Hey! Version 2.5 was released on 9 July 2011. Check out modernlinguist.com to download it!
Modern Linguist is a WordPress template designed with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) participants in mind. Based partially on Chris Coyier’s beautiful WPTypo theme, Modern Linguist is an all-typographic theme created with easy reading in mind.
The theme has several pretty cool things built in. First off, it’s custom options allow integration with the NaNoWriMo.org word count API, providing dynamic and automatic word count updates pulled directly from the user’s NaNoWriMo profile. The user enters their ID number and that’s it, instant word count updates.
The options page also provides space to enter in a story synopsis and the option to display that text on the front page of the WordPress site.
Next up is typography. Modern Linguist comes with 8 standard, Open Source or Creative Commons typeface options–as well as two that are used by permission–giving the author the choice of using a font-face that best suits their novel’s mood or tone. The fonts include:
- Delicious and Fontin Sans, by exljbris Font Foundry
- The Fell Types (English and Great Primer), digitally reproduced by Igino Marini and included with his gracious permission.
- Droid serif
- Lucida
- Garamond
- OFL Sorts Mill Goudy, by Barry Schwartz
Many of the included typefaces rely on the @font-face CSS3 rule and thus require a modern browser to display correctly. To help everyone out several standard, “web-safe” fonts are defined too.
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- Modern Linguist Options
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- Delicious
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- Droid Serif
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- fell English
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- Fell Great Primer
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- Fontin
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- OFL Sorts Mill Goudy
I am excited to offer this theme licensed under the GPL and completely free. Download it and test it out! Please leave questions or remarks in the comments below.
NEW! This theme has its own site now! Check it out at modernlinguist.com.
Usage Tips
The theme is, by default, setup to help people register to read your novel. I don’t want to let just anyone read my story, so I use a WordPress plugin called Member Access to make sure only logged in users can read my posts.
I also set up a static page to be the first thing visitors see.
The navigation uses the default WordPress category structure. If you’re using this for NaNoWriMo, then you can just create a category for each year and make your posts in there. I have 2008 (last year’s novel), Announcements, and soon will have 2009 started. Categories are the way to go.
If you’ve got a new WordPress install that you’re putting this on, make sure you trim your blogroll. Otherwise the sliding panel will be big!
Changelog
Oct 30, 2009 – 1.0
Initial Release
Nov 01, 2009 – 1.3
- Fix to NaNoWriMo API pull to display correctly when no NaNo ID is entered
- Style fixes to several typefaces including the Fell Types
- Clarified attribution added to the Fell Types, digitally reproduced by Igino Marini and included with his gracious permission.
Oct 30, 2010 – 2.0
- Now utilizes Google Fonts API and Directory for better, faster, more universal webfonts
- Includes more font options.
- Cleaned up various styles.
- Revised a few minor styling issues.
Oct 31, 2010 – 2.0.1
- Neglected a screenshot image. Fixed
- Suppressed PHP errors/warnings when NaNoWriMo site is down.
July 9, 2011 – 2.5
- Visit the new site modernlinguist.com for the full changelog
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pamela wrote on 30 October 2009, at 7:56 pm //
Oooh that is awesome!
joel wrote on 30 October 2009, at 8:11 pm //
Thanks!
Jered wrote on 31 October 2009, at 1:50 pm //
Looks great!
Edwin wrote on 01 November 2009, at 4:48 pm //
Looks great. Just need to find out what goes wrong right now.
Edwin wrote on 01 November 2009, at 4:50 pm //
Nevermind that. I found out that I needed a number as id.
joel wrote on 01 November 2009, at 5:23 pm //
Awesome. Glad you figured it out!
Edwin wrote on 01 November 2009, at 5:27 pm //
Guess I didn’t quite figure it out yet
Getting the following:
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: http://www.nanowrimo.org/wordcount_api/wc/201593:1: parser error : Document is empty in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: ^ in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: http://www.nanowrimo.org/wordcount_api/wc/201593:1: parser error : Start tag expected, ‘<' not found in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: ^ in /home/edwink/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernlinguist/header.php on line 43
joel wrote on 01 November 2009, at 5:53 pm //
Shot you an email. Download the zip again and install it again. I’ve updated the file to fix that error.
