Theme Updates for Custom Menus and More

January 6, 2011

Lance Willett

Last year we—the Theme Team—were quite busy, not only offering you 29 great new themes, but also improving the themes you already love and use on your WordPress.com sites. In case you haven’t looked closely at your theme in a while we’d like to point out several recent improvements.

Custom Menus
61 of our themes now support Custom Menus—we’ve enabled it for all themes that previously supported top-level navigation with pages.

For themes without top-level navigation support you can still create Custom Menus and add them as widgets to your sidebar. Read the Custom Menus support page to learn how to get the most out of this feature.

And More…
In addition to Custom Menus we also enabled Custom Background support for 72 themes, added Post Formats support to a few themes, and updated all themes to use the standard WordPress comment form. The comment form changes—though invisible to you—pave the way for cool new social features involving comments on WordPress.com sites.

Many themes also received small updates. For example, two options were added to one of the most popular themes on WordPress.com, MistyLook: single post navigation links and hide the search bar from the header (both are available via Appearance → Theme Options if you use MistyLook).

Help Us Improve
Several of you recently said that your theme is almost perfect and we are curious about the last missing piece. Help us improve themes on WordPress.com by answering our question over on the Themes forum: If you could change one thing about your theme, what would it be?

This year we will continue making improvements and launching more new themes—all to ensure you have a theme that fits you perfectly and that you are excited to show off.

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89 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. stickinsect Jan 6th at 2:07 pm

    To freshen up my blog, I am trying to decide which theme to change to. Good to here that some of the older themes have the options I have become used to with my current theme.

    Like

  2. Tom Baker Jan 6th at 2:16 pm

    The theme team is most definitely a dream theme team! Great work!

    Like

  3. Nickie Wang Jan 6th at 2:20 pm

    I have just changed the theme for my blog a while ago, and this a great way to give my blog a new twist. Thanks Theme Team!

    Like

  4. Emma Jan 6th at 2:25 pm

    Thanks for the updates. I always look at the updates and see what will be best – I am constantly updating the look of my blog to give it the look and feel I want – mostly I rely on new styles of graphics etc but these changes I will look for within the template I use.

    Like

  5. Jeannetta Vivere Jan 6th at 2:45 pm

    I will have to experiment with this custom menu, didn’t realize it was there, thank you for that. 🙂

    Like

  6. Ljubomir Gatdula Jan 6th at 2:53 pm

    “Theme Team” is quite a tongue twister 🙂

    Anyway, thanks for this, WP!

    Like

  7. Susanne Jan 6th at 2:55 pm

    This is great. You’re doing a great job. Thanks!

    Like

  8. Kelly Whitman Jan 6th at 2:59 pm

    Thanks for updating us. Debating on keeping my theme, or freshening it up with something brighter!

    Like

  9. sunlady2 Jan 6th at 3:03 pm

    Thanks for the information.

    Like

  10. Dr. Skeptic Jan 6th at 3:06 pm

    There is little one can say except you guys are doing a fantastic job! 🙂 Just keep going. And oh, one more thing: more snazzy looking mag themes would be awesome!

    Like

  11. ganeshmuthiah Jan 6th at 3:25 pm

    WordPress Theme team has DEFINITELY done a great JOB in 2010. Thanks for making my blog look better with LOVELY THEME.
    This is fantastic! Thanks theme team. Cheers. 🙂

    Like

  12. রুপসী বাংলা Jan 6th at 3:27 pm

    Thanks for updating continuously.

    Like

  13. thecareerpractice Jan 6th at 3:29 pm

    Thank you for this – very helpful – keep on trucking!

    Like

  14. Mikalee Byerman Jan 6th at 3:35 pm

    Thanks for the great tools! 🙂

    Like

  15. E.C. Jan 6th at 3:45 pm

    Thanks for the new features and updates! 🙂

    Like

  16. Christy aka Mamarazzi Jan 6th at 3:47 pm

    Thank you for all your hard work! Things are looking better all the time. 🙂

    Like

  17. X-Evolutionist Jan 6th at 3:57 pm

    I love how you keep giving us new and improved options for our blogs. Thanks WordPress.com! X

    Like

  18. phoxis Jan 6th at 4:00 pm

    Excellent. Thanks for that.

    Like

  19. raditherapy Jan 6th at 4:05 pm

    Can’t wait for more great stuff from WordPress Theme team.

    Like

  20. ganeshmuthiah Jan 6th at 4:28 pm

    As I browse more WordPress blogs, I notice many bloggers feel WordPress has the most coolest themes compared to other providers. 🙂

    Like

  21. Eric Jan 6th at 5:06 pm

    Cool! Thanks WordPress.

    Like

  22. portaleazzurro Jan 6th at 5:08 pm

    For the moment I do not intend to change the theme of my blog, but it’s nice to know that everything is in motion.
    Thanks!

    Like

  23. Charlousie Jan 6th at 5:39 pm

    It is true! My theme is almost perfect! 😉

    Like

  24. sandromaggi Jan 6th at 6:18 pm

    Thanks! Very helpful!

