Introducing frugal Version 3.1 (3.0 Has Been Refined Even More)

I know it has only been barely two weeks since I launched 3.0, but I really wanted to quickly follow up with a further refined version to make frugal as rock solid as possible.  This is certainly not a complete re-design like 3.0 was, but more a more refined version that has a few bugs worked out and a few more awesome features that I think you’ll really like!

First, I just want you guys to know that I truly listen to your requests. frugal is YOUR theme and I want to do everything I can to make it the best it can be FOR YOU!  So per request of a few frugal users I created a basic frugal Theme Handbook to help you get started with your frugal theme.  It does everything from fully introduce you to me and this awesome, to give you an overview of the makeup of frugal and it’s many options and features.

I didn’t go into super detail with the content as I do this with (and can do this more effectively with) the many video tutorials), but this should help most people get a good head start with frugal.  So I hope you find it useful!  It’s only 15 pages, but is pretty packed with the essential information.

You can download it HERE.

The video goes over these new features, but I run through them right now as well:

A few bug fixes…

I was actually quite pleased with how few bugs were found in frugal 3.0, but the few that came up were noted and fixed.  Most were more specific to certain setups/servers etc.. so there was a good chance you didn’t even come across any.

Added Margins and Padding options…

Though I added a ton of feature widget margin and padding options I missed a few that I wanted to see available so I added them.  Also, instead of having them piled on top of each other I split them up into their corresponding option areas (ie. I put the Margin and Padding options for the Feature Top Widget section in the Feature Top Widget section).

The ability to turn the Design Options off…

I actually forgot to mention this in the video (oops..), but the very first frugal option gives you the ability to disable the frugal design options.  This doesn’t actually effect these options (in other words, you’re not going to make your site actually look any differently by doing this), but it does give you the ability to clean out a bunch of options so you can more easily find the more ‘functional’ options.  Then turn it back on whenever you need to make a design change.  I personally leave it on all the time, but it may be useful to some.

UL Style Options…

A UL or Unordered List, is what you see in many of your sidebar widgets and some of your content.  Often times these lists have dots or squares to list each line.  Now, with frugal 3.1, you can select the type of UL style you want to use for both your content and your sidebars (or you can just turn them off like the sidebars do by default).

Some new Footer options…

I’ve added the ability to enable/disable an Admin login link in the footer (nothing ground breaking, but some may enjoy this addition).  Also, you can now revert your footer links back to the pre-3.0 version style with the shorter footer, having the Copyright and frugal link on the same line.

New Caps Options…

Not very exciting, I know, but now you have more Capitalization options, even in the Navbars (which didn’t have caps options before).

Super useful Navbar options…

You’ve always been able to exclude pages from the main navbar in frugal, but you had to track down the Page ID to do it.  Well, you still have to use the Page ID, but I’ve setup the options area to list all your pages and show their Page ID’s, right next to the option.  I’ve also done the same for your Categories and added the option to exclude Categories from the Category Navbar.

Even cooler, you can now remove specific Page Titles.  By using a snippet of code (an example is give for easy copy and paste) you can use your Page ID’s to remove Page Titles from pages and even your Homepage if you need to.  And don’t worry, these page titles and their SEO friendly H tags still display in the Page Source so your SEO isn’t negatively affected.

The Custom Widgets now have full, independent font and border design options…

Now you can not only create up to 4 custom widgets, but you can full control their look with added font and border design options.  Also, you can now embed them into individual pages using the included ‘Shortcode’ text (as well as hook them into pretty much ANY location of your website).

As for the Custom Function options, I actually dropped two of them.  You still have two to use, but I figured many won’t even use them and those who do should find 2 to be sufficient.  And if you need more you can just add more custom functions to the custom_functions.php file that frugal offers.

I did add one option to that feature, though.  Now you can specify if PHP code is in your custom code, so your function will execute the PHP code if it needs to.

I added some really cool Sidebar Widget border options…

You still have the border options that allow you to surround your entire sidebars, but now you can surround your individual widgets as well.  Pretty cool, huh?!   You can also give your Sidebar Headings a background color.  I played with this option a bit when I finished it and was able to come up with some pretty sweet layouts.  I think you’ll find this to be a great new styling tool.

Also forgot to mention in the video…

With frugal 3.1 you can now easily change the ‘Read more’ text, ‘Subscribe’ text in the right navbar area and the Comment Submit Button text.

And speaking of the Comment Submit Button text, you now have full Submit Button font options.

I moved a few things around…

I tried to keep this to a minimum as to not confuse those who have become acquainted with frugal 3.0’s options pages, but I did move a few things around.  One example is that I moved the Footer options to the Main/SEO page (hence the new name of that page Main/SEO/Footer and the new name of the content page Content/Sidebars).

This should be a smooth update…

Notice I said “should”.  What I mean is that unlike 3.0 which was pretty much a totally new theme, 3.1 just refines 3.0 and shouldn’t disrupt your current setup (if you’re using 3.0) too much or at all.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.

Note to all those who have purchased frugal and want to get their hands on 3.1. You need to be registered to the frugal Forum and then let me know your forum username so I can upgrade your account (if I haven’t already).  Then you should have access to the download section at the bottom of the forum homepage.  Be sure to show me proof of purchase with your email request.