DIY Themes announced the arrival if Thesis 1.7 today and all existing Thesis users can download this latest upgrade for free. On this day for fools, it was fortunate that the price of Thesis remains intact. There has been speculations that there would be an inevitable price hike for the 1.7 version due to the enormous improvements and added features. Personally. I feel the present price tag is still reasonable and any increase will only deter sales given the present economic situation.
New features in Thesis 1.7
I haven’t done the update as yet as I always like to wait a little while to see if any other users reports any issues before I upgrade anything. However, the newly added functions looks awesome.
Improved SEO
Already kicking ass in terms of SEO in the present version, Thesis 1.7 sees further improvements. In this latest upgrade, comes a-
totally redesigned document
<head>that allows for SEO customization at a level that no one has ever seen before. With 1.7, you’ll be able to control the robots<meta>tags(noindex, nofollow, noarchive) on every post and page of your site, and better still, the new Page Options will give you total control over all these details and more on your Category and Tag archive pages! Optimize everything, because that’s how you win on the Web, and that’s what Thesis is all about.
New Options Manager.
For those like me whom likes to mess around with our Themes, screwing up our Themes is part of life.
With Thesis 1.7, you’ll be able to save and restore the Thesis Options without having to be woefully inefficient.
Completely reorganized options pages
This improvements will send Frugal Theme and many other premium Themes back to the drawing boards.
In version 1.7, you’ll find five main pages under the Thesis Options: Site Options, Design Options, Page Options, Custom File Editor, and Options Manager. These pages are all leaner, faster, and more sensibly-arranged in 1.7; simply put, my efforts here are designed to make it easier for users to do more with Thesis.
Increased page speed from every angle
With added improvements,
every single page load is faster with Thesis 1.7
For more advanced users, there is
A slew of JavaScript libraries
Add jQuery, jQuery UI, Prototype, MooTools, and others with a single click, and kiss those old JS library folders goodbye!
New home page controls
Now, you’ll not only have complete SEO control on your home page, but you’ll also have granular control over JavaScript libraries and post display (with more to come here in future releases).
A Newly Re-vamped Comment System
In 1.7, you’ll not only be able to drag and drop the display order, but you’ll also have a few more fine-tuning display options that are sure to please.
Affiliates will sell more and make more
This is my favorite improvement. Though I have a plugin to do this at the moment, this built in feature will be very handy should I do decide to do an Adword campaign.
Get rid of those ugly affiliate URLs once and for all by taking advantage of the new 301 redirects in Thesis 1.7
New hooks
For those who loves WordPress hooks, a couple more have been added. Hooks are very useful for adding new items that you cannot do with the built in Options. It is lots of fun of you master the use of hooks but on the other hand, you can also crash your whole blog. LOL anyway, new hooks available in 1.7 are:
thesis_hook_post_box_top and thesis_hook_post_box_bottom.
#content_box—thesis_hook_content_box_top and thesis_hook_content_box_bottom.
New headline filter
Filters is another WordPress feature that I have yet to fully understand and use. I doubt this feature will affect me but for those who are savvy,
this simple filter will allow developers to show/hide headlines, and you’ll be able to use this to create more diverse post styles on your site.
Easy translation to other languages
Those who blogs for an international audience and have lots of non English readers,
it will be easier than ever to use handy translation software to translate Thesis into different languages!
Improved core element defaults
Simply means users now have more customization flexibility. Elements written into the core of the Thesis Theme, which needs some technical know how to over ride can now be changed more easily.
moves like this will give skin developers more flexibility and allow them to modify Thesis’ look and behavior with less resistance.
Dramatically improved code quality
The biggest selling point of the Thesis theme has always been the quality of the codes. It has been structured in such a way that it gives the Theme a head over shoulders advantage in terms of SEO and loading speed over other Themes that are coded in the conventional way. This latest version takes it another step further.
More value for your Money!
With all these improvements and with the price tag intact, it is the best deal that one can get. Even when I was reviewing the Frugal Theme, I had not expected such vast improvements in the Thesis Theme. This upgrade will definitely open the eyes of major competitors and have them wrecking up their brains again.
A free alternative with the looks but not all the fireworks – 2 Column Neoclassical Theme
