Thesis Sharp Skin

by Chris on October 16, 2009 · 125 comments

Sharp is a free Thesis Skin that you can use to instantly customize your Thesis WordPress Theme powered site. All of the Thesis Sharp customizations are contained inside of the custom folder so no core Thesis files need to be touched.

December 14th Update: The skin has been updated to include the new color schemes and to fix some navigation menu display issues that occurred when the latest version of Thesis (version 1.6) was released. Go ahead and grab the updated skin files using the download button below and as always, any comments or questions are welcome!

Skin Features

A widgetized header area for social networking icons, banners, or anything else you want to stick in there and also a widgetized footer area. You can access both of these areas and add or remove content directly from the widget panel inside wordpress.
Fading page and sidebar backgrounds and several additional content area css classes to really make your images and links stand out.
8 Different Color Schemes in addition to the default gray you see here on the demo page. Additional colors are aqua, blue, purple, green, red, brown, orange, and pink. Instructions on how to change the color schemes is included in the custom.css file and involves copying and pasting a couple lines of code. You can see screenshots of the different color schemes here.

Download The Thesis Sharp Skin

Installation Instructions

Download the skin files which contain the two custom files (custom.css and custom_functions.php) and all background images. Backup your current custom files if you’ve got any customizations you want to save and then upload all files to your custom folder.

You need to make two small changes in your Thesis Options panel for the skin to display properly. In the Design Options panel, select Full-width framework and change the Outer Page Padding to 0 (zero). Save your changes using the Big Ass Save Button and refresh your site.

Check out the following video for a walk-though on how to set up this skin. For best viewing, try the HD and Full-screen options.

Customization Tips and Skin Updates

The skin is still a work in progress. I’ll be posting frequent updates to the skin as I make improvements and add new features so make sure you subscribe to the newsletter (see sidebar) or follow me on twitter to get notified when updates are posted.

I’ll also be adding some customization tutorials and videos to show you how to use the skin to its fullest, so again make sure you subscribe or follow me to get updated on the latest Thesis Sharp news.

Feedback, Support, and Spreading the Word

If you like this free Thesis Skin, I’d love to hear about it. Just drop a comment here or Connect with Me on Twitter and let me know what you think. I love meeting new people, so please do leave a comment or get in touch! If you need help with anything Thesis Sharp related, let me know and I’ll be glad to help.

And if you would like to see more free Thesis Skins, please take a minute and help me spread the word and as long as there is an interest, I’ll keep the free skins coming. Here’s how you can help.

1 Minute is all it takes

ReTweet this post on twitter using the button at the top of this post or Retweet the video from the Screenr Page
Use the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post to submit it to your favorite Social Networking site.

If you Really like Thesis Sharp consider

Writing a short Thesis Sharp review post on your blog with a link back to this site
Hiring Me to customize your Thesis Site

Running Thesis Sharp on your Site?

If you’re running this skin on your site, I’d love to know about it and take a peek. Just leave a comment with your address here so we all can admire

{ 3 trackbacks }

New Thesis Resource Site and Skin: October 18, 2009 at 8:15 pm
uberVU - social comments: October 18, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Thesis Skins | GL3 Media: October 24, 2009 at 4:51 am

{ 122 comments }

Next Comments →

1 Avinash October 19, 2009 at 9:08 am

Dude, this is a real sweet skin!!I do wish you had thrown in a few more bells and whistles though….

2 Chris October 20, 2009 at 12:18 am

Thanks for feedback. The skin is still a work in progress and I’ll be updating it with improvements fairly often. What kind of “bells and whistles” did you have in mind? Maybe I can incorporate them into the next version.

3 Avinash October 20, 2009 at 1:54 pm

For instance, and this is in no specific order…

1) You’ve got to include social media after each post. It’s one of the reasons blogging is a whole lot easier. Wouldn’t hurt to throw in some php +css. A post footer area makes all the difference.

2) The comments area looks a bit unfinished. I think numbering would make a pretty decent addition. Wouldn’t take very much but would make life a whole lot easier on the recall. Also, it may be nice to incorporate alternative sign-ins like from Twitter/FB.

3)Search?!! I’d love to see how you’d incorporate this into the theme. I’ll bet it would look real clean!

4 Chris October 21, 2009 at 1:36 am

Thanks for the suggestions. Always appreciate feedback from the readers!

1) Agree that social media at the end of the post is a nice feature. I’ll work on styling up a post footer to include some social links and post a overview of how to insert it using the after_post Thesis hook.

