09_11_2009

Grace Photoblog Theme Updated!

Scrawled by Ian | Downloads

free-theme-badgeI’m sure that you’ll all be relieved to hear that I’ve finally got around to updating the Grace Photoblog theme. Woohoo!

I think that it’s fair to say that despite it’s general awesomeness a few of you found some usability issues with Grace. So to resolve these, I’ve changed a few things and released version 1.2 of Grace.

Live Demo

We all like to try before we buy – even when things are totally free. So why not take a look at the live demo of Theme:

Demo

Download

Download the Grace Photoblog Theme

What’s New in 1.2

Cosmetically, nothing’s changed – Grace is still a stylish, minimalistic photoblog theme for WordPress and it’s still completely FREE!

Here’s what’s new in Grace Version 1.2:

  • Easier way to display images – no more “copy into the Extract field”.
  • The required Custom Fields are pre-installed with the theme – no more “create a Custom Field called ‘Thumbnail’” etc.
  • Automatic thumbnail resizing – no more “Create a thumbnail that’s…”
  • An option’s page that let’s you control the speed of the rotating gallery on the home page.

Ace.

Despite these changes, to get the most out of the theme you still have to change a few settings on your WordPress blog - but Grace will work “out of the box” so why not Download It Now!

Configuring Grace

As I mentioned above if you want to get the most out of the Grace WordPress Photoblog Theme there are a couple of set up steps that you have to go through. But don’t worry, they’re all really straight forward and they can all be done through your blog’s Admin area.

The set up steps are:

  • Create a “Featured” category.
  • Create “Home” & “Gallery” Pages.
  • Adding Widgets.
  • Set your theme options.

I strongly recommend that you’ve activated the Grace theme in the usual WordPress theme way before you complete these step.

Create a “Featured” Category

The rotating gallery on the Grace homepage displays only the images that have been assigned to a category called “Featured”. But, rather obviously, before it can do that you need to create the “Featured” category.

To do this:

  1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
  2. Click Post to expand the Post Menu then click the Categories link.
  3. Enter Featured into the Category Name field. It’s not necessary to complete the other fields on the Add Category page but you can if you want.
  4. Click the Add Category button.

That’s it! Now whenever you assign a photo to the Featured category it will automatically be displayed in the rotating gallery on the home page.

Create “Home” & “Gallery” Pages

The “home” page on the Grace demo uses a Custom Page Template and WordPress’ static front page option to make it look a little differently from the usual chronological list of posts that you find on most blogs. After all, how many blogs have a rotating gallery on their home page? But by creating a custom home page you then need to tell WordPress where to display the chronological list of posts which – because this is a photoblog – I’ve called the Gallery page.

Note - For the Home and Gallery pages to work properly you must have Permalinks setup.

To create “Home” and “Gallery” pages:

  1. Click the Pages menu option. This expands the Pages menu item.
  2. Click the Add New link. This displays the Add New Page page.
  3. Enter the text HomePage in the Page Title field. Don’t add any content of any custom fields.
  4. Select Home Page from the Template drop-down list in the Attributes panel.
  5. Click the Publish button.
  6. Click the Add New link in the Pages menu item again.
  7. Enter the text Gallery in the Page Title field. Don’t add any content of any custom fields.
  8. Click the Publish button.
  9. Click the Settings menu option. This expands the Settings menu item.
  10. Click the Reading link. This displays the Reading Settings page.
  11. Click the A static page (select below) radio button then select HomePage from the Front page drop-down list and Gallery from the Post page drop-down list.
  12. Click the Save Changes button.

And with the click of the “Save Changes” button you’ve set up your Grace photoblog to work with the custom home page!

Adding Widgets

There are 2 widgetized areas in the theme – one the home page and on the archive sections.

To add a widget:

  1. Click the Appearance menu option. This expands the Appearance menu item.
  2. Click the Widgets link. This displays the Widgets page.
  3. Select either Home Page – to add widgets to the home page – or Sidebar – to add widgets to the archives sections – from the Current Widgets drop-down list.
  4. Drag the widgets across from the left to the right that you to display.
  5. Click the Save Changes button.

Adding Photos to the Gallery

To add a photo to the gallery:

  1. Resize your photo so that they’re a maximum of 900px wide.
  2. If you’ve turned off the “auto thumbnails”, create a thumbnail that’s 280px wide by 140px high.
  3. Upload both images to your WordPress Media Library.
  4. Copy the file URL of the main image then paste it into the Main Photo Custom Field.
  5. Again, only if you’ve turned off the “auto-thumbnails”, copy the file URL of the thumbnail into the Thumbnail Custom Field.
  6. Enter a description of the photo into the Post Editing Area using the visual text editor.
  7. If you want to the photo to appear in the rotating gallery on the home page assign the post to the Featured category.

