Blog Tipz

Through the Lens is the first multimedia theme from Obox Design, featuring a number of professional elements and features built into the theme. Focusing on compatibility, it is ready for the latest version of WordPress, taking advantage of the latest features integrated into the core system.

Now, you might be asking who this theme is ideal for. Anyone who wants to publish multiple forms of content to their site, such as videos, images, and text, can do so in a simple and straightforward manner. Anyone using this theme can create their own portfolio, CSS/Flash gallery, normal/traditional blog, or a photography site within a matter of minutes.

Overall Look – The Homepage

On the homepage of the theme, you’ll find an extremely clean, advanced template, built with modern website trends in mind. There is an area for a logo (although it is non-traditional, in a circle), as well as an area for placing links to your featured posts or categories.

A “welcome” messages is displayed at the top of the theme, introducing your new visitors to your site, allowing them to quickly get an idea of what your site offers that they should be looking for. Beneath this. posts are displayed in a gallery format, complete with post titles and brief excerpts.

Messages can be displayed in-between the categories if you choose, ideal for showcasing your trips and vacations, or for briefly informing your visitors why you chose to highlight a particular category. In the upper right corner of each of these category areas, you’ll find a button to toggle between a full image or the thumbnails, and this is great for visitors who want to see a full image without going to the individual post page.

The main/larger images are displayed with more information beneath the post, and a “Next” link/button appears to the right, indicating to your readers that they can scroll through your other posts.

Finally, the footer of the theme features an area for advertisements (125×125 banner ads, in this case), as well as additional room for links and information through the three-column footer.

Moving On – Single Posts

Clicking on any of the images is like taking you to a new blog post. Each image gets its own gallery feature, displaying the main image in an attractive manner to the right of a content area. This content area is ideal for explaining what is in the image and what experiences you may have had while taking hte picture(s).

Beneath the large portrait or image, a set of additional images that are a part of the set or related to the main image are displayed, making the theme ideal for photographers and designers who create sets of images from trips or elsewhere.

Comments

Comments are a big part of sites. You need them to be fully functional, or it detracts from the value of your site. Visitors want to be able to access your site, find a piece of content they like, consume it, and leave a response quickly. This theme does that and so much more.

Through the Lens integrates threaded comments, along with Gravatars, to help showcase the ideas of your readers. The comments form is large and spacious, making it easy to find and easy to submit a comment.

HTML/CSS Elements

HTML elements, which have been styled within the back-end of the theme using CSS, are an important part of most sites. They ensure that all your content is consistent and search engine optimized. For example, in order to create the separate headings within this post, I used the H3 tag, making it easier to read and follow. Italics, bold text, and bullet lists are also styled in a similar manner.

This theme contains these elements, making it easy for your readers to understand and follow a structured format to your content.

Back-end Options

Called “OCMX-Live,” the back-end options and customization panel offered by Obox Design is complete, but not crowded, offering the useful features bloggers need. Through this, you can easily configure advertisements, gallery, and comment management, and it gives you unprecedented control over the look and orientation of your theme.

Comment Control – Allow visitors and commentors to subscribe to your comment feeds. You will be able to view the comments and further contact them, block the readers and commenters that are causing problems, and further leverage control over your blog.

Analytics Integration – Most analytics services, including Google Analytics, must be hard-coded into the footer of a theme by using a manual method. No longer do you have to do that with this theme – simply insert the code n an area titled “Site Analytics” and you’re all set and ready to go.

Custom Logo Changing – Changing the logo to your own custom variation is extremely easy. No longer do you have to re-code elements of your theme to make everything look correct.

Control Your Menus – Menus are sometimes a pain to edit, especially those that are generated automatically. With this theme, everything is automatic, but you have the options of featuring pages as well as categories into the header of area of the theme.

Create Galleries – Galleries can be created within a matter of seconds. Simply create a slideshow on the site by selecting images and hitting the “create” button.

Advertisement Management – Third-party plugins are often used to manage advertisements, but with this theme, everything has been built into the back-end. Simply configure the number of ads you want to display, the location of the images, external links, and then hit the publish button to place the ads on your site.

Extended Functionality

Although the theme is intended for photographers, simple modifications allow you to use the theme for other purposes, including simple blogging. Latest Twitter messages, Recent Posts, Recent Comments, and Categories have been included by default in the sidebar, although this area is completely customizable.

Check the Theme Out

The theme is affordably priced and has been released under a GPL, starting at $50 for a Single User License and $100 for a Developer License. The only difference between the two licenses is that the Developer Package includes the layered image files for more advanced customization.

Demo This Theme | Purchase

Theme support and updates, as well as access to their support forums, are included.