2) I can work on some comment styling too. The numbering option is already built into the Thesis options if you’re wanting to turn that on. I do use the DISQUS comment system plugin on the main ThesisTheme.Net site that allows for commenting from your Twitter, Facebook, etc., account so that is an easy addition if you want to add something like that.

3) Will work on adding a snazzy search box too!

Thanks again for the suggestions and let me know if you come up with anything else and I will definately explore adding them to the next skin update!

5 Avinash October 21, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Would this work with 1.6 btw? I’m itching to try this out with some mods of my own….will link back to you for credit.

Sorry if I came across as a bit tough…it’s probably because I see this skin as almost what I want it to be in terms of functionality and it hurts not to get it all!

Also, would you mind me modifying the background img to a fading blue in my dev?

6 Avinash October 21, 2009 at 2:30 pm

Works on 1.6!! Now for the mods….

7 Chris October 22, 2009 at 1:24 am

Yep I actually designed the skin using version 1.6b2 because @pearsonified had hinted that the official 1.6 release was going to be any day.

I’m happy to receive constructive critisim so no worries. Thanks for coming back and giving me some more info on what you’re looking for.

I play around with some of the mods we’ve talked about and put up a post here when they’re ready. I can play around with the background image.

8 Avinash October 26, 2009 at 8:20 am

Bit more help I’m afraid Chris….

1) What pixel dimensions are you using for the main content column and the sidebar?
2) The images provided should stay in /custom or in /custom/images?

Are there any other options in Thesis Design and Options I should be making besides Framework and Outer Page Padding?

I’m not able to come close to replicating your look yet….

9 Chris October 26, 2009 at 3:59 pm: I’m using the 2 column layout with the content area set to 620 px and the sidebar 1 at 280 px for a total of 900 px.

I just left the images in the custom folder to keep all the skin files in one place. I might have to revisit this though and move the images to the custom/images folder since this is what the other skin designers seem to be doing. As of right now, if you’ve placed the 4 background images in the custom/images folder, you’ll need to modify the custom.css file image locations to reflect that.

The skin as it is displayed on this demo site has no other changes besides the framework and page padding settings I changed in the video overview. Could you provide a link to the site you’re using the skin on? I’d be happy to take a look and see if I can’t figure out what the problem is.

10 Dave October 20, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Man what are you talking about, the skin is SWEET!! I wish the thesis skin building community would grow faster than it is, I always love it when new skins like this pop up. I found this from thesisgallery.com which I keep an eye on regularly. Awesome skin!

Dave

11 Chris October 21, 2009 at 1:40 am

Dave – Thanks so much for the positive feedback. It’s always good to know that you work is appreciated. I plan to continue tweaking this skin and releases a bunch more Thesis skins in the future so stay tuned. Grab the RSS feed or signup for the newsletter to get notified on new skin updates.

12 Bryan October 26, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Dave,
Thanks for the http://www.ThesisGallery.com mention. I know it is doing its job. There a now 400+ Thesis Customizations on display there.

13 Chris October 26, 2009 at 4:00 pm: Bryan – Thanks for including my skin in the Thesis Gallery. Google Analytics indicates that I’m getting some traffic from your site so I’m pretty happy about that.

14 liewzy October 21, 2009 at 8:55 pm

Chris, I really love your skin’s color schemes! Keep going!

15 Chris October 22, 2009 at 1:17 am: Thank you! Glad to hear it. I’ll keep the thesis skins coming so staty tuned

16 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 24, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Wow, great theme, I’m going to convert my site back to thesis and I think I’ve finally gotten something very nice that I can build on, very nice indeed. Thanks looking for forwar to some more stylish updates

17 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 24, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Wow this themes just gets more interesting by the moment, I love but one thing, I can’t figure how the make the little dotted line that appears when two sidebars are chosen to span all the way down and also you mentioned #
Default Text Widget
The Above Sidebar Classes are Included.

How do I make these appear, I have the regular widgets but I’d like to use your RSS box and use the Gray Sidbar Fader as the default for my widgets.

Thanks so much and great work

18 Chris October 25, 2009 at 1:53 pm

Hey Jorge, Thanks for the positive feedback on the skin. The dotted line is part of the default Thesis layout. To get rid of it, add this to your custom.css file:

.custom #sidebar_1 {border-style: none;}

This will override the default border style that is set to dotted

The sidebar classes defined in the custom.css can be used by placing your content inside the respective div classes. So for the subscriber class, you would use:

div class="subscriber"
Your content here
/div
Remember to add the opening and closing carrots (<>) on the div lines. I had to remove them to make the code show up here.

