Here is a newsletter-style 2-column with sidebar theme for WordPress which allows some control over which categories are displayed in each column. I included the WordPress Theme Toolkit by Ozh for user-friendliness. This theme is a modified version of Corporate Slave, by dreamLogic .
For style and functionality I have included some plugins: HotDates by Supriyadi Slamet Widodo, Sociable by Peter Harkins, Get Recent Comments by Krischan Jodies, Live Comment Preview by Jeff Minard and Iacovos Constantinou, Optimal Title by Aaron Schaefer and Related Posts by By Alexander Malov & Mike Lu.
The plugins above need to be installed for this theme to function as intended. If HotDates and/or Live Comment Preview is not installed, the theme should still behave, but without the others something will break…
Instructions for installation and configuration:
- Download the latest version from the link below.
- Open up the .zip file.
- Drop/copy the plugins folder and themes folder to your site’s
wp-content/directory. - Activate the newly installed plugins.
- Go into your sites Admin area, go to Presentation:Themes and select Corporate Slave.
- Go directly to Presentation:Corporate Slave Options and enter the category numbers you want to appear in each column.
- Click on the Store Options button and you should be set!
A note about category numbers and selection: This theme uses the query_posts() function using ONLY the ‘cat=’ Category Parameter, e.g.; you could enter anything like: 12 or 7 or 7,12,2,3,4 or -3 or 12,7,-3 etc., etc. into each categories option at Presentation:Corporate Slave Options.
A note about the top-post feature in v0.95: I’ve had several requests for a static top post feature and here it is. To make use of this just open up the toppost.php file in a text editor and change the variable at the top: In 0.95 just enter the category number you want to pull the toppost from. It will always display the last post in that category.$toppost_id = '18'; to reflect the post # you want displayed there. If you want to remove this feature just change line 2 from the index.php: to:
or you can delete it altogether.
*Added in 0.91: Missing calls to optional footer and sidebar text. (Thanks Angela Harms)
*Fixed in 0.92: In Opera, hr line goes across both columns. Thanks Martin!
*Fixed in 0.93: Archive display was whacky. Also cleaned up some IE styles (more ‘compatible’).
*Fixed in 0.94: More style fixes, when widgets are added, they should look much more ‘integrated’ now.
*Added in 0.94: A double-wide static top-post. Edit toppost.php and change $toppost_id = '18'; to reflect the post # you want to appear there.
*Changes in 0.95: Toppost now based on a category selected in theme options, displays latest post in that category. Embedded a few plugins (Optimal Title, Email Immunizer). Took out Sociable plugin (choose your own ;’). Built-in Slimbox (lightweight/fast lightbox effect).
Here is the latest version:
Corporate Slave Theme for WordPress, version 0.95.
And you can see a demo here.
As always, feedback is welcome!
any chace you could provide a demo?
pic looks nice tho 🙂
thx
You can see a ‘demo’ page at corporateslave.samdevol.com/
(Added new link at end of article above -08/25/07)
Keep up the excellent work – you are somebody that I would call a “real” professional.
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Hi! I love the theme. I’m testing and tweaking at http://www.cornucopiapress.com
I have a question. I entered a footer and it’s not showing up. Any idea why? I haven’t dug into the actual code yet.
Thanks Angela! Correction made and included in current zip file above…
officeworms: Your check is in the mail! j/k, thanks…
Nice, but the theme is somewhat broken in Opera.
The dividing lines in between the posts go right through the text. This is on your test page, at least.
I’m sorry to hear that Martin, I tested it in Firefox and IE, but not Opera. I’ll have to see what I can do about that…
EDIT: Fixed in 0.92
thanks Sam for this great theme. Last fix (0.93) which files have to overwrite?
I think the last changes were just in style.css and ie.css…
This seemed like an excellent theme. However, upon installation I noticed that it doesn’t look the way it should. For unknown reason the nav panel is shown below the text and to the right, instead of being displayed properly in the left-most column. Any ideas how to fix that? Besides, when I update the links by pointing the sidebar.php to correct pages, the sidebar itself does not appear in the sub-pages, only on the main page. What’s wrong?
