Download Vidunder as a Twentyten Child Theme here!
For the last several months I’ve been experimenting with the Twentyten theme to see how far it’s possible to bend the framework. The result is the Vidunder theme. The name “Vidunder” is a Norwegian word meaning “wonder” which can be used to describe a child prodigy – “vidunderbarn” – so I found it fitting for this theme. Vidunder takes what Twentyten introduced and builds on it to create a that is more of a premium theme than an offspring. Be that as it may it is free and available for anyone to use.
Vidunder started out as a Twentyten child theme but has now grown into a full theme by popular request. That means you now have two options:
- Get Vidunder as a TwentyTen Child-Theme
- Get Vidunder as a full theme from which you can create your own child themes
By using the Vidunder theme as a full theme you have the ability to create new child-themes using the same theme hooks and filters as in TwentyTen with the added features of Vidunder including more sidebar options, custom colours, Twitter integration and more.
Vidunder adds a long list of features and functionality to the stock TwentyTen theme shipped with WordPress. If you are using Vidunder as a child theme you must have the TwentyTen theme installed.
Vidunder was developed to provide easy customizability for the user. It repurposes some of the Twentyten features and adds new ones as well. See full feature list for details.
Setup
After installing and activating Vidunder you can customize several components:
- Background and general colour is set with the Background setting found under Appearance
- You can add a background image to the header using the background image function found in the same place as above
- The theme logo can be changed by uploading a new image under Appearance -> Header. The image is 87 x 87px
- If you don’t want a logo simply click Remove Header Image and the title shifts to the side
- To display your latest Twitter update in the header go to Settings -> General and add your Twitter account name
- To display author bio, gravatar and name go to Your Profile and add your name, website, bio and Twitter handle. The gravatar is dependent on you having a defined Gravatar attached to your email address. You can get a Gravatar by visiting www.gravatar.com and setting up an account
- The Custom Sidebar widget is to be used for content that needs to be displayed in the full width of the sidebar only (like images). For all other content use the Primary, Left, Right or Secondary widget areas
- The footer has four widget areas
Features
- Custom background colour and general colour scheme
- Optional header background image
- Optional site logo in header
- Optional display of latest Twitter post in header
- Author box at the bottom of posts
- Display of the 2 latest related post at the bottom of each post
- Animated hide option for Author box and Related Posts
- Added sidebar features
- Author comment highlighting
Important Info
If you are using Vidunder as a child theme let me repeat: It only works if you have the stock Twentyten theme installed. It also means it only works on WordPress 3.0 and above.
Vidunder is free of charge and comes with no warranties of any sort. Use it at your own leisure and risk. You are free to customize it and change it in any way you please.
21 replies on “Vidunder – A Twentyten Prodigy”
Really like this theme. I didn’t even realize it was twenty ten, I found this site while looking for info on editing widget areas in child themes, thanks.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to expand Vidunder to become a full-fledged theme in its own right so it can go in the WordPress Theme Directory. That way people can make children of Vidunder.
Mazeld theme is on the WordPress Directory and it’s a Twenty Ten Child theme, not sure how it managed to get in there though. I think they should just add a section for Twenty Ten child themes since it’s the default theme.
I completely agree. The only way I can see right now that you can add a child theme to the directory is by including all the files from the parent in the child theme. But that’s kind of pointless.
Hello . Mr. Morten Rand-Hendriksen
I write from Thailand . I download your theme and would like to thank you so much. I use the theme for my personal blog talking about peace and travel.
Btw, I have question and I found myself not good at coding.
If I would like my blog have only 2 column . Refer to your theme, I mean I don’t want the left column.I’d like to keep the middle column but prefer to expanding it.Still keep the right column.
Could it be possible to advice me please ?
Nont
Hi, I’m using the related posts feature of your theme in my own theme (gave you credit of course) I’m using it on a site that I post youtube videos. My site uses excerpts, the only way I could have the video display on the homepage is to add the youtube code to the excerpt area in the post editor page.