The other two classes are bluefader and grayfader. The code is the same as above, just change the name to whichever class you want to use.

19 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 26, 2009 at 3:42 am

Thanks Chris, very helpful, perhaps a “Read Me” txt file to be included in the zip would be great, you responded with the following code:
.custom #sidebar_1 {border-style: none;}

but I actually want the little dotted line to go all the way down on in between the two sidebars, if you could check out my test site I would appreciate it, thanks its http://sharp.nokiamobiletalk.com/

20 Chris October 26, 2009 at 4:07 pm: I’m going to put together an Installation and Customization pdf file to include with the skin to address some of the questions I’m getting here on this site.

The dotted line is part of the default Thesis layout and if you look at the Thesis Demo site, you’ll see that it only goes the length of the sidebar widgets. The only way I know of to make it span the entire length of the page is to create a page background image that includes the dotted line and have it repeat the entire y-axis like the current solid gray line that seperates the content from the sidebars.

21 Chris October 29, 2009 at 2:09 am

Just to followup on this comment, I’ve put together a more detailed post explaining how to add the background images seen on this demo to your sidebar widgets

Customizing the Thesis Sharp Sidebar

22 Dene October 24, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Chris

Love the look of your skin. I’d already gotten my site look and feel by the time I found your skin but I do want to incorporate your widgetized footer into : http://www.50on50.us/

I’ve copied the applicable css / php snippets into mine. The default footer code is there. But, when I go into my widgets, I only see one footer sidebar (that might be ok). I’ve added content to it (Recent posts and some text widgets) but they don’t seem to be showing.

Do you know what I might be doing wrong?

The site is using wordpress 2.8.5 and thesis 1.6

Much Thanks.

23 Chris October 25, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Dene – Thanks the for the comments. 50on50 is a great looking site!

There will only be 1 footer sidebar as you said and each additional widget will lineup next to the previous one.

I can’t tell you exactly why its not working but my best guess is that there is some conflicting css code going on. Looking at your custom.css I saw some other footer code that could be taking precedence over the footer code from this skin. You might try commenting out the other footer code and see what happens.

24 Dene October 28, 2009 at 3:07 pm

Thanks for the help. I’m sure I was doing something wrong. I didn’t have much time so I had to switch to the basic three col footer. I’ll try your’s again later as I love the look and feel of your skin.

25 Chris October 29, 2009 at 1:50 am: Ok, if you’re still running into problems let me know and I’ll be happy to take another look. Thanks again for the positive feedback on the skin. The overall response to the skin has been very positive and that of course makes me happy

26 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 25, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Hello Chris, I would love to know if the header widget has an open hook as well, is this possible. thanks

27 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 25, 2009 at 1:18 pm

Just noticed you can hook it but what’s the hooks name, thanks

28 Chris October 25, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Hi Jorge, If you look at the skin’s custom_funtions file, the header widget is using the thesis_hook_header. I wanted to add an area to the header area of this skin and I thought that a custom widget would be the most user friendly way of doing that.

You could add content to that area using Open Hook and the header hook instead of a widget. We’ll need to modify the header widget function and css in the custom files. I’ll put this on my to do list.

29 Jorge l Nokia Mobile Talk October 26, 2009 at 3:44 am: thanks

30 Ryan October 27, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Hi Chris, great skin! Very clean and sharp. I only have one comment: the css doesn’t look right at all in IE 6. I know, we all think nobody uses IE 6 anymore, but they do. I work for one of the biggest computer manufacturers (over 200k employees) and our standard OS in Windows XP and our standard browser is IE 6, so I know of at least 200,000 other people that are using it…

Thanks again for the great skin!

31 Chris October 27, 2009 at 11:03 pm: Ryan – Thanks for the comments. I do know that there are still a lot people using XP since Vista was so poorly received and therefore, like you said, IE 6 is also still used pretty heavily. My company still uses it too!

I am aware that this skin does look funky in IE 6 but so do most of the better looking Thesis sites. If this were a commercial skin, I’d probably go back and try to tweak the css to make it look better but since it is a free skin and renders correctly in the current versions of IE, Firefox, and Safari, I don’t plan on putting in the extra time to try and make it look better in a browser that was released in 2001 and is on the way out.

Hopefully with the release of Windows 7 and all the sites out there prompting you to upgrade when you visit with IE 6, the number of people using it will decrease significantly.

