I’ve added 4 sidebars to the footer. Each one is 25% the width of the footer. The function is hooked directly into the footer. Here’s the code.

/*widgetize the footer */
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') ) register_sidebars(4,array('name'=>'Footer-Sidebar %d',
      'before_widget' => '<li class="widget %2$s" id="%1$s">',
      'after_widget' => '</li>',
      'before_title' => '<h3>',
      'after_title' => '</h3>'
    )
  );

function footer_widget(){?>
<div id="footer-sidebar">
   <div id="footer-sidebar1">
     <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
      || !dynamic_sidebar('Footer-Sidebar 1') ) : ?>
     <?php endif; ?>
   </div>
   <div id="footer-sidebar2">
     <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
      || !dynamic_sidebar('Footer-Sidebar 2') ) : ?>
     <?php endif; ?>
   </div>
   <div id="footer-sidebar3">
     <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
      || !dynamic_sidebar('Footer-Sidebar 3') ) : ?>
     <?php endif; ?>
   </div>
   <div id="footer-sidebar4">
     <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
      || !dynamic_sidebar('Footer-Sidebar 4') ) : ?>
     <?php endif; ?>
   </div>

</div> <!-- Close footer-sidebar -->
<div style="clear-both"></div>
<?php
}
add_action('thesis_hook_footer','footer_widget');

Footer-Sidebars 1,2,3 and 4 will now be accessible on the Widgets page in Wordpress.

Note the new divs that were added:
footer-sidebar - This div holds the sidebars in the footer div
footer-sidebar1
footer-sidebar2
footer-sidebar3
footer-sidebar4

Here’s the code I added for the footer sidebars in the custom.css.

/*footer widgets*/
#footer-sidebar { display:block; width:100%; height: 125px; list-style-type: none;float:left;text-align:left;}
  #footer-sidebar h3{ color: #3A93CC; font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;line-height:1.5em;}
  #footer-sidebar a {color:#000;border:none;}
  #footer-sidebar a:hover{text-decoration:underline;}
  #footer-sidebar1{float:left; width:25%;text-align:left;}
  #footer-sidebar2{float:left; width:25%;text-align:left;}
  #footer-sidebar3{float:left; width:25%;text-align:left;}
  #footer-sidebar4{float:left; width:25%;text-align:left;}

If you only want 2 or 3 sidebars in the footer, just adjust the code to fit your needs.

/*Custom Search Box */
function search_up() {
<div class="sidebar">
<ul class="sidebar_list">
  <li class="widget special_search"></li>
</ul>
</div>
add_action('thesis_hook_after_multimedia_box', 'search_up');

/* Custom Archives Page */
function my_archive() {
?>
<div class="archive">
<div class="archivel">
  <h3>By Month:</h3>
  <ul>
    <?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
  </ul>
  <h3>By Category:</h3>
  <ul>
    <?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li='); ?>
  </ul>
   <h3>By Tag:</h3>
 <?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=10&largest=10&format=list'); ?>
</div>
<div class="archiver">
   <h3>By Post: (Last 100 articles)</h3>
   <ul>
     <?php wp_get_archives('type=postbypost&limit=100'); ?>
   </ul>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
remove_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'thesis_archives_template');
add_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'my_archive');

1. Next go into your Wordpress dashboard and create a new page.
2. Name that page “Archives” and choose the “Archives” template.
3. Publish the page.
4. Now go to the “Thesis Options” page under “Appearance.”
5. Go to the “Navigation Menu” and click on “Archives” to include it in the nav menu.
6. Click on the “Big Ass Save Button.”

That’s it!

When I first got Thesis, I was excited that I could add pictures of my grandkids to my personal blog. The only thing was it wasn’t a slideshow. When I learned how to widgetize the multimedia box, I also got the NextGEN Gallery plugin. This is a great plugin that is very customizable. Now I’m in Granny Heaven!

Akismet comes with Wordpress and is a good deterrent for spam. I soon found that it wasn’t enough though. Thanks to the DIY Forums, I found Raven’s Antispam and the Simple Trackback Validation plugins. With these 3 plugins running, I haven’t had to worry about spam comments.

Thesis OpenHook is great plugin from KingdomGeek. Instead of adding custom code in the custom_functions. php, you can add it using the plugin. It also allows you to view and edit the custom.css. This one is on my to-do list to learn more about.

thesis_hook_before_html
Just after the opening body tag, before anything else.

thesis_hook_after_html
Just before the closing body tag, after everything else.

thesis_hook_before_header
Just before the block which usually contains the site name & tagline.

thesis_hook_after_header
Just after the block which usually contains the site name & tagline.

thesis_hook_header
Determines the content of div#header.

thesis_hook_before_title
Within div#header, before the site title.

thesis_hook_after_title
Within div#header, after the site tagline.

thesis_hook_before_content_box
Within div#page, just before div#content_box. Depending on your settings, the feature box may be added to this hook.

thesis_hook_after_content_box
Within div#page, just after div#content_box.

thesis_hook_before_content
Within div#content, before posts begin.

thesis_hook_after_content
Within div#content, after all posts.

thesis_hook_feature_box
Within div#feature_box; the feature box must be enabled in the Thesis Options for this hook to have any effect.

thesis_hook_before_post_box
……………..

thesis_hook_after_post_box
……………..

thesis_hook_before_teasers_box
……………..

