The Wordpress theme (software) that creates the look and feel of this site is called Skimmed Milk. I developed it by recoding White As Milk by Azeem Azeez and he should take the credit for its elegantly simple design. If you’re not a Wordpress blogger then what follows is unlikely to be of much interest to you, but if you are one and this minimal theme appeals then you’re very welcome to pick up a copy of the latest version here:
This theme requires that your Wordpress installation is at least at version 2.3. If you’re running an older version of Wordpress then you should use one of the previous two releases of Skimmed Milk available below. And if you’d like a version in Dutch then read on.
Installing themes is easy: Wordpress provide full instructions, but basically just open up the zip file and put the resulting folder (with its contents, of course) into the wp-content/themes folder of your site and turn it on in the presentation/themes page of your admin panel. You can then configure widgets for your sidebar using the presentation/widgets panel if you like. The widgets with names starting with Skimmed are specially designed to fit in with this theme.
Feel free to modify the code if and as you wish: I only request that you leave the link to Skimmed Milk in the footer, or at least politely reference the heritage of your theme somewhere if it’s heavily altered. And, of course, do continue do let me know if any of this is either appreciated or requires repair.
What’s new in 1.2?
Skimmed Milk 1.2 (which requires Wordpress version 2.3 or later) is a minor update to 1.1. The look is identical except for the sidebar (and therefore the whole page) being a touch wider. The biggest news is that the theme now displays tags with posts, tag support having been integrated into wp2.3. A Skimmed tag cloud widget is also included that offers a little more control over sizes than the default one.
The other major change is that the internationalisation (which I thought I’d done in 1.1) is now fixed and tested. Many thanks to Guy Sie in the Netherlands for pointing out how I’d screwed this up in 1.1. If you wish to localise the theme (translate it into your own language) you don’t have to alter any of the files; instead you use the arcane ways of gettext to create a .mo file for your language or dialect. A template file (skimmed.pot) is provided to start you on your journey. Only left-to-right languages are catered for by my style sheet, though.
Going Dutch
Guy Sie has made his Dutch language translation available here. First obtain and install SM1.2 as normal, then download the files linked from Guy’s page and place these in the skimmedmilk1.2 folder. Actually, only the .mo file is really necessary; the .po file is a text file you could use to create a variant Dutch version. To switch on the translation you need to edit your wp-config.php file to alter your WPLANG definition line to read:
define ('WPLANG', 'nl_NL');
Great Danes
And now (in March ‘08) a new Danish translation is kindly being made available by Mads, and my Danish isn’t so good but I get the impression that another Danish version is ready for the taking here. Seems Danish translations are like busses; you wait for ages then two come along at once!
What about 1.1?
Skimmed Milk 1.1 (requiring Wordpress 2.1 or later) is a fairly extensive reworking of 1.0 but the look of pages rendered with it should be little changed from the previous version other than the columns being a fraction wider in order to accommodate embedded YouTube videos (or any other 425-pixel-wide objects for that matter). Download it from here:
The most exciting change is that you can now use Widgets (integrated into Wordpress in version 2.2) to place items such as a calendar or a recent comments list into your sidebar. Three Skimmed Milk variants of standard widgets are supplied for enhanced compatibility: Skimmed archives, Skimmed calendar and Skimmed search. The archives widget can show yearly archives as well as an optionally limited number of months. There are hundreds of third-party widgets to choose from too.
Pages print better, especially from IE and Firefox, and they print without the sidebar and other interactive clutter that is of little use on paper.
Some “attachments”, such as large images or video or audio files should now be presented more appropriately, although I think Wordpress’s support for these is a little confusing and half-hearted as yet.
The code has been fully internationalised [er.. actually not, see 1.2 above], so that anyone wishing to create a non-English version (or just a differently phrased one) should be able to do so without hacking a single one of my files. Repeated chunks of code have been abstracted into functions in the new functions.php file so easing further customisation. Finally, in the interests of modernity I’ve tried to seek out and update calls to deprecated functions (hence the requirement for Wordpress 2.1+).