This works fine, however the related posts feature displays the youtube video the same size as in the post. Is there any way to set a max width for these in related posts?
Hi Zeaks,
If you want to use the related post feature with videos I suggest you make some small changes to the code itself. The easiest thing I can think of would be to create a custom field for a YouTube URL in your post, then first check for it with a conditional statement in the related.php file and then if the YouTube URL is there inject it into a predefined YouTube embed code with a defined height and width. If you need help with this let me know and I’ll see if I can squeeze it in and upload a code example.
excellent work! Do you think you will do more Lynda.com trainings? …maybe some of the Expression web 4 , or custom post types expanded? – just ordered your Live Lessons and I am a premium member of Lynda.com so I look forward to learning more from you!
Morten,
I’ve been watching your tutorials on Lynda.com (thanks!) and have recently been debating the pros/cons of creating a child theme and starting with a framework like Gantry, Hybrid, etc. I’ve install this Vidunder theme and am going to try it out. But I really “wonder” what are your thoughts on using a framework vs something like twenty ten to start a child theme?
My general attitude is that you should start with a solid foundation. Personally I start with the Toolbox theme by Automattic because it’s uncluttered, but it does require that you do all the styling work yourself which is quite a lot of work. As for frameworks like Gantry, Hybrid etc I have mixed feelings: They are not necessarily the best and most up-to-date frameworks around and they are built to suit a lot of different situations which means you carry with you a lot of unused stuff no matter what you do. In the end it’s a preference thing and a question of how much work you want to do.
I like building things from scratch because it produces clean and light-weight solutions. If you want to build a child theme I recommend starting with something that looks and functions kind of like what you want and then go from there. Or start with a true framework like Toolbox:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/toolbox
Morten, wondering how you feel about copyblogger’s Genesis framework , or Headway?
I’m now using Thesis and I either have to learn code to shape it more to my liking, or find a replacement that’s easier for a code novice like myself.
Personally I don’t use any frameworks. I find them to be quite clunky and they carry with them a lot of extra baggage that often is handled better by WordPress itself. That said I am a build-everything-from-scratch kind of guy so I start with the bare minimum and work my way up. That’s not the right approach for everyone. I know people who use both Genesis and Headway and are very happy with it. As for Thesis… I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. That wasn’t a clear answer, but it’s the best I got.
Why don’t you like the Thesis framework? It gets a lot of rave reviews. Just want to know because I have to redo my website and I’m trying to evaluate the best method…going with a framework vs from scratch vs not WordPress at all???
Thesis is a bit of a hot potato in the WordPress community. The problems surround use of open source data for proprietary means and custom functionality that overrides or in other ways suppresses existing WordPress functionality. I won’t get into it here but a Google search will show you that there are issues surrounding that framework.
I don’t like frameworks because they often add new functionality that replaces what WordPress already does without making that functionality any better. I much prefer building clean open themes that are snappy and easy to use.
Flott material, Morten. Går igjennom noen av dine videoer på Lynda nå for å få i gang en nettside til freelance-material. Takker for flott input i temaene:)
thank you so much that you shared this kind of awesome theme with all of us in the world. this thanks is directly from the core of my heart for you only. i am little bit confused that there have two download file one is Vidunder and another is its child theme. which one do i have to install and use in my website?please reply as early as possible. i cant wait to use this theme.
Use the full version. It is more up to date.
i am having some problem with the full version. added a picture. problem with Custom Area, Primary Widget Area, Left Widget Area, Right Widget Area. i am not that much well in this customization. i have to do now?
Hi would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using? I’m planning
to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique.
P.S Sorry for being off-topic but I had to ask!
The vidunder theme archive, vidunder.zip, seems to be corrupt. I downloaded it a few time and got a zip file about 348KB that gives me an error when I try to install it or even just extract it. I was trying to follow along with your Lynda.com course about WordPress but couldn’t due to the fact that the vidunder.zip is corrupt/invalid.
That is bizarre. It works fine when I download it.