Mantra 1.8.1 is not Superman

Mantra / WordPress Themes

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A meteor? It kinda looks like an UFO! Could it really be ?! Or maybe… is it … Superman wearing a sombrero?

Close enough but no. It’s the new Mantra update with the symmetrically numbered version – 1.8.1 – one standing at the edge of infinity and seeing itself on the other side. Is that one the same as this one? Can they be the same with a whole infinity between them? Is space really the final frontier and infinity just an an invisible mirror? Well, until the next version comes out – I guess so.

‘What does the new version bring to the table anyway’ you ask? Well quite a lot actually. You better make some room on that table of yours cause Mantra’s packing some goodies.

‘Come on already! I ain’t got all day to read your s%&t’ you say? Don’t you use that tone with me young man! I’m investing a lot of time and effort into Mantra so you better make time to read my s%$t and you better enjoy reading my s%#t and even post a comment about how much my s%#t rocks!

‘Really? You’re gonna be like that? I better get back to my blog then !’ you shout in anger as you storm out of the room, violently shutting the door behind you. No! Please come back. I’m so sorry. Come back and I’ll tell you everything you want to hear! I’ll tell you about the new version!

‘Whatever you gotta say, just say it. I can hear you through the walls. I really don’t wanna see you right now!’ your muffed voice surrounds and numbs me.

Okay then, here it is:
The new version mainly adds a new presentation page. It has a new settings area in the Mantra Settings Page called Presentation Page just under the Layout Settings.
There you can enable it and configure it. There’s a slider and some columns. All configurable.

The Slider – You can have up to 5 slides and you edit everything – image, title, text and link. You have that for each of the five slides. The images are uploaded using the WordPress uploader so you can also choose from images that are already in your gallery. You can also choose the slider’s dimensions.

The Columns – You have 4 columns, with 4 editable fields, just like the slides. You can also choose the height of the images here.

The new version also adds a new Magazine Layout, meaning you can have 2 posts per row. That’s still in a Beta stage but we encourage you to try it an give us feedback. The option for that is in the Post Excerpt Settings because it works well with excerpts.

We are currently adding more customization options to the slider and the columns to give you more freedom. Also in the next version… 2 more menus.

Mantra is a clean, highly configurable and totally free WordPress theme. For more info check out the theme's page.

51 Comments

  1. In the above fix for Recaptcha plugin you offered:
    #recaptcha_widget_div {
    display:block;
    float:none;
    clear:both;
    }

    I ran into a similar thing for other captcha’s. In testing I found the follow solution’s for 2 of them. (Recatcha is no longer being developed)

    For Math Captcha: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-math-captcha/
    .math-captcha-form {
    display:block;
    float:none;
    clear:both;
    }

    For Captcha: http://wordpress.org/plugins/captcha/
    .cptch_block {
    display:block;
    float:none;
    clear:both;
    }

    Just posting in case someone else has a similar problem Learning to look at Page Source and search the CSS isn’t everyone skill. Don’t miss the Dot for the class call that starts the CSS.

  4. This theme is getting better and better!

    Could I request a new option for a future release please?

    Would it be possible to change the colours of the menu tabs and also the drop down menus?

    I have a number of items in the drop down menu and it looks a little untidy when I hover over the menu, as the menu items are sometime not so easy to pick out from the page text.

    Thanks

  5. I think this inquiry relates to Mantra, not WordPress, so I’ll ask it here:

    In my Blog, I set up my social media links via the Mantra settings, and also use ‘Add to Facebook’ and ‘Wibiya’ plugins to allow readers to re-post my posts. Everything works as expected except that when a post appears on Facebook or elsewhere, the expected thumbnail image that goes left of the snippet is just a WordPress logo. From all other sources my re-posts have the thumbnail found within the original article or post. I have tried different thumbnail settings and other options to no avail. Even if I disable all plugins, the WP logo is all that appears.

    You can see the results I mention by going to my blog and trying to repost any article on FB. I don;t know any other way to show you this live.

    Any thoughts?

      1. Kay,

        Any word on this WP logo replacing post image thumbnail issue above? The issue is preventing us from using Blog/Social Media post integration. Don;t want our readers seeing a WP logo where there should be a thumbnail from our recent post.

  6. Hello, I have encountered the following problem: Adding in the custom.css a statement with a child selector (i.e. ul > a) it doesn’t work, because the selector in the produced HTML document is translated to &gt ; (i.e. ul &gt ; a).
    Besides that – great theme!

      1. As a workaround (or solution) I changed line 174 in manta-custom-styles.php to

        if ($mantra_customcss != “”) { echo ”.htmlspecialchars_decode($mantra_customcss).”;}

        (Matra 1.8.2)

  7. I can’t upload a favicon. It would help if I could simply upload it with FTP and set the filename manually. Error message if you want to fix it:

    br>
    Warning: move_uploaded_file(../uploads/favicon.jpg) [function.move-uploaded-file]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /www/htdocs/servername/wp-content/themes/mantra/admin/upload-file.php on line 28

    Warning: move_uploaded_file() [function.move-uploaded-file]: Unable to move ‘/tmp/phpY5Tyti’ to ‘../uploads/favicon.jpg’ in /www/htdocs/servername/wp-content/themes/mantra/admin/upload-file.php on line 28
    error

    1. Looks like some file rights issues on your server.
      Anyway, we will use the WordPress media uploader for uploading icons in a future version and everything should be fine then.

  8. Hello, I’m glad that there are still constant updates to this theme. However, I’m distraught to be unable to find a working “contact us” link or “help” link or anything along the lines on this site. I now have to resort to posting here for help.

