Catalyst Theme Community

So far in this “Catalyst Feature of the Week” series, I’ve looked at various elements of the Catalyst Theme functionality.

This has covered topics like the Custom CSS Builder, EZ Widgets, the Catalyst Excerpts Widget, multiple page layouts, Shortcodes, Footer content and more.

Sometimes the posts provide an overview of the functionality concerned and sometimes a short generic guide on how to implement it.

The intended aim has been to increase awareness of what Catalyst Theme includes and how easy it is to implement functionality using Catalyst.

For those reading the posts who don’t already own Catalyst Theme, I hope this series shows how powerful and flexible Catalyst is and what a great theme it is for enabling you to create great looking WordPress sites more easily.

If you do already own Catalyst, it’s easy to forget just how much functionality Catalyst Theme includes by default:

• Functionality that can be implemented using the various options and settings without the need for programming
• Functionality that allows complex and sophisticated designs to implemented with relative ease
• Functionality that allows a huge degree of flexibility and imposes minimal design restrictions so you get what you want!

However, this week’s post is a change from the others in that it is not going to discuss a specific element of Catalyst Theme functionality.

It is though a great feature of the Catalyst Theme and possibly one of its strongest!

The Catalyst Theme User Community and Forum

Although Catalyst Theme is only a few months old, it already has a large and well established community of users.

Many of them have made the transition from Frugal Theme (the predecessor to Catalyst), whilst many others have discovered Catalyst more recently.

It’s a user base with a wide-ranging background that consists of experienced web designers, programmers, internet marketers, business owners, people with personal sites and hobbyists.

People with years of experience of WordPress, CSS, PHP and HTML and coding, to those who are just starting out with building their first sites.

Between them, they cover a vast spectrum of experience and the uses to which Catalyst is  put!

Much of that experience, the knowledge of Catalyst that users have built up, questions regarding design requirements and nuances etc that users are looking to implement, and the answers to them can be found in the Catalyst Theme Forum.

The Catalyst Theme Forum

The Catalyst Theme Forum

The Catalyst Theme Forum is a huge resource of fantastic information that reflects much of the collective wisdom of the Catalyst Community.

Over 8000 posts in over 1600 threads so far (and growing) mean that there is huge repository of information already available to help you find your answers for implementing any functionality and design requirements using Catalyst.

And it’s an active community!

Questions get answered, options get discussed, solutions get provided.

There are expert contributors and Catalyst Certified Developers that regularly provide help (I’d name them but for fear of missing any out).

But what is noticeable is just how many members of the Catalyst Community in general contribute and do so in an incredibly positive helpful way.

From those who have just bought Catalyst and need help finding their way around it, to those with more complex and advanced questions, help is always at hand.

Combined with guides and “how to” videos in the superb resources section of the site along with the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet available to all users of the theme, you’re not on your own with Catalyst.

The community of Catalyst Theme users is a great asset and strength of the theme itself.

To all existing users – you are this week’s “Feature of the Week” !!

To everyone else – come and join in the fun!

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet, the 200+ page guide to making the most of Catalyst Theme made available to licenced Catalyst users in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site that covers aspects of SEO, WordPress, internet marketing techniques and other topics not directly related to Catalyst Theme itself at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com