Cutline Theme for WordPress

The more recent versions of the Cutline Theme use a dynamic header image, which is based on what kind of page a blog is currently showing. At present, for version 1.3 there are five default images that can be found under the /images folder as header_x.jpg (where x = 1 to 5), which rotate in random.

I’ve received several inqiuries on how to set a static page instead, either just to set one of these images as the sole static image, or to replace it with another one–perhaps an image with the blog title or a corporate/brand header image perhaps.

One solution would be to rename the image you want as the single static header image to header_1.jpg, header_2.jpg, header_3.jpg, header_4.jpg and header_5.jpg and upload these into the /images folder. That would take some space, though. While this is negligible for most people, the few milliseconds processing time it takes for the server to randomize from 1 to 5 might be a concern if you run a site with huge traffic.

The better way to do it would be to access the header file header.php from either FTP or the WordPress theme editor, and look for these lines below:


<div id="header_img">
<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/header_<?php echo(rand(1,5)); ?>.jpg" width="770" height="140" alt="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> random header image" title="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> random header image" />
</div>


You will notice the part that says header_<?php echo(rand(1,5)); ?>.jpg which outputs a random integer from 1 to 5. If you wish to set any of the five built-in images as the sole static images, just replace header_<?php echo(rand(1,5)); ?>.jpg with header_X.jpg with X being the number of the image file name of your choice.

Or if you’ve already uploaded your custom header image onto the /images folder (prescribed dimensions are 770 x 140 px), you can just simply replace the entire thing with the filename of your image.

Hi folks. The last update on the Cutline blog was ages ago, and I feel it’s time to keep things fresh, at least to the extent that we can. Recently, we have been receiving a handful of support inquiries on how to enable the “about” and “archives” pages that come linked on the Cutline header by default. Well, the answer here should be simple as explained in one of our earlier instruction posts, and it has even been expounded upon right here, just in case your permalink structure is a bit different from what how we would usually do it.

Simply put, Cutline’s navigation bar links to the Archives and About pages will work if you have static pages published with the page slug as /archives and /about, respectively.

This means that under the WordPress admin panel, you navigate down to Write — Page and then input the following:

For the archives page

1. Title: Archives (or whatever title you want the page to have)
2. Page slug: archives

And then click publish. The archives page should take care of itself. Cutline will automatically publish a page with your archives organized according to month and category (or tag, if your WP version supports it), as long as there is a page called “archives” and your permalink structure is set correctly.

For the about page

1. Title: About (or whatever title you want the page to have)
2. Page slug: about
3. Input your desired about text in the text field

And then hit publish. For the about page, you actually need to have something in the text field or else the about page will be blank (just the title).

If you have done these and still the About and Archive pages do not appear properly, then maybe you have a different permalink structure or setup. You can resolve this by either of the following means:

First, under Options — Permalinks you have to set your permalink structure to have the following parameter defined:

/%postname%/

So it could either be

/%category%/%postname%/

or even

/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

or anything else, as long as the %postname% parameter is included. This ensures that WordPress calls the pages with slug “about” or “archives” when these are accessed via the header navigation links.

If you’re running WordPress using the default permalink structure, you can edit the header.php file such that you change the links to /about and /archives. Simply look for these lines:

<li><a <?php if (is_page('about')) echo('class="current" '); ?>href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/about/">about</a></li>

and replace the part that says is_page('about') with is_page(##), where ## is the page ID of your About page.

And also replace the part that says <?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/about/">about</a> with <?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/?p=##">about</a> where ## is the page ID of your About page.

Note that page IDs can be found under Manage — Pages.

Same with the Archives page. Simply look for the line that says

<li><a <?php if (is_archive() || is_page('archives')) echo('class="current" '); ?>href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/archives/">archives</a></li>

and replace is_page('archives') with is_page(##), and also href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/archives/">archives with href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/?p=##">archives

where ## is the page ID for your Archives page.

If these still don’t work, then perhaps the problem lies elsewhere. Drop us a line and let us help you out.

Update - Download links fixed. Spaces, underscores, dashes, oh my. Let me know what you think of the latest edition.

Cutline is still being developed, there are always changes to make, and this time, more than any other release I think I have changed the theme so average users can get into it easier.

Remember that Archive link in the header of every installation? I have since removed it, making sure to use WordPress’ built-in page listing code, so top level pages will be displayed automatically rather than having to edit the theme.

I have also taken some advice given freely to me by Gabriel Radic on his Timbru blog, so if you like the changes, please thank him.

There are no more italics in the blockquotes, I have added some text to the 404 page, so that non-web savvy users understand where they are, and I have removed the comments link from the index page meta-data line. I have also changed the meta-data line to use a san-serif font to be easier to read.

I have also checked the theme for WordPress 2.5 compatibility and haven’t been able to replicate any issues that others have mentioned.