Setting Your Grace Options

The new version of Grace comes with its own options page. This let’s you switch off the auto-generation of thumbnails and set the speed of the rotating gallery.

grace-options

Note: By default thumbnail auto-generation is switched on and the gallery speed is set to “Normal”.

To set your theme options:

  1. Expand the Appearance sub-menu panel.
  2. Click the Grace Options link. This displays the Grace Theme Options page.
  3. Change your settings as required.
  4. Click the Update Options button.

Note: If you turn off the Automatic Thumbnails you’ll need to create then upload them yourself.

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Number of Comments: 16 Comments so far.

  1. 28 Free Wordpress Photo Gallery Themes | TutZone wrote on the 16_11_2009

    [...] Grace is a stylish, minimalistic photoblog theme for WordPress and it’s completely FREE! Grace’s muted colour scheme and big frame puts your photos right at the centre of the blog making colours seem even more vibrant and beautifully complementing those in black and white. Demo Download Details [...]

  2. Afton wrote on the 16_11_2009

    Hi!

    I found your theme and was thrilled to pieces, since I’ve been trying to figure out some way to do something almost exactly like this with the Thesis theme, which I bought. But this theme makes it easy! So for this website, I’ve ditched Thesis (which I never thought I’d do!) and switched to Grace.

    But here’s my problem: Automatic Thumbnails doesn’t seem to work! I don’t see any thumbnails anywhere! I’ve read the instructions over and over and still can’t tell what’s going on! Thanks for your help!

    P.S. I’m about to start messing with width, so that my 1024×768 wallpapers can be used. Do you have any tips or warnings? Thanks! =D

  3. Temi wordpress per blog fotografici | Voci dal Web wrote on the 17_11_2009

    [...] Demo Download Details [...]

  4. Leah wrote on the 19_11_2009

    Hi there! Your theme is so wonderful! I don’t have the new grace theme, and am trying to get the featured gallery to work, and while a photo shows up, it does not rotate through the images. I can’t figure out if I’m doing something wrong.

    Also, is there any way to just upgrade to the new theme without losing all the editing I’ve already done on the old theme template? Thanks!

  5. durk wrote on the 23_11_2009

    Great Theme!

  6. 28 temas de WordPress para galerías | Recursos para Diseñadores Gráficos y Web | Creativos Online wrote on the 23_11_2009

    [...] Demo Descarga Detalles [...]

  7. durk wrote on the 23_11_2009

    Hey guys,

    Works like a breeze, but when I checked in IE, the slider had some weird glitches.

    A known bug?

  8. dementia wrote on the 29_11_2009

    Hi. I have the same problem as Afton. The Auto Thumbnail isn’t working for me.

  9. dementia wrote on the 29_11_2009

    Was able to solve the problem.

    The cache folder in scripts isn’t set to 777. I checked the timthumb.php and I think it’s supposed to auto CHMOD the folder but it doesn’t so you have to do it manually.

    I love the theme btw!

  10. Bisma wrote on the 03_12_2009

    Hi there, your theme is amazing but the rotating image for featured category doesn’t seems to work. Everything else work fine. I’m using Firefox 3.5.5 on Windows XP. Perhaps there is a solution for this? Thx

  11. 25 wordpress galeri eklentisi | Eklentiler wrote on the 04_12_2009

    [...] Demo Download Details [...]

  12. mangesh wrote on the 11_12_2009

    Hi,

    i am trying to put more than one images in the post, but it’s not working.

    how to do that?

    Thanks,
    Mangesh

  13. Yahoo! Detector wrote on the 12_12_2009

    yes, I absolutely agree with you, I am working on it too! thanks.

  14. 68Design – (68ds.com) Creative Design Transmitor » Blog Archive » 30 Free and Smashing Wordpress Photo Gallery Themes wrote on the 13_12_2009

    [...] Grace is a stylish, minimalistic photoblog theme for WordPress and it’s completely FREE! Grace’s muted colour scheme and big frame puts your photos right at the centre of the blog making colours seem even more vibrant and beautifully complementing those in black and white. Demo Download Details [...]

  15. ErwinSK wrote on the 16_12_2009

    hello, i do have a problem with Grace, when i add. one ore two more category’s, (home page) only the “Featured” category is apearing on the witget sector…. pls HELP :-) But it is a GREART theme, and i wil lounch is for Chritmas….

    Gtreetzzzz From The Netherlands

  16. AppleUser wrote on the 16_12_2009

    Goodday,

    Thanks for this great theme!

    I make a category “Featured” and selected it in the post to display it on the frontpage, but it will not work. I use safari and firefox…

    Have a nice day.

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