Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

Artisteer 2.4 (beta now its Artisteer RC 2.4.0.25435)  just became available.  The new version (in beta out of Beta in full release still) supports two major feature advances:

Vertical Menus for WordPress or other CMS systems like Drupal, Joomla etc

You can essentially run two menu systems with Artisteer now (at first glance).

In the image example above within the Artisteer design environment I have the option of both a horizontal menu and a (new) vertical menu. 

No idea yet how that will be managed in WordPress as I haven’t exported one of these puppies yet, but that’s coming up next!

Category Driven Menus

Update – I just heard through the forums that not only have vertical menus been added, but now category driven menus are possible.  There appear to be binary options for this.

• You can either have a Category based menu OR a Page based menu in the Horizontal menu or in the Vertical Menu.
• You can have a category in the horizontal and a Page based in the vertical or vice versa.
• You can NOT have a category AND a Page based menu in the vertical at the same time.
• You can NOT have a category AND a Page based menu in the horizontal at the same time.

All that said, this is just the post export (standard) options.  There are probably some easy ways to hack some additional combinations into a theme after the fact

Flash Header Support for WordPress Theme Design

There is also flash headers support for WordPress themes now.  I can add some very basic animation templates that Artisteer includes with the software, or if I have an .flv file I can import it into the theme header.

I’ve tried building flash banners using Camtasia to create .flv files that I then import into Artisteer 2.4, which worked very well!

Changing a Template from one System to Another (Ergo WordPress Theme to Blogger or Drupal)

Here’s a nice cool upgrade option.  If you have designed yourself a nice little template in say WordPress and you want to use the same exact design in Drupal or Blogger or Joomla or DotNetNuke or just an HTML page (for like a WP page template with modifications!) you can now do this with a click of the mouse (ok 2-3 clicks).

After you have the design you like, just change template type.  Then save file as something else if you don’t want to lose your original theme/template etc and you are off to the races. 

If you have a website powered by WordPress and you have a blog powered by Blogger, you could then easily cobrand the sites to look very similar as one working example.  Gonna have to ruminate on some additional practical applications.

Extending Free Upgrade License

For just over a year now, I have received free upgrades to Artisteer.  That’s part of the license.  Buy Artisteer and you get free upgrades for a year.  When I first picked up Artisteer in November of 2008, they were just moving to beta version 0.8 I believe.  1.6 versions later or from my perspective about 20 improvements, updates and upgrades later, it was now time for me to update my license.

For $59.95 I purchased another year of Artisteer upgrades, and now I’m cranking through the possibilities with 2.4.

In case you are wondering, it only took moments for my order to process and my old license became good for upgrades all over again.  There is a huge amount of value in this program, but every time I download another free upgrade (yeah I paid for it, but most software companies don’t give away free upgrades at all), it feels great and puts a smile on my face.  In total, I’ve invested just short of $200 in this software over the course of about 15 months, and I have earned a return on that investment of about 100x. 

You can check your own
upgrade subscription status here.

Artisteer Discount Code/Link

If you would like to get a 5% discount on a new Artisteer license (home/education or standard) feel free to use my referral link http://www.artisteer.com/?p=brett

UPDATE Artisteer 2.4 beta was updated to Beta 2 in Mid March and then to Release Candidate on 3-22., the items below detail bugs I found with Beta 1 and shared with the team that went into improvements in Artisteer Beta 2 and ultimately the full release out of Beta.

The following bugs are gone. 

Artisteer 2.4 Beta bugs I’ve identified so far Update And Work arounds to design a WordPress theme successfully

Note this is still just a beta, the rc should be available soon.  The beta has a lot more customization options if you have the full standard version of Artisteer.

I did encounter a few issues.

