Glow Theme from Elegant Themes Is a Fit for àlaBuzz

After experimenting with four different themes from Elegant Themes, I find the newly-released Glow theme is the best fit for àlaBuzz. Beautiful, bright Glow presents content well, and it is suitable for expanding àlaBuzz with more pages and categories.

Let me share the main benefits (and one possible pitfall) for anyone interested in trying Glow. The information also applies to other designs by Elegant Themes, which share similar functionality even though they vary greatly in appearance and purpose.

Content Presentation Features

Glow has three content presentation features you yearn for:

• Feature Content Slider – It’s huge!
  • Outstanding 3-dimensional look
  • Subtle shading in image area provides place for post text
• Tabbed Sidebar Widget – Holds “Recent” posts, “Popular” posts, and “Comments”
• Drop-Down Navigation – Two navigation bars; one each for pages and categories

CMS Functionality

With Glow, you can have a blog that acts like a website. Set up the homepage with or without blog style post format.

If you choose to forgo blog style format on the home page, you still have a blog page that is accessible from the category navigation bar. There is no need to set up a home or front page the WordPress way (resulting in the mysterious double “Home” navigation tabs).

With  drop-down navigation bars, you can show as many pages and categories as you like, and site visitors will be able to find them with ease. For additional flexibility, the page and category navigation bar positions can be swapped.

Blogging Productivity Features

Elegant Themes now have the new ePanel options configuration. It is simple to use, although at first may seem like a maze. (You know you saw an option somewhere…but cannot find it again!) This is only the case because there are many options, a good thing.

Another productivity plus are thumbnail images that automatically re-size. For best results, start with the largest-sized image you’ll need, say for the slider. It will be magically cropped dead-center and beautifully re-sized, without distortion.

Logo Challenge without Photoshop

There is one pitfall for those who don’t have Photoshop. Creating your own logo for Glow is challenging. It isn’t only a matter of trying to replicate the font and appearance of the original Glow logo, or creating a new logo that coordinates with the theme.  The problem is the distinctive bright star lights on the dark background in the header area.  The contrasting dark and light can make a logo difficult to read.

I created and uploaded 20 different logos before I devised one that worked. The resulting logo is a tad large, but the precise placement of the French accent mark on a star appears inspired. (That was actually a complete accident.) With the logo ordeal now behind, I can see that the stars are friends.

Elegant Themes Membership

The Elegant Themes membership is a fantastic deal. For an annual fee of $19.99, you get unlimited access to all present and future themes, plus support services.

27 themes are currently available, with frequent additions to the Elegant Themes Gallery. Several of the themes fulfill the specific needs of specialty sites, such as gaming, video, photography, or ebusiness sites. The next theme to release will be eStore, geared for ecommerce sites.

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