American History Now

This theme is being hosted by http://coldwarcartoons.americanhistorynow.org

This theme is very user friendly and customizable while still maintaining a uniform look.

There are five font options for the blog title: Georgia, Arial, Calibri, Tahoma and Volkorn with Georgia current being sued.

There are five font options for the content font: Segoe UI, PT Sans, Georgia, Calibri and Arial with Segoe UI currently being used.

The user has the option between one and two sidebars and whether they go on the left or the right as well as the option to place widgets in both the header and the footer. In addition the user can control how many posts to show up in a row (between 1-3) with two currently being displayed right now.

In the header the user can choose to upload their own header image or logo and determine where the blog’s tagline is placed. The user can also customize the footer content as they wish in their own separate box in the theme’s settings. They can also enable a boxed layout and a custom background if they desire, add custom menus and have extensive mutli-level pages in the navigation bar.

Images display nicely both on the site and in the new post box with being able to easily adjust whether the image will float left right or be centered and have that reflect in the edit post box.

Finally, advanced users can adjust the theme by adding their own custom CSS without having to hack the theme on the server. For example, I very quickly and easily changed the a:hover color for the blog title and for the links in the sidebar.

It’s a very simple theme that allows for enough customability to allow for some user preferences while still having a stock look and feel for all AHNow sites.

This theme is installed on jwieringa.americanhistorynow.org

JC One Lite is a simple little theme, for the minimalist user.

JC One Lite offers a basic, 2 column layout with options to add custom header images as well as choosing a custom background color. There is one “main” sidebar and the option of 3 sidebar spaces in the footer.

The theme comes with minimal and very basic widget options. Some widget extension would need to take place for more robust users. Some widget that would need to be added include:

• A way to display RSS and other subscription options (the standard RSS widget is for displaying a RSS feed, not subscribing to one)
• Some form of social media widget

The JC theme options do allow for manual manipulation of the sites CSS, though with few prompts for the user, so this feature is only useful for users who are more technically savvy. There is no “editor” option for directly interacting with the site’s CSS, only through a dialog box in the “Appearance” section.

In terms of default styles, there are a few drawbacks. For one, the display options for the search, either in the Nav or as a widget in the sidebar, are both suffering from alignment issues. Secondly,  the header image displays as disconnected from the main content space, which make the appearance rather disjointed. Finally, the sidebar is disproportionately wide given the size of the content space.

Overall, JC One Lite is a basic theme that could work either for a user who does not desire to do a lot of customizing work on their site or for a user was willing to wrestle with the provided interface.

This theme is being hosted by http://dludingt.americanhistorynow.org

This theme is surprisingly robust. It looks fairly simple but there is a remarkable level of customability. All of the standard widgets are built in but allow the user to create their own div’s id’s and custom sizes without having to hack the backend of the css. In addition, there is a place in the theme options that allows for custom css to be imputed without having to change the theme for all users. The user can also create their own navigation bar with a widget and choose where it is positioned and what it will look like. But if the user does not know or want to do that, the widgets still appear with basic information showing without having to do that. (All the widgets employed right now do not have anything additional done to them that can’t be done in the more standard widgets on most themes.) The theme describes this functionality as “total control.”

There are 9 different fonts the user can choose for their titles: Abel, Oswald, Terminal Dosis, Bitter, Georgia, Droid serif, Helvetica, Arial, Droid Sans. Bitter is currently the option chosen. The font size is also customizable as well as the color for the links.

The user can upload their own favicon, logo and adjust the background to either a set color or a background image.

The footer content can be changed in it’s own box in the theme settings to add custom data and images without having to use Text widgets.

Widgets can be placed in either the ‘Primary’ sidebar located on the left of the main content or the ‘Secondary,’ located on the left. There is a space for a widget in both the footer and the header as well as the option to have separate sidebar content on a singular post (page, attachment, etc) which is viewed before the comments area.

The theme also supports three custom menus: Primary, Secondary and Subsidiary. The Primary menu shows up just underneath the blog title (currently showing the blogs “Pages”) and the Secondary menu appears first in the left sidebar (currently showing the “Categories”). The Subsidiary menu appears on the far right of the footer.

Each post can also be chosen to appear as “Featured,” Primary,” “Secondary,” or “Subsidiary,” and can be made sticky.

As you can see (on the page itself) the theme only really looks good when the user chooses a “featured image.” Otherwise there is a big blank space above the title and content excerpt.

This theme is being hosted by http://test.americanhistorynow.org/

This theme is moderately customizable so it allows for users to make their blog function how they want while it would still give a bit of uniformity to AHNow at large.

Some of it’s options are:

3 different fonts for the main content: Helvetica/Arial, Verdana and Georgia – Helvetica is the current option chosen.

4 different fonts for the post titles: Open Sana, Helvetica, Verdana and Georgia – Open Sans is the current option chosen.

4 different fonts for the blog title: Permanent Marker, Helvetica, Verdana and Georgia – Permanent Marker is the current option chosen.

The theme allows the user to choose one of 6 main color schemes all of which are darker shades of basic color choices. Currently the dark green has been activated.

The user can also change the background color or make it an image that is static or moveable and can determine how it will repeat.

The user can add a logo to go next to the blog title (not a banner header image though) and can upload a personal favicon.

As for the basic layout of the theme, the user has the choice of up to two side bars with them placed in five different ways, including one on either side of the main content. The user can also adjust the content width and sidebar width.

Finally, the user can choose between two blog style presentations: standard or magazine. Magazine is currently the option chosen.