You know how things are, you wake up one morning and you feel like you ‘ve been assigned a mission! I was lucky cause I was given two choices, first was to save the planet but I thought this is already done. So I ‘ve chosen to make a theme with lots of screws! That’s how Screwdriver theme begun.

And this is a page for Screwdriver where I ‘ll post new releases, fix bugs and make anything to keep those screws tight! Feel free to comment about Screwdriver theme or visit the Forums if you want more extended answers about customization.

Enjoy!

SCREWDRIVER 1.7 DOWNLOAD from WordPress repository theme for WordPress 2.7.X Demo: ScrewDriver’s Page

SCREWDRIVER WB 1.0 DOWNLOAD from this site static html template Demo: Static Page Link

Last Update @ 12 March 2009

I always hear people saying that they need web 2.0 templates that don’t look like a blog, need a third column etc. Well, Screwdriver proudly looks like a blog! It’s a rather dark and dirty metal design which i prefer (as an old hard rock biker)!

As you can see there are two releases, a widget ready theme for Wordpress and a html template for anyone wanna built a static website full of screws! Screwdriver theme for Wordpress and Screwdriver WB are validated XHTML 1.0 Transitional with CSS level 2.1 and you can check it by clicking the buttons at the top left sidebar box!

• Important Notes

Screwdriver template has a main “disadvantage”, it uses PNG images as a background, which have transparency. IE 7, Firefox, Opera and Safari show the shadows BUT NOT IE 6 which cannot read them correct and it’s replacing the shadows with an ugly color. There are a couple of solutions but either doesn’t work for repeated backgrounds or work but destroy any links over them. That’s why I chose to have a small separate CSS file, which IE 6 reads and replace the PNG’s with GIF’s without the nice shadow effect that background images have. At first I thought that was a pitty but then I though “Hey, we cannot always have IE 6 in mind! enough is enough!”, so I gave IE 6 some GIF’s to make the website readable and that’s all! Here some screenshots for IE6 and other browsers to compare.

Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Opera, Safari

One important thing to have in mind is that Screwdriver theme for Wordpress requires WP-PageNavi plugin to fill the bottom bar after the main content. It has it’s own CSS file inside Screwdriver’s folder already adjusted to match Screwdriver’s colors. DO NOT FORGET to install it!

• Usage – Customization

1. Post area is 460px wide and images max-width is 440px. You can also assign the class=”image” in your image code which makes a 10px white space with a border around the photo but that’s gonna make you limit the max width to 440px so you choose (like the screenshots above).
2. You can now use the new WP 2.6.X caption which also makes a 10px white space around the image and above it the description you want.
3. Each widget/box is 200px wide. Putting small pics or ads is great but I advise you to limit the max width to 180px to leave a space around them (as i do).
4. There ‘s also a small search bar if you choose to enable the default search widget.
5. How about changing the background? I have a second image for testing. Open style.css, find the line: background: #333333 url(‘images/iron.jpg’); and change iron.jpg to wood.jpg and then check your site with a wooden background. Not a very clear image but you will notice the difference. Find one of your own, upload it to images folder and just change the name in style.css!
6. There is also space on the left top place in the header and there’s where you are gonna put your LOGO image. Make an image about 220px X 80px (transparent GIF would be great) and upload it in your image folder. Then open header.php and replace the logo.png inside the DIV class=”logo” with the name of your own image!
7. I have also include a screw.png in images folder which is used for blockquotes but you can use it use it in your posts too. Get it, rotate it and save it again with different names and use lots of screws!
8. One more thing you could do is add a bar at the top of the main content like the one I have in static demo website. Open index.php and write the following code right after div id=”content”. Do the same for single.php and/or page.php if u want it there too replacing with links and text of your own.

For those that wanna dive in photoshop and make deeper changes, just ask and I will provide you the source PSD template to play with and make better screws!

• Changelog

v1.7: A fix for paged comments link
v1.6: Added PAGED comments (not threaded) and new functions for WP 2.7.X.
v1.5: Fix for WordPress repository.
v1.4: Fixes for closed comments image caption.
v1.3: Fix for native avatars WP2.6
v1.2: Security fix in searchform.
v1.1: Small bug fixed for password protected pages/posts.
v1.0: First release.

• Licence

Screwdriver is released under General Public License and that means you can use it wherever you like and the way you want for free BUT you CANNOT claim it as your own. I would also be happy if you keep the footer with a link back but that’s not necessary, do as you like.

• Credits

Credits go to Photoshopcafe which helped me design a simple screw with it’s great tutorial and to Texto which made a precious article about designing your own WordPress theme. Hey, thx guys!