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Ever since I first installed the Hemingway theme on my wordpress blog, I have been a big fan of it. I love tinkering with it and every now and then I keep adding something new or changing something here or there in the theme. I have finally decided to make my modifications available to others for download as well.

So, I introduce HemingwayEx, a simple extension of Hemingway theme for WordPress blogs. I have tried to keep the original essence of the Hemingway theme and added some new features and fixed some small issues. This theme comes with an options page and is widgetized.

HemingwayEx 1.7.1 has been tested with WP 3.0.

Features

Here are some of the main features of HemingwayEx:

• Widgetized: This theme is best used with Widgets. Out-of-box, it works only with widgets. This version removes the support for Hemingway Blocks. To have the option of using Hemingway Blocks instead of widgets, please stick with v1.1. By setting an option in v1.1, you can select whether you want to use the original blocks system of Hemingway themes or use widget enabled sidebars.
• Options Page: You can go to Presentation -> HemingwayEx Options and set various options that give you more control over how the theme works for you.
• Font Size: I have had some people complain about the small size of the theme. Though I like it and I have kept it same, I have provided a simple javascript tool that can be used to increase/decrease the font size of the theme. It is located just below the search form.
• User Styles: The theme allows user to easily modify the theme’s CSS to their liking. It also comes packaged with a few CSS themes.
• Comments: IMHO, comments are handled in a very nice manner. I love the comment numbering and you can have them displayed in ascending / descending order. Also, support has been added for WordPress Gravatar API.
• Updates Notification: You will get automatic update notification in HemingwayEx Options page when a new update is out.
• Dynamic Slidebar: Just like the Hemingway Bottombar, I have added a HemingwayEx Slidebar that gets displayed when the user clicks on an ‘Open Navigation’ button.
• XHTML validated
• Post and Page Navigation: The single post pages display links to previous/next posts. Similarly, the homepage can be paginated.
• Out-of-box support for some plugins

Screenshots

Click thumbnails below to view larger screenshots:

Latest version: 1.7.1

Testing
I have tested the latest version of this theme with WordPress 3.0. I used Firefox (version 2x, 3x on Ubuntu/Windows/Mac OS X), IE (5/6/7 on Windows), Safari (Mac OS X) and Opera (Windows). It seems to be working fine.

Demo

You can see latest version of HemingwayEx in action here.

Download

Download HemingwayEx v1.7.1.

Installation

Installation is very simple. Just download the zip file and upload the ‘hemingwayEx’ folder to themes folder in your WordPress installation. Goto the Admin Menu -> Presentation -> Themes and select the theme.

Once installed, you can go into Presentation -> HemingwayEx Options and customize the theme further to your liking.

Upgrading

If you are upgrading, you will need to reset/uninstall the previous version of HemingwayEx first. If you don’t you might find the display mixed up. Here are the steps you should follow:

1. Goto HemingwayEx Options page and note down you settings.
2. Now upload the new files for HemingwayEx theme.
3. Click reset button at the bottom of the HemingwayEx options page.
4. Refresh the HemingwayEx Options page and set the options to what they were before. Also, set more options if new settings have been made available.

Donations

If you liked HemingwayEx and have found it helpful, consider supporting it. If nothing else, how about buying me a beer/coffee?

Disclaimer

Please note that even after spending quite some time on this theme, I have little experience with PHP. I mostly play around with it and learn as I code. I have been using this theme on my site for sometime now and I have not had any problems, but if some issue does come up, please don’t hold me responsible. I would like to know about the bugs that could be fixed and some other features that could be added, and I would work on it, time permitting.