JaypeeOnline

Last month, Smashing Magazine released several freebies for designers and bloggers and it included a cool and unique calendar-style free WordPress theme called WP Smashing. I know its a not a new theme but I wanted to share it with you guys and I’m sure some of you haven’t heard of or seen it yet.

Designed and created by Greg Johnson of Bust A Theme for Smashing Magazine, the WP Smashing WordPress theme makes use of the features and functionality of Bust A Theme’s recently released theme called WP Calendar.

WP SMASHING started out as an exercise in displaying WordPress posts in calendar format. The uses for this kind of functionality are obvious and I haven’t come across a plugin or theme that accomplished this goal in the manner I was after.

WP SMASHING accomplishes this by way of a companion plugin, written specifically for this theme. Knowing that not everyone will want to display their posts this way, the plugin offers you the ability to choose how you want to display posts on the index and in the archive — using a calendar or a two-column listing of post excerpts (much like Smashing Magazine). If you choose to display posts as a calendar, the titles of each post are displayed for each day. If the title(s) are larger than the relatively small square allotted for a calendar day, a custom scroll bar is shown allowing the user to scroll through your posts.

WP SMASHING is completely widget-ready and features 4 configurable ’side bars’. One of these side bars is the right column — navigation — on every page except for if/when the calendar is displayed. The other 3 side bars are incorporated into footer. Also integrated into the footer is a contact form which includes validation and also includes options in the companion plugin.

Basic Features:

• Widget-ready
• Theme options page
• Collapsible search form
• XHTML & CSS valid
• Configurable calendar functionality
• Configurable contact form
• Custom plugin

Screenshots:

Homepage

Post page

My Take:
WP Smashing is easily one of the best designed and best looking themes created for Smashing Magazine. Aside from its good looks, it also offers some unique features and functionality that aren’t usually available in free WordPress themes. What makes this theme unique from other WordPress themes is the calendar functionality that lets the user choose to display posts on the homepage in a calendar style layout.

With the WP Smashing plugin created especially for this theme, the WP Smashing Magazine theme can be used with the calendar style homepage or have it display the regular 2 column layout with post excerpts and a traditional sidebar. The WP Smashing theme, with its features and functionality can be used either for a personal blog, portfolio site or for a company blog.

The WP Smashing theme has a collapsible search form/bar found on the upper right part of the theme. To use it, just click on the magnifying glass graphic to expand then type in the keyword/search term. This theme also has a widgetized footer where the user can display categories, latest posts, recent comments and other blog content. The post page also has an area to display banner ads so if you’re running ads or affiliate banners on your blog, you won’t have to worry about editing the file because the theme author already prepared it for you.

Once again, another cool free WordPress theme this time courtesy of Smashing Magazine and Bust A Theme. Thank you guys for sharing this cool and unique theme with us. More power and looking forward to more quality free WordPress themes in the near future.

NOTE: To download this theme, you’ll have to register first because the WP Smashing WordPress theme is only available for Bust A Theme members. Nothing to worry because registration is FREE.

Preview or Download the WP Smashing WordPress theme.