I recently installed the Thesis Theme for WordPress blogs on my blog, from the moment Thesis was installed I was hooked on how much you could customize Thesis and give your blog a new look in no time. Before I knew it I was searching for Thesis customization tips and information on easy ways to customize Thesis.
My search brought me to one of the blogs I read on a daily basis, Serradinho.com Geaorge is the webmaster of Serradinho and has one of the most unique and custom Thesis themes I have seen yet. George has some excellent Thesis customization tips that even someone without no clue like myself could could still easily implement in just a few simple steps.
I have taken a few of the things I found on Serradinho.com and customized those things to match the overall look and feel of my blog, I will be including those things along the way as I blog about Thesis, I will of course link to any Thesis blogging tips I have found along the way.
3 Easy Ways to Customize Thesis Theme
The first thing you will need to do is navigate to your custom.css file in your Thesis Custom File Editor, the screen shot should make finding it pretty simple. Once your there make sure that custom.css is selected in the drop down menu and click “edit selected file”. Before you continue you should select everything in that custom.css file and copy it to a notepad file, that way if you hate these Thesis customizations you can go back to your default custom.css file at any time.
For each of the easy Thesis customizations below you will need to supply a few things yourself, images would be the key think you would want to change up. You can always use mine if you choose to, please right click and save them to your server and be sure to put them in your Thesis Theme images folder.
Feel free to copy the CSS from my site that I included in the code fields below, it should give you something to build on. You can adjust colors, image name, dimensions, border, margins and whatever else you want to customize the look to fit your WordPress blog.
1. Custom Thesis Reply Field – Header Image
This will place an image behind the “Leave a Comment” text on your single post views. Your image dimensions will be different based on your Thesis design options.
/***REPLY FIELD HEADER IMAGE***/ .custom #respond_intro { margin: 0; } #respond_intro p { color: #B82626; font-size: 2em; line-height: 2.9em; } .custom #respond { background: #FFF url(images/bg-light-gray3.jpg) repeat-x; border-top: 1px solid #F8BBBB; padding: 0 1.5em 1.5em; } /***REPLY FIELD HEADER IMAGE END***/
2. Custom Thesis Opening Comments – Uppercase with Image
This will put an image of your choice, preferably one you create that matches the dimensions of your blog behind the opening comment field area.
/***OPENING COMMENTS UPPERCASE***/
.custom .comments_intro { background: #FFFFFF url(images/bg-light-gray2.jpg) repeat-x; margin: 0; padding: 1.5em; }
.custom .comments_intro p, .custom .comments_intro span { color: #000000; font-size: 1.7em; text-transform: uppercase; }
/***OPENING COMMENTS UPPER END***/
3. Custom Thesis Comments – Commentluv Background Image
This will display an image in the background of every CommentLuv latest blog post display boxes.
/* CommentLuv last blog post settings*/
.cluv {display:block; padding:8px;border: 1px solid #000000; background: #F5F5F5 url(images/bg-light-gray.jpg) repeat-x; text-transform: none; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; margin-top: 15px;}
.custom #comments abbr {display:block; padding:8px;border: 1px solid #000000; background: #F5F5F5; text-transform: none; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; margin-top: 15px;}
/***Commentluv End***/
It is important to point out that pretty much everything I currently know about Thesis was learned on a few different blogs and by doing search engine searches on Bing and Google, I am hardly a Thesis Theme master. I plan on creating a few posts with whatever little things I have learned along the way in order to help any new Thesis bloggers looking to self teach and learn about customizing Thesis Theme in a few easy steps.
If you found these easy ways to customize Thesis Theme somewhat helpful please take a moment to leave a comment, I would also greatly appreciate any links to information about how to customize Thesis, don’t be shy post a link to an article of yours or a Thesis article that was helpful to you.
Cole Stan (2)
KyAus @ Those.Tips (2)
SafariDave (2)
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the tips. While I’m trying to keep my blog looking “simple” there’s more and more that I want to do with the thesis theme.
Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee´s last blog ..Hazelnut from Eight O’Clock Coffee Review
@Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee, that is one of the nice touches to Thesis Theme you can customize and keep it simple.
Arghh another one buying a Thesis theme.. you make me want to buy it too John. Always have this dilemma once every few weeks lol
Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Opera 10.10 goes final
@Michael Aulia, I had the same problem until I finally broke down and went with it. I honestly wouldn’t have a blog without it again. It is a pleasure you work with.
@Extreme John, Thanks John. I guess I have to take a next step and just do it rather than keep on talking about it :D
Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Dyson Air Multiplier review coming up
@Michael Aulia, sometimes that effort can be a little tough to maintain thats for sure.
Thesis is very easy to be customized if we know how, simply copy the code and paste in custom.css or custom_function.php, but this is something that I’m not familiar, I mean the “code”. Thanks for the tutorial John!
Lee Ka Hoong@Make Money Online´s last blog ..Make Money Blogging Guide For Beginners
@Lee Ka Hoong@Make Money Online, I would write a quick tutorial on that but it’s still very much a learning process for me. Maybe some day I will become a CSS master.
Thanks for the mention, but it would of been nice if you linked to my blog. Maybe you could edit the post, please ….(you can’t see, but I’m on my knees).
As you play more around with thesis, you get to know it better and know what is easy and hard. You have come a long way and you are improving day by day. I have a local installation of WP on my laptop and I can test when offline.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..How Robomaster got 4385 Followers in a Month
@George Serradinho, oh crap… I thought it was linked, I make that mistake a lot because I will write the post than go back through and link up. Thanks for pointing it out George and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
Actually I love your new look, good work john! and thanks for the nice Thesis tips, that’s great!
Hesham @CarsnLimos´s last blog ..3 Basics Every Blogger Should Know When Blogging for Money
@Hesham @CarsnLimos, thank you for the kind words. I am addicted to trying to change up Thesis and see what else I can do with it.
Good to see some nice Thesis tutorials here
.. I’m sure we going to listen more on Thesis from you soon.
Theme Premium´s last blog ..How to Verify Your Site ownership in Google Webmaster tool : Wordpress SEO
Its really nice to see you posting customizations tips on thesis
Compute Live´s last blog ..Left 4 Dead 2 360 Server Lag Fixed
Hi John:
Have you tried using Thesis Open Hook plug-in yet? I did a number of things in there using that as I don’t know much (okay, I don’t know ANY php at all!)
Another plug-in I now swear by (though not specifically for Thesis) is “context widget” this allows me to have certain things show in the sidebar of only certain pages.
Myself, I really need to sit down and just write my own blog post about all my favorite WordPress plug-ins and why I love them so much. (right after I read your 25 WordPress Plugins You Might Dig post). I’m a junkie for them, that is for sure!
Michelle @mmangen
Social Media Virtual Assistant
Michelle Mangen´s last blog ..Alex Mandossian’s business card suggestion results in Social Media encounter
I see a lot of advertise about thesis themes, but I didnt notice that it can be so powerfull until I read this post and start searching on it, Im becaming a fan…
José Santos @ secured visa cards´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
It looks really good. I am just glad you kept the picture in the straight jacket. It wouldn’t be the same without a crazy picture.
You seem to have it working fine, too. So the Thesis Theme is just the right amount of challenge?
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Nov 29, Santa’s Workshop by Norman Rockwell from 12/14/1922 Clintonville Gazette
There is so much to learn. I keep reading your posts and I am starting to get familiar with the terminology. Soon I will be ready to create the New and Improved Pet Safari site. Thanks.
I think this will look way more cooler if the jackets were cut to bits and add more pictures in the upper left… :D
John, It’s true that thesis is pretty much popular theme but as far as customization is concerned, Those who are not HTML/php geek, thesis is not for them. It took approx 40 minutes for me just to figure out how to add/edit footer. Thesis is quite harder for them. I tried semiologic, which is another pretty flexible theme and can be edited easily and quickly.
{ 1 trackback }