As I mentioned here, I’m going through all the WordPress.com themes one-by-one and evaluating them. This time the contenders are Pressrow, Andreas04, Andreas09, and Connections. All of the themes have issues with page order display. This is a bug with most of the themes on WordPress.com.
- Pressrow
- Pros: Custom image header support, top nav bar, page template support.
- Cons: Fixed width, is missing edit post links, has issues with sidebar display.
- Andreas04
- Pros: Full width, 2 sidebars, top nav bar, “about” page displays in sidebar.
- Cons: Sidebar list items aren’t distinct.
- Andreas09
- Pros: Full width, colour themes, page template support, 2 sidebars, top nav bar, images have margins and borders.
- Cons: Sidebar list items aren’t distinct, “number of” displays on a separate line.
- Connections
- Pros: Custom image header support, top nav bar, images have margins.
- Cons: Fixed width, fixed font size (instead of percentage), sidebar doesn’t display in single post view, sidebar text wrapping issues, link colour is very close to text colour.
The winner of this round is Andreas09.
After the break, a table that compares the theme features and lists their bugs.
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Hover your mouse over the question mark (?) to see an extended explanation of what that category means.
Themes were only tested with the latest version of Firefox. Internet Explorer 6 has too many CSS bugs to use it for checking. For example, with Internet Explorer if you have a word or image in the sidebar that is too wide, the sidebar will break.
| Theme | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Theme background (?) | white | gray | white | white |
| Theme text (?) | black | black | black | black |
| Theme link text (?) | black underline | blue, bold | cyan | crimson |
| Links are very distinct from text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Links are NOT very similar to text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Visited links are different colour (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Visited links blend to text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Theme accents (?) | gray, black | gray, orange | gray, cyan | green |
| Theme image (?) | none | none | none | none |
| Major features | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Screenshot (?) | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot |
| Layout width (?) | Fixed (770px) | Flexible (min 800px) | Flexible (min 780px) | Fixed (740px) |
| Custom image header (?) | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Number of sidebars (?) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Widget support (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page templates (?) | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Categories link to wordpress.com (?) | ||||
| Resolution | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| 640×480 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 800×600 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 1024×768 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 1280×1024 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Header | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Blog name (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blog tagline (?) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom image header (?) | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Top navbar support (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Navbar works with too many pages (?) | ||||
| Navbar has a Home button (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Footer | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Powered by WordPress (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Logout (?) | No | No | No | No |
| Jump back to Top (?) | No | No | No | No |
| Entries RSS (?) | No | No | No | No |
| Comments RSS (?) | No | No | No | No |
| Link to XFN.org (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Does not display happy face (?) | ||||
| Main Page | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Max image width (?) | 540px | Screen | Screen | 510px |
| Wide images behaviour (?) | Chop | Run over sidebar | Chop | Chop |
| Font typeface (?) | Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif | tahoma,verdana,sans-serif | Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif | Trebuchet MS’,Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, sans-serif |
| Font size (?) | 0.625 | 0.76 | 0.76 | 0.9em |
| Post titles capitalization (?) | as typed | as typed | as typed | as typed |
| Next / prev page (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit post (?) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dates above/below (?) | above post | below post | above post | above post |
| Displays post author (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Author name is linked (?) | ||||
| Displays categories (?) | ||||
| Categories above/below (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Categories link to wordpress.com (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Comments above/below (?) | below post | below post | below post | above post |
| Comments line jumps directly (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Show excerpt instead of post (?) | No | No | No | No |
| HTML tag style bugs (?) | None | None | None | None |
| Blockquote shows paragraph breaks (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Horizontal rule (HR) is styled (?) | ||||
| Pre text has horizontal scroll (?) | No | No | No | No |
| Images display bugs (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Image has margin (?) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Image has border (?) | No | No | Yes | No |
| Table has margin (?) | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Table has border (?) | No | No | No | No |
| MORE tag (?) | Keep reading –> | Read more>> | Read the rest of this entry>> | (more…) |
| Single Post View | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Sidebar displays (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Edit post (?) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Next / prev post (?) | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Next / prev by post title (?) | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Comments (?) | ||||