32 Mat October 28, 2009 at 9:56 am

Hi, thanks you so much for this beautiful skin, all works perfectly on my blog but not the colored sidebar. The sidebar is still like the classic thesis… i’ll search again but if you know how put the sidebar like in your site, i’ll be very happy (sorry for my bad english). Best regards. Mat

33 Chris October 29, 2009 at 1:54 am: Mat – Thanks for the comments. I just put together a post on how to add the backgrounds to the sidebars. Should have done that right from the start but better late than never, right? BTW, your english is just fine. I would of never guessed that it wasn’t your first language!

Here’s the link to the Sidebar Customization Post
Customizing the Thesis Sharp Sidebar

34 James Ball October 28, 2009 at 12:55 pm

Running new blog with Sharp. I’m not altogether “finished” yet, but I love the skin. Kudos!

35 Chris October 29, 2009 at 1:56 am: James – Site looks great! Glad to see it on a live site. Nice job with the extra customization, especially like the header image!

36 David Shaw October 28, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Hi.

I have installed this skin!

How do I add a Adsense block to the header? where sidebar 3 is?

37 Chris October 29, 2009 at 2:05 am: Hey David – You should see two additional custom widgets titled Header and Footer. If you’re seeing Sidebar 3 and Sidebar 4 you’re going to want to select Sidebar 3 for your Adsense block.

I’m not entirely sure why you wouldn’t be seeing the titles I assigned in the custom_functions file, are you using the most current version of WordPress?

Anyway Sidebar 3 is the Header and Sidebar 4 would be the Footer so let me know if that straightens everything out.

Also, depending on the size of your adsense block, you might need to tweak this line of code in the custom.css, sepcifically the width and left positioning attributes:

.custom #header_widget_1 ul.sidebar_list li.widget {position:absolute; display: block; top:0px; left:459px; width:468px; }

By default the header widget was set to accomodate the typical 468×60 sized banner but that of course can be modified

38 Mat October 31, 2009 at 2:47 am

thank you very much Chris for your reply (and for the sidebar post) I’m gonna read it now. Your work is so nice ;-D

39 mjnet November 12, 2009 at 3:44 pm

this seals the deal for me — a non coder and beginner in wordpress , etc. (and that’s avery very large market) to go thesis all the way with my future projects.
know what sustains success? satisfied community.

40 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:30 am: Thesis is a great solution for just about any type of site. I think you’ll be very happy with it.

41 Ginger Mudd November 23, 2009 at 3:32 pm

I cannot get this skin working properly. Before I installed it, I had changed a lot of the Thesis (1.6) settings….just experimenting to learn how it works. So when I first installed Sharp, it looked like it does now. Something is wrong with the header. So then I thought I would delete the thesis theme and reinstall it and try the skin again.
But I have the same problem.

Deleting the thesis theme doesn’t seem to have reset all the settings. Really…I just want to revert to the settings as they come when you first install Thesis. Can you tell me how to do that? Maybe I have to do a complete reinstall of wordpress, then thesis then the Skin?

I really like this skin and I want to use it and I know it is something stupid I’ve done and just can’t see it.

Thanks

42 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:34 am: Ginger – Sorry for not responding earlier but I see from your next comment, you’ve already got it figured out.

43 Eric November 23, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Hi Chris, great skin!

How can I put a thin border around the outside of the post area and sidebar so that the boundary is kept between the white of the post area and the white of the background (in areas where the background has faded to white)?

44 Ginger Mudd November 26, 2009 at 10:49 am

Okay. If you ignore someone long enough they’ll figure it out.

I did.

The instruction say to put all 6 sharp skin files into the thesis custom folder.
For some dumb reason I thought the images should go in the custom/images folder.
I decided to read the instructions again and take them literally. I moved the images to the custom folder.

Voila!

45 300 November 27, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Hey thank you very much!! The theme is really cool..I will be waiting for the updates..

46 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:29 am: Thanks for the feedback. I plan on posting some more skin tutorials and an update this week sometime so stay tuned.

47 Sanjai December 5, 2009 at 1:53 pm

I tried using this, problem with installing Google Adwords ads. Any problem in inserting Javascript code?

Thanks for helping

48 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:28 am: I haven’t had any problems. How are you inserting the code?

49 Me December 8, 2009 at 6:57 pm

Hi Chris,

I posted on the Thesis Support forum but I am not sure how often you may check there. I had a couple more questions on tweaking this skin, specifically how to drop my logo in the header, and formatting the sidebar widgets. If that is too much to explain to someone who is still learning, how much would it cost for you to make that customization for me? Those are really the only things I need to do to put this in production on my site so I am a little anxious. Your skin is almost exactly what I was envisioning for my site, so thanks for saving me some time already!

