Note: A new version of Checkmate has been released. Get the new version now!
I told you earlier I was going to release it, and here it is! The Checkmate WordPress theme. It is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing options. This is one to definitely download and try out and includes a quick start guide to show you how to use some of the features.
Checkmate Demo – The demo is a bit messy looking because I tried to show off as much of the theme as I could.
Theme Options
Checkmate has a lot of options so you can get the most out of your theme without knowing any code.
- Optional Header Image
- Optional Featured Categories
- Feedburner Integration
- Menu Customization
- Optional Footer Widget Areas
Features
- Checkmate comes with 7 color themes. Grey, Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Brown, and Grey/Red.
- Custom widgets built for Checkmate.
- Tabbed Content Box – widget enabled
- Two, Three, or Split Column Design
- Feedburner Integration
- Optional Widget enabled footer
- Custom Icons
- Gravatar support for authors and comments(WordPress 2.5)
- Custom author, archive, tag, category, and search pages.
- Widget Enabled Sidebars
- Includes the TimThumb script for resizing post thumbnails located under the post meta information.
- Tested in Firefox 2, Safari(Mac), IE7, IE6. (IE6 has a problem with post thumbnails, if this concerns you bug me to fix it).
Ad Management
Checkmate has two forms of built in ad management. One form built right into theme options panel and another more advanced customizable form. Both forms of management are controlled by widgets for easy placement and you retain the ability to turn them on or off via theme options panel.
License
Checkmate is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. All I ask is that you link back to my website somewhere in your site.
Updates
- Version 1.01
- Added wp_footer hook for plugins
- Version 1.02
- Fixed Header Image Bug
- Added browser detectable RSS Feeds (RSS2, RSS1.0/RDF, RSS0.92, RSS2 Comments, ATOM)
- Version 1.03
- Added page template with comments enabled
- Version 1.04
- Fixed sidebar error when requiring users to be registered and logged in to comment
- Misc. code cleanup
- Version 1.05
- Removed query_posts from index.php for pagination support
- Version 1.06
- Changed “1 Comments” to “1 Comment”
- Fixed the multiple categories as “featured” categories error
Download It Now!
- Get the new version here!
- Download the old version Checkmate (4588)
Really Like It?
If you really like this theme and would like updates, more features, and new styles, why not grease the wheel and make a donation?
204 Comments
Leave a CommentBoreale,
Add this to your CSS
.wp-smiley { float: none; margin: 0; }9th Oct 2008
Awesome !! :-)
9th Oct 2008
Curtis,
Thanks for the great work with this theme, it’s a life saver.
I’m having some issues with Side column (Left, Right, Bottom) moving over into the main container. I’m figuring once I fill up the site with more blog content it might fix itself, but it annoys the perfectionist in me.
Is there anyway to work around this, hardcoding something or via the widgets.
30th Oct 2008
John,
Is this only happening on the front page? Or is it on single posts as well?
30th Oct 2008
It seems like it’s only on the front page. I’ve still got some cleaning up to do before I launch the page, but it’s something that I would want cleaned up beforehand.
See; hillsboroughbaptist.org[/]wp/wordpress/
30th Oct 2008
John,
I think the problem is some missing class names.
In index.php on line 80 find
<div class="sidebar">and replace it with<div class="sidebar span-10 last">I think that will fix it.
30th Oct 2008
Unfortunately that didn’t seem to work.
I’ve left it the way it’s been going wrong. I shortened up the two test entires with the bottom part of the side bar shoved over to the left.
30th Oct 2008
John,
My fault, you needed to change line 74 where it says
<div class="sidebar_feature">to<div class="sidebar_feature span-10 last">30th Oct 2008
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that didn’t work :S
Email me directly if you wish.
30th Oct 2008
Thanks for the awesome help once agin.
I do have one possible request for some upcoming release. More than one Featured Cat.
30th Oct 2008
Curtis,
Firstly, thanks for a great theme. Was using some other theme until I came across yours. Looks like your theme won as I’ve crossed over.
Just wanted to ask you about the Welcome widget that comes with the theme. When I add it into the sidebar, I only get a text box to edit. None of the editor tools are available. Am I missing something here ? I’m currently running WordPress version 2.6.5.
Thanks.
1st Dec 2008
Leong,
Are you talking about in the widget editor? You should see fields for the title and image and a text box for the content.
1st Dec 2008
Curtis,
My mistake. I do see the fields you mentioned. I thought I was supposed to see the editor buttons as well (sort of like what you get from TinyMCE).
Now I’m faced with another challenge. After filling in the Title & Content, nothing appears in the Home Page. Must I also fill in the Image field ?
1st Dec 2008
Guess what ? I was playing around with the positioning of the Welcome widget when I realised this.
It appears in the Home Page if I place it as the last widget under Sidebar Top but any other position & it does not show. Strange isn’t it ?
1st Dec 2008
Hi Curtis, :-)
Seems you’ve made some changes here ! Switching frankly from black to white (like with Checkmate ? ;-) )
I’d like to know if you have an issue concerning the blogroll. I’d like to change the links. I thought I could do it through the Checkmate widgets panel, but I don’t have access to the links there.