1. I opened a previously existing theme file and the 2.4 beta version added textures (where none previously existed) to the Sidebar header blocks and to the menu bar and menu buttons.  UPDATE 2-10 – This has been reported to Artisteer, they have been able to recreate this issue in this beta version of Artisteer 2.4 and they are working on it!
2. It also changed my sidebar background color, which may not be a bug, but just a guess as I think the ability to customize this might not have been available or at least not to this level of detail before. UPDATE 2-10 – This has been reported to Artisteer, they have been able to recreate this issue in this beta version of Artisteer 2.4 and they are working on it!
3. It also took sidebar icons and moved them to the far left of the block, and I do not have an option to adjust any offset now. (there is an offset option between the icon and the text, but not between the icon and the left side of the bar.
   1. 
   2. Update 2-10 – After speaking with Artisteer, they indicated a method for fixing/adjusting these settings.  I will mention that from a usability perspective this is not as intuitive as most areas of Artisteer and I have suggest they reconsider menu navigation slightly.  Regardless to make this adjustment (ergo to move the icon further over) . . .
   3. Go to Sidebar Select Header-> Hover over Text (not Icon) – then Click Font Options
   4. 
   5. Now go to the paragraph tag, and identify the number of pixels in the left indentation, this will move the icon and the text to the right of it over by however many pixels you select
   6. 
   7. Hit OK and you are done. 
4. Separately, I see a new bug that was partially buggy in 2.3, but not terribly noticeable.  Its now partially fixed, but more noticeable than it used to be.  Notice the category drop down box, in the 2.4 beta version on the left it extends outside the div tags of the left sidebar 1.  In artisteer 2.3, it was simply chopped off, so you couldn’t actually see the drop down.  Basically this form option needs to auto size to the appropriate width allowed by the css file for the sidebar in question.  UPDATE 2-10– This has been reported to Artisteer, they are looking into this issue, which in many ways is an issue driven by WordPress functionality.  They are contemplating some work arounds in Artisteer that will help correct the WordPress display functionality until better WordPress logic comes to exist.
5. 

If you notice any other bugs with this or other versions of Artisteer in beta or not, let me know with a comment or contact Artisteer directly.  They are very responsive to bug reports and getting them fixed in future upgrades! 

This month Softduit Media has established a new (additional) office in Charlotte, North Carolina with Lightbulb Coworking, a new coworking establishment in Charlotte bringing designers, artists, entrepreneurs, web specialists, programmers and more together under one roof.

Lightbulb is a collaborative coworking office that provides creatives, freelancers, small business owners and other non-traditional users access to the comforts and amenities of a modern office without the cost, overhead and commitment typically associated with a space of their own.

Our new office space is located at

1430 South Mint St
Suite 103
Charlotte, NC 28293

View Larger Map

In addition, to engaging clients and conducting business at this new location, we will also be utilizing this location for some of our meetings and training events surrounding WordPress and WordPress Theme Design.  For small meetings this location can comfortably seat 10-15 people in a conference room setting, or for larger events up to 50 people in an open atmosphere.

Softduit currently has offices in Lawrenceville, GA northeast of Atlanta and Belmont, NC just across the river from Charlotte.  We are also looking for additional locations in Savannah, Ga, offices in the Midwest.  Softduit Media also has a partnership with New Media Creative serving the West Coast via Las Vegas.

If you are stopping by recently, you may have noticed that we have a new theme here at Softduit. After our adventures cleaning out the hackers, we decided it was past due for a new look and feel here. This like all of our themes for ourselves is a step in that direction. We’re applying some new tricks and more efficient tools of the trade and we have more components to add soon. Plus, we’re going to show you how we did it with a new series of wordpress theme design tutorials under our Labs on the Lake series.

I’ve been waiting for this for almost two months, its the latest product update from Artisteer.  Artisteer now has the ability to create Blogger Templates for people that don’t have any design or coding experience.

Its very very handy for people that do have design and coding experience too, Saves a significant amount of time!

I found out about the latest update when I logged into my 2.0 version of Artisteer and was greeted with this quick pop up message which prompted me to download the latest update.  I get free updates as part of my original purchase of the software.  Or I should say, everyone gets free updates for a year after you purchase this software.
I originally tried a free trial of the software about 11 months ago, after witnessing what it could do to generate WordPress themes in minutes.