Thanks so much!

50 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:25 am: Just saw your post in the forum and answered here. Good question. My reply get you pointed in the right direction and I’ll also write up a tutorial on how on adding header images and modifying additional widget classes and post it here.

51 wordpress theme December 8, 2009 at 10:47 pm

this is good and i’m waiting for your next thesis skin

52 Chris December 9, 2009 at 9:27 am: Thanks! I plan on doing another skin sometime this month so grab the rss feed or subscribe to the newsletter to get notified when its ready. If you have a suggestion for a future skin, let me know:)

53 John McCann December 21, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Fantastic theme, I’ve been using it for about a month now and I’m seeing how it has directly affected my viewership.

I’ve got a few questions about the skin because I’d like to make a few modifications but they don;t seem to be so straightforward:

1. The Navbar – I’d like to use dropdown menus and they work except that the colors blend into the colors of the page. This basically makes them useless. I’d like to fix a background color and a font color for the navbar. I tried to do this through the thesis design options but those modifications don’t seem to work. I’m guessing it’s in the custom.css file but I’m no coder and I’d like to know if I can modify there without breaking everything.

2. The bottom widget areas – I’d like to resize the bottom widget area, if possible. My tag cloud is getting larger (like Leon) and I’d like to utilize as much of the bottom widget area as possible to do that. How can I modify the space widgets take?

Thanks again for a great skin!

John

54 Chris December 23, 2009 at 11:02 pm: John – Thanks for the comments. We’ll need to add some code to the custom.css file for the drop-down menu background color. I’ll work on this and update the skin with the new code.

I looked at your site and the Google Friend Connect appears to be overlapping a portion of the footer. I’ll have to look into this a bit more. If possible, I’d like to login to your WP Dashboard and take a closer look. Shoot me an email at thesistheme at gmail dot come if you’re interested.

55 Robin December 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm

The colors look great but how do I activate them. I saw no instructions in the download so I’m at a loss, some guidance most appreciated.

56 Chris December 27, 2009 at 1:12 pm: Robin – The download contains a background image for each of the new color schemes. You’ll need to open up the custom.css file and change the default background image (bg.jpg) to the background image for the color you want to use (bg-blue.jpg, bg-red.jpg, etc.)

The nav menu background colors also can be changed. The custom.css file is fully commented and contains more information on how to implemment the new colors.

57 Brenna December 30, 2009 at 6:54 pm

Things did not go so well for me when following the directions in the video. I downloaded the latest file with all colored backgrounds. However, when I went to upload I was asked if I wanted to “overwrite” current files (I did not see instructions for this in video). So I went ahead and overwrote current files in the location the video instructed to upload to. When I activated my Thesis theme (after changing to full width and removing padding), the gray background of the Sharp Skin was indeed in place, but the post box and sidebars were in complete disarray. I am also not sure how to move between the different colors that are available. Any advice would be appreciated since these skins look very good and I would like to implement them.

58 Brenna December 30, 2009 at 8:51 pm: Problem resolved. Disregard previous comment. Skin is working nicely.
59 Chris December 31, 2009 at 12:53 am: Brenna – Glad to hear everything is now working properly. Thanks for trying the skin and best of luck with your site

60 Kendall December 30, 2009 at 11:31 pm

I like the Sharp Skin and it makes my website look more professional. I am having problems with the Widget 3… I can’t find how to make changes to it.

I created this video to show you what I’m looking at. http://www.screencast.com/t/NGEyZTUzZD

In the video you also see that I don’t have a sidebar 3 or 4 option in my widget area. Please advise.

Kendall Matthews, 602.492.6043
http://www.TheInvestmentRealEstateCorner.com

61 Chris December 31, 2009 at 1:00 am: Kendall – Good idea with the video. The widget you are referring to is the “HeaderAd” widget seen in the widgets panel. If you’re not planning on using the widgetized header area, the easiest way to get rid of the default widget box is to just place an empty text widget there.

62 Ashwin / thotsunlimited January 12, 2010 at 6:48 am

Very nice and clean Thesis Skin. I was thinking about coding a skin myself for my new Thesis Site. But now – it makes my life simpler.

Will be using it for my new Thesis site soon. thanks again.

