Features and design ideas for SWIFT v5.0

Hello Swiftler’s

I have started working on v5.0,  and it’s coming out pretty well. The development process it little slow as I’m giving special attention to every minute aspect of the design.You can see the progress at http://swiftthemes.com/swiftTest

Though you wont notice any visual changes on the first glance, if you inspect it carefully you will see lot of improvements in design aspect apart from clean code.

SWIFT needs your ideas and suggestions

If you want some feature to be added in SWIFT or have a suggestion about design or usability please post it here.

If you have seen a blog with unique  design,layout or features post it here, may be we can have it in SWIFT to.

I really need some ideas/inspiration on how to display author info,tags,related posts and social media icons at the end of the post.

Would you post a review of SWIFT on your blog?

I would like to release the v5.0 in style 🙂  and I need your help for this. I will set an official release date of SWIFT and mail a copy of v5.0 to all those who are willing to post review of v5.o before the release date. You will have to publish your review on the release date.

[poll id=”2″]
See how each line of the paragraph is consistent with the grid, though we have headings and other HTML elements between. This is called vertical rhythm and makes it easy for your reader to  quickly scan the page. ( This is one of the minute details I mentioned above)
See how each line of the paragraph is consistent with the grid, though we have headings and other HTML elements between. This is called vertical rhythm and makes it easy for your reader to quickly scan the page. ( This is one of the minute details I mentioned above)

30 Replies to “Features and design ideas for SWIFT v5.0”

  1. I wish I would have known about this, I would have asked for a previous/next post link at the bottom of all posts!  🙁  lol

  2. Hi Satish,
     
    I am having great luck with your theme on my site (http://bigbeefandbeer.com), and really appreciate your hard work.
    If  it is not too late,  I have a few suggestions for Swift 5.o:

    Ability for admins to configure the speed of the slider.
    Ability for users to pause the slider.
    Ability for admins to determine the length of the excerpts in the slider.

    Finally, is there a way to show more than 5 posts on the front page in the magazine mode?  I have an empty square I cannot use.
    Peace,
    Greg
     

    1. Finally, is there a way to show more than 5 posts on the front page in the magazine mode? I have an empty square I cannot use.

      Couldn’t get you, your blog has more then five posts below slider.

      The other features you requested will be added shortly. You are never late to offer a suggestion 🙂

  3. I’d like the font in the posts to be larger.
    Also I’d like to remove the ‘comments closed’ at the end of static pages and posts.
    Thanks
    Aly

  4. Since you are trying to get things done by the 20th, I’m sure this would be to late to make a suggestion, but I have only one real complaint.  I’m very interested in accessibility in general, and it is a very big deal that the screen requires horizontal scrolling when computer resolution is smaller than 1024 by 768.  Some people, like myself, use 800 x 600 for vision reasons, and others may make the browser narrower even if they use a higher resolution.  That leaves out all the other issues like text readers, braille readers, etc.

    I would be thrilled if at some point the layout was fluid so it scaled with the browser.  A great example of what I’m thinking of is the Precious framework, which I’ve played with customizing myself.  I just don’t have time to extend it like I need to, so for now I’m sticking with yours because of all the free themes out there it requires the least time to be up and running attractively.

    I really appreciate the hard work you’ve put into this.  It’s a beautiful theme!

    1. Hello Elizabeth,
      Thanks for the suggestion, There is still lot of back end work left in SWIFT. It wont be released on 20th.
      At some point I thought of making SWIFT a fluid width theme, but the problem with fluid layout is we loose control over how our blog looks for different users.
      As everyone uses images in blog posts, for a person reading the blog in 800*600 resolution images may flow out of the content area and create a ugly look.
      For a person having a very wide screen, the lines will be so long that he/she will have to move his head horizontally to read the content.

      I’m going to release a child theme for SWIFT with fluid width for those who want to go with above problems. But that wont be on my high priority list.

  5. Hi Satish,

    First of all let me thank you for making such a great theme with the premium quality but still freee… 🙂

    I have some suggestions to make… Make this theme such that there are minimum plugins to be installed…  This will make swift more fast… 🙂

    1. Like the adding twitter badge functionality should be as a part of the theme… so that any plugin is not to be included. See, if this can be added to the code only..

    2. Also, the most important thing that I want you to include is the “About the Author” functionality below each post..  You can see these blogs.. These are using the thesis theme and have a custom code which can be added to the theme. Please see if you can add this and in the same format as this blog.. It is very informative and gives the maximum exposure to the author…
    http://www.shoutmeloud.com and http://www.techcats.net Please see if this option can be addded to swift… It will be a great feature…

    Rest I will keep adding inputs.. I am desperately waiting for the Swift 5.0 to come… 🙂

    3. 

        1. Satish, I put the code… but I think this is not an issue with the theme… as removing the code again I tried some other themes also… In all of them, this issue is there… Even when I try logging into my admin panel (Username and password) . That section is totally shifted to the left… Can you help me what can be wrong?

  6. I really love this theme – only its not totally compatible with Internet Explorer.  I cannot remove the code for the header link – in IE it shows up as an X, even for the fotter.  I did follow the instruction in the forum, didn’t work.
    I removed the code and added a url link to an image – the image shows great, but then there is the link and the X again. 

    Please remove this feature or show us how to.  Otherwise I love the theme.
    http://www.homestudyyoga.com

      1. Thank you for the link and suggestion for the header.  In Version 5 I would like to see more child levels added to the page navigation – now there is only 2 levels enabled.

