Ashford adds fresh features and Pro Bundles get more value

by Tim Bednar on August 24, 2009 » Add more comments.

I am very excited to release v0.5 of Ashford and Ashford Pro. Following on the heels of Smashing Magazine selecting Ashford for a second time, listing it with other top WordPress frameworks like Thematic, Carrington and Hybrid, this release is the most child theme friendly version so far.

With this release of Ashford v0.5,

  1. Added over two dozen hooks into the theme making it easy for developers to move, add or remove features
  2. New retweet this post with automatic TinyURL creation
  3. New share on Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Technorati and Digg
  4. New author box automatically added if you add an author description/bio to your profile
  5. Added better category archives with descriptions and listing subcategories in right column
  6. Added ability to turn on comments for pages
  7. Automatically remove Ashford SEO features when owner decides to use All In One SEO Pack plugin

I also added more value to Ashford Pro:

  1. New Ashford Pro Blogger page template which you can now see powering this blog. The focus on this layout is to make it EASY to build and maintain. Owners just need to add one custom field, drag your widgets onto the four customizable sidebar regions and bam your pro blogger page is ready to go.
  2. Bundled for the first time with the Ashford Pro Lightbox plugin where any image or image gallery found in the post content automagically has a lightbox affect applied to it. See it work on an image gallery.
  3. Ashford Pro has samples of how to use the new hooks (e.g. remove breadcrumbs).
  4. Better and unlimited support via a private Google Group.

In the process, I also fixed a bugs.

Ashford Pro upgrades are available for all new, existing and current users. So if you buy it now, you will get every new feature that is packed into every release. For the next release of Ashford Pro, you can expect:

  1. Smarter breadcrumbs (see them live now on this site)
  2. Smarter share with social network features
  3. Smarter post excerpt thumbnails
  4. Ability to create notices (first time visitor etc.)
  5. Enhanced Ashford Pro Blogger page
  6. New Ashford Pro Hero page
  7. Plus Ashford Pro three color schemes

If you buy Ashford Pro, then you get access to the support Google Group AND you get all upgrades and new features for FREE to use on an unlimited number of sites.

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About Tim Bednar

Ashford WordPress Theme is developed by Tim Bednar founder of Turtle Interactive. You can follow him on Twitter.

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13 comments Add your comment »

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J
September 30, 2009
6:35 pm

Love this framework. Amazing. How do I remove the automatic hero image on the about page? Thanks in advance!

Tim Bednar
October 1, 2009
8:09 pm

You need to delete the hero_about.jpg found in the images folder. That should take care of it.

rieke
October 10, 2009
8:57 am

Sorry for my crazy english, but …
While i tryed to find out how to edit the thumbs at my start page.. i found a lot of a lot of 404 at this side :-/

at http://ashford.turtleinteractive.com/features/child-themes u get 404 by clicking at http://ashford.turtleinteractive.com/marketplace

at http://ashford.turtleinteractive.com/features u get 404 by click at
http://ashford.turtleinteractive.com/support/build/building-with-pages/carousel-slider-landing-page-template

some greetings from germany

Rieke

Tim Bednar
October 16, 2009
7:38 am

I do often “move” support documents. Sorry for the broken links. I did edit the content to correct the mistakes.

I’m building Ashford and the documentation at the same time, so it is sometimes out of sync. Thanks for your patience.

Mark18
October 23, 2009
2:42 am
Vladimir Klimsa
October 24, 2009
2:17 pm

Hi Tim, I started to look for good wordpress theme and visually yours is excellent. My criterium whoever is to use validation, tools.pingdom.com, websiteoptimization, support forum and see if the theme get updated with every wordpress release or when is suited.
In validation of http://ashford.turtleinteractive.com/blog I got 7 errors while in my demo blog I got 32 errors. The page loads in 8,2 seconds – I do think that the amount is caused by to many images, in websiteoptimization I see to many objects, support forum is perhaps in the way but as I see it you really put time to respond to questions, theme is new so I hope that will actualize when needed.
I am still not creating any theme, so I do appreciate your sharing with the community and at the some time I ask myself how to find validated theme which loads rapidly and is optimize for web?

chris
October 29, 2009
12:44 pm

As a recent purchaser of 0.5 PRO – where do I download the PRO 00.6 update?

thanks
Chris

Tim Bednar
November 2, 2009
9:51 am

You get in in the Files section of the Google Group. Let me know if you can not find it.

Tim Bednar
November 2, 2009
9:52 am

Vladimir Klimsa ~ I am not blowing your comment off, but I have a length response to post and am getting it ready.

scott
January 5, 2010
8:41 pm

Hi Tim:

I wanted to use the Ashford Theme for my new blog but I am not sure, is this
good for a blog? It looks more like it would be used for development of a
regular website.

Thanks for your help,
Scott

Jim
January 20, 2010
9:34 pm

Hi Tim,

Are you still supporting / updating this theme? I have not seen any recent posts or an anwser to an email. The theme looks great, and I don’t mind getting the “pro” version, but would like to know this is still a viable theme.

Thanks,
Jim

Tim Bednar
January 22, 2010
6:34 am

Yes in fact I am working on a release now which will make pro even more attractive.

Pratik vyas
February 21, 2010
9:58 pm

Hi Tim,

I am looking to use a lot of Videos on the websites/blogs I create. Please can you help me understand how I can create a video gallery page. Or have a featured video show up in the sidebar.

Thanks,
Pratik

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