63 Maxine January 12, 2010 at 9:51 am

I watched the video and followed instructions, although I was confused by the mention of 6 files, when I have 15. Nonetheless I’ve transferred them all into my thesis custom folder. I changed the two settings as per your video. Nothing has changed on my website though. There’s no sign of the skin.
I’m challenged with all of this, and need to follow very precise instructions, step by step.
Are you able to suggest what has gone wrong?
I DID change many of the settings when i first uploaded the theme, as all I’m wanting to achieve with this website, is a static landing page, and not a blog. I figured I should be able to achieve this, but now I’m thinking I need help.

64 Trina January 14, 2010 at 9:05 pm

Hi there,

Can you let me know what the charge is to remove the credit at the bottom of this skin?

Thanks!

Trina

65 Chris January 16, 2010 at 12:33 pm

Hi Trina,

I ask that a link back to this site is left in the footer but it is not required so you can remove if it you need to. The skin is free so there is no charge you can make a small donation using the paypal button in the donate section over on the sidebar.

66 Trina January 23, 2010 at 3:05 pm: Thanks! Will shoot something your way!

67 yeahro January 27, 2010 at 6:27 am

i tried, but the main page separate from side bar like no white bg color.
wish i know how to create sidebar at bottom

68 LouAnn February 6, 2010 at 1:55 pm

LOVE this skin. Thank you. Even for a beginner it was fairly quick to install if I thoroughly read all directions. One thing I’m trying to do is put the Events-Calendar plugin in the sidebar (widget). I have the plugin installed, and I also created a calendar page, which displays the calendar perfectly. But when I put the widget in the sidebar it replaces my photos in the multimedia box?!??!! I even tried it under the categories and it still did that. Any clue why? THANKS! (I took it off the sidebar for now because it looked awful!)

69 Chris February 8, 2010 at 10:02 pm: Glad you like the skin! I’m not familiar with that plugin so I really couldn’t say why it is messing with your multimedia box, must be something conflicting. You might want to try the plugins section over at the support forums.

70 Char February 6, 2010 at 5:35 pm

Hi Chris:
Just wanted to let you know that your free “sharp” skin rocks. It was this skin that prompted me to go ahead and purchase the Thesis theme for wordpress. I wanted to do a product review blog, and just couldn’t find anything that suited my fancy until I saw your skin. I had uploaded the free Thesis, however, after seeing your theme and reading your reviews, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge, and get the paid version of Thesis so I could have all the features at my disposal. I just changed mine to the blue color scheme, and I absolutely love it. Right now, my only issue is that I’m needing to add a sitemeter code to my footer and I haven’t been able to figure out how to accomplish this task. Thanks for providing the inspiration for the great look I’ve achieved on my new site.

71 Chris February 8, 2010 at 10:04 pm: Thank you! I love hearing feedback from the Sharp users out there. I haven’t used sitemeter but I would think that the footer code in the Thesis options panel would be an appropriate place to put that code.

72 MrCreditRepair February 13, 2010 at 4:48 pm

Hey I want to thank for giving us this free theme! This is just what I was looking for to customize the look and feel of some of my affiliate sites.

73 Chris February 15, 2010 at 3:04 am: Cool! Always glad to hear positive feedback on the skin!

74 MrCreditRepair February 13, 2010 at 8:35 pm

Hey Chris I would like to know how you create the Widgetized Header area and to make it the same color scheme as the one above with a Grey title and white text?

75 Chris February 15, 2010 at 3:01 am: The header widget code is in the custom_functions.php file of the skin. I’ve got it commented so you can find it. Check out this tutorial on Widgetizing the Header for a more in depth explanation.

76 www.creditrepairhelponline.com February 13, 2010 at 8:39 pm

Hey Chris, I might add…also I would like to know if the Thesis Open Hook Plugin Will work with this skin? I am using the latest version of the Thesis Theme.

77 Chris February 15, 2010 at 3:03 am: Yep, the openhook plugin will work just fine with this skin.

78 Kim February 28, 2010 at 12:19 am

Hi. Just installed this skin and like it, however, the drop down nav bar is not working in IE 8. It is transparent and is going behind the header making it unusable. I saw a comment that said it was being fixed, but I don’t see that it has been since I just now downloaded it. Is there a code to fix this issue. Thanks very much for the great skin!

79 Kendall March 9, 2010 at 5:02 am

After loading Thesis Sharp Skin, I’m having a few issues that I need to resolve. I created a short video of my problems. Please review and advise.