    Like

  25. Breland Kent Jan 6th at 6:41 pm

    Oh wow this is really nice. Thanks!

    Like

  26. djbaroque Jan 6th at 7:31 pm

    I feel a-tinkering coming on.

    Like

  27. pltprincess Jan 6th at 8:13 pm

    I really love that the teams there at WP are on a quest to continually upgrade the features and functionality. Totally appreciated!!

    Like

  28. Sandra Lee Jan 6th at 8:52 pm

    Lance,

    It really helps to have this update about general theme improvements. I see Inuit Types now has the custom menu options. Great! My theme is quite perfect because I have the CSS upgrade. 🙂

    Like

  29. AnotherSociety Jan 6th at 9:07 pm

    Thanks for the updates keeps me wanting to mess around with my blog 🙂

    Like

  30. Mai Pen Rai Jan 6th at 9:15 pm

    Thanks! This was very helpful. I created a custom menu in a few minutes after reading this!

    Like

  31. frugalchristianliving Jan 6th at 9:28 pm

    I’ll have to check my “theme” out and see how the custom menu would work—thanks!

    Like

  32. longevity0211 Jan 6th at 9:29 pm

    Wow this is just awesome! I’ve been trying to find a theme that suits just perfect for my health & longevity blog, thanks!

    Like

  33. adventurewriter Jan 6th at 10:47 pm

    Terrific, this will almost certainly help with long-time theme users.

    Like

  34. gs collector Jan 6th at 11:46 pm

    Great–always good to know that things are going upwards and onwards.

    Like

  35. mrasherkade Jan 6th at 11:55 pm

    I noticed the other day that my theme, Coraline, has a “aside”, “gallery” or “standard” post format. I LOVE it!!! Thanks!!

    Like

  36. wahyu85 Jan 7th at 12:00 am

    I change my theme often, and it’s because I simply cannot decide which I one I love the most, they’re all great!
    You guys in the theme team have done a really good job. Keep the new themes flowing, will you? Many thanks 🙂

    Like

  37. shamballa9944 Jan 7th at 12:03 am

    No question about: it Theme Team at WordPress is the BEST!

    Like

  38. Pingback: Top Posts — WordPress.com
  39. Robert M Palmer Jan 7th at 3:28 am

    Perfect for consideration for 2011…

    Like

  40. iowajohnbirchsociety Jan 7th at 4:05 am

    The move from Windows Live Spaces was filled with trepidation, but as it turns out, I couldn’t be happier with WordPress. Spaces was nice for the fonts, font size & font color, but overall I really like the clean professional look.

    Like

  41. Karan Jan 7th at 5:16 am

    Great work WordPress!

    Like

  42. Mae Jan 7th at 10:28 am

    Keep up the amazing job WP!

    Like

  43. Hisyam Hananto Jan 7th at 1:52 pm

    Once again, thank you WordPress, a new a lot of WordPress. 🙂

    Like

  44. madadgar2009 Jan 7th at 3:57 pm

    Thanks to the WordPress theme team. Indeed they’re doing more than what we need. In fact, I needed some information on the Theme Updates for Custom Menus. And I got it. Thanks again.

    Like

  45. beastlymonkeyman Jan 7th at 4:12 pm

    I’d like to see more themes, please.

    Like

  46. Margaret Jan 7th at 4:24 pm

    This is something really good to mull over…. What a good way to organize things!…. Now I’ll have to think about what readers will find most useful and helpful…. Thank you very much!…. It’s good to know you’re always coming up with ideas to improve WordPress.

    Like

  47. sadiqtukur Jan 7th at 5:05 pm

    Fantastic. WordPress, you are making us more comfortable. Thanks.

    Like

  48. V.Kirillin Jan 8th at 3:03 am

    Thank you for your hard work 🙂

    Like

  49. phuclam Jan 8th at 5:55 am

    Thanks for the updates.

    Like

  50. glenselanroj Jan 8th at 3:13 pm

    This is nice… thanks for the update.

    Like

  51. iano10 Jan 8th at 4:05 pm

    This is going to be SO useful! Thanks, theme team!

    Like

  52. mame Jan 8th at 5:31 pm

    Thumbs up for WordPress!

    Like

  53. metaglossia Jan 8th at 10:06 pm

    Superb! I really appreciate the theme team’s wonderful work. And I look forward to more themes, and more flexibility in positioning the blog title, in the height of the header picture, etc, in the number and width of columns, etc. Cheers! Keep the good work up!

    Like

  54. Angielopes's weblog Jan 8th at 11:39 pm

    Great job. Thanks guys. You are the best theme team ever 😀

    Like

  55. salterszo Jan 9th at 10:13 am

    Love the themes make things easier on the eye for readers…very nice, thanks.

    Like

  56. ganeshmuthiah Jan 9th at 3:05 pm

    I feel at home with WordPress. Lots of new tools and theme for all.

    Like

  57. thomasakesson Jan 9th at 11:06 pm

    Excellent. Custom Menus is a great feature which expands the number of use-cases that WordPress can support.

