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Thesis 1.8 beta1 and my Personal Impressions About the New Features

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Thesis 1.8 What's NEW

I had the chance today to take a look into Thesis 1.8 beta1 which is available for developers, this is somehow helpful for me while working with Thesis Skins, so I am trying in this to compare Thesis 1.8 features with Thesis 1.7 version as there are a few major and minor changes and differences between both releases. I can not hide that I a little disappointed with it, I expected more useful features to be included in this release, but it seems there aren’t too much for me this time.

So.. generally I am still waiting for Thesis 2.0 and the big hit as I expect it should be really awesome version of Thesis Theme.

Thesis Site Options

I can see some changes here, the Home Page SEO is placed on Thesis Site Options page now, and there is a new feature called Publisher Tools, it allows you to enable support for Windows Live Writer, I don’t use it so it doesn’t make any difference to me at the mean time, maybe for someone else this feature will be more useful, and maybe we will see more publishing tools added in the future.

The Navigation Menu feature, this is the fix that we was needed to allow Thesis Themes to work with WordPress 3.0 navigation menu, so.. now with Thesis 1.8 you can switch between both navigation systems.

Thesis Theme navigation menu

Another add that I can notice is the Custom Stylesheet Options which seems to give the blog more load speed in case you aren’t using custom stylesheet.

custom stylesheet options

Thesis Design Options

I can not see changes in this area that catches my eyes so far!

Thesis Header Image

I think this was added because so many people requested an easy way to change their blog headers and maybe include a logo design on it, this feature also will not benefit me at all, but maybe it’s useful for others!

thesis header image

I just don’t agree about what it says here, the image has an optimal width of 730 pixels, and if it’s wider than that then Thesis will automatically crop it, I don’t think that this is the right way to do it, I mean it would be better if the image was free of size, then the blog owner “should” upload the right sizes to match his blog width, cropping images is not a good idea for me as it will end with hiding some part of the header image, or maybe someone will like to have more design elements to show on the header like we do here, and that’s why I feel that I will never ever use this feature, and I prefer to setup header images manually!

So, let’s say this could be the best part for someone, but not me!

Thesis Page Options is no longer exists!

Thesis Page Option of thesis 1.7 is not something good to deal with if you have so many tags on your blog, and probably removing this page is the best part I really see in Thesis 1.8.

I was having a bad feeling about the Thesis Page Options in Thesis 1.7, especially the Tag Page Options features where you can edit each of your tag pages SEO stuff. I never wanted to deal with it because I have a lot of tags which freezes my browser some times when I open it to change something in a hurry, so.. each time I had to wait for the very long page to load and then scroll down to the infinity to find what I am looking for which makes me dizzy!!

I can see that what’s left from Thesis Page Options page is only the Home Page SEO which moved to Thesis Site Options page as I mentioned above.

Thesis Options Manager

I can see some minor changes here on Thesis Options Manager page, it’s just about the order of options, but I think the new order is more handy and it help on avoiding mistakes while working with this sensitive area. Here is how it looks in Thesis 1.7

thesis options manager 1.7

And, here is how it looks in the new Thesis 1.8

thesis options manager 18

What Chris Pearson says about it 2 weeks back!

In Thesis Theme support forum, Chris Pearson said two weeks back that the next release of Thesis Theme – I believe he was talking about Thesis 1.8- will have the following feature and updates:

what Chris Pearson Thesis Theme

This can be found ot this thread in the Thesis Theme forum.

Final thought!

Ok guys, that’s all what I found on the new Thesis 1.8, well.. the work with Thesis Themes sill going on, this is only Thesis 1.8 beta1, some nice stuff.. some unnecessary changes, maybe useful for some bloggers, maybe not useful at all for others.

Some people say they can not wait to get Thesis 1.8, I say this time you actually can wait, it doesn’t makes a that huge difference to me so far! but what to do?! I still develop Thesis Skins for Thesis, and I love Thesis Themes 😉

About

I create websites with WordPress, and I develop Schema Plugins to help SEOs. I am a social network lover. I am also the night creature who works hard to keep this project up. Owner and founder of the Famous Blog.

