Refreshing our look with Mandigo
Posted on 17 May 2007
After years with the basic WordPress default theme, I decided it was time for a spring wardrobe update at GravitationalPull.net. I wanted a new theme compatible with the latest version of WordPress as well as the plug-ins I rely on like SpamKarma and Automattic’s wicked cool sidebar widgets manager. Some of the theme preview sites I’d used in the past, like Alex King’s handy Theme Browser site, failed to let me filter for my requirements so I turned to WordPress’s own lengthy list of widget-ready themes. There’s no previewer so I clicked through to a couple of dozen sites to see for myself, as well as to check compatibility with WordPress 2.1.
The winner of this beauty and usability contest was Mandigo. I was especially impressed not just with the look and the high tweakability quotient but also with the author Tom Picard’s frequent updates and useful explanations (in the comments thread). I downloaded the theme package, uploaded to my WordPress theme directory, followed the simple directions to create my own header image and voila. I’m not in love with the little star bullet points in the right margin but either they’ll grow on me or I’ll tweak them, too. I’ve, of course, made a donation to support further development.
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Hi Aaron,
I really like the new look! It looks nice and clean, professional and stuff…
Seriously, I wanted to thank you for the donation you made, your support is highly appreciated!
I have sent you two emails (using the paypal email address), but you probably didn’t get them. Since your header is a little bright, I thought I should let you know about some readability options:
- Enabling “Page Navigation Overlay”, under Header Navigation Options, would make the navigation easier to read.
- Checking “Apply a black stroke”, under Miscellaneous Readability options could make your blog title & description stand out a little more.
But that’s just my personal preference :)
Thanks for choosing Mandigo!