+50 WordPress Theme Options – What would you like?

I got asked to help someone find a decent theme for their site and it got me thinking of exactly what someone would need. I know there are many themes on the net, be it premium or free. I must say that most of the premium themes have loads of options available to the user, but I guess it ultimately depends on the users capabilities.

Now days theme developers are developing free themes which have all the options a premium theme would have and I thank them for that. It creates a sense of premium theme developers need to offer more.

Would the user want all options to be in the admin panel or would they be able to edit php/html files from their server. That’s one of the reasons why the user needs to know their own capabilities.

I know many of us started out as newbies and have learned how to add code to php/html files, but if you don’t know how then it could be dangerous. You could end messing up the theme and then revert back to the original code.

I have tried to list a couple of features that I like and recommend, some might already be on your site and others not. I know there are many plug-in’s that can do these options/features, but would it not be nice if you had a theme which covers a lot of what I have listed.

If you had a theme that would cover around 50-70% of the list below, I presume your life would be easier. Please note that I could be wrong and that this is just my opinion.

Features/Options:

1. Must be tested on latest WordPress version (this is a must)
2. 2/3 columns – adjustable from admin options
3. Thumbnail images with posts
4. Fixed/Variable width
5. Widget ready (sidebar/footer)
6. Gravatar ready
7. Adsense ready
8. Horizontal/Vertical Category Navigation
9. Threaded Comments
10. Trackbacks separated from comments
11. Feedburner Email subscription integrated
12. Options Page to edit the Feedburner ID, Featured Video, Google, etc
13. Cross browser compatible with IE, FF, Opera, Flock & Safari, etc
14. Be able to change site logo and other standard site graphics
15. Valid CSS and XHTML
16. Different theme colors (color switcher)
17. Support Ajax/jQuery
18. SEO Optimized
19. Theme support from developer (Very Important)
20. Featured Content Gallery section
21. Featured video section
22. Most Popular Posts on Sidebar
23. Random Posts on Homepage
24. Flickr RSS and images
25. Horizontal/Vertical Menu Navigation
26. Recent Posts on inner pages
27. Ability to add author signatures and profiles
28. Add total comments by either author name/URL or email address
29. Different kind of templates with sidebars and/or no sidebars
30. Rotating ads functionality with stats and link cloaker
31. Contact form, Links & Sitemap customizable templates
32. eShop functionality – be able to sell products or downloads
33. Social Bookmarks integrated
34. Photo Gallery integrated
35. Twitter integrated
36. Top notch site security
37. RSS for posts & comments
38. User defined excerpts (have a few options)
39. Functionality to change Login/Register page (background and logo)
40. Post rating functionality
41. Track and display post visits
42. Printer friendly posts and pages with print icon
43. Database backup and optimizing integrated
44. Syntax highlighter
45. Post and page dictionary integrated
46. Support mobile surfing & admin interfaces
47. Integrate article & classified directories
48. Support electronic downloads & keep stats
49. Polls integrated
50. Autoresponder – backend
51. Auto-thumbnailing – sizes set in options panel
52. Language Translator
53. Event & Calendar planner
54. DoFollow and NoFollow capability
55. FAQ with categories and sub-categories with rating feature

Conclusion:

I know there are a lot more options/features available and I’m sure you will let me know. Leave a comment about an option/feature you would like to see on the list and I will add it.

Tagged as: developers, features, theme, theme developers, theme options, Wordpress, wp theme

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Author Information

Article by George Serradinho

I am the proud owner of Serradinho and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress and the internet in general. I also love meeting and helping others and learning new techniques.