Our goal this year is pretty simple:
We want to continually blow you away with the best products and services that will help you build the best websites on the planet. Marketing rhetoric is fun and all, but I like action, and I know you do too. Here’s what we’ve got in the works at DIYthemes:
First, I’m going to release Thesis 1.7 over the next couple of weeks.
Developers will get a beta version, and then everyone will get the final release once bugs are squashed (I like to think there won’t be any bugs, but then again, I WOULD think that 
). Our last release, 1.6, was biased toward design, but 1.7 is going to bring you more technical detail that will further improve on our world-class SEO framework.
Here’s what’s new:
- Options Manager.
If you’ve ever delivered a Thesis site to a client, then you know what a pain in the butt it can be to go into a new site and set every single option by hand. With Thesis 1.7, you’ll be able to save and restore the Thesis Options without having to be woefully inefficent.
Oh, and skin developers? You’ll be able to use this new functionality to share font and design settings, and this will make it easier to help people set up your awesome skins on their sites!
- Insane New SEO Controls and Detail.
Thesis has always been optimized and ready to perform in the search engines, but there were still some areas where exacting, precise controls were lacking. Not anymore.
Version 1.7 contains a totally redesigned document that allows for SEO customization at a level that no one has ever seen before.
You’ll be able to supply details, and even control the indexing (noindex, nofollow, noarchive) onevery stinkin’ page of your site. Better still, you’ll find a new page in the Thesis Options panel that will give you total control over all these
details on your Category and Tag archive pages.
Optimize EVERYTHING because that’s how you win on the Web, and that’s what Thesis is all about.
- New Headline Filter.
This one’s a bit technical, but I’m using (and loving) it on my newly-relaunched version of Pearsonified (http://www.pearsonified.com/), which is running on a pre-release version of Thesis 1.7. Basically, this simple filter will allow developers to show/hide headlines, and you’ll be able to use this to create more diverse post styles on your site. I’ve used it to create “asides,” which are a little less formal than my normal posts-here’s an example (note the absence of a headline and byline):
http://www.pearsonified.com/2010/01/web-publishing-2010.php.
It’s just a little thing, but oftentimes, things like this bring the most joy to people
who like to customize their sites!
- Beefed-up Internationalization.
Thanks to the help of our fans in other countries, I’ve been able to identify certain parts of the code that were not so translation-friendly. To fix this, I’ve gone through every single string in Thesis and made sure that everything is up to spec for internationalization. Now, it will be easier than ever to use handy translation software to translate Thesis into different languages!
Now that you know what’s coming in Thesis 1.7, let’s get back to something I mentioned in the subject of this email: “a new kind of website optimization.”
The killer part about this is that I wasn’t talking about Thesis!
As you know, Thesis is all about helping you build a flexible website that is technically precise. Problem is, your CONTENT is every bit as important as the code that runs your website, and it’s always been a bit of a bummer to me that I can’t do more on this front to help you out.
Well, thanks to my partner Brian Clark, this little problem is solved I know this is a bit of a tease, but you’ll be hearing more from me on this in the days to come!
Finally, thank you so, so much for being a part of this journey. It’s a pleasure to wake up every day and know that I can help you in some small way, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to do that!
Rock on, folks.
Chris Pearson & the DIYThemes team