        1. Yes please fix the top page navigation – so many challenges with it, for now I’ll just write new code for it.  I checked other installed themes and they work properly. thx

  7. First of all, awesome theme! Second, please make the update process painless. I wouldn’t want all my settings to be reset or lose my sidepanel widgets.
     
    Keep up the excellent work. You are powering a quality content driven music site known as HeadbangToday.com ! (Launching your themed version soon!)

    1. As you know SWIFT is my first theme, and there are some mistakes which i cant carry forward to the next version. So you may loose some settings. Most of the time I try my best to make the update compatible with previous versions.

      You will not loose the settings when you upgrade to a sub version.

      for example v4.1 to v4.3.

      Good Luck with your site.

  8. here are my ideas for swift 5.0

    1. The CSS should be based on http://www.blueprintcss.org/

    2. CSS should include a  CSS reset that eliminates the discrepancies across browsers.

    3.  CSS should include a solid grid that can support the most complex of layouts.

    4. Total support for child themes based on the CSS blueprint

    5. Print styles for making any webpage ready for paper.

    6.  Elimination of the @media sections from the main CSS

    7. Elimination of all under_scores from styles, which causes many browsers to ignore them

    8.  An authors list page similar to http://demo.themeshift.com/destyle/authors-list/ with short bio excert of each author and a link for each author to a page similar to http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/charles_m_blow/index.html with authors full bio and exceprts-links ato all his-her posts

    9. Fix empty declaration blocks for .jflow-content-slider h2.title,  .wp-pagenavi .currnet, #content and a

    10. Fix multiple redeclare problems for  .clearfix,.clearfix:after, * html .clearfix, #popular, a:hover, body, h2.title, img

    11. Fix code, pre where a generic family name should be included

    12. fix height values in * html .clearfix

    13. fix spaces in font names in h1.title-single, h2.title and h2.blogname

    14. fix.clearfix as inline-block is not a valid value for display

    15. fix the invalid property in many of the CSS selectors. Blank spaces and the character “_” should not precede the property name.

    16. fix in the css table border-collapse and border-spacing as they do not exist in this definition.

    There are scores of other major CSS errors that should be fixed, and if you like i can send you a complete list

    17. ALL Html should be validated with the Markup Validation Service at http://validator.w3.org/

    18. all CSS should be validated with the  CSS Validation Service at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

    19. a “diff” file posted on your website, which shows all of the changes between different versions

    20. better control/coordination of versions to download between the version at

    http://swiftthemes.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=2

    and

    http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/swift

    currently  http://swiftthemes.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=2  download file is 4.146 but when the file is unzipped it is Version: 4.1.4

    currently http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/swift  is Version: 4.1.5  and it opens to Version: 4.1.5

    21. integration of gallery view slider (i.e. http://spaceforaname.com/galleryview)  or silder on http://www.newsweek.com/  and ability to change the way slider appears (i.e. text on bottom, transparent backgrounds etc.)

    1. Hello Albert,

      Thanks for the suggestions.

      I used 960.gs framework upto version 4.0, I’m not using any framework in v5.0.

      Frameworks reduce designers work considerably, but the problem with them is you will have to put in lot of code which you don’t want and they take off flexibility.

      All the code in v5.0 will be validated, you will have the author templates you asked for.

      Rest of the suggestions are already implemented.

      PS: Your comment was stuck in spam, so it wasn’t published immediately.

  9. Hi,
    I am curious whether or not we can customize whether it is full-screen, or that fixed width down the center? Why are more sites doing this, isn’t using the full screen more efficient?
    I would like to run this theme on my site, is my programmer allowed to customize it himself to suit us? Do you design pages for hire?
    Thanks.

    1. Weather it’s full screen or 960px width layout, the effective content area is the same. It’s just a design and look factor.

      In a full width header, just the header is expanded aligning the logo with main content area.

      You are free to customize the theme.

      I’m available for hire, I work both on hourly and contract basis.

      http://swiftthemes.com/hire-me/

       

  10. I would be more than happy to write a review on swift on all my sites (I have 4). Each of these sites use the theme…The only thing I really don’t like about the options is the fact that you can’t turn off the “featured” part of the theme. I really hate messing with code because am not good at it, an option like that right off the bat will make customizing easier and more fun. That’s my 2cents. love your work.

    1. Thanks for the love 🙂

      You can turn of the featured post feature without messing with the code.

      In SWIFT options click on JavaScript tab and disable featured posts.

      I think this says that, SWIFT needs a better user guide.

      1. lol, really? Wow, I never even noticed that and I pride myself with knowing this theme pretty well (guess not well enough). Yeah you need a better user guide. You could just make a video,  saves you the time of having to write stuff and a lot of ppl learn better by watching than reading….Am not sure if I already mentioned this, I stopped using the premium theme “Thesis” for Swift. And that theme is suppose to be a big deal but I like the fact that Swift is free and you seem committed to it. Love your work. Waiting anxiously for v5. Please try to make the upgrading seamless.

        1. I stopped using the premium theme “Thesis” for Swift.

          It’s the best compliment SWIFT can get :D, v5.0 will be much much better.

          If v5.0 is rated 8 on a 10 scale, the current version will get 5.

           

          1. That’s great to know…Can’t wait, please can the you have it, wherein, any article on the featured page is still shown on the homepage, and not a fan of the either/or option. Because It would make it more fun, if articles that show up on the featured section can still be seen just like any other article on the homepage. Keep up the great work, if I was a coder, I would have loved to contribute to the code but am not. 😀 I need education. Thanks again

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