Just a quick post to say I’ve updated this blog using this theme and software:-
http://www.frankhaywood.com/go/slp/
I’ve had my eye on it for quite a while now, but it seemed that development had stopped and the company was being sold, but not any more. Now development is full steam ahead with lots of point releases coming out all building up to a full version 6 release.
It’s relatively expensive, but you can get it at the lowest price for at least the next few days – the word is the price is going up when v6 is released.
It’s well worth every penny at any price, and I’m gradually upgrading all my niche blogs to this new platform.
When I’ve got to grips with the over 70 plugins that come with the theme I’ll do a proper review of it, but that could take some time as there’s so much in there.
In the meantime, the theme itself comes with 27 skins, and I’ve chosen one that is clean and simple and is very similar to the previous one, so it shouldn’t all come as too much of a shock to you. 🙄
Update: v6.0 RC1 has now been released, so if the price is going up when the full v6.0 is released, now would be a good time to get it.
-Frank Haywood
Nice looking theme. I’d be interested to read your review on this product. It seems a bit steep but is it worth the pennies?
Hi DesDrec,
I believe it is, otherwise I wouldn’t have shelled out for it. 😉
I spotted it in early 2006 (I think) and it seemed like a good idea even then, but at that time I wasn’t prepared to spend quite that much money. Three years down the line and I’m a little wiser, and wishing I’d gone that route in the first place.
It definitely makes WordPress behave more like a CMS, and you can do things like have different header graphics for individual posts and pages. You can also control whether a widget appears on posts and pages (contextual widgets), so you can do things like make the front page have one set of widgets, and your posts pages have others.
The funny thing is, I was saying just a couple of weeks ago that I wished that there was a WP theme where everything was widgetised to give greater control over layout than you currently have, and this is certainly a step in the right direction, with a whole load of “sidebars”.
They’re actually sidebar areas where you can place widgets, so there’s both left and right sidebars (if you’re using two – this layout isn’t) as well as wide top and bottom sidebars (if you’re using two sidebars together) where you can place big ads or videos for instance.
Then other sidebar areas are “Header Area”, “Header Boxes Bar”, “Before the Entries”, “Each Entry” and so on down to the footer. There’s even a 404 “sidebar” and an “Inline Widgets (for use in entries)” sidebar too.
On top of that the plugins are extensive and well thought out. I do have to say though that there are some plugins where I believe there are better free ones out there. For example I don’t like the supplied social bookmarking plugin and I prefer the “Add to Any” one instead.
When I do the review I’ll go into detail with a video and some screenshots.
-Frank
Hi Frank,
What a nice looking change on your blog! Congratulate!
I like to read the quality content what you give to your audience on your blog. Please, don’t get me wrong but I think it is also important how your site looks like. The present one is as simle as it may be (the folks including me like simplicity). Despite it seems more professional-looking than the former (at least to me).
I like the new layout and the new fonts of your content body, it is well readable. I’d like to read your experience on the manageability of your new platform.
Many successes,
Sandor