    Like

  58. miz7267 Jan 10th at 2:55 am

    Thanks for the useful info!

    Like

  59. misspinkles Jan 10th at 6:08 am

    Awesome, thanks for the info.

    Like

  60. thetripteller.com Jan 10th at 9:56 am

    Very well done! Thank you for all your precious help!

    Like

  61. ndumbalista Jan 10th at 10:28 am

    Keep on updating us! You are doing a great job WordPress.

    Like

  62. Kevin Jan 10th at 2:16 pm

    On all themes, stop forcing all-uppercase or all-lowercase for blog titles, page titles, post titles, etc. If I wanted all uppercase or all lowercase, I’d type it that way myself…

    Like

  63. Rio Jan 10th at 4:14 pm

    Great improvement, thanks for make wordpress more better by day. 🙂

    Like

  64. D.A. Jan 10th at 4:22 pm

    That’s awesome – thank you ! 🙂

    Like

  65. Dr Jalal Saleh Jan 10th at 4:39 pm

    Thanks a lot for the beautiful work you have been doing. I guess there’s need to change my blog theme this time around for a change (winks). Cheers to all!

    Like

  66. patbean Jan 10th at 5:52 pm

    I love my theme with one exception. I would like to be able to personally program the right hand column. Is there a way I can do this without changing themes. I’m not a geek, by the way, which is why I have so loved wordpress for my blog. Pat Bean

    Like

  67. AnotherSociety Jan 10th at 6:16 pm

    Nice, works perfect and just what I was looking for, and didn’t even know it. 🙂 Keep up the excellent work.

    Like

  68. Adrienne Jan 10th at 8:15 pm

    Upgrades are great – more flexibility using the current themes – how many more new themes are needed, anyway? Kudos.

    Like

  69. Arcalot Jan 10th at 8:21 pm

    You people don´t sleep 😀 ! Thanks for looking after our blogs, it´s really appreciated. Keep it coming.

    Like

  70. billiescraftroom Jan 10th at 11:03 pm

    Fantastic. I spent the last couple of weeks sorting out pages so I could add the new menu. My blog has Misty Look theme and the new menu is working GREAT. Thanks so much for all the hard work you guys do as I couldn’t do the tech stuff myself. Happy New Year, Billie.

    Like

  71. THOMAS TAUBMAN Jan 10th at 11:53 pm

    Thanks for all the creativity, I’m brand new at the blog game, but love the options you offer.

    Like

  72. Go Katayama Jan 11th at 8:56 am

    GREAT WORK. Should be good for my photography.

    Like

  73. Andrew Jan 12th at 6:07 am

    Thanks for asking, and for rapidly implementing my request (next/prev post links for Simpla).

    Now a sort of meta-request for the theme team: would you post here a summary of the “one thing” requests? For example, how many of them were font related, how many header related, how many requested more than one thing… I for one would be very interested.

    Thanks again.

    Like

  74. vickfight Jan 12th at 6:15 pm

    Thanks for theme updates for Custom Menus and more. It’s awesome.

    Like

  75. Yasir Imran Jan 12th at 8:37 pm

    Very nice update, I hope the WP team will continue to rock like this.

    Like

  76. JaJaBa Jan 13th at 4:10 am

    Very neat features! Thanks.

    Like

  77. admin Jan 13th at 7:00 am

    Great, WordPress.com is the best free weblogging service.

    Like

  78. Nora Weston Jan 13th at 5:56 pm

    The themes are super! I like a lot of them, but I’m always happy to see new ones. Three column themes have my interest at the moment. Happy New Year!

    Like

  79. Annoyed Conservative Christian Jan 14th at 2:30 am

    Thanks for the themes, it really helps speed up the process of setting up a blog.

    Like

  80. David Jan 14th at 11:20 am

    I am using the Enterprise theme and I am very pleased with it.

    Like

  81. Budisastro Jan 14th at 11:21 am

    Thanks for updating continuously.

    Like

  82. stuffsforme Jan 14th at 4:51 pm

    Thanks to the WordPress team for their regular improvements like custom menus, contact form, etc. It’s good to work on WordPress.

    Like

  83. nayyirnensi Jan 15th at 12:46 am

    Yes! More updates!

    Like

  84. navedz Jan 15th at 5:13 pm

    Another impressive addition by the WordPress team. You guys are fantastic!

    Like

  85. Nouveau Stitch Jan 16th at 1:18 am

    I LOVE by theme and my blog now that I’ve learned basic CSS…thanks WP! I know I don’t say it often enough!

    Like

  86. demoncat4 Jan 16th at 6:49 pm

    Nice work, you all are doing to keep WordPress the best it can be. Keep it up, mates.

    Like

  87. ilikecomicstoo Jan 17th at 2:38 pm

    Thank you so much for the update! I’ve been hoping for something like this so I can have my videos fed into a separate page on the menu. You guys are great! 😀

    Like

  88. NiHAWmA Jan 18th at 3:25 pm

    Thank you for keeping us up to date. More power WordPress.

    Like

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