Here’s my video:
http://www.screencast.com/t/Nzg4NTcyNG

80 Chris March 9, 2010 at 12:06 pm: I see the widgetized header code when I view your site’s code so you should see the header widget in your widget panel where you can add content to this area.

The widgetized footer appears to be functioning properly. It is set up to display 4 columns and I see you’ve added the tag widget that is displaying in the first column. To utilize all four columns, you’ll need to add 3 additional widgets to the footer widget.

It also looks like you might be running the original version of the Sharp skin. An updated version was released in December that cleaned up the nav menu and added some additional colors. I’d recommend downloading the newer version and using it.

The issues you’re having with adding tags and post images is WordPress related, the skin only changes the appearance of the site and does not affect any of the core WP functions. Are you running the most current version of WordPress? When did you first notice this wasn’t working? Did you add any plugins recently?

81 CoreBloggers March 16, 2010 at 8:51 am

thanks for giving it for free

82 Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats March 20, 2010 at 12:59 pm

I have problem with the sidebar and header widget..

In the sidebar the search box is coming out and if i add background color to the sidebar header they were coming out . . i think there is some problem with padding

For header I have added a widget to the header… but unfortunately it is not displaying up . .

Please check out my website http://www.techcats.net/

One more thing I would like to display the header of the post displaying left aligned.. how can i do that..??

83 Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats March 25, 2010 at 9:03 am

Could some one over here check out my and could help me with the solution . .

84 Chris April 1, 2010 at 4:24 pm

For the search widget, you can define its width in the custom.css using this code:

.custom li.thesis_widget_search {width: 250px; }

To change the alignment of the post titles, page titles, and bylines, look for the following code in the custom.css file and get rid of the text-align: center; codes.

.custom .entry-title a{text-align: center !important; color: #333; font-family: arial; font-size: 28px; font-weight:bold;}
.custom .headline_meta {text-align:center;}
.custom .headline_area {text-align:center;}
.custom #archive_info {text-align:center;}

85 Jake P March 31, 2010 at 10:30 pm

Chris:
I uploaded Thesis 1.7 today, and subsequently came across your Sharp skin, which I really like. However, I uploaded the files to my custom folder and nothing seems to be happening. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Jake

86 Chris April 1, 2010 at 12:39 am: Jake – Not sure what the problem would be. Do you have a link to your site that I can check out?

87 Jake P April 1, 2010 at 3:17 pm

Chris — Thanks for the quick response. Site link: Dear Dr. Freelance

I uploaded the files to my GoDaddy file system, for what it’s worth…could that be the issue?

88 Chris April 1, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Jake – I’m not seeing any of the skin files on your site where I’d expect to see them so I’m wondering if they were uploaded to the correct folder? Did you place them in the thesis/custom folder? Do you have more than one version of Thesis uploaded to your site? If so check and make sure the skin files are located in the custom folder of the active theme.

If you’re still having problems, I can upload the files for you and make sure everything is running properly. Shoot me an email at thesistheme [at] gmail [dot] com if you want to do that.

89 Jake P April 1, 2010 at 9:45 pm: Chris, after revisiting my godaddy page and thinking about it, I tried unarchiving with the “overwrite existing files” box checked–and now it’s working like a champ!
Thanks!

90 Mike April 7, 2010 at 6:58 pm

pretty sweet.

Question:

how did you get the different background colors for all your sections in your sidebar here at:http://thesistheme.net/thesis-sharp/

thanks,
Mike

91 Chris April 14, 2010 at 4:40 pm: Mike – Check out the Customizing the sidebar post.

92 Larry April 10, 2010 at 2:06 am

Chris, this skin is working fine in all browsers except IE. If you could offer some assistance I would be much appreciated. If you go to my site and hover over the about tab at the top of the page, I have trouble clicking the secondary links under that tab in IE. I tried on my laptop and my wife’s and experienced the same problem. Both computers are running the latest version of IE. I prefer firefox so I did not notice the problem until I borrowed her computer.

my site is http://larrywestfall.com

93 Chris April 14, 2010 at 4:42 pm: Larry – I’m updating the skin this week and adding some new css attributes to address the drop down menus. You can preview the changes on the main ThesisTheme.net site to see the properly functioning drop down menus.

94 Sanjai April 12, 2010 at 1:39 am

I upgraded to 1.7 and my header and side bar are not loading properly. Any issues.
http://www.satellitetv-news.com/ is my website

95 Chris April 14, 2010 at 4:46 pm: I’ve got a fix for this that I will be including in a skin update sometime this week. It requires new code for the header widget function in the custom_functions.php file.