And the original, 1.0?
If you like living in the past, the 1.0 version and the story of its creation are both available here.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:01pm
Hi Thortz,
I’d like to pick your brain about screen resolution and floating (aka. dynamic, liquid, expanding) layouts. Your CSS seems to be entirely based on the font size (em) and browser width percentiles. That’s brilliant, I must admit.
Now, with the new Firefox 3, current IE 7, and old Opera, it is possible to proportionally scale an entire page including graphics. It might therefor make sense to unravel your brilliance and use fixed or expanding content widths and fixed font sizes.
Case and point. I’ve got a tiny laptop monitor relative to its 1920 pixel width. I actually set the minimum browser font to somewhere between 16 and 20 pixels (no, I’m not blind, I don’t adjust the font size on desktop monitors). CSS based on a relative em-size works pretty well, but it’s misleading with images. I’m considering using min, max in pixels and width in percent as soon as Firefox 3 beta (with Cairo) is released, perhaps mid-September 2007.
Thoughts Thortz?
August 25th, 2007 at 9:50am
Hi Alex
I’m no css expert. The incompatibilities between various browsers and especially different platforms make trying to create the perfect page for everyone somewhat tricky. I followed the font-size-multiple route as that seemed to be the consensus for greatest compatibility. But it does mean that one has to simply test to find what actual pixel widths the columns tend to be in different browsers, and I somewhat fudged it so all(?) would show a 425-wide youtube vid without crushing. In theory this approach is designed exactly to deal with unusual resolutions such as yours, but you are right that images and other objects that still have dimensions specified in pixels muck up this plan.
Don’t forget that you’re designing for everyone’s browsers not just your own, so do test what your version looks like on non-scaling ones, or on a Mac. And do pixel-sized-fonts print similarly on different platforms? I don’t know the answers but I’d be happy to hear if you find any.
September 24th, 2007 at 4:35pm
Hey thortz, I love the theme and I’m using it on my site. I’ve got a question about your internationalization settings though… I was screwing around with it (my site is Dutch) and not getting it working, until I tried adding a load_theme_textdomain(’skimmed’) and changed a string to use this textdomain (ie __(’test’) becomes __(’test’,”skimmed”)). It then loaded my nl_NL.mo file and translated that string.
Did you forget to add the textdomain to the theme or am I going about it all wrong? At this point I’m going to have to add the textdomain to all the strings, which still means editing every file - which we were kinda trying to avoid.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:05pm
Hi Guy
Oops! My i18n attempt has so far been rather theoretical (er.. untested). I thought I’d done everything required by using __(’blah’) etc everywhere, but it looks like you’re right and I should be using something like __(’blah’, ’skimmed’). I hadn’t noticed the brief note about text domains for themes and plug-ins.
I’m not going to have time to fix this today. But when the final WP2.3 is out in a few days, I’ll do a 1.2 version and adjust all the strings accordingly (as I think I need to add support for new tag functionality anyway). On the other hand, if you’re in a hurry and you do the edit on 1.1 - I’d be very grateful if you could zip it & mail it to me
Good to see an attempt at localising - but sorry I messed up my part in it!
September 24th, 2007 at 5:45pm
No problem. It was a first time thing for me too
I mailed you my files. Good luck with version 1.2!
PS SM 1.1 runs just fine on WP 2.3RC1, but I haven’t bothered using the tags yet.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:50pm
Thanks for the files & notes Guy, that was quick!
I’ll try to get a tag-friendly i18n-done-right version 1.2 out within a week. If anyone passing by has any requests for features or fixes now is the time to let me know!
September 25th, 2007 at 1:38pm
You could also add a small tag cloud in your sidebar. I am also modifying the wordpress white as milk theme. I just have to get the margin issues right.
Any tips?
blog.p-twice.com
CU philipp
September 25th, 2007 at 1:44pm
Hi Philipp
I suspect there’ll be a 3rd party widget to do tag clouds if its not already in 2.3 (haven’t had a chance to look yet). And sorry, can’t remember what margin issues there were in WaM to offer any tips.