It took me about 30 minutes working with the software to realize that it saved me weeks and months of coding effort, and was far cheaper than any other WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Blogger theme or template design add-ons I’d ever seen, plus this covered them all!

Fast forward 10 months later, and I now not only know how to design and generate WordPress themes with Artisteer, but I’ve been able to fast track into advanced theme design as well.

With the addition of Blogger Templates to the software, I think a large number of bloggers are going to be able to also hop on the fast track.  I can envision a day where no one uses those old nasty standard Blogger templates any more.  I can see a day, where they don’t have to buy or download flaky templates full of advertising links either.

They can quickly and easily make their own templates.

Quickly make blogger templates

Or customize images on top of the header

Add your own header backgrounds

Change the actual site background rapidly

Use transparent (above) or non transparent blog areas on your site (below)

Setup drop down menu capabilities!

Customize your Blogger Footer with a push of the button

How’s it Work?

1. Download the free trial first and see if you like the software.
2. If you like it, buy the version that works for you
3. If you only want to build themes for 1 site, then the $49.95 Home / academic version
4. If you want to build themes for more than 1 site, get the standard edition for $129.95
5. (I have the Standard Edition and it is an amazing bargain compared to other web design programs I have purchased, plus you get a year of free upgrades!)

For a super cheap price

To promote better blogging, Softduit Media is sponsoring a Word Press theme design contest. 

Never designed a WordPress theme before, don’t know how to code?    No Problem. 

All you have to do is go to Artisteer and follow their link to download a free trial through cnet.  Their software can turn you into a WordPress theme designer in minutes(literally).  Just select your layout options, hit the export button and a full WordPress theme that has valid CSS and XHTML code is generated in seconds!

The trial version does generate themes with water marks on them, so you won’t be able to use this theme on your site unless you buy the theme, but you can provide that trial theme to us to enter our contest and win a Home & Academic License of the software for free!

Steps

1. Go to Artisteer & follow the instructions to download the free trial via Cnet

2.  Install the free trial software (works on PCs or Macs) & generate your theme in a zipped folder.

3.  Save your working Artisteer file as a .artx file

4.  Email me your zipped theme and your .artx file attached (should be less than .5 mb) to brettbum@gmail.com

note this is the weakest link of the contest, please make sure you receive a response from me confirming that I successfully received your theme, if you want to use a service like YouSendIt.com that’s cool too!

Email Requirements: 

1. Your email should include the title WordPress Theme Contest Entry in the Subject,
2. it should include your email address, twitter address, first name and initial of your last name. 
3. If you have a blog or website, please include a link to your URL. 
4. I will be posting examples of the themes submitted in the contest in a live preview section of Softduit.  This entry will include your first name and last initial. along with a link to your website & your twitter id

Contest Judging & Multiple ways to get Contest Entries

• Through the contest, I will judge the best looking themes (ignoring the watermark). 
• The top 5 best looking themes will each get 20 entries into the contest. 
• Everyone that submits a theme will get 1 entry per theme for a max of 10 themes or 10 entries.
• To gain an additional entry each day please follow me @brettbum and retweet the following without the quotes “ Pls RT @brettbum is sponsoring a WordPress theme design contest at http://softduit.com “
• You may shorten the URL if you like
• Before the contest ends, I may add additional ways for people to enter so check back to see how things are progressing!

The winner will be chosen on September 3rd.

Bonus IzeaFest Entries for submitting

For each theme submitted for this contest, you will also receive 100 entries into my Izeafest contest on the personal blog of Brett Bumeter at There’s Something About Harry.  IzeaFest is a four day conference in SeaWorld this year in Orlando Florida.  You can also enter the IzeaFest ticket contest to gain additional entries by visiting the rules on There’s Something About Harry.

This IzeaFest ticket is worth over $229! and includes a pass into SeaWorld on Sunday the last day of the conference.  (Conference actually at SeaWorld)

Things that can get you disqualified

• Themes not generated by Artisteer will be disqualified.  Themes copied from someone else will be disqualified as well.  If I suspect you are cheating in some way or if my anti-virus software detects something evil in your zipped file, I with hold the right to disqualify your entries.