for Mimbo Pro
It’s been a very productive week with very little sleep, but things are progressing nicely with Mimbo Pro.
Ultimately, our goal is to create a CMS-like theme that requires no manual template editing. To achieve that so far, we’ve added to a growing list of features which are handled through a custom control panel tab. During testing this weekend, we had a few more in-the-moment brainstorms that resulted in control panel options for something very important to users: the ability to turn on/off masthead images and choose between default text or a graphical logo.
You’ll also notice a “Style” option which allows you to choose between two additional color schemes, a grungier red and a springtime green:
In addition, there were improvements made to the image-caching and nonce/security stuff. The next week will be spent testing and making some video tutorials. I’ve had several offers to translate documentation into French and German — I will get to that within the month, hopefully.
Anyway, we’re still planning to launch within the next week or two, and I promise not to post about Mimbo Pro again til it’s actually launch time — thanks for your patience ;)
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ooooh, I like the red colour scheme, would fit nicely with my logo which has the same red in it too. The green however hurts my eyes. :)
Hi Darren,
Congratulations for the good job!
There’s a point about I’m concerned: in the preview of the blue template I saw many titles, template titles, that seem to have been designed as images and not as editable text. ¿Is it that way?
I strongly recomend to make every word editable. It’s specially important to those of us who are going to use Mimbo Pro in languages different from english.
In case of translating graphic titles is unconvenient. I would recomend to offer plain graphics insted so our graphic designers can overwrite those graphics.
Keep up the good job!
Excellent! It sounds like Mimbo Pro is going to fill the gap between where I want to be and where I am with my webpages. Can’t wait for the launch and it sounds like the photo options are going to be easier to handle than in the current Mimbo theme.
Exciting!
The green however hurts my eyes.
Heh, there’s always one color that raises objection. That’s why the default template is blue — no one dislikes blue!
preview of the blue template I saw many titles, template titles, that seem to have been designed as images and not as editable text.
Sorry if that’s misleading, it was just done for the sake of the mockup. In the real demo (to be previewed sometime next week) you’ll see that all text is real text, not images.
Can’t wait for the launch and it sounds like the photo options are going to be easier to handle than in the current Mimbo theme.
Definitely easier than the current Mimbo ;)
Cool!
Thanks for your answer!
Any chance you can make a more subtle color, maybe something more earthy like tan? I’m pondering whether to use Mimbo Pro on our news site and I’d like something that’s easy on the eyes, clean looking and all together appealing to our readers.
Right now they see a lot of white and some light blue with The Morning After theme, and that’s really it. We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it (http://www.aqsaint.com) and I’d like to keep that simple color look if possible.
Any chance you can make a more subtle color, maybe something more earthy like tan?
In fact I’ve been toying with a little more sober palette (creme, grey) too, but I don’t honestly know if it’ll make it into this release. As I mentioned, we may continue to release additional skins for Mimbo Pro based on the the feedback we get after it launches. I’m definitely open to suggestions.
Darren,
Good option, but I prefer the blue.
Good work!
Just like Bryan, I would also prefer a more subtle greyish white color scheme. But I’d wait and see how your whole demo looks like. Blue is always popular
DUDE! U got a green one!
Cant wait for the launch :P
Looks like an incredible piece of art:)
How will the top navigation display subcategories?
Will it be shown like in your post:
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2008/02/12/creating-two-tiered-conditional-navigation-in-wordpress/
Thanks again for all the hard work.
When you release this are you saying that it will have the option or will not have the option to look like the first image that you posted about the theme.
And will you offer beta testing or have you decided not to offer it.
Thanks, keep up the good work.
- Cheers
Will it be possible to change the colourscheme ourselves? The right colour seems to be an important part for anyone having a site. In the free mimbo I changed allmost every colour which was not that hard. I take it that mimbo pro allowes the same kind of manipulation?
Hi,
Can’t wait to see the finished work. My 2c: Please add a very generic gray scale theme for blogs where any one dominant color scheme can be intrusive to the subject. Also, what I see very frequently is that once content, especially banners and ads started getting in, the whole affair starts getting close to an ice-cream shop.
Actually, your current (free/non-pro) Mimbo theme has a very good neutral foundation. I have seen examples of it being used, and all blogs have been successful in easily displaying their individual character. (Imagine if NYT or BusinessWeek and many others had a single color dominant theme).
You are doing a great job. Keep it up and good luck!
This is like waiting for Christmas morning!
Is the CSS going to be heavily commented to aid in the customization process?
How will the top navigation display subcategories?
There are dropdown menus for subcats, just like the free version does with subpages.
When you release this are you saying that it will have the option or will not have the option to look like the first image that you posted about the theme.
Will it be possible to change the colourscheme ourselves? The right colour seems to be an important part for anyone having a site
Please add a very generic gray scale theme for blogs where any one dominant color scheme can be intrusive to the subject.
If time permits, I’ll try to include a more neutral scheme. (Ironically, Mimbo Pro was designed the way it is to be a bold and colorful alternative to the more monochromatic newsy themes currently on the market.)
Ultimately, any/all color changes will be editable through the CSS, so that customization route will always be available. Once it’s yours, you’re free to re-work the appearance all you want! Users who purchase a developer’s license will also get copies of the original PSD files to aid them in customization.
Re: CSS commenting, all the class names are pretty straightforward (.masthead, .sidebar, etc), but I’ll try to add comments for anything that’s confusing. There will also be a forum where users can trade tips and ask questions and my collaborator and I will check in frequently to help out.
It’’s all looking good Darren, good stuff. Am checking in constantly, but do allow yourself some sleep, lol.
Roll on release day! Looking forward to working with it.
Daren…I thought I would ask this again sorry.
I notice how you are manually italicizing questions in your posts. I was wondering if the theme will have a ‘quote’ function which is basic to many BBS. My site has a very active comment community with some post reaching up to a thousand comments. This would be very useful
Tony - there will be additional HTML controls in the comment section for you to add bolding, italics, blockquotes and so forth.
I am very late to this discussion and even later to the discussion about your theme.
I have been using Premium Theme but I still have a few limitations of WP for a CMS (http://germworks.net/blog/2008/02/20/wordpress-25-one-step-closer-to-a-cms/) and so I am hoping your theme helps to solve them
My mouth is watering im ready for mimbo pro!
Darren,
What measures have been taken to ensure Mimbo Pro will work with Wordpress 2.5. As is scheduled to be released on the 10th March WP 2.5 may proceed the release of Mimbo Pro? How will this effect the admin features?
Did you make an option to add captions, it is a big problem for me a I always like to add description to pictures as well as credits for the authors. I am also eager to translate the theme and the documentation in Bulgarian for free.
I’m looking forward to this. I’m about to start a blog and after spending hours looking at magazine style layouts, this one offers the most features and attractive layout. I wasn’t looking for a paid layout as I am just getting started, but it’s hard to justify NOT spending the money for this, even for a beginner like me.
Thanks and I look forward to release date… impatiently! i have articles backing up in my inbox, haha.