Office Revolution

I’d like to think that you’ve noticed some significant changes here at RedHaven-IS.com. That is because the site is now using a new theme. The previous version of the site was using Brian Gardner’s original Revolution theme, but I’ve since decided another revolution was in order. This time I went with the Jason Schuller designed “Revolution Office“.

Anyone who follows the WordPress community should be familiar with the recent development that Brian and Jason have teamed up and started creating GPL’d themes. They’ve set up shop over at RevolutionTwo.com and they already have a stunning collection of WP themes available. For the new Red Haven web site, I decided a little “Out with the old, in with the new” might be in order and grabbed a copy of the Office theme.

I’ve made a number of minor modifications, mostly in the color scheme and stylesheet, but I also had to clean up a couple of bugs here and there. There wasn’t anything really serious, just a couple of width and height issues I needed to adjust. There was also a bit of a learning curve on getting images to look just right and figuring out a good taxonomy for categories. The navigation menu above the showcase is completely driven off of categories and that required I change the way I normally use categories some.

Overall, I’m very happy with the theme and eternally grateful to Brian and Jason for the fundamental change to their operating model for quality WordPress themes.

1. dprinz says:

   November 13, 2008 at 12:29 am

   i’m having problems making images show on the carousel using Office Revolution.
2. dfarland says:

   November 13, 2008 at 11:55 am

   Easy fix,

   1. Create a new image with the dimensions of 310×240 or larger multiple of that.
   2. Upload the file to your server. I recommend using the default WP function.
   3. Copy the URL for the full size image.
   4. Create a new “Custom Field” with a key of ‘thumbnail’.
   5. Paste the URL for the full size image in the value field.
   6. Verify the post is categorized in the group you chose for your carousel.
   7. Sign-up for support with Brian and Jason. (Although I haven’t done that myself yet.)
3. Lee says:

   November 25, 2008 at 5:56 pm

   I’ve been playing around with the Revolution Office theme, just trying to figure it out before I apply it to anything. I think you did a great job.

   Something I’ve been trying to figure out is the images on the category archive page that correlates to the category that features the images on the “carousel.” It’s http://redhaven-is.com/category/showcase/ on your site.

   Can you think of a way to make it so those thumbnail images aren’t smushed? I know it’s fitting a 310×240 image into a 133×133 area.

   Let me know if this makes sense. Again, great job on your site.
4. Lee says:

   November 25, 2008 at 5:59 pm

   Ah, just read your “I want to help, really I do” post. And thus I retract my original query. Completely understand and actually commend you for it!
5. dfarland says:

   November 25, 2008 at 6:16 pm

   I’ll respond anyway, kind of. I haven’t found a “fix” per se, because I haven’t really tried yet. That being said, I have a pretty good idea on two methods to fix the problem.

   1. Change the dimensions for the image in the CSS file and then proceed to fix the various other alignments that get screwed up by that one simple change.

   2. Create a new “Custom Field” specifically for that image and make my own thumbnails for that specific image.

   When I do address this issue, I’ll probably go for door #2 as it would be the more elegant solution. That being said, I may just pick up support and see what nifty little fixes are hidden away in those support forums.
6. Lee says:

   November 25, 2008 at 8:48 pm

   AH HA! Yes, number two seems so obvious. I updated the “category” and “home” files of the template by changing the necessarily “thumbnail” tags to “thumbnail2,” then assigned the custom code in the post to “thumbnail2.” Again, seems so obvious, but sometimes it takes a great mind to lead the way.

   Thanks for your support and yes, I think I too will pay for the support and see what crazy things they’ve come up with. To tell you the truth, besides your site and a couple others, I haven’t been too impressed with what people have done with the new Revolution themes. I guess it’s still in its infancy stage. We’ll see…
7. Len McGrane says:

   November 26, 2008 at 12:51 am

   Nice site. Like you, I’m also an owner of several Rev01 themes and am considering using Rev02 Office for a client. BUT this client’s site will be almost all PAGES. Can I easily switch things around in Rev02 Office so that where the home page currently has posts highlighted down the bottom I could put images and links to PAGES down there?

   Thanks,
   Len
8. dfarland says:

   November 26, 2008 at 9:10 am

   You could try it easy enough but ask yourself, what is the difference between a post and a page? I found it odd that Jason made the theme so post centric, but then it occured to me that it doesn’t really matter. For this site, I just created a post for a page.

   You could always create a new page template without comments or a sidebar for those special posts/pages. If you’re going that route, I strongly recommend you pick up the support and get help from Jason.
9. Len McGrane says:

   November 26, 2008 at 4:20 pm

   Thanks!
10. Evil Science says:

    December 17, 2008 at 8:11 am

    Thanks for this thumbnail size thingy :D
11. 3sixteenweb says:

    December 24, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    The site looks great…this is exactly what I wanted to do to my office theme as well same colors and all! I’m just starting out with modifying and it’s a huge learning curve for me, maybe not so much for others. Right now I’ve been changing colors, save, check, change, save. You get the picture. Keep up the good work.
12. Paul says:

    March 11, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    hi
    does anyone know how to increase the number of images you can feature on the carousel? – I’d like to feature more than 6
    cheers
    Paul