As today is Valentine’s Day, this week’s Feature of the Week post is going to be a little different from the usual focus on a particular given feature.
Because people who use it love Catalyst Theme, this week’s post provides a special Valentine’s Day Menu of some of the great features that help make Catalyst so special.
So here goes!
First Course
Font Selection
A huge choice of font types is available to suit any requirement. As well as the usual range of standard fonts, Catalyst includes integration with the Google Font Directory giving access to dozens more (often funky) font types as well as the ability to include other external font choices too. In conjunction with Catalyst’s Universal Font Control and individual element customisations, you have full font control!
SEO
Catalyst Theme provides all the on-site SEO options you need to give your site a boost in the search engines. Total control is provided for Page and Post Titles, Descriptions and Meta fields along with fantastic SEO options for Categories, Tags and Author Archives. Catalyst also behaves nicely with other SEO plugins if required.
Licence Options
All editions of Catalyst Theme provide for installation on unlimited sites. With a choice of licence options and prices there is a Catalyst Edition to suit everyone.
Child Themes and Dynamik Skins
Catalyst is a Theme Framework. This means core functionality is provided by the Catalyst (Parent) Theme, with all the design and styling customizations provided by a child theme. As well as the super powerful Dynamik Child Theme included with Catalyst, there are a range of pre-set Dynamik Skins and other Child Themes available to give you a flying start to building a great looking site!
Main Course
Custom Page Layouts
Catalyst Theme allows you to create unlimited Page Layouts with different widths and sidebar layouts, et. for example. Need one Page, Post or part of your site to look different than the rest? – No problem as it’s easy with Catalyst Theme!
Custom Widget Areas and Hook Boxes
Catalyst’s Custom Widget Areas let you add widget based content where you like using the vast choice of ‘Catalyst hooks’ that are included throughout the site layout, or as Shortcodes. Likewise its Custom Hook Boxes allow you to add any content into a specific area using the same hooks or shortcode options.
EZ Widgets
Catalyst Theme’s unique EZ widgets allow you to define pre-configured widget layouts that appear across the top and/or bottom of the Homepage and/or other pages and posts, as well options for constructing a fully widgetized static homepage if required – all simply, quickly and easily.
No Coding Required
You don’t have to be a coder to build a great looking site using Catalyst Theme. Everything is easy to set up and with 800 design options available to implement through drop down selections etc in the super flexible Dynamik Child Theme you’ll be able to implement and customise your designs easily to get faster results!
Custom CSS Builder
If you do want to play with adding a little extra CSS styling (say on a heading font or whatever), or even across the site, Catalyst’s Custom CSS Builder makes it straightforward to implement – building up CSS Code automatically using its simple select and add functionality. And again – you don’t have to know how to code to use this super functionality – that’s the point!
Dessert
Support
Catalyst Theme comes with excellent technical support and access to a very active forum where technical queries and design issues can be overcome and resolved. This is a major and super strong feature of Catalyst!
Tutorials and Documentation
With dozens of clear tutorial videos that cover a huge range of topics and the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet that provides 250+ pages of reference material, finding out how to do something in Catalyst, and how to make the most of it, is easy.
Community
Catalyst Theme has a well established and loyal community of users who don’t just use Catalyst, but also regularly contribute to its support and development through the Catalyst Forum mentioned above. So with Catalyst, help and advice from those with experience is always at hand.
Share this Valentine’s Day with a Theme you’ll love!
In fun…
David.
David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.
David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com
Great post David!
I’m more in love with Catalyst now than I was the day we met… She just keeps getting better and better!
Seriously, I make my living working with Catalyst, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Eric is a genius and continues to add functionality and features that we wouldn’t even have dreamed of when Catalyst first launched. Something tells me there is even more GREAT new stuff in store just around the corner
All the while, other frameworks sit on their laurels, taking peoples money while implying major updates are just around the corner that have never come. Some in particular are looking VERY outdated nowadays. With Catalyst, improvements and new features are constantly being added.
What Catalyst delivers is far more than just software though… Guys like you and Justme really add to the package with expert help and advice here in the blog, in the cheat sheet and on the forum.
There are some amazing people in the forum community, people like Bambo, davep, deepsouth, my brother from another mother – Surfjam, Whims, Costa , Larry (Junior atoms) and so many more that all come with different expertise and with various theoretical and practical standpoints that add a TON of knowledge and help to the community. There are hundreds of amazing members contributing every week to make sure members get the most they can possibly get from Catalyst at whatever experience and skill level they sit.
Really though, at the heart of it, Catalyst is such and incredibly powerful and stable platform to work from. For the experienced developer like me it offers so much flexibility it’s just awesome. At the same time, WP newbies are getting on the forum almost every day sharing their successes building their first sites ever with Catalyst. And of course we now have quite a list of Catalyst converts that have had some experience in other platforms and now proud and loyal Catalyst converts.
Anyone siting on the fence needs to bite the bullet, get in and get started using what is the best WP theme framework available. Stop the endless hunt for the perfect theme or framework. You’ve found it! Stop trying this tool and that, spreading your precious time and building minimal skills across a huge variety of tools. Set up camp here and specialize. invest your time and effort in Catalyst and it will pay you back 100 times over.
I do ALL my work in Catalyst and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Again Dave, a great post that gives just a peak of what people get when they join the amazing Catalyst community.
All the best to everyone for the 14th of Feb whatever it means to you.
Cheers,
Ben
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I have tried several well-known and widely-used frameworks, and this by far, is the best. With every release comes better flexibility, ease of use, and more options than one can shake a stick at. I would recommend this from the WordPress newbie to the most hardcore of coders.
Thanks for a great product.
Hey Joaquin,
I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying Catalyst so much and thanks for taking the time to share your positive experience.
Eric