Headway Theme: Answering The Prayers of Bloggers Who Don’t Program

August 26, 2009

Headway is a new premium Wordpress theme that seems poised to take on Thesis head-on. Thesis has been on the top of the mountain for some time now and many people swear by it. Does Headway have a chance at mounting a real challenge?

The answer is YES. Headway is a powerful Wordpress theme which gives insane flexibility and configuration to bloggers who don’t know any PHP code. And let’s face it – that’s most bloggers.

http://www.vimeo.com/6284906

I spent some time playing around with Headway last week and I was seriously impressed. Some of the tasks that usually require manual editing of the underlying code of your theme to accomplish are simple changes to make in the Headway interface, including:

  • Changing the top menu of your blog
  • Changing the feed URL
  • Changing fonts
  • Changing the blog header
  • Changing the post meta information display
  • Changing blog colors

However, that’s not what impresses me the most. It is the Layout Editor. You can change the layout of any page of your blog using simple drag-and-drop. In Headway, sections of your page are called “leafs”. So, you insert a leaf of a certain kind, drag it where you want, and define the settings for the leaf. The leaf types include:

  • Image rotator (used for feature posts using images)
  • About leaf
  • Feature post leaf
  • RSS/recent posts
  • Text/HTML (to put in anything you want)
  • Twitter
  • Content ( a leaf to represent whatever content would usually go on this page)
  • Sidebar

This method of page design is used for the system pages as well as any custom pages you may create.

Headway also has “easy hooks”. Like Thesis, there are hooks set throughout the theme code so that you can insert your own custom elements and have fine-tuned control of your theme. Many of the common hooks are controllable right from the Headway interface. So, with a little HTML/CSS skill, you can take Headway under your wing and mold it into most anything you want.

Pros And Cons of Headway

The power of Headway comes in that you have quite a bit of layout control over your blog at your fingertips without knowing a lick of code. Lack of coding knowledge is the primary stumbling block for most bloggers who wish to modify their theme. Headway goes a long way to solving that.

Like Thesis, molding Headway into a really custom creation will still require some knowledge of CSS and HTML. There is a LOT you can do with this theme with no knowledge whatsoever, however you can only do so much unless you know some HTML and know how to format that HTML with a custom stylesheet.

Being that I am pretty adept at PHP programming, HTML and CSS, I tend to prefer doing my own customizations to my blog theme. For somebody like me, I actually find Headway to be a little bit in the way. I have to find work-arounds to get Headway to do something that would be pretty straight-forward with full access to the theme files.

In that light…

The Pros:

  • Impressive control over a blog’s look and layout without knowing any PHP code, HTML or advanced CSS
  • Search optimization built right into the theme, along with search-friendly code output
  • Drag-and-drop navigation control
  • Built-in integration to Twitter for easy auto-tweeting of your new blog posts

The Cons:

  • A bit of an obstacle for the advanced blogger who knows PHP, CSS and HTML and wants 100%, direct control over the theme

I should also mention that your blog has to be running Wordpress 2.8 or higher for Headway to work.

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  5. Allowing HTML in Wordpress Profile Descriptions
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  • I've been a Thesis advocate since day one. However, after seeing what Headway Themes can accomplish in such a short amount of time, I'm seriously considering making the transition.

    Clay Griffiths has put together an insanely impressive theme with jaw-dropping flexibility within the WordPress control panel. Just watching the promo video makes you want to whip out your credit card and buy it!

    Thanks for an excellent, non-biased review!

    Now, where's that Visa card? :-)
  • 2wtx
    Yes, thank you David, for a very helpful review that explains so clearly the pros and cons. It told me that Headway is not for us (we run several news pages that use Wordpress as a CMS, but have in-house expertise in PHP, HTML and CSS), but could be a good option for some of our clients.
  • gregellison
    The Headway theme does look likea good theme with a lot of configuration ability. Thanks for sharing it with us. Greg Ellison
  • davidstillwagon
    Good post for me because I don't know anything about php and ver little about html.
  • baloot
    i will take a look at that theme. well, i still addicted with Thesis theme right now. I also using Thesis theme at my blog too. Gets me more traffic because of their SEO framework. :)

    thanks for info this. i will try these theme asap.

    cheers david.
  • remarkablogger
    One thing Headway does which no other theme in the world can do right now is set all the links in a post to nofollow.
  • I read that Google is increasingly frowning upon no-follow links. I think they're even now considered black hat tricks.
  • remarkablogger
    That would be hilarious if it were true, since nofollow is actually an
    invention of Google, and is not even part of the official HTML
    specification. Google will observe the overuse of nofollow as deliberate
    manipulation, that much is true, and smart optimizers will act accordingly.
  • genecoleman
    Really like this post on Headdway. It is also good to know alot of people are as ignorant as me and there is hope. It seems to be a fix for me.
    Thanks
  • David, do you know of anybody who has any coupon codes? :)
  • I am currently using Thesis, but this looks like it could give Thesis a run for its money. I might have considered picking up Headway had I not already made a theme purchase. Maybe later.
  • Hmmm..may be worth a look. I still haven't tried Thesis on any of my sites (or client sites).

    Thanks for the review.
  • David, is this blog using Headway? It looks awesome!
  • Looks really easy, even for dumb bums like me. Would give me a lot more independence.
  • good review David. I think the one thing that really stands out abt Headway over other premium themes is that *your* Headway site can look a lot different from *other* Headway sites.

    btw I publish the unofficial Headway theme guide where you can find tips and ideas for customizing Headway - http://headwayhq.com
  • The funny thing is, Clay Griffiths (the Headway developer) has said in the forums that he doesn't really like the Easy Hooks options (but that's because he's obviously a coder like you) and prefers getting into the code.

    Which makes the fact that Headway is such an easy-to-optimize site for non-coders like me all the more appreciated. Having seen some of the videos of what he has in store with the next version (due imminently), I'd say that a certain do-it-yourself theme has some great competition. And at the end of the day, that can only benefit us bloggers.

    Cheers for the overview, David.
  • it's really a big advantage of having a knowledge about html/css.By the way thanks for sharing, i will surely look at it
  • Headway is definitely a fantastic theme! I've used it myself and I loved it after about five minutes into working on my design. It makes everything much faster, much easier, and much more logical. I would definitely recommend it to every blogger, new and old!
  • Great post David, thanks for the heads up!

    I will be looking into Headway as I was on the fence to decide which direction I wish go.

    Thesis vs Headway!
  • Hey Dave,

    Here's a guy who is offering a discount for purchasing Headway:

    http://www.bradleyspencer.com/2009/headway-them...

    Wow... a big $5.00 and a free SEO eBook if you purchase through his link. He seems like a descent dude but I don't think he's ever had the privileged of having dinner with Warren Whitlock.

    I was able to sit with Warren during dinner at the JVAlert here in San Diego August 2009 and what a treat that was. His witty sense of humor is tops in my book and if someone is ever looking to publish a book and get noticed he's the man the man to see!

    http://twitter.com/warrenwhitlock Author of The Twitter Revolution.

    I am a newbie blogger for only 3) months now David and I’ve learned more about blogging form your site than any other.

    I have a question, What is your take on using an exit pop up to get more subscribers to your list?

    Okay, time for me to go and purchase Headway

    Thanks Dave!
  • Thank you for another great article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect way of presentation.
  • I found a headway vaild coupon code on this site > http://HeadwayThemesCouponCode.com if anymore was looking for one, Saved me 20 bucks off headway.
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