Edwin wrote on 02 November 2009, at 11:28 am //
As you can see, it’s working now
joel wrote on 02 November 2009, at 11:41 am //
Fantastic! I’m glad you like it. Sorry for the hassle at the beginning.
entropik wrote on 31 December 2009, at 5:09 am //
I used your theme, it’s simple and fine, thank’s !
joel wrote on 31 December 2009, at 4:27 pm //
Awesome! Thanks for the comment. The edits you made look great. Hope you enjoy the theme.
Alex Wolfe wrote on 26 March 2011, at 2:09 pm //
Is this theme widgetized yet, Joel? Thanks! I love the look. Just about to try implement it.
Claire wrote on 09 July 2011, at 4:41 am //
Hi Joel
I’m trying to download your theme, but the link only takes me to your blog?
joel wrote on 09 July 2011, at 9:27 am //
Hi Claire, I’m releasing an updated, WP 3.2-working version of the theme later today. Check back here later on (or watch my Twitter for the announcement.
Claire wrote on 09 July 2011, at 9:31 am //
Excellent!
Do you know if it will work on MU too?
joel wrote on 09 July 2011, at 11:45 am //
I’m using it/developing it on MU right now, so yes, definitely.
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Andrea Harris wrote on 05 October 2011, at 10:06 pm //
Hi. I had an older version of your theme (2.01) installed on one of my WordPress sites, and wanted to install it on a new site I set up. I like to have the latest versions of everything so I downloaded 2.5 and uploaded it to the new site’s theme folders. But for some reason the Options page does not show up, so I can’t change fonts or set up my nanowrimo ID. The widgets module works fine. I contacted my host admins and they looked through my site and couldn’t find anything that was wrong. I then deleted the files and copied over the older version, just to see if it would work. It works fine. I’m not sure if there is something wrong with the download (got it off mondernlinguist.com) or my website or what.
joel wrote on 06 October 2011, at 4:16 pm //
Hey Andrea, do you have the latest version of WordPress installed? You should be at 3.2.1 at this point.
modernlinguist.com is running v 2.5 … so, I’d have to see your specific setup to try and figure out what is wrong.
Andrea Harris wrote on 09 October 2011, at 9:25 am //
Oh yes — it’s a brand new install. (I also have a WordPress test blog I keep updated and I tested it on that — same problem.)
I remembered something else: when I extracted the zip file to my hard drive, I got the following message in a “confirm encryption loss” box about the _MACOSX, js and type folders: “Do you want to copy this folder without encryption? A problem is preventing this folder from being encrypted.” I don’t know what is causing that — My computer is running Windows 7.
Thanks for responding!
joel wrote on 09 October 2011, at 5:00 pm //
There shouldn’t be any encryption whatsoever on the zip (I double checked it just now). I’m on a Mac… is there any chance your Win7 install is trying to apply encryption?
I’ll email you a fresh zip of the theme as well. Be on the lookout.
Andrea Harris wrote on 09 October 2011, at 5:59 pm //
It could be something Win7 was trying to do. I was just using the native extractor. However, I don’t think that was the problem — I decided to install another zip program (7Zip, for 64 bit Windows), and re-extract and re-install the theme on my test site. It still doesn’t work — the options files are just not showing up in the WordPress admin panel. The widgets work fine, but I have no way of changing the fonts or entering my Nanowrimo ID. (Note: I don’t use the editor in my WordPress admin because I don’t want to change the chmod settings to make the files accessible from there. If there is any editing to do to the code I go through the server. However I don’t want to have to edit any code if I possible!)
Thanks!
joel wrote on 09 October 2011, at 7:18 pm //
Did you get my email(s)? let’s continue the discussion there, if you’re okay with that. Hopefully we can get this resolved.
Robert G. Valiant wrote on 01 November 2011, at 5:48 pm //
Similar problem w/me I think. No theme options available for me, either. I’m on WordPress 3.2.1, new install.