Standard Wordpress Theme

The 8bit team has pushed out another major update to the Standard Theme for WordPress, releasing version 2.7.  Like the other major releases before it, this release introduces a number of fixes, improvements, and features.

Release Notes for Standard Theme 2.7

Features, Improvements & Bug Fixes

*  Replaced all ereg_replace with preg_replace for PHP compatibility
*  Added a better way to include favicons that’s compatible with all versions of major browsers (including IE6/7/8/9)
*  Updated mobile device viewport setting to include scrolling sharers
*  Fixed a problem in how $_SERVER["SERVER_ADDR"] versus $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] performs
*  The theme directory can now be renamed (though images break, this has been detailed in another email).
*  Fixed HTML in post and pages titles for SEO titles
*  Updated Facebook Share to Facebook Like
*  Updated AddThis
*  Fixed navigation issues for WordPress 3.1.4
*  Fixed the sitemap template
*  Renamed advertisement areas so not to be caught by AdBlock
*  Cleaned up wp_nav_menu syntax
*  Replaced showposts with posts_per_page (the former is deprecated by WP)
*  Looked into Sharedaddy + Standard Theme. Found a reported bug in Sharedaddy
*  Added an admin feature in the comments to allow comment author name links to open in a new window
*  Added a canonical URL to the theme core
*  Introduced the ability for the author archive page to display the author’s name
*  Scrolling sharers now scroll a bit differently. They stay at the top of the post until the top of the post moves out of view and then the sharers stay with the scroll position
*  Added Google+ sharer
*  Added StumbleUpon sharer
*  Added a custom menu location for the footer
*  Now creating SEO title for year archives
*  Updated TimThumb
*  Replaced bloginfo(‘template_directory’) with echo get_template_directory_uri().
*  Replaced bloginfo(‘stylesheet_directory’) with stylesheet_directory_uri().
*  Replaced attribute_escape() with esc_attr().
*  Replaced bloginfo(‘url’) with home_url().
*  Replaced the_author_description() with the_author_meta(‘description’).
*  Replaced wp_specialchars() with esc_html().
*  Removed PHP short tags.
*  Added readme.txt.
*  Added data-url parameter to Twitter sharer.
*  Added additional stylesheet theme descriptors.
*  Added missing WordPress gallery style.

The update process for this release is a little different than the releases before 2.6.1.  In order to maintain the Standard Theme configuration settings, there are a few manual steps that need to be followed when the theme is updated to 2.7.

1. Copy the contents of your custom.css from your current version.
2. Make note of all your Standard Theme settings.
3. Install Standard Theme 2.7.
4. Activate Standard Theme 2.7.
5. Paste the contents of custom.css in Step 1 into the custom.css of 2.7.
6. Manually reapply your Standard Theme settings.

One of the major features that is planned for Standard Theme 3.0 for WordPress will be the ability to keep the same configuration settings when upgrading to a new release.  This will eliminate the need to manually reapply your Standard Theme settings.

Download Standard Theme 2.7 for WordPress

Building on the changes that the development team has been working on since the release of 2.5, a major update has been released with Standard Theme 2.6.   This release introduces a number of fixes, improvements, and features.  Along with the upgrade the team has released a beta version of the Standard Theme upgrade kit to help with the transition from version 2.5.4 to 2.6.

Release Notes for Standard Theme 2.6

Features, Improvements & Bug Fixes

*  Added an <h2> tag around header image for improved SEO.
*  Improved Follower Count UI.
*  Improved behavior of meta descriptions for improved SEO (150 character max length).
*  Added support for WordPress 3.1 Post Formats (Standard, Aside, Video, Image, Link, and Quote).
*  Added default files to initially empty directories to combat fresh installation problems.
*  Improved error messaging in the admin functions file.
*  Specified default attributes for social icons.
*  Removed Delicious from the sharing options.
*  Added an ID to post entries and contents for better Evernote compatibility.
*  Style improvements for consistency between H1′s and H2′s.
*  Adding unique ID’s to the element containing no comments.
*  Upgrading to jQuery 1.5.1.
*  Minor modifications to generating breadcrumbs.
*  Improved markup for breadcrumbs.
*  Updating the Community Forum link.
*  Minor modification to the Navigation Walker to make it easy to highlight active categories via CSS.
*  Added tiling for new post formats.
*  Added icons for post formats.
*  Added a link icon for post format permalinks.
*  Fixed long, non-breaking breadcrumbs not wrapping.
*  Fixed minor typo for social icons
*  Addressed a position issue of social sharers with IE7

The update process is a little bit different than earlier version of the Standard Theme for WordPress.  The development team has provided a beta version of an upgrade kit to move from Standard Theme 2.5.4 to 2.6.  They recommend that this update ONLY be applied via ftp and not through the WordPress administration panel.

Instructions are provided in the Readme file for the the upgrade kit.

Download Standard Theme 2.6 for WordPress

Standard Theme 2.5.4 was released and introduces a number of fixes and improvements.

