staff:

A bunch of new/updated themes have already shown up sporting Tumblr’s new customization features. Check them out!

• …
• Field Notes by manasto
• …

Thanks, everyone!

There are a bunch of new updates and customizations in new theme file:

• New, easier way of installing a Flickr photo widget
• Support for up to five custom links added to the header
• Upload your own background image
• Change the the font (default is still Futura)
• Choose whether or not to display your followers
• Automatic disqus support is coming soon, too.

I’ll be adding some “How To” docs later, and updating some of the older ones. Stay tuned!

My way of displaying your Twitter updates worked fine unless you had a private account. If you had one, it would display an annoying sign in message on every page. Tumblr’s example of pulling in your Twitter updates doesn’t do this, so I switched to using it. The update is available in the Theme Garden (two weeks after it was submitted).

If you’ve customized a recent update to the theme and don’t want to install the update and re-customize, all you have to do is go down to the end of the theme code, find the {block:Twitter} tag, and replace it with the code below:

{block:Twitter}
<script type="text/javascript">
function recent_tweets(data) {
	for (i=0; i<data.length; i++) {
		document.getElementById("tweets").innerHTML =
		document.getElementById("tweets").innerHTML + '<li>' + data[i].text +
		' <a href="http://twitter.com/{TwitterUsername}" title="{TwitterUsername} on Twitter">follow me &rarr;</a></li>';
	}
	document.getElementById("twitter").style.display = 'block';
}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/tweets.js"></script>
{/block:Twitter}

ragdoll:

(via staff):

You can now link directly to your theme on Tumblr to promote it yourself. People can also browse all your themes on your Theme Author Page.

Great. Except they can’t, because for some reason, for my theme to get any recognition at all, it has to pass through the narrowed eyes of Theme moderators. WHY IS THIS? Okay, so maybe my theme isn’t pretty enough for people of questionable taste in the first place (look at all these “aesthetically pleasing” theme designs!), but why should that stop me from doing my own push?

People have used my theme and emailed me to tell me that they like it. I don’t need to be in the garden; just give me a permalink that allows people to do an easy install.

Field Notes just got laid to waste in a rant (see the “taste” link above).

If I were to offer a two-column layout of this theme with a sidebar, but asked you to pay for it, how much would you pay? Or would you even want it?

Of course I’m thinking iPhone app prices here, not Tumblize prices.

I just realized that I forgot to upload the most current javascript file when I last updated the theme. This means that if you tried to embed your Flickr photos the way the How To explains, your photos wouldn’t show up on your blog.

I fixed this and updated the theme file in the theme garden, but it could take a few days to go through (they are almost as bad as Apple up there).

Anyway, if you don’t want to wait, replace the second javascript source with this:

http://static.tumblr.com/h3aw40n/Lhpkmxpx8/functions.js

That should do the trick. If you have any problems, you can always try and get in touch with me.

staff:

Introducing: Photosets

If a picture is worth a thousand words, photosets are the future of books.  Enjoy!

New theme tags are available in the Theme Docs for customization.

See previous.

I just added updated the theme code to inculde Photosets. Until the changes are approved, all you have to do for now is add this line of code inside the {block:Posts}{/block:Posts} tags:

{block:Photoset}
	<p class="object">{Photoset-500}</p>
	{block:Caption}<div class="caption">{Caption}</div>{/block:Caption}
{/block:Photoset}

That is the exact code I added to the theme file, and the Theme Garden should reflect the update in a couple of days (maybe fewer since the Tumblr staff just released a new post format and might get on their horse for this one).

The new update just made it through. Here are the changes:

• Added automatic support for Twitter
• Made it even easier to embed your Flickr photos
• Added tags to posts
• Conditionally add/remove “About” link based on whether or not you have filled in your blog description
• Added a search pop-up
• Made the Title Text customizable
• Reduced the size of the background image so it loads a bit faster

I think that’s it. Enjoy!

Also, for those who offered to test the theme out, thank you. I  actually only got the theme to one person, but since you offered, I’ll still customize a version of Field Notes or Photorific (when I finally finish it) for you if you want. Just contact me. You can find my email here.

I am about to post an updated version of this theme to the Theme Garden, and while everything basically looks the same, I’ve added a few features and changed a little bit of the markup. This means, as usual, I’ve probably messed something up along the way.

So, instead of going back and fixing multiple bugs and updating/uploading multiple files, I’d like to get this version as close to thunder as Zeus. Wait, what?

Anyway, if you currently have Twitter setup through your Tumblr account settings, and you have a Flickr stream you would like to include in your theme, let me know and I’ll set you up with a new theme file.

For the first two people who help me out, I will completely customize one of my themes just for you. Either this one, or my yet to be released, block rockin’ Photorific Theme (it displays HighRes photos!). You can find my email here.

Things to look out for:

• Load times. Does the page load fast enough? Background image? Twitter/Flickr widgets?
• How do the tags look?
• Does anything look out of place?
• Any feature missing?

That’s it really. More of an overhaul underneath than anything else. Anyone interested?