Recently really really really too busy. Busy for work, handmade soap and preparation for China and HK trip next week. Very happy I managed to get a new suitable theme before delay again.

Why New WP Theme?

This Daleri Sweet 1.2 theme (thanks to the designer Andreas) was downloaded from Internet for free. It is very easy to use.

Every part has left, right and top style ready. For example, top bar has left and right, sidebar has top, left and right part too. And it was widgetize. You may put in your code and running within seconds.

The new theme is 20% more space compare to my previous theme. Hence easier for your eye reading. It is now read more content on landing page (main page) without ad on content top.

Help Me!

Nothing is perfect. This theme is NOT compatible with IE browser. My IE 8.0 can’t see the sidebar left and right.

Look like IE limitation on CSS style but Firefox has no problem at all. So I’ve contacted Andreas and now waiting for his reply. Or anyone here expert in CSS?

Also I still lack of a LOGO. If you can create one please contact me. Do you have any suggestion on my wp theme 2010?

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Since so many themes on Internet free download, why spend days to create one? Am preparing to launch a new blog, need a new theme. Found the list of Best 10 Premium WordPress Themes to share with you.

1. Puteulanus – 3 columns high quality WordPress theme. It is ready for Adsense, 125*125 ads, special division for a small paragraph about yourself and neat, smooth web 2.0 design.

Demo | Download

2. Original Premium News – It may a bit rough around the edges (in terms of its looks), yet still a very nice theme in magazine style. Enjoy this themes’ minimalistic beauty!

Demo | Download

3. Mixed Media Blue – A free 3-column WordPress theme that includes built-in support for affiliate advertising, widgets and these WordPress plugins: WP-pagenav, Sociable, Breadcrumb-NavXT, Rob Marsh’s Post Plugin Library.

Demo | Download

4. Reformasi – A picture says a thousand words. No doubt another high quality premium magazine style WordPress theme.

Demo | Download

5. XtremeBlogg – 3-column blog design with Adsense allocation. Suitable for make money blog.

Download

6. Technology WP Theme – In blue and white color, clear and freshly. Build for business and technology blog.

Download

7. Aerosold – The semitransparent design make the page never so unique. You can change the background anytime to make it yourself.

Demo | Download

8. Photography Bliss – A theme with an amazing professional photograph. It use traditional left and right sidebar. Perfect for photography blog.

Demo | Download

9. Zeke10 – A cool feature is a Featured Articles section appears above the start of your main posts.

Demo & Download

10. Studio Press Red – A clean, AdSense-ready WordPress theme. It supports widgets and it comes with alternate comments styling and a customizable “Welcome” section on the sidebar.

Subscribe to Download

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• Free Wordpress Theme – Crystal Mac v1.0

The reason why I choose this Cool Water theme because it give sense of simple, easy to use and fresh like a cup of cool water.

What To Customize ?

Basically, there are few things I have customized. I removed the top menu bar. Added in one more sidebar on right. Lastly, fine tune some color series that match my blog in CSS.

This seems to be an easy job. But for a non-CSS guy like me, it is very painful, need a lot of hard work. Especially on how to customize it to 3 columns. I have to study the wordpress theme tutorial, do a lot testing (because there is a lot methods of doing things) and find the easiest and most suitable for me.

How to Make 3 Columns ?

This is an interesting topic for many blogger. Many blogger like to use 3 columns but many nice blog theme only provide 2 columns. So what do you do? Do you give up and choose a 3 columns theme yet you don’t like very much?

During my research, I found there is not much help or tutorial discuss about this topic. Some did, but lack of complete explanation. It is quite hard for a CSS beginner like me to customize 3 columns with these lack info. After struggle for days, finally I have complete it successfully. I would like to share my experience so that you could customize blog theme you like to 3 columns too!

3 files to edit: index.php, single.php, page.php, sidebar.php and style.css.

Edit Index.php – Make sure the php code (get sidebar) below is at bottom just before get footer.

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Edit sidebar.php – Define your sidebar content by add in the php codes below. Put in your widget or plugin codes in between <div> </div>. I prefer to have full control on sidebar, also have no time to make it widget enable. So you will have to insert whatever you want manually.

<div id=”leftsidebar”>

</div>

<div id=”rightsidebar”>

</div>

Edit Style.CSS – Look for “sidebar” section. Add in codes below at beginning of sidebar section.

/* Begin LEFT Sidebar */
#leftsidebar
{
float: left;
padding: 20px 5px 10px 10px;
width: 155px;
}

/* End LEFT Sidebar */

/* Begin RIGHT Sidebar */
#rightsidebar
{
float: left;
padding: 20px 0 10px 5px;
width: 155px;
}

/* End RIGHT Sidebar */

After that, define the style of your sidebar details, such as color, font, size,etc. Normally, there will be 1 set of predefine parameter for 1 sidebar in 2 columns wordpress theme. So you need to change it to apply for 2 sidebars.

For example, the original sidebar parameter for h2 is

#sidebar h2 {
margin: 15px 5px 10px 5px;
font: bold 1.4em ‘Trebuchet MS’, Tahoma, Sans-serif;
color: #555;
}

Now, you need to change the id to #leftsidebar h2, #rightsidebar h2. Change the id for all #sidebar, including p, li, ul, sidemenu, etc.

#leftsidebar h2, #rightsidebar h2 {
margin: 15px 5px 10px 5px;
font: bold 1.4em ‘Trebuchet MS’, Tahoma, Sans-serif;
color: #555;
}

That’s it. Your 3 columns theme is up now!

Download Free WordPress Theme

Download my customized 3 Columns Cool Water wordpress theme for Free. You can use for your own blog or analyze how I customize to 3 columns.