thesis_hook_after_teasers_box
……………..

thesis_hook_before_post
Within div.format_text, before post content. If more than one post is shown on a page, this hook fires before each of them. The position of the post is passed as a parameter if needed in actions added to this hook (targeting only the first or third posts, for example).

thesis_hook_after_post
Within div.format_text, after post content. If more than one post is shown on a page, this hook fires before each of them. The position of the post is passed as a parameter if needed in actions added to this hook (targeting only the first or third posts, for example).

thesis_hook_before_teaser_box
……………

thesis_hook_after_teaser_box
……………

thesis_hook_before_teaser
……………

thesis_hook_after_teaser
……………

thesis_hook_before_headline
Within div.headline_area, before the title of the page. If more than one post is shown on a page, this hook fires for each one. The position of the post is passed as a parameter if needed in actions added to this hook (targeting only the first or third posts, for example).

thesis_hook_after_headline
Within div>headline_area, after the title of the page. If more than one post is shown on a page, this hook fires for each one.

thesis_hook_before_teaser_headline
………

thesis_hook_after_teaser_headline
………

thesis_hook_byline_item
Within p.headline_meta, just before the edit link (if enabled). This hook will only have a noticeable affect if there is a byline to display according to the settings in Thesis Options. If more than one post is shown on a page, this hook is fired for each one.

thesis_hook_before_comment_meta
Within dt.comment, before the comment’s meta information. If there is more than one comment on the page, this hook is fired for each one.

thesis_hook_after_comment_meta
Within dt.comment, after the comment’s meta information. If there is more than one comment on the page, this hook is fired for each one.

thesis_hook_after_comment
Within div.format_text, after the comment’s text. If there is more than one comment on the page, this hook is fired for each one.

thesis_hook_comment_form
Within form#commentform, just before the paragraph containing the comment form’s submit button.

thesis_hook_archives_template
….

thesis_hook_custom_template
….

thesis_hook_faux_admin
Within div#content_box (and also div#column_wrap if a sidebars-first three-column layout is in use). Can be used with plugins such as Customize Your Community to customize things like the login form.

thesis_hook_archive_info
Above the first post only on archive views (e.g., category listings, date listings, search results).

thesis_hook_404_title
Within h1. Determines the title of 404 error pages (not the title which appears in the browser’s title bar).

thesis_hook_404_content
Within div.format_text. Determines the content of a 404 error page.

thesis_hook_before_sidebars
Just within div#sidebars, before either sidebar or the multimedia box begins.

thesis_hook_after_sidebars
Within div#sidebars, after both sidebars.

thesis_hook_multimedia_box
…..

thesis_hook_after_multimedia_box
Within div#sidebars, after the multimedia box.

thesis_hook_before_sidebar_1
Within div#sidebar_1 ul.sidebar_list, before sidebar 1’s first widget.

thesis_hook_after_sidebar_1
Within div#sidebar_1 ul.sidebar_list, after sidebar 1’s last widget.

thesis_hook_before_sidebar_2
Within div#sidebar_2 ul.sidebar_list, before sidebar 2’s first widget.

thesis_hook_after_sidebar_2
Within div#sidebar_2 ul.sidebar_list, after sidebar 2’s last widget.

thesis_hook_before_footer
Just before div#footer.

thesis_hook_after_footer
Just after div#footer.

thesis_hook_footer
Within div#footer.

/*Twitter Widget*/
function footer_scripts() { ?>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/allaboutshae.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=2"></script>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_after_html', 'footer_scripts');

function twitter_widget() { ?>
  <li class="widget">
      <div id="twitter_div"><ul id="twitter_update_list"><li> </li></ul><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/custom/images/twitter_48.png" alt="" /></div>
    <p><a href="YOUR TWITTER ADDRESS GOES HERE>tweet with me</a></p>
  </li>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_after_multimedia_box', 'twitter_widget',1);

Next is to customize the widget. Here’s an example of how I have mine coded.

#twitter_div {margin-left:1em;}
  #twitter_div img {float:right;}
  li.widget #twitter_update_list{list-style:none;}
  #twitter_div a{color:#3A93CC;}
  li.widget p a{color:#3A93CC;margin-left:1em;}

Here’s the code:

/*widgetized the multi-media box */
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') ) register_sidebar(array('name'=>'Media Box', 'before_widget' => '
', 'after_widget' => '
', 'before_title' => '
', ));

function mediabox_widget() { if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Media Box') ) : endif; }
add_action('thesis_hook_multimedia_box', 'mediabox_widget');

Kristarella has a great tutorial on full-width headers on her website kristarella.com.  This tutorial creates a separate nav_area and title_area which allows you to have separate colors for both. Here is the actual code that I added in the custom_functions.php. Mine is slightly different from what is in the tutorial as I have my nav bar positioned below the header area.

/* Full Width Header */
remove_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'thesis_nav_menu');
remove_action('thesis_hook_header', 'thesis_default_header');

function full_width_header() { ?>
  <div id="title_area" class="full_width">
    <div class="page">
      <div id="header">
        <?php thesis_default_header(); ?>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="nav_area" class="full_width">
    <div class="page">
      <?php thesis_nav_menu(); ?>
    </div>
</div>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_before_html', 'full_width_header');

#nav_area{background-color: #FFFCB9;}
#title_area {background-color: #3A93CC;padding-top: 1em;padding-bottom: 0;}