Looking through the code, I didn’t find them either.
That’s a bit stupid to have only WordPress’n co in my blogroll…^^
So, did I miss anything ?
thanks a lot !
2nd Dec 2008
(by the way, I prefer this white version… ;-) )
2nd Dec 2008
Leong,
The welcome widget should only show on the homepage, but I have no idea why it would only work in that specific spot. If you put it on your website let me know and I’ll take a look at it’s behavior.
Boreale,
The Blogroll is managed by WordPress, go to the ‘Manage’ tab then to ‘Links’ and you’ll be able to change them. Glad you like the new look.
2nd Dec 2008
Sorry… Thanks for your answer !
2nd Dec 2008
Curtis,
Not sure if this is of any help. When I place the Welcome widget in the last spot, it appears in my Home Page & I can see the code when I “View Source”.
However, if I place the widget in any other location, it doesn’t appear (as mentioned previously) & when I “View Source” the code for the widget is not there also.
I’ll continue trying a couple more tests on my end. See if any other ‘pattern’ emerges.
Thanks.
3rd Dec 2008
Hi Curtis,
Looks like I managed to solve the ‘mystery’. Apparently it was one of the other plugins having a conflict.
What I did was remove all plugins & re-activated them one at a time. The Welcome widget worked. Now all I’ve got to do is to test the rest of the plugins individually to identify the one that caused the problem.
On another note, have you come across comments about the theme having problems with widgets using Scriptaculous for effects ? Mine doesn’t seem to work. Was trying it out with the WP-dTree & Collapsing Links widget.
Thanks.
6th Dec 2008
Leong,
Let me know which plugin is the problem, I’d like to figure out what is conflicting.
I am aware of the javascript problem, Checkmate uses jQuery which will conflict with other libraries. There is a way to fix this, I thought it was in the last update but I guess not.
6th Dec 2008
Curtis,
I’ve upgraded my site to your Early v.2 of checkmate (Lovin’ it). But as with the original theme using jQuery I have the following two scripts that are quite heavy on javascript and slowing me down.
http://code.google.com/p/wpng-calendar/
http://www.4-14.org.uk/sermon-browser
Any chances of you taking a peek for me?
8th Dec 2008
I took a look, it loads pretty fast for me, but I did notice some things that might explain a slowness.
1. jQuery is now loaded 3 times, this is a problem with the plugins, you could delete Checkmate’s call but you’ll still have two more. Not a lot you can do about it short of editing the plugins.
2. The plugins load their javascript at the top of the code, which slows the whole page down, my javascript loads at the very end, which is probably causing an ugly “jump” after the page loads if it is slow.
3. There are 18! external javascript files now, that’s huge, but a plug-in problem again.
The calendar plugin is the one most at fault, but I really don’t see much lag on loading.
8th Dec 2008
Hi Curtis,
I encounter some problem to activate my e-mail Feedburner feed. Maybe you could give me some advice ?
Feedburner gives 2 ways to allow the reader to subscribe by mail : with a complete form, or with a link : “You can also offer email subscriptions from a link rather than a form. Just copy the following link code. Users who click it will be prompted to enter their email address in the form that appears.”
Here is the link :
Subscribe to La fabrique des idées by Email
But do you know where I should paste it ? Because there’s already a link to subscribe by mail in the header of Checkmate, I’d like to activate this one !
Big thanks for all ! :-)
30th Dec 2008
Boreal,
If you want the link in the header you’ll need to replace lines 103 to 114 in header.php ( see it here )
You also might want to update to Checkmate 2.0 if you haven’t.
30th Dec 2008
Thanks Curtis,
I’m going to update first, then I’ll go further to solve the problem.
31st Dec 2008
I just installed the v.2 on the server ! Am I dreaming or it is instantly recognized !? :-)
I thought I’d have to redo the little changes (color), the sidebar organization, etc… but all remain the same, and WordPress tells me the current theme is in the new folder Checkmate_v2…
Just wonderful ! Save a lot of time ! :-)
31st Dec 2008
Boreale,
I hate to be the one that bursts the bubble, but if you are talking about
La fabrique des idées, it hasn’t updated yet.
The new version has a slightly different design and theme options page. You shouldn’t have to re-do the sidebar, but you will need to redo the color.
However the new version allows you to create a new style sheet, upload to the styles directory, have it automatically detected, and you’ll be able to choose it from the theme options page. You wont have to worry about redoing your style sheet ever again!
31st Dec 2008
Hi Curtis,
Thanks for showing me the right path :-) I guess I should have deleted the former version from the server…
Bah, I’m just going to do it better !
Have a nice day, and a year even better ! :-)
1st Jan 2009
Hi Curtis,
Just a few words here, to say Thank you : the new version is great !! :-)
About the problems I talked about, everything was fixed very easily. And I made a .css gathering all my changes… Just perfect !
:-)
14th Jan 2009
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