CompuSkills Blog

There has been a quiet period on the blog over the last few months as we have been heavily involved in real world projects. Hopefully this has come to an end now and we will recommence our development and publishing of WordPress themes.  More news will follow.

This is a general post to let people who are using Harmony and WhyDontYou themes that for a variety of reasons we are no suspending further development on these until further notice. This does not mean we will not respond to user requests, but that we are not going to carry on further adjustments without user requests. Normally we would wait until version 1.0 had been released for this, but in this case we feel is appropriate to do it now.

If you are a user of one of these themes and you have any bugs or problems which you would like solved, then please let us know and we will try to fix it as soon as possible and, as always, normally free of charge.

[tags]Web Design, Compuskills, Frequently Asked Questions, FAQ, Themes[/tags]

Bright and Bold theme - free download [ demo or download from wordpress ]

Following on from the previous themes, we have produced a new WordPress theme. This is a two column, largely black, white and golden theme with a fluid width and right hand sidebar. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

This is not a “sponsored” theme, but there are links back here in the footer which we would appreciate you leaving in place, you can remove any or all of the other links on the theme.

This is currently at version 1 and is very stable. The theme has been tested on Firefox, IE 6 and 7 and Opera. It works with a variety of plugins, although none are required. If you run a wordpress blog, we suggest you get Universal Tag Warrior, Share This and Dunstan Like Error Pages if nothing else. Tailored hooks are available for these three plugins, if you require a hook for a specific plug in we will try to accommodate you. Read the rest of this entry »

BlueHeader 1.12 WordPress Theme - available for free download. [ demo | download ]

Following on from the previous themes, we have produced a new WordPress theme. This is a two column, largely black, white and golden theme with a fluid width and right hand sidebar. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

This is not a “sponsored” theme, but there are links back here in the footer which we request you leave in place.

This is currently at version 1.12 and is very stable. The theme has currently been tested on Firefox, IE 6 and 7 and Opera. It works with a variety of plugins, although none are required. If you run a wordpress blog, we suggest you get Universal Tag Warrior, Share This and Dunstan Like Error Pages if nothing else. Tailored hooks are available for these three plugins, if you require a hook for a specific plug in we will try to accommodate you. Read the rest of this entry »

We are in the process of producing themes both for customers and for general release. Unless directed otherwise, all themes we produce will be released for free.

Currently we are also looking at porting a lot of the Open Source Web Design themes to WordPress. These will also be released for free under the Creative Commons licence.

Last, but not least, we are always willing to either tailor a theme for your site or create a specific bespoke design to suit your needs. If you are looking for a wordpress theme, please let us know.

[tags]Frequently Asked Questions, WordPress, Themes, Web Design, OSWD, Open Source Web Design, Theme Design.[/tags]

GoldenSimplicity - Free Wordpress Theme - Available for download.

Following on from the previous themes, we have produced a new WordPress theme. This is a two column, largely black, white and golden theme with a fluid width and right hand sidebar. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

This is not a “sponsored” theme, but there are links back here in the footer which we request you leave in place.

This is currently at version 1.1.2 alpha and is very stable. The theme has currently been tested on Firefox, IE 6 and 7 and Opera. It works with a variety of plugins, although none are required. If you run a wordpress blog, we suggest you get Universal Tag Warrior, Share This and Dunstan Like Error Pages if nothing else. Tailored hooks are available for these three plugins, if you require a hook for a specific plug in we will try to accommodate you. Read the rest of this entry »

To make life easier for everyone, we have uploaded our recent themes onto the Wordpress theme repository and now you can see demos online.

You can view the following online now, all future themes will be made available as they are released:

• Harmony - Theme Demo
• WhyDontYou - Theme Demo
• Contrast - Theme Demo

Thank you for your patience.

If you haven’t yet come across it, the Open Source Web Design site is a wonderful resource where designers can showcase their talents and provide a bit of code for everyone to share.

Visiting this site can, depending on your experience and which themes you check out, provide inspiration and even help people over stumbling blocks with their own code. In short, it is an excellent resource and a benefit to the internet in general.

Sadly, it seems that less and less people are prepared to submit their own designs - visiting it today, the most recent designs were from 22 Jan 07. This is a shame. I don’t know if this is a result of the site owners losing interest, technological problems or simply designer apathy.

Read the rest of this entry »

New: Contrast 1.0.1beta - WordPress theme available for download.

As a result of the interest in our previous theme releases (Harmony has had over 1000 hits now), Compuskills webservice plans to release new themes on a regular basis. The latest is a high contrast theme, with minimal images and based on a black and white colour scheme (will occasional flashes of colour) is available for free download, released under the creative commons licence).

This is not a “sponsored” theme, but there are links back here in the footer which we request you leave in place.

This is currently at version 1.0.1 beta and is stable - tested on Firefox, IE 6 and 7 and Opera. It works with a variety of plugins, although none are required and there are no tailored hooks for them. If you run a wordpress blog, we suggest you get Universal Tag Warrior, Share This and Dunstan Like Error Pages if nothing else. Read the rest of this entry »

Harmony 0.5.2b Wordpress Theme Available for Download

Following on from our previous theme release, the new theme designed for the WhyDontYou Blog is available for download (free, released under the creative commons licence). It is not a “sponsored” theme, but there are links back here in the footer which we request you leave in place. In addition, there is a section in the footer which explains who created this theme and where it was made for - you may edit this if you wish.

This is currently at version 0.5.2 beta but is largely stable. It requires Dunstan’s Error pages as a separate download (or you can edit the 404.php file, or if you want, we will do it for you) and has been set up to work with UTW and Share This. Read the rest of this entry »