Strange… Try upgrading to the latest version, looks like you’re using the first release. Been a number of bug fixes, style fixes, fixes for IE, etc.
The ‘links’ page shows an error that’s disturbing. I use wp_list_bookmarks() and it appears to choke on that function… Let me know if that’s still happening after the upgrade.
NOTE: Thanks to Hallibutt I put a few fixes in the 0.94 zip on Dec. 9, 2006: Fixed missing /div if no top post defined or found (screwed up sidebar), and went back to old get_links() function (links page/template was borked).
it looks like there is post error happened in my page. Because
the page display”Apologies. But something you were looking for just can’t be found. Please have a look around and try searching for what you’re looking for.”
Can you help me? If possible send me email please. Thank you?
Two things I would recommend checking:
1) Have you defined the appropriate categories in the admin Presentation:Corporate Slave Options?
2) If so, do those categories have posts in them?
Hi and thanks for the nice theme! It seem s to be the perfect solution for our upcoming blog.
However, it needs a bit modification to meet our needs.
1) I’d like to get the main menu horizontal just below the header
2) I really need the 3rd column in the place where the main menu is now located. It should work just like the existing two columns.
I am not very good at programming, so could you help me a bit with this situation?
Joplin: I’ve been thinking about this one and have yet to come up with any simple approach to what you’re describing…
Everything you describe can be done, but it would require significant changes to the theme, and I just can’t justify doing that on an individual basis (gratis). Perhaps when I win the lottery this week? 😉
Hi,
and thank you for your answer. I re-planned my lay-out so that I can use your template, because it is the most close-enough template around. I like the idea of two separate columns with their own blog categories. However, there’s one major problem with it. If you try to read the topics of my blog it will show a database error. This will not occur with any other template I’ve tried, so I assume it’s got something to do with Corporate Slave theme.
I also have two more questions, hope you’ll answer these too. 🙂
1) I want to limit the amount of visible blog entrys in the left column, I want it to show only five latest entrys. How can I do that?
2) On the right column, I want to fix the order the blog entrys are shown. In other words, I want that the latest blog entry of category A is always the topmost on the column, and the latest entry of category B is always below that. Is there any way to that, exept fooling the system with entry dates?
Joplin: Make sure you have done #3 and #4 of the installation instructions, then let me know if the problem persists…
1,2) You could manually edit The Loop(s) in the index.php file. Check out query_posts in the Codex: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/query_posts
It was nice to see a link to “related posts” on your blog and this post. Searching for the plugin turns up a lot of related “related posts” that are similar but not “this one”. Also, to the hot dates. I don’t see that the theme is pre-configured to use this plugin though. The calendar’s don’t show up and I don’t see any code for it in the template
Nevermind.
Once I had a look at the single post page, I saw that the hot dates output was there. It just wasn’t on the index page
Interesting theme, Sam, and I’m glad you found my ifollow-button useful!
Cheers, Asgeir
hi sam,
i’am not programer, i just try install corporate slave theme and not working.
Can u help me ? please cek my blog
Hi Mimie:
Looks like you haven’t setup which categories to display yet. Check Presentation:Theme Options.
thx Sam, 🙂
Hi. Great theme! Thanks for share your works
I am digging the Corp. slave theme. I have hacked the sh|t out of it which was hellish as XML is new to me.
I added a tabular link bar at the top which I scripted.
I had to whack the hotdate deal on the archives view but I like the clean look.
Does this exist anymore? I may be blind, but I can’t find the zip to download!
Great looking design! I have been trying to use it for a simple website with 5 different pages. I started by attempting to set the article area to editable content, changing it to a template in nvu. The problem I am having is that the moment I pull the articles out and place the editable content box I completely lose control over the horizontal lines. Any suggestions for making that whole area editable? (sorry that I am not very knowledgeable)
Josh: Sorry! I fixed the link…
terimaksih atas informasinya
if wordpress free, please help me new in blogger
how to start a site on wordpress, Corporate Slave looks like a brilliant theme for a simple business blog