| Displays edit comments link (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Displays trackbacks different than comments (?) | No | Yes | No | No |
| Display old comments when Off (?) | ||||
| Sidebar | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Number of sidebars (?) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Sidebar location (?) | Right | Right | Either side | Right |
| Sidebar header capitalization (?) | As typed | As typed | As typed | As typed |
| Sidebar image width (?) | 230px | 140px | 180px | 170px |
| Wide images behaviour (?) | Run-off page | Run-off page | Run-off page | Run-off page |
| Sidebar widgets support (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sidebar widgets bugs (?) | bug017 | No | No | bug023 |
| Text widgets have outline (?) | No | No | No | No |
| HTML tag style bugs (?) | bug016 | Some | Some | bug024 |
| Bullet for Unordered Lists (?) | Yes | bug020 | bug020 | Yes |
| Numbers for Ordered Lists (?) | bug018 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pages | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Sidebar displays (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Selected page is hilighted (?) | ||||
| Pages with hierarchy (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page order displayed properly (?) | bug019 | bug025 | bug026 | bug027 |
| Page edit links (?) | No | No | No | Yes |
| Page comments (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page Templates Supported | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Archives (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Displays page text (?) | No | No | ||
| Displays post titles (?) | No | No | ||
| Displays page titles (?) | No | No | ||
| Displays categories with archives (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Links / Blogroll (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Sort by categories (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Image replaces link name (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Only displays Visible On links (?) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Target field used (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| XFN microformat in rel attribue (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Description used in title attribute (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| RSS displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Notes displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Rating displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Displays page text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| 2 Column Page (?) | No | Yes | ||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | Yes | |||
| 2 Column Archives (?) | No | Yes | ||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | Yes | |||
| 2 Column Links (?) | No | Yes | ||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | Yes | |||
| Categories | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Category hierarchy (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Number on same line (?) | Yes | Yes | bug022 | Yes |
| Category description used as title (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Do not display empty categories (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Display parent if child exists (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blogroll | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Sort by categories (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image replaces link name (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Only displays Visible On links (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Target field used (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| XFN microformat in rel attribue (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Description used in title attribute (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| RSS displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Notes displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Rating displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Custom features | Pressrow | Andreas04 | Andreas09 | Connections |
| Colour themes (?) | Yes | |||
| Header Colour (?) | ||||
| Sidebar orientation (?) | ||||
| Sidebar is at bottom of page (?) | ||||
| Title orientation (?) | ||||
| “About me” information (?) | Yes | |||
| Home Link Sidebar Widget (?) | ||||
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Pressrow bugs
- bug016: Sidebar: Heading2 (<H2>) and Heading4 (<H4>) do not have enough space between wrapped lines.
- bug017: Sidebar: The background colour for category/page widgets with hierarchy does not form a square box.
- bug018: Sidebar: Ordered lists (<OL>) are treated like unordered lists (<UL>).
- bug019: Sidebar: Page order is not used for displaying pages.
Andreas04 bugs
- bug020: Sidebar: Unordered lists (<UL>) are not styled and do not have hierarchy. Because unordered lists do not have a style, it is hard to tell the distinction between text in RSS/links/category/page widgets.
- bug025: Sidebar: Page order is not used for displaying pages.
Andreas09 bugs
- bug021: Sidebar: Unordered lists (<UL>) are not styled and do not have hierarchy. Because unordered lists do not have a style, it is hard to tell the distinction between text in RSS/links/category/page widgets.
- bug026: Sidebar: In category/archive widgets the “number of” displays on a different line, instead of same line.
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4 Comments
nicely done ….. though I feel design wise WordPress lacks good theme.
Notes: I should also test post shows existing comments even if comments are closed.
http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=4086&replies=7
I think I’ve found another bug in Andreas 09, to which I’ve just switched: with indented text (blockquotes), the extra paragraph mark (to get double spaced entries) is deleted—or at least the double space between paragraphs in a blockquote is gone: the paragraphs run together. I guess I’ll switch back to the old theme.
Thanks for finding that and commenting on it. I was able to reproduce it.
I’ll look out for it in the future!