Installation

Unzip and upload the extracted folder (3 Columns Cool Water) to wp-content/themes, click on “Design” in the wordpress admin panel and select it from the list. Done.

As I mentioned above, since I have not create widget enable sidebar you have to insert codes in sidebar.php at your own.

My two cents

It is not easy to customize. I like the Cool Water theme very much. Since no one make 3 columns, so I decide to make it 3 columns no matter how hard.

I have learned a lot on php coding and CSS from this experience. It really fulfill my needs perfectly! So, do you like my 3 Columns Cool Water theme design?

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The only way I think the virus can infect my blog is via ftp client. I always like to let my ftp client open. I suspect the spyware might upload itself or perhaps change some coding in my php? I know IE still able to browse my blog but Firefox banned to enter.

The Fastest Way Upgrade to WordPress 2.5

After some research and my experience, I some out a method to upgrade my wordpress within 5 minutes. Because I can’t afford to down my blog or use hours to reinstall the whole wordpress engine. If you are in my same state, I believe the methods below can help you upgrade successfully within minutes.

I have upgraded mine in 5 easy steps below, how about you?

1. Backup, backup, backup! – Since I have set up daily backup on my wordpress database, I no need to worry about backup. Just need to make sure my backup can be unzip and the sql file is there. If you have not do so, you might want to use “WordPress Database Backup” plugin to setup your backup schedule. You can backup as file into your computer or request send email in attachment to you in daily basis.

2. Download and unzip WordPress 2.5 – Download the latest WordPress 2.5 (~5MB) in 2 minutes and unzip it into a folder.

3. Edit wp-config.php – Edit the WP-config.php sample file. Normally just put in your wordpress database name, mysql username and password. Check back your current wp-config file at your blog if you are not sure.

4. Upload the WordPress 2.5 – Upload WordPress 2.5 engine to your blog using ftp client, EXCEPT the folder “WP-Content“. The WP-Content folder contain your themes and plugins that we are using. Don’t replace it, or your hard design theme will gone!

5. Upgrade – After upload all necessary files, browse to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php at browser. Follow the instructions to continue and it should complete within seconds!

6. That’s it. No more steps needed. Just double check your plugins if you want more. But so far all necessary plugins work for me.

My two cents

Huh~ sweat! After upgrade to WordPress 2.5 using the fastest way, now my blog has come back alive. I have to admit this new interface has confused me on the button’s arrangement. But I have used to it after play around.

I like the icon and interface written in Ajax, it is nice and soft in color. Also it has integrate with auto tags suggestion, I have just added tags for this post with single click. Save me some time. Of course the main reason I upgrade my wordpress is its version 2.5 does include security fixes. So it is recommended for all users.

Have you upgraded your wordpress? How long have you used? Please give your comment here…

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What’s New?

There are many good new features in WordPress 2.5. These are features that I think benefit blogger the most.

• Dashboard - The latest dashboard design is cleaner, faster, and less cluttered. Its not just an ordinary dashboard, but a series of widgets. You can customized dashboard widget to show fun stats about your posting, latest comments, incoming links and etc.

• Password strength meter - It will tell you how strong is your password to improve your blog’s security.

• Friendlier visual post editor - Its integration with TinyMCE version 3.0, provide better compatibility with Safari and interaction with complex HTML.

More features at WordPress Blog.

Download and upgrade to WordPress 2.5 for better blogging experience!

My two cents

This latest wordpress version has much improvement on its features for blogger, especially on the dashboard. I believe this version definitely make our blogging experience more fun and excitement.

Will I upgrade to WordPress 2.5? Let’s wait and see. The main concern I have is on the plugins compatibility. Will all my plugins compatible with latest wordpress? Have you tested?

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• The Fastest Way Upgrade to Wordpress 2.5

As you know, wordpress supplied random admin password once setup finish. I copy and paste the password to login. But after that, I forgot to change to my own password. I have tried a lot common password to enter admin panel but failed.

Reset WordPress Admin Password

Since I have access to the local mysql database, I decide to reset the wordpress admin password manually. I used phpmyadmin to edit mysql database in graphic mode instead of command line.

Browse to the wordpress database, click on table wp_users. Click Browse then the admin details show up. Click on the pencil icon to edit admin details. In user_pass field, put in the MD5 hash code for your password.

Since the password field was encrypted with MD5 hash algorithm, you can’t simple put in the clear text. It won’t work. Goto MD5 hasher, key in your desire password and click OK to generate hashed string. Now, copy and paste your hashed password strings into user_pass field and click Go.

That’s all. Login your wordpress admin account with the new password. I hope next time I will remember to change the default password.

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• TM Net Streamyx Modem Admin Password

This is a 3-column theme, widget ready with soft colors and rounded edges. As you can see from the screenshot, the background was designed using black and grey color. Header was customized with my dream labtop – MacBook with glitter and gradient effect. In the middle of the header, there is a theme slogan “For Tech and Mac lover”, wish you are one of them. On the other hand, the sidebar is on your left and right, then content stay in the middle.

In overall, I would say this is a clean, simple, and professional theme for all Tech blogs. So why not download Crystal Mac v1.0 now?

Test Run | Download

Installation Instruction:

It’s very simple with only 3 steps:

1. Unzip Crystal Mac v1.0.zip (134kb)

2. Upload the Crystal Mac folder into your blog’s theme folder (eg: /wp-content/themes/ )

3. Login your wordpress admin, goto “Presentation” -> “Themes” -> click on Crystal Mac 1.0

—————-
Now playing: Now and Forever
via FoxyTunes

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• Download 10 Best Premium WordPress Themes