When I post PHP code in the comments sections, extra characters get added but if you want to email me at thesistheme [at] gmail [dot] com, I’ll pass the revised code along to you.

96 Chuck April 27, 2010 at 5:03 am

Hey Chris,

Thanks for a great looking FREE skin. I used it on one of my websites and noticed one ‘concern’ though. I feel it is important in an SEO point of view and if you can fix it, it would be great.
Normally, without a skin, your blog name appears within the header area (when you look at page source). But when your skin is installed, the header area is blank as far as I can understand. I think this is a crucial factor as far as SEO goes. May be you can contact someone that you would trust in an SEO stand point (I’m a total stranger to you ) or the guys over at DIY and ask what they think.
Would definitely be following up to see what your point of view on this would be!

Thanks again for a great skin!
Chuck

97 Chris May 12, 2010 at 1:45 am: Chuck – I agree with you but my skin only changes the display of the site and does not alter any of your WP settings or core files. If you view the source of this demo page, you’ll see the site title and tagline is inside the header div.

98 Hugh McCabe April 29, 2010 at 1:03 pm

Hi Chris,

I just installed the Sharp skin. Thanks it is awesome! I have a few questions for my website http://hughmccabe.com

1. How do I get the to look like yours on all of your pages? It seems to be the same background as the gray sidebar fader? Where do I put what code in to get the same effect?

2. I want to add a nice graphic header to my site similar to this one – http://norbertorlewicz.com/ but a bit smaller / narrower. What dimensions should I tell my designer to use so that the header fits on your Sharp Skin design and doesn’t push the content area too low? Can one edit the bg.jpeg file to have a taller image / header area?

Best Regards,

Hugh

99 Chris May 12, 2010 at 1:37 am

Hugh – You are correct, the gray fader graphic is being used at the top of the content box here on this site. I’ve got an update to the skin that I’ve been working on (keep getting pulled away on side projects) that will include this. Basically you just need to add the following to your custom.css file:

.custom #content_box {background: #fff url(fade.gif) repeat-x; border-right: 1px solid #ddd;}

.custom #content {background: #fff url(fade.gif) repeat-x; border-right: 1px solid #ddd;}

100 Hugh McCabe May 17, 2010 at 5:36 pm: Hi Chris thanks for the reply. I would like to know the following:

I am all for crediting the designer of awesome themes and skins in my footer, but I would like to edit the text so that it looks a bit neater. At the moment it’s all written on 2 lines on top of each other.

I have a developer license from Thesis so am in a position to alter the text in the footer. I just want it to be on 1 line on the right hand side in the footer, saying:

Powered by Thesis and Thesis Sharp Skin.

(obviously linking to the relevant 2 sites)

What are your thoughts on that? And if you agree, what code can I use where?

Regards

101 Ray Edwards May 4, 2010 at 6:01 pm

Hey Chris… any word on an update for 1.7?

I’ve looked at just about EVERY skin out there — paid and free — and I really like Sharp. But it’s not too happy with 1.7.

102 Chris May 12, 2010 at 1:40 am: RayEdwards.com is now running Thesis 1.7 with the Sharp Skin

103 Kali Lilla May 8, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Hi Chris!!
You helped me customize your skin on my blog a few months ago. I just changed email list services and am having some trouble lining up my new opt-in form in the header widget. Can you help? I want the opt-in form to move to the right and down. Basically lining up with media box horizontally and sidebar ads vertically. ANY advice/help much appreciated!
Kindly, KL
http://thelabrawtory.com/

104 Chris May 12, 2010 at 1:42 am: Kali – Maybe you already got this taken care of? I just looked at your site and the email list appears to be already lined up the way you wanted.

105 Don Henry June 30, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the theme. I just started using it at my new blog:

http://www.homegymnation.com/

106 Ahmad Wali July 14, 2010 at 10:00 am

Hi Chris,

First of all thanks for the great FREE skin. I am not good in coding I need to customize Thesis Sharp logo with my own and want to make sidebars look like in your default demo page for Thesis Sharp. I will be waiting for any advice on this one, Thanks alot.

Regards
http://www.e-wali.com

107 Greg July 14, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Hi,
Thanks for your skin.I have only been using it for 1 week.I have played around with the sidebars and added some css snippets.I must say I do like the them.However I do not seem to be able to åplace a header I hav had deesigned for me.
Actually it is the measurements in pixels of the header are to be filled.
Looking forwaard to any further tutorials
Greg

108 asep July 15, 2010 at 4:28 am