As always, you can find the download link on the sidebar.

It might seem strange that a month after releasing 1.2, I am turning around and releasing 2.1, but Cutline has two very different versions. The first Cutline, which will follow the 1.x naming convention is considered the more popular one currently, but read up on version 2.x and you will see it has many advantages.

With this release, I fix some minor issues people were having, tighten up the stylesheet, and add my own flair to things. I have also removed comment forms on pages, and fixed their alignment.

If you are using the first Cutline 2.0 release, I recommend you upgrade.

Let me know if you have any issues with Cutline 2.1. To download, click the sidebar link for Cutline 2.1.

Everyday I am getting hundreds of questions that need only one answer: check the WordPress support forums. These questions are all unrelated to the Cutline theme, and as such, I really don’t have time to answer them all. If you are unsure if you should me asking me or asking the forum, ask yourself if the question is related to the Cutline theme, or every theme. If it is related to every theme, please ask the WordPress support forum.

Creating extra page templates, learning how to use Widgets, adding additional pages, image uploading, pages not showing because you haven’t set up permalinks, all of these can be handled quickly, and painlessly by the thousands of people in the WordPress support forums.

Noticing a Safari bug in the Cutline 1.1 theme or having issues trying to find where to change the colours of the theme, that stuff comes to me.

I am in the process of recording a few screen cast tutorials on how to make the most of Cutline, and they will be coming out shortly. They will cover the most popular Cutline related questions, and hopefully solve the major issues that people are having.

So, I have finally finished up organizing Cutline 1.2.

I have added an edit link for posts, so if you are logged in, and looking at your blog, you can easily and quickly edit posts. Cutline 1.2 supports WordPress 2.3 and above’s tags, so categories are up in the date area, and tags are in the bottom where “categories’ used to be listed. I have removed excess whitespace in the CSS in order to help decrease the file size of the theme by a little bit. I also added a max-width CSS declaration to stop images from going into sidebars in many modern browsers.

Download your favourite Cutline 1.2 version over to the right, and enjoy!

I will be working on some tutorials, and screencasts to help people with the issues they are having customizing Cutline, so watch out for those. Also, I will be working on Cutline 2.0 in February, so watch for that.

So, one of the biggest questions I am seeing is “how do I get category pages to show full posts?”

The reason we have set it up so that category archives show excerpts rather than full posts is for search engine optimization benefits. Basically, we have worked it into the theme that you have less duplicate content and so Google will like your blog more because of the truncated posts.

If you want to change this, open up archive.php and look for <?php the_excerpt(); ?> (around line 24) and replace the_excerpt(); with the_content();. Save and re-upload and you should see full posts on category pages rather than excerpts.

Also, Cutline 1.2 should be coming out soon. I am putting the finishing touches on it, and I hope you will all be pleased. Of course I couldn’t implement every change that people wanted as I can’t please everyone, but I hope you will like the tweaks and update.

With two versions of Cutline now out, people have been wondering which theme I will be supporting. Will I be continuing to work on the super popular Cutline 1.1 or its newer brother, Cutline 2.0? Well, the answer is “both”! At least for now.

I will continue to develop and support the original Cutline platform, and hope to bring out a newer release before the next version of WordPress in January. As for Cutline 2.0, you can expect to see a 2.1 release hopefully by February, with many new updates. As for continuing to support the first generation of Cutline, that all depends on you and its continued popularity. If you all get sick of it, I will focus my attention on the newer version. But if you all continue to enjoy it, I will continue to work on developing it, fixing it, tweaking it, and making it what you want it to be.

I have many ideas on how I want things to continue, especially in making it easier for you, the users, to easily modify and adapt the theme. I hope you will stick with me, give me a helping hand, and we can really revitalize the Cutline community.

So, I have been looking at setting aside some serious time for Cutline, and so what I need from all of you is to comment on this post what your major problems, issues, and shortcomings with the theme currently are. I don’t want CSS nitpicks, though if you have the solution for any CSS problems, please let me know. I’d love to make this more of a community project, as I am not the greatest mind in WordPress themes, but I do know WordPress fairly well.

So if you have a major issue, please let me know. I will be working from the blog, and as such your comments. We will be shutting down the forum, and you can always direct any Cutline problems my way via david [at] splashpress.com.

For those of you that have been worried about Cutline’s support, you need not worry any longer. Splashpress Media has tasked me to take over support of Cutline.

My name is David Peralty, and you might know me as the writer on Blogging Pro, and I used to be the co-host of the WordPress podcast. I have bent WordPress to my will numerous times, created many WordPress themes, and hopefully, I will be able to answer any and all questions you might have. You will notice some changes around here over the coming days, as I orient myself, and start cleaning things up.

I will be jumping in on the forum soon, to answer questions, as well as continuing to develop the Cutline theme.

Thanks again to everyone for their continued support, and I look forward to working with you all.