Features
All themes use valid XHTML code.
All themes have a number of colour variations included which can be easily switched on the “Theme Variables” tab.
All themes come with an “import” plugin which, once manually installed, will first export all existing page, form and CSS templates and plugins then import all the new templates and plugins for the theme and activate all plugins.
Since the release of Coda the “import” plugin has been further developed to include the import/export of “sections” and their settings as well as to upload and import from a .zip file.
All themes contain most, if not all of the following special features:-
Theme Variables Plugin
The theme variables plugin will create a new tab under “Presentation/Theme Variables” where you will be able to modify many aspects of the theme’s display.
Things such as using a header logo, a header image banner ad, a header Google banner ad, whether or not to display the slider if there is one, how many articles are displayed in various situations, which sections to use in various situations, whether to display a contact form or not, what sizes to use for thumbnails…
To be honest the list goes on and on and is dependent on the theme you are using.
Widget Variables Plugin
Similar to the above creating a new tab under “Presentation/Widgets” where you can control the output displayed in a variety of widgets.
Documentation Plugin
This plugin will create a new tab under “Home/Documentation” where you will find useful information about using your theme. Much more convenient than having to keep referring back to the download documentation.
Web Developers can easily add their own documentation if they feel that their clients require more.
This plugin is not available in “free” themes.
Widgets
Themes contain a variety of widgets for sidebars and extended footers including category listing, archive listing, Flickr display, Feedburner email subscription, latest comments listing, latest articles listing, author information display, calendar, adverts, Twitter tweets display etc…
Please note that each theme contains widgets appropriate to the type of theme it is and “free” themes may only contain a small number of them.
Image resizing script
This script automatically creates the various thumbnails used throughout a theme which means that you only ever need to upload your full-size image to the “Images” tab.
Lightbox
The “PrettyPhoto” lightbox script is used to display full-size images in individual articles or image listing pages when a thumbnail is clicked on.
Search Engine Optimization
Themes contain special form templates to create the necessary information required for SEO.
Accessibility
Themes contain special form templates to take care of Accessibility requirements.
Google Analytics
Themes contain a special form template for you to copy/paste your Google Analytics code if you use it. The form template is already being called to the page templates so that is all you need to do.