October 7th, 2007 at 8:25pm
1.2 out now, and even with a tag cloud too.
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:14pm
Hey there, grats for your theme, i have been used it from more time
October 28th, 2007 at 7:44pm
Hi there, small point, but I find your comment type size a tad small, hard to read, means I have to press my nose up to the screen…so to speak…Otherwise, very nice, CLEAN. Cheers, c
October 28th, 2007 at 8:55pm
Yup, know what you mean about the font as I’m starting to wear glasses myself. BUT I do prefer the look, and larger text is only a keystroke away (command+ on a Mac). Otherwise, enjoy the warmth of the screen while you’re up close. Cheers.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:45am
This is a great theme, classic and simple, I’m looking forward to using it in a website for my business from home, and will of course, give credit where it is due! Great work, Mr T!
November 13th, 2007 at 6:52pm
This is the perfect template for a project I’m working on, so a big thanks from Buenos Aires. One question though (because my PHP skills are non-existant): I’m looking to add the “Posted by” get_author thing to the template, but can’t find the appropriate spot in index or single. Am I completely off track? Thanks again.
November 13th, 2007 at 7:34pm
Hi Robert - I’ve mailed you a suggestion re author names. Cheers.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:33pm
Hey there, do like the look and feel of this theme alot, but we are ‘neophytes’ over here at Canadada, working without downloads, just zappin’ it in as we go…so, until we git a bit more savvy, we’ll just admire from a distance. Nice look. Good job. Will keep it in mind as we ‘build the empire’ …. Cheers, L
December 4th, 2007 at 1:41am
Great template!
I would really like to d things as simple as this… Perhaps some day…
December 4th, 2007 at 8:43pm
How are you handling downloads, ie. SkimmedMilk1.2.zip in first post?
I’ve been looking for an add-on like you seem to be using and haven’t found a suitable one for WordPress.
Looks good, ray
December 4th, 2007 at 8:53pm
Hi Ray - nothing fancy: I just uploaded it into the web root folder & built a link to it. Not really an issue for me, but I guess you might prefer some other system if you need to upload a lot from a web interface while on the move. How does the wp image upload system fare with objects that aren’t images?
December 4th, 2007 at 9:02pm
That’s too simple … !!! Guess I should have guessed it would be, based on your themes theme. Thanks, saved me a bunch of time.r
Ray
December 5th, 2007 at 9:18pm
@Ray: I’m using the Drain Hole plugin for download management, but that might be some extreme overkill for your uses.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:53pm
It does look like more than I’m need for now but could be useful in future, thanks for the help.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:21am
Hi Thortz,
Just wanted to let you know that I recently upgraded my wordpress installation, and even though I am constantly looking at new templates, I have decided to stick with Skimmed Milk for its clean simple design.
December 31st, 2007 at 1:55pm
Heya, just letting you know I’m using the layout. I’m planning to make some changes but the basic layout is just what I’ve been looking for. It’s nice to have something to build on, rather than having to try to knock features off. Thanks loads for sharing this
January 14th, 2008 at 12:38pm
Thanks for your work on this!
January 21st, 2008 at 7:46pm
Hey there, great nice work! I dunno if i already have replied this post
January 25th, 2008 at 12:17pm
I love this theme. One thing I’d like to do is move the sidebar to the right. How easy is this to do? I’d appreciate any help.
January 26th, 2008 at 4:23am
Hi David
I’m currently travelling in India at the moment and my head’s fairly emptied itself of css details. I would suggest simply trying to play with the style.css file to see if you can get the hang of it; the change shouldn’t be too difficult but as ever will probably require a fair bit of tweaking to knock out any quirks introduced. The file contains comments to help you out.
Thanks to all for the positive comments.
Cheers.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:40am
Thanks Thortz, all sorted!
Have a great time out there in India. 
