minimalist Theme
Posted on November 14, 2006 in WordPress by Jeff Starr
The minimalist theme is crisp and clean. Featuring a three-column satellite menu-page to reduce clutter and streamline usability, the minimalist theme is designed to present site content with sophistication and elegance.
The minimalist theme is XHTML 1.1 strict, employs nearly valid CSS (ha!), and features browser-safe colors and universal fonts all delivered via concise, two-column liquid layout.
Mindfully detailed and carefully prepared, the minimalist theme provides plenty of room for customization and expansion.
This theme is offered absolutely free under open source GPL. Instructions are included along with a complete set of files and images. Relatively simple installation.
The minimalist theme has been tested with Mozilla Firefox 1 & 2, Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Netscape 7+, and Opera 8+. Note: minimalist looks best when viewed via Firefox.. ;)
Screenshot of minimalist on Firefox
Live demo of minimalist via Perishable Press »
Download minimalist [ v1.2 | ~26KB | .zip | 3811 downloads ]
Previous Versions
- minimalist v-1.1 [ 1240 downloads ]
Being a minimalist, it took forever to find a suitable minimal wordpress theme. Thanks for creating it and even more for making it available! Very nice work :)
Thank you kindly, Nick — I am glad that you are enjoying life as a minimalist!
– Cheers!
Perishable
Hey there, I posted a comment some time ago thanking you for the theme but hadn’t really implemented until now with the latest version.
I had an issue with navigation.php and thought I’d give you the info. I’m hosted by DreamHost, Php 5.1.2, Extra Web Security enabled.
After creating the navigation page, using navigation.php as the template, I received this error:
Warning: require_once() [function.require-once]:URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in/home/user/website/wp-content/themes/minimalist/navigation.phpon line 6I removed this line:
<
?php require_once(get_settings('siteurl') . "/wp-blog-header.php"); ?>Changing it to:
<
?php require('./wp-blog-header.php'); ?>Which I found in the WP index.php code. This worked :) Thought you’d consider implementing it in an update, and submit it to the WordPress theme listing, it’s much better than the other ‘minimal’ templates there.
Cheers,
Nick
Nick,
Thank you for this information. I will stash this tip with the minimalist theme files and consult it during the next update. It is greatly appreciated! I am also glad you not only tried the min theme, but were successful with it and even enjoy it. You just made my day!
I have considered adding the minimalist theme to the WP-theme pile, but somehow just couldn’t bring myself to do it.. I need to figure out a sure-fire way of getting that crazy navigation page to behave when uploaded to the theme listings.. Perhaps your encouragement will inspire me to finally look into it!
Thanks again,
Jeff
Hi,
I’m right now working on a website using your Theme.
It all seams to work fine, but the navigation-page just shows the heading.
I tried using navigation.php as a pagetemplate, but this doesn’t work at all. Only a blank page is shown then.
I use the latest version of wordpress.
Any Ideas? Or do I have to build the page on myself?
GPSchnyder
Did the changing as mentioned by #3.
Didn’t get the error, but the changing worked.
GPSchnyder
Excellent! Hopefully everything is working as intended. If not, let me know, I am more than happy to assist with my WordPress themes! ;)
Is this 2.5.1 compatible? I wanna make use of this one, I hate the “effort costing” blogging and would make things simple from now on.
Hi Kevin,
Yes, I think the minimalist theme will work fine with WordPress 2.5+. I haven’t tested it yet, but as you can see, the theme is actually quite simple and doesn’t rely on any fancy tricks to function properly. If you hit a snag, let me know and I will do my best to resolve the issue.
Perishable..
Excellent theme! I am admired the simplicity, you have made a complex theme, very simple. I call that art.
I am using it now and have issues with the navigation page. http://sparkshouse.com/wpress/?page_id=241 The issues is it is blank and I am not sure how to populated with all the good things you have on yours like recent posts, categories, comments, meta and extra pages.
Do I have to hand code these on the navigation page or do I have a problem with my configuration.
Again thanks for your efforts and any help you can give.
..Tom
Hi Tom here again, I read the comments above and made the change recommended by Nick and this solved my problem. The nav page now has the missing content.
Thnx for the cool theme. Minimal is cool.
Thanks for using the minimalist theme, Tom — I am glad that you got it working correctly. Sorry for any confusion in the installation instructions; let me know if I may be of any assistance in the future.
Cheers,
Jeff
I love the minimalist theme! But for some reason, I can’t make it work with the Tantan’s Flickr Album and Lightbox. Weird. Can you help me?
Hi Nino, unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t give me enough time to troubleshoot third-party plugins. As far as I know, both Lightbox and the Flickr plugin should work fine with the minimalist theme, assuming everything has been configured properly. The theme uses standard WordPress/PHP code and standards-based CSS and XHTML markup, so there is nothing out of the ordinary (that I know of) that would interfere with either application. Lightbox, in particular, is simply JavaScript that functions independently, requiring only the inclusion of the script and the proper
relattributes. Perhaps double-check that the file path(s) for the scripts are correct..?Great theme design! Thanks for making this theme available.
Awesome, chuck — it looks like you are putting it to good use! Thanks for keeping the credit link intact in the footer — much appreciated.
Cheers,
Jeff
AMAZING theme. I love it so so so so so much. It was exactly what I needed!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!
My pleasure, Jeremy :)
I really like this theme!!!
I really like this theme too!!
Would you tell me how to activate or use a three-column satellite menu-page?
@hi-ro: I’m pretty sure there are installation instructions included in the download zip file, but if not, let me know and I’ll whip something up.
Hi Jeff,
I really like this theme, I’ve been using it for a couple of years, so when I read about how to update Wordpress to HTML5 on Smashing Magazine, I updated the minimalist theme myself. I changed the comment form a little, but other than that it’s the same. I posted it at: http://chuckmcquilkin.com/wordpress/2011/03/21/html-minimalist/ I’d appreciate any feedback you might have.
Thanks!
Hey Chuck, the HTML5 version looks great. It’s great to see minimalist updated with something new, and HTML5 even! Pretty sweet, man – Thanks for sharing!