Simplista Theme Features:
- Columns: 3
- Menu Type: Standard
- Styled HTML Elements/Shortcodes: Yes
- Plugins: Yes (Integrated)
- Trackbacks/Comments: Separated
- Author Comments: Styled + Threaded
- Browser Compatibility: All Standard Browsers
- Widget Ready: Enabled
- Code: Clean
- W3C Valid: Valid
Theme Admin Options:
- Logo Options: Editable
- Page Alignment: Centered
- Advert Mgmt: Banner Management
- Display Attributes: Yes
Package Includes:
Personal License:
- Price: Free
- The "standard" package, includes everything you need to use the theme.
- Full support provided with purchase.
Developer Package:
- Price: Free
- Ideal for developers and designers.
- Additional features, PSD files included.
Extended Theme Description:
Please Note: This theme is no longer available/not being sold or has changed dramatically from what is shown here. Return to the homepage to find other great WordPress and related themes.
Simplista is a new theme from WP Now, who have recently joined the growing number of premium WordPress theme designers with an excellent, yet introductory, set of themes for purchase. Don’t be dissuaded by the price, as their themes still remain affordable and include the latest technologies in WordPress and the design community.
For this theme review, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the Simplista Theme, which is the most recent release.
You’ll immediately notice, upon visiting the theme demo, that the theme is well-designed (otherwise it wouldn’t be featured on this site). The color scheme is vibrant, but still slightly subdued, making it easy on the eyes and easy to browse through the various areas that you can set up for featuring content.
At the very top of the theme, you’ll find traditional page links, placing them slightly out of focus, but still within reach for your visitors. Beneath your logo, a scrolling bar of categories is displayed, which is a feature that really isn’t integrated often. Normally, categories overflow onto the next level, so this is definitely an improvement. One caveat to this is that drop-down menus wouldn’t be integrated as well.
A featured/recent post is displayed above all other posts. Beneath this, your Twitter updates are displayed as well as Recent Comments.
Moving over to the right-hand side of the page, a search box is integrated into the top portion of the theme, along with a 468×60 ad and 125×125 ads. This makes it possible for you to monetize your site while still being able to manage your code (you don’t have to integrate and add these areas yourself).
Subscription areas and a Featured Video are displayed below, along with any other widgets you would like to include in your template, it is all up to you, as nothing is hard-coded into the template in the sidebar portion. A Flickr Photostream is the last integrated plugin that is in the sidebar.
Individual posts use typography that fits in with the rest of the theme and contains all the typical HTML Elements, such as headers, italic, bold, strikethrough, and blockquote text. This makes it easier when you start, as you don’t have to use the more outdated (replaced by CSS) HTML coding for styling all your text.
A three-column footer is well-contained within the footer of the theme, great for placing meta links, a blogroll, or other information that doesn’t fit well in the sidebar.
In conclusion, this is a good theme for people that want a clean, elegant theme suitable to help further define your brand and image online. Personally, I feel that you need some experience whenever you work with premium themes due to the fact that you should be able to personalize it, and this theme is no different. Custom fields are utilized for thumbnail images and without reading the FAQs/read-me, you wouldn’t know how to make use of this feature. Despite the fact that there is an incomplete back-end – not all premium themes require it for simple edits that you only perform once – the theme is definitely a great starting place for bloggers and anyone looking to create an impact online.
Support: They have advanced theme tutorials and FAQs available for each theme. With theme purchases, you’ll be able to contact them for any errors or customization issues you encounter.
Additional Features:
- Two-column layout, designed around the magazine format with a featured article.
- Widget-ready sidebars.
- AdSense-ready with areas designed to help you increase your earnings.
- Compatible with WordPress 2.7 and higher.
- Additional template with ‘no sidebars,’ extending the width of your page template.
- Links and bookmark template for featuring different types of content rather than simply text and images.
- Sitemap template to make it easier for visitors to browse through your content and for search engines to index your site.
- JavaScript category menu that scrolls/advances.
- Flickr photo stream integrated into sidebar.
- Several plugins integrated and designed to ben compatible with the theme.
License Breakdown and Themes Club:
• Basic Package ($49) – This package is designed for people who want to use the theme for personal projects. Future theme updates are provided. Buy 1 theme, get 1 free.
• Developer Package ($79) – This package is designed for developers, as the PSD files are included as well as future theme updates. Buy 1 theme, get 2 free.
• Theme Club ($99 + $9/month) – Purchasing a membership allows you to get access to all their themes for one low price, including support access and free updates.
• Developer Theme Club ($149 + $14/month) – Purchasing a membership allows you to get access to all their themes for one low price, including support access and free updates. PSD files are also included.