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:32pm
An amazing theme, very nice job
. I’ve got 1 problem though but it seems like i’m the only one? I have problems using lightbox with this theme (http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox)
I can’t give you a test url cause im working on my blog again but when I use lightbox the image pops up, but when I start scrolling I see some lines or double parts of the image in stead of only the image. It seems like the scrolling leaves a trial of the image on my screen if you know what i mean. I’ve tested other theme’s and didn’t have the problem there. Tried it with different browsers as well and all had the problem with this theme.
But well, on the other side: if thats the only problem we can find :), this theme rules. Too bad I can’t use lightbox with it, cause that would have made it perfect. (now its 99% perfect, good enough though
)
February 26th, 2008 at 11:44am
hi, is it the theme that put the tiny smiley face at the bottom left of my blog?! ive been using the theme for a while now and only just noticed! awesome theme.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:54pm
I would like to use this for my blog…..is it possible to modify the code to have a custom header? (Sorry if that is a stupid question, I know nothing about CSS. I just want a minimal, plain theme).
March 4th, 2008 at 8:35pm
Hi, I’m back in the UK again but with little time for helping out here, so sorry but you’ll have to do your own changes & troubleshooting for a while.
Shy
If you find any reasons for the clash please let me know.
Lucy
Your smiley face is generated by the little script you’ve added to your variant of my theme; I think its part of the wordpress stats plugin.
Habit
Not a stupid question, changing the header is very possible: good luck
March 8th, 2008 at 12:20pm
Thnx for your answer thortz,
I’m not a pro coder… hardly an amature coder even ;-), so I’m afraid I won’t find a solution for the clash. That lightbox stuff is a bit of a hype anyway and I can easily live without it. Thnx for this wonderfull theme anyway. But if, by some miracle, i find the solution then I will post it here :).
Good luck and nice job.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:36pm
Hi Thort
I have translated Skimmed Milk to danish:
http://mads.eu/wordpress#milk
cheers
mads
March 16th, 2008 at 9:20am
Hi Mads
That’s really cool! And thanks for sharing - I’ll add a link to you in the main post.
Cheers
April 14th, 2008 at 1:20pm
Hi Thort
Love the theme and wish to use it on my web site. Dont know anything about CSS etc so can you help with the following
1. Making skimmed milk a three column template
2. menus/links on the right side, posts toward the left hand side..
Thanks
Mike
April 14th, 2008 at 5:57pm
Sorry, I don’t have time to write custom code for people. The changes you suggest would make a good project to help you learn some css though. You can see right hand menus with Skimmed Milk at http://firewatching.com/ambient/
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:30am
Dear Thorz
I first want to say that I am totally delighted with your Skimmed Milk theme. In January, when I started blogging, I spent some days searching for a theme, and coming across Skimmed Milk, immediately I knew this would be ‘my’ theme.
You may feel that I violated the purity of the theme by including a lot of images and widening the main column to 600 pixel in order to accommodate for a huge bulk of images I have processed in that format through the years. But I am an image person, and with either 5:1 horizontal banner images or right aligned 180 pixel wide images with variable height, I feel I found a good illustration modus.
A few days ago I encountered a small problem. Normally using IE7, I installed a Firefox browser, and here your Skimmed Milk Tag Cloud looks strange. Rather than a cloud, it is just a column of single words aligned left. Is it some general issue or is it something specific to my set-up/combination of plugins? I have no ability of CSS, so only change I made was the change of column width.
Only aspect of Skimmed Milk where I cannot grasp your design, is the comments section. For a unity of design feeling, I should prefer comments text to be aligned left. Also I have been pondering on the use of the grey shade under the comments. Rather than the on-off-on-off zebra effect, would it be smart that the grey shade indicated when the author was answering? - or even better, that external comments had the grey shade while the post and your answers had the white bottom? Also if at any point you are reconsidering the design, I would consider taking away the slightly darker top & bottom line of the grey shading. It calls for attention where no intention is needed.
Warm regards from Copenhagen,
Jens