Release Notes for Standard Theme 2.5.4

*  Navigation breadcrumb patched to stop repeating duplicate categories.
*  Improvements to meta description.
*  Added support for superscripts and subscripts in style.css.
*  Stylistic improvements to archive page header
*  Removed a duplicate meta generator tag to only include the theme and the current version.
*  Updated the Theme Upgrade menu to handle new version scheming
*  Long text properly wraps in post titles and comment titles in Safari and Chrome.
*  Fixed some examples in the Sharing Options that were missing the “:” in “http://”.
*  Removed WordPress meta generator tag
*  Properly aligned sharer options when sidebar is on the left
*  Updated calls to the register widget functions to use the new wp_register_sidebar_widget function
*  Fixed sharer position in IE7
*  No longer showing thumbnails in RSS feeds
*  Removing some licensing info from the Follower Count plugin until ready for independent release.
*  Updates to the page navigation functionality
*  Improved Theme Update mechanism
*  Including “Standard Theme” prefix to the Personal Image widget
*  Minor improvement to the page navigation code
*  Commented out suggested styles in the custom.css so not to conflict with child themes.
*  Added new advertising images

The update process is similar to other Standard Theme for WordPress updates:

The update process from will be as follows.

1. Copy the contents of your custom.css from your current version.
2. Install Standard Theme 2.5.4.
3. Activate Standard Theme 2.5.4.
4. Paste the contents of custom.css in Step 1 into the custom.css of 2.5.4.

Download Standard Theme 2.5.4 for WordPress

Standard Theme 2.5 was released and introduces over 40 fixes, improvements, and features.

Release Notes for Standard Theme 2.5

Features & Improvements

*  The author box now links Twitter, Facebook, and Blog URL to the information specified in the user’s WordPress profile. The links will not display if no information has been added.
*  The Flickr plug-in has been removed.
*  Improvements to Follower Count’s caching.
*  Added a framework option for hiding the navigation in the footer.
*  Breadcrumbs are now contained in an unordered list for easier, more customizable styling.
*  Removed TweetMeme and replace with official Twitter button.
*  Changed the order of which css3.css and custom.css are imported, allowing custom.css to override css3.css.
*  Removed self-hosted jQuery Option.
*  Localization improvements.
*  Advertisements now open in a blank window.
*  Modified the Standard Theme link in the footer to use affiliate link or link to http://standardtheme.com.
*  Added support for three WordPress 3.0 custom menus.
*  Updated the WordPress 3.0 custom menu functionality so that it doesn’t display home link for each menu.
*  “Continue Reading…” persists through the search.php and archive.php pages.
*  Page Navigation localization.
*  Added ID’s to the footer and header elements.
*  Removed PHP short tags.
*  Equally spaced copyright, pipe, and “Powered by” in footer.
*  Added spaces after commas in post_meta for easier readability.
*  Added break-word to entry content and comments.
*  Added body_class() to the opening body tag.
*  Added post_class() to the post <div> tag.
*  Removed superfish.js.
*  Removed pngfix.js.
*  Upgraded to jQuery 1.4.4.
*  Added a meta description to pages and posts. Pages get the blog subtitle, posts get the excerpt.
*  Added CSS3 styling to the trackback / pingback container.
*  Removed links to header tags in the single and post pages.
*  Updated the framework functions to properly register jQuery if it isn’t already included.
*  Using our own “no conflict” version of jQuery to combat compatibility issues with other plugins.
*  Gave content a <span> tag with an id for easy Evernote clipping.
*  Added “Display Website Link?” option to Author Box Settings.
*  Changed “Personal Blog” to “Website” in author box.
*  Updated the Follower Count widget to a new version. Now includes the ability to reset the cache.
*  Updated the Theme Version detection for those whose server’s don’t handle it.
*  Updated advertisements so that if no link is provided, no default link is used.
*  Localized the comment “Reply” link.
*  Changed entry list items to use bullets instead of letters.
*  Updated custom.css and style.css to note updating the custom.css, not copying the entire stylesheet.
*  Added a link to the new documentation in the admin panel
*  Updated admin panel links to open targets in new window

Bug Fixes

*  Fixed Facebook Sharer generating incorrect URLs.
*  Fixed a bug that was displaying the 404 message multiple times on the page instead of once.
*  Fixed a bug with tag archive headers displaying improperly.
*  Fixed a bug that only shows trackbacks if comments exist.
*  Fixed ads-125x125_8.php to use “Image” and “Destination”.
*  Fixed footer navigation bleeding into footer “powered by” area when list is long.
*  Fixed “Share This” popup not floating with the sharing buttons.
*  Fixed problem with Yoast Breadcrumbs when images are linked to their post (not the raw file).
*  Fixed a bug that allowed right-aligned images to exceed the length of the content.
*  Fixed issue with broken images in the admin panel with child themes.

The update process is similar to other Standard Theme for WordPress updates:

The update process from will be as follows.

1. Copy the contents of your custom.css from your current version.
2. Install Standard Theme 2.5.
3. Activate Standard Theme 2.5.
4. Paste the contents of custom.css in Step 1 into the custom.css of 2.5.

The Standard Theme for WordPress development team sees increased adoption of the theme and a vibrant and engaging user community.  The team continues to make improvements based on the feedback received from the community.

Download Standard Theme 2.5 for WordPress

Standard Theme 2.0 has been out for a little while, but the WP Standard Theme blog remained on version 1.1. The reason had more to do with time and other priorities than with anything related to the upgrade, but the blog has finally been upgraded.

The upgrade was mostly issue free. The Standard Theme development team recommends installing the new versions of the theme as a new theme instead of upgrading the existing theme in place. This allows for testing and tweaking the theme to shake out any issues. One of the downsides is that all of the settings needed to re-entered in the new theme. Although there aren’t a lot of customizations that WP Standard Theme was running, it took a little bit of entry to have it look like it did under version 1.1.