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{ 49 Responses }

  1. Rose says:
    The new functions are nice and all, but I've yet to see a study that proves that you rank with thesis better than you could with a free wordpress theme downloaded in your dashboard.
  2. George Serradinho says:
    Wow, the new versions are coming out fast. I have not yet updraded, will wait for the official release.
  3. Luqman says:
    Thesis is one of the best themes online today, the new 1.8 beta comes with lots of new options.
  4. Tinh says:
    This version rocks and I am happy as Chris removed page options that I hate the most from 1.7. It caused "not responding" whenever I opened that tab and my blog now is on 1.8Beta1. happy with that release. Thanks
  5. Pali Madra says:
    I think the thesis theme for WordPress 3 is going to be released tomorrow on August 1, 2010. Their site is down today and I hope it is for the new release.
  6. Gina says:
    Thesis 1.8 is already out? I just installed 1.7 not too long ago. Boy, how things change so quickly.
    • Hesham says:
      No Gina, Thesis 1.8 is not out yet, it's the Thesis 1.9 beta 1 And it's for developers to test it, it's not yet available for use! and not recommended to use it until the final release! Till that time.. enjoy your Thesis 1.7
  7. Harsh Agrawal says:
    One thing which I actually liked about Thesis 1.8 is banner uploader.. This now makes this theme a plug and play theme... bad for dev. like us who offer Thesis customization service.. Since it will make other work easier.. :P
  8. jezza101 says:
    Well, it is only a Beta. Be sure to pass the comments back through the appropriate channels and things can be changed :). The header cropping for example sounds like it could easily be tweaked before 1.8 final. Thanks for the run down.
  9. George Serradinho says:
    Thanks for the update, will download it and see what it's all about. The options page use to take some time to load on my blog, not exactly sure why :)
    • Hesham says:
      Hey George, The Options page taking time to load probably because you have so many tags!
  10. element321 says:
    Hesham, Thanks for sharing. Every time I see these updates and see all the great features of the theme, it makes me want the even more...
    • Hesham says:
      I am sure you will be able to play with Thesis soon my friend ;)
  11. Kimi says:
    Thanks for this review of Thesis, as we all know this theme is extremely popular. Question though, do you have to pay more for an upgrade or you have access to upgrade from older version to newer version for free?
    • Hesham says:
      Hey Kim, Upgrades are free since your are a Thesis user, almost all reputable themes will do it for free! so basically we don't to pay extra money to get it!
  12. Hieu Martin says:
    I'm waiting for thesis 1.8 final. Hope it good :))
    • Hesham says:
      Cool! ;) By the way, from where you got the skin your are using?!
  13. Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
    I have checked out the beta for myself and I am quite impressed with the header stuff. It was a pain for me. Of course, the feature to enable the wordpress menu is cool as well. I do agree that there is not much change in terms of a developer but I feel the implementation of skins would be much easier with the integration of Thesis 1.8 and WP 3. And yes, I am also waiting for the next big release of Thesis - 2.0. Hearing it for quite sometime. Headway is doing great and Frugal theme is doing marvelous in terms of the multiple skins offered by the developer himself. That gives lots of options for the beginners and drives quite a crowd. I hope Chris Pearson provides some more skins for the noobs just like the minimal skin and the one in the video for 1.7. Thesis is great by itself and any update is awaited with anticipation and bated breath.
    • Hesham says:
      Chris Pearson is a developer, which means his area is on theme development, so I am just imagining that Thesis will not have any graphical skins included unless it's provided from a designer! By the way, I am working on a new project to bring affordable Thesis Skins to the light! I will pronounce it soon and I hope it will be useful for you! Thanks you Dr. Lawrence
  14. Nasrul Hanis says:
    So powerful! And I feel glad that I choose to buy Developers license - it's awesome and believe me, it's really interesting and you'll discover a lot of things while working with Thesis!
    • Hesham says:
      Yeap! and I see that you are doing great with your blogs Nasrul !
  15. Pritam Nagrale says:
    Yes, I am really waiting for thesis 1.8 along with features it's going to provide. I just heard that the price for the new thesis them would be more than 240$ for the developers option.
    • Hesham says:
      Yes, it's in the official site, Thesis Theme's price will go higher when Thesis 2.0 is out
  16. Julius says:
    I've always been a fan of Thesis, based on what I've read, its ease to customize, and the sites I've seen using it (including Famousbloggers, of course :) ). How I wish I could afford to buy one and have it up running in my blog, though I'm not sure when will that be (if it would ever come). Ah well, that's life I guess. But it wouldn't keep me from reading Thesis theme's developments, that's for sure.
    • Hesham says:
      I hope you can buy it soon before it's price goes higher, I suggest you participate in our blogging contest that has a minimum prize of $100, then you can be one of our 20 winners, get money more than enough to buy Thesis Theme.. how about that?! Make up your mind and act fast!
  17. Dev says:
    That's awesome to hear. Can't wait to try 1.8 :). Thanks for the update.
    • Hesham says:
      It's not really that big difference from 1.7 but... well.. yeah! ;)
  18. Karthikeyan says:
    Thanks a lot for the info bro! i recently bought thesis personal option! i think i can work with thesis 1.7 itself till thesis 2.0 comes out!
    • Hesham says:
      Of course you can do that, but some times the new releases has some new features or fixes, so be sure to check it out in case you need it!
  19. Colleen says:
    "...now with Thesis 1.8 you can switch between both navigation systems..." Very cool. Looking forward to the new release, especially with the new release of WP.
    • Hesham says:
      Yeap! I see that this feature is needed for Thesis users!
  20. Aaron says:
    Thanks Hesham. I'll have to give it a test but they need to do something about increasing load times. WP 3 helps.. but they can do some more cool stuff to speed it up too.
    • Hesham says:
      I don't know, but I think Thesis load is quite fine! but anyways using cache plugins is cool idea!
  21. Kristi Hines says:
    Any word on when 2.0 is supposed to drop, or is it going to 1.8 & 1.9 first?
    • Hesham says:
      I am not sure if we will witness 1.9 but it sounds Thesis 2.0 will take a few months to arrive!
  22. Technolic says:
    will gonna try thesis theme soon :)
    • Hesham says:
      Be my guest!
  23. Mars Dorian says:
    That's awesome Hesham ! Also I don't need all the new options (like the header thing) with my current blog, I will use some of it with my next one. Can't wait for the Thesis version that will radically change the interface (maybe moving into a similar direction like Headway ?). I'd really luv it when the WYSIWG gets more support.
    • Hesham says:
      I am not really sure if I want to upgrade to Thesis 1.8 or not while the new features doesn't appeal to my needs! Maybe a skinning system?! those stuff of makes developers work more easier with clients?! mmm.. You know Mars.. I actually don't need any extra features to be added to Thesis when I think about it! I feel it's just perfect to me! Headway has this drag & drop stuff! it makes it more easier for non experts to use it but personally I don't prefer it! I like to do the work by coding! this ads more control! Still one in common thing between all WP themes which is... "a lot of customization work!"