By Request…Farms 100 big ones theme pack review for Your Help Site!

Our WPMU DEV Premium members have been asking if they can repost my Edublogger review of the Farms 100 big ones theme pack on their Help sites.

Understandably they’d rather customize and keep users on their own site.

So here you go!  I’ve re-worked my original post — hopefully you like the new format?

You are free to repost all (or any) of the following onto your site to help your users choose their next theme.

And yes, I would love you to credit me as the original source (if you want) e.g. content provided by Sue Waters (WPMU DEV Premium).

Please note:

• Tables in this post are 650 pixels wide
• If you require the smaller 450 pixels version you can grab them from my updated Edublogger Post!

Intro

Given the Farms 100 big ones themes includes 100 themes ranging from those that can’t be altered to themes that are “extremely customizable” you can spend considerable time testing themes to find the “perfect theme”.

So to help make your task easier we’ve categorizing the Farms 100 big ones themes based on:

1. Layout – number of columns
2. Color Scheme and how customizable the theme is
3. Ability to upload custom image header – those that allow are shown as recommended header image dimensions, in pixels, to upload (written as width by height)
4. Presence or absence of links to pages as navigation tabs at the top of the theme – as shown in page link column as Yes/No
5. Presence or absence of tagline in blog header – as shown in display tagline column as Yes/No

ONE COLUMN THEMES

Single Column themes have a central post area with no sidebar.

These theme appeal to people who like to keep their theme simple by preventing the clutter often created by sidebar widgets.

All widgets are located at the bottom of the blog on one column themes.

TWO COLUMN THEMES WITH LEFT SIDEBAR

Two Column themes normally a wide column for content with a narrower sidebar.

These are the most common theme layout and location of the sidebar (left or right) is personal preference.

TWO COLUMN THEMES WITH RIGHT SIDEBAR

Two Column themes with right sidebar are the most common theme layout so we’ve separated these themes based on:

1. Ability to upload custom image header
2. Colour scheme

With custom image header

Without custom image header

Black, White and Grey themes without custom image header

THREE COLUMN THEMES WITH LEFT AND RIGHT SIDEBAR

Three column themes have either:

1. Sidebars side-by-side on one side of the blog
2. Sidebars on either side of the wider content column

THREE COLUMN THEMES WITH RIGHT SIDEBARS

The most appealing aspect of three column themes is the ability to place more widgets in the sidebar.

Sidebars side-by-side three column themes on one side of the blog allows you to use this aspect well.

FOUR COLUMN THEMES

Four column themes have one content column and three sidebars.

The content column is often the same width as the other columns. This type of layout tends to be cluttered looking and less suited to reading lengthy content.

However this category includes themes like CommentPress which is very unique.

CommentPress is ideal for writing collaborative documents or for providing resources because its Table of Content Skin places the oldest post at the top table of contents and your readers can comment paragraph by paragraph!

MOST CUSTOMISABLE THEMES

These themes provide greater opportunity for customizing if you want to change color of your blog based on font color code or change font type.

1. Roundflow – One Column. Can change the colors on the blog, width of column and type of font used.
2. Simplr – One Column. Able to change width of column and type of font used.
3. Striped plus – One Column. Able to change colors on the blog and type of font used.
4. Mandigo – Two Column. Extensive range of image headers to choose from and able to change colors on the blog using font color codes.
5. OceanWide – Three column