A “Theme Options” page is designed to give control over how a theme looks and functions, solely by setting options in the WordPress dashboard. The user then has no need to edit the core theme files.
Theme Options have become a standard feature in premium WordPress themes (And some free ones too!), and aren’t that complicated to set up.
This post is a roundup of how Theme Options have progressed so far showing you what the advantages are, some resources for creating your own, and a collection of premium themes offering options pages so you can see what’s out there.
And at the end of the post, there’s a competition to win a free PSD to WordPress coding, with a theme options page included! Courtesy of Design to WP, thanks guys!
Advantages of Theme Options
The advantages are quite simple:
- No technical knowledge required – Users can swap between 2 and 3 columns without understanding a single line of HTML or CSS.
- Theme upgrades possible – The theme files are not edited by the user, so the theme can then be upgraded with new features later without losing any of the customizations made by the user (As they are stored in the database).
- User-friendly – Even for users who know their way around a theme, the ease-of-use of just flicking a switch in an options page is far more appealing than editing source code.
- For theme sellers only: Competitive advantage – In terms of premium themes, an options page is now required. Users expect them and your competitors have them, so you can’t not.
Creating Your Own Theme Options Page
Alex Denning from Nometech has put together a series of very detailed posts walking you through creating an options page for a theme. Check them out here:
In Part 3, he shares some screenshots of options pages in free WordPress themes.
Over on WeFunction, there is a great guide to adding options to the Write Post page.
Theme Forest have also put together a tutorial for creating an options page.
Lastly, if you’re stuck for ideas on what to put into your page, Blogsessive have looked around and listed what they found were the most popular features in a theme’s options.
Options Pages from Premium Themes
A lot of themes don’t have screenshots of their Options pages, but this is a collection of the ones I could find. It should help give you some ideas for what you could do with your next theme, or even what options are out there as a customer!
NB – No affiliate links here, it’s just for inspiration. And no company has been listed more than once.
Groovy by NattyWP
Suit and Tie by WooThemes
Arthemia by Color Labs Project
Studio Blue by Elegant Themes
WP Unlimited also seems to have a great set of options, but I couldn’t find any decent screenshots for it. Still worth a look though!
Videos of Theme Options in Use
Press75 have a video of the options page on their “Massive News” theme here.
Thesis have videos of their options page, design options and in-post options.
Win a Free PSD to WordPress Coding, with Theme Options!
Design to WordPress are offering one reader here a free PSD to WordPress conversion, with their control panel included.
To be in with a chance to win, just reply to this post with a comment answering the following question:
What feature would you like most in a theme options page?
I’ll pick a random winner from everyone who enters in 10 days time!
Good luck to everyone who enters!
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Alex Denning (17 comments)18 June 09
Cheers for linking to my posts Michael, much appreciated.
If I can just add something about part three, the idea was/is you can take the options pages in free themes, fiddle about with them, learn how they work and then implement them into your brilliant own theme.
What would I like to see in an options page? Options to change colours. It’s super easy to do (as the Nometech post explains), but very few people do it.
.-= Alex Denning´s last blog ..Getting Started With WPMU and BuddyPress – Part 2: Installing BuddyPress =-.
Hussain M Elius (3 comments)18 June 09
Thumbnails! Showing thumbnails in category pages is imho, a must.
.-= Hussain M Elius´s last blog ..My first experience in going viral =-.
Mike Smith (7 comments)18 June 09
awesome post here. I love the screenshots as well.
I like having the option to see the ads in the options panel as soon as you put the image url in to make sure it’s working properly.
I also love having the ability to check boxes to turn on/off specific features.
Oh, and changing the logo image is really nice as well.
.-= Mike Smith´s last blog ..Wordpress Wednesday: The Trilogy =-.
Justin Tadlock (1 comments)19 June 09
How one goes about developing an options page depends on what should be accomplished with the theme. My biggest theme, Hybrid, adds no design elements to the options page (or at least nothing that would hinder design). All of its settings are solely based on content and adding things that aren’t easy to get to.
Design and layout elements would be a horrible idea for this theme because it’s a framework. It’s meant to be built on top of through plugins/child themes.
I’d like to see more widget areas and custom widgets rather than options pages. It’s easier for users to move widgets around into different places than it is to work with predefined areas and options. Many times, the options page limits what a user can do rather than enhance that ability. It works against the system instead of with it. Widgets give users a wider range of scenarios.
.-= Justin Tadlock´s last blog ..Series: WordPress Plugin =-.
Jay (2 comments)19 June 09
Uh, there’s a lot of things here could be nice to have on a options page. Change of some CSS stuff and so on, but one there would be really nice to have is the option to upload a new logo.
Online Printing (9 comments)20 June 09
Wow, I didn’t know that it’s really easy to change themes in Wordpress. Thanks for sharing these, man. Have a great day.
SE7EN (2 comments)20 June 09
- Layout (like FlexxTheme from ithemes)
- each column width
- Logo/header image
about changing colors, this plugin is useful http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....reenshots/
Wiehanne (1 comments)23 June 09
Like the ability of changing header image and easily insert adsense code.
Padd Solutions (1 comments)24 June 09
We are building a lot of free themes with Options page on it also. Changing a logo easily would be a nifty feature.
Michael Martin (1316 comments)28 June 09
Thanks everyone for entering, you’ve all had lots of great ideas!
The winner of the competition is Mike Smith. Seeing the ads instantly so you can catch on to any mistakes is a great feature!
I’ll be in contact about your prize!
Thanks again everyone, more competitions soon!
Mike Smith (7 comments)29 June 09
Thank you Michael. I appreciate winning a LOT.
.-= Mike Smith´s last blog ..BTM is rebranding as GUERRILLA (very soon) =-.
Haris (3 comments)30 June 09
Congratulations to the winner. I’ll be in contact with him.
Emil (1 comments)24 December 09
This is just great, I can’t really decide which one is the most advanced. Great job and terrific option to reduce number of plugins.
Thanks,
Emil
sadri (1 comments)3 March 10
Thanks for the tutorial.