If you have arrived here directly, there is a whole blog attached too. Clicking the header image will take you there.

Does anyone know if a WordPress port exists of this lovely right-handed theme for Nucleus? (I think it’s the default theme in fact). [3stripe, WP fora].

It took me days to convert the layout I am using at the moment from Drupal into something that WordPress could use. Would something from Nucleus be that hard?

WordPress Leaf Theme

Being bored, I thought I would have a go (I think I need to get out more). So with my previously successful method of viewing and copying the source and CSS and them replacing the html code with the appropriate WP tags, I started experimenting. Within a couple of hours I had a fully working theme going. A couple more hours got me to the final design, which does exactly what it was supposed to, and looks OK to boot.

The only real work was changing the sidebar layout, as it was done using definition list tags <dt>, <dl> and <dd> tags, and WP prefers to output lists in terms of <ul> and <ol>.

As a theme, it doesn’t ‘do’ much. The archive pages use excerpted text, but there are no fancy pages and the sidebar doesn’t change or disappear in single post view. It’s rubbish at making tea too.

Things worth mentioning:

  • Valid XHTML code.
  • Text sizing in ems, so things should be nicer across browsers.
  • Fitt’s Law applied to sidebar links.
  • Separate ‘loopcore’ script – The WP ‘loop’ (the bit that generates the posts) is extracted into a separate file. This should prevent excessing code replication for multiple pages, and allow ‘change one, change all’ editing.
  • Tested on IE6 (XP Pro), Safari, Safari2 and Firefox 1.02 (Mac).
  • Gratis, buck-shee, libre, frei, 自由 goodness. Just promise to be nice to somebody today if you download it.

Legal:
The Stanch theme is licensed under a GPL license. Basically, this means that you’re free to do what you like with it as long as you redistribute it under the same license.

At the moment the footer contains links to mine and the original authors pages. There is no obligation to keep them, though a link somewhere (or even just an e-mail to say you are using it) would be nice.

Installation:

  1. Read the readme file.
  2. Note: Stanch has been ported for WP1.5+.
  3. Download, unzip, ftp to the themes/ folder then activate it via the WP admin panel.

Notes:
Now here’s the bad news. I am not a CSS, HTML or PHP guru. The porting was done with what experience I have, and as such, cannot really help with problems. I have done my best to ensure browser compatibility, and that is all I can do. I’ll try to help, but no guarantees.

I’ve set up a live preview so you check out the theme (and a variant) here, and you can download the theme here (16kb).

If you fancy a left-handed version, Stephano has a nice image-free version here.

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