    I have two main issues with the current version of Mantra (1.8.2). First, the comments form disappeared from my front page. Comments form are still loaded okay on other pages and posts. However, when I swap my static front page from a page named “Home” to another page (which formally loaded fine on 1.8.2), the comments form disappeared too! This concludes that the comments form is not loaded on whatever page I make as a static front page. This only happened after I updated to 1.8.2.

    Next, is a recurring problem. Simply put, WordPress reCaptcha plugins that I load with Mantra tends to appear/render on the exact same spot as the comments form and ONLY on Firefox(v11). It looks fine on Chrome17 and IE9. I’ve tried using other themes + the same WordPress reCaptcha and it loaded correctly on Chrome17,IE9, and Firefox11.

    Can someone help me please? Many thanks.

    1. Really? You missed the red Support tab? And the Contact tab next to it? Anyway we do encourage comments as they will help others reading them as well.
      The first problem we are aware of and we’re looking into it. The second we’ll take a look at and get back to you.

      1. I did see the Support Tab and Contact Tab. However, on my browser Chrome17.0.963.79 they both point to “http://www.cryoutcreations.eu/”. When clicked, it just refreshes the page I’m currently on. Same for my Firefox 11.0.

        But on IE9, it points to /support/ and /contact/ respectively. Thanks for pointing this out so now I know you guys have a working contact/support page (only on IE9 though.)

        1. It’s nice to know that IE still loves us after all the hate we have for it :))))
          On a more serious note… the links do work (in Firefox 11 and Chrome 17), they’re just hiding behind a bigger invisible link pointing home, so they’re not easily usable. Thanks for pointing that out (For the past two days I’ve been wondering myself why the menu items hover colour only shows up when I pass the mouse over the lower part of the menu item – in Firefox 9).
          It seems we’ve been plagued by our own bug (or a combination of unfortunate events). This is now fixed – in case anyone encounters this issue on their own site using Mantra, reduce the header image height.

          1. Thank you. On a separate note, if you guys need more details (e.g. screenshots, the exact wp-plugins) of the reCaptcha bug on Firefox in my original post, just let me know. I’ll be glad to help so that I can fend off those one-size-fits-all comment spammers!

          5. We should also enable comments on more levels. We’re running out of room. The captcha looks okay.
            Are you using any other plugins? Especially comment form related ones.

            You can still try adding this to the custom CSS input in Mantra Setttins:

            #recaptcha_widget_div {
            display:block;
            float:none;
            clear:both;
            }

            We are in total darkness here but hope it helps.

          6. Hello, the reCaptcha form (both WP-reCaptcha & Better WP-reCapcha) still has the same problem even with ALL other plugins disabled. However, your custom code snippet solved the issue completely, even for both reCaptcha plugins. Meaning, it worked across all the 3 browsers (chrome,ff,ie).

          8. Do you think it (this code snippet) can be hardcoded into the next theme update? Or at least put into an FAQ so other users of similar issue could refer to it? I’ve also just realised my other website using the same theme has the exact same problem, which the code snippet helped.

  10. Love the Mantra theme you guys put together. It’s the best I’ve used in years. One thing though….

    When I select the option to have a static page, whatever static page I select the images and video is not displayed. The plain text is there, but nothing else.

    help! I need that static page in order to also select what page my posts go on.

    thanks again!

  11. Hi guys

    first of all, let me thank you for the work you do. Mantra is the first theme i could customize to my liking. Really appreciate the time you invested in it.

    Only one slight comment – i had a static home page, just with an introduction. I had this page to use only 1 column (as oposed to the posts page that are 1 main column and 2 side bars). After i upgraded mantra to the latest version 1.8.2, no matter what i tried, i can’t get the home page to be a single column. I wonder if this could be related to the introduction of the presentation page?
    Is there a way to “get my single column home page back”?

    Just a note on side, i also have a newsletter and contact page, both set to be a single column and these seem to be fine.

    Thanx again
    Peter

  12. Love your sense of humor. Hey, it’s your blog so why not!

    Not sure if this is a WP or Mantra feature of the post composition interface, but:
    Is there a way to set a preference default that adds an X-pixel rule around every uploaded image added to a post? I can do it per image by clicking on the placed image, selecting Advanced and adding the rule. Just hoping for a work saving default.

      1. Kay,

        If you look at my blog, each image in my posts has a thin 1px black rule around it. This is added (in admin) under ‘advanced’ tab if a posted image is re-opened. There is mno way that I can find that allows me to set this as a default, so that all images I post automatically have this black rule/edge/stroke/border on them.

        1. Hi David!

          You can select a border from the ones available in the Mantra settings under Graphics Options. However if you’d like to have that specific 1 pixel black border you can add the following code in the Custom CSS area:


          #content img {
          border: 1px solid #000000;
          }

          Good luck and thanks a lot for the synonyms 😉

          1. Kay, thanks for the code…
            But I may not be pasting it correctly with other code present in that field because I see no changes resulting. I don;t know css. Duh… Does there need to be a space or other character?

            This is what i currently have in the custom CSS form in Mantra Settings:

            /* Mantra Custom CSS */
            #content .entry-title {
            color: #445634;
            font-size: 24px; !important ;
            font-weight: bold;
            line-height: 3em;
            margin-bottom: 0;
            .widget-container {
            margin: 0px;
            }#content img {
            border: 1px solid #000000;
            }

  14. Hello! I’m writing because this latest version of the theme is refusing to work with a featured slider plugin called “SlideDeck”. Before this update, I was able to add the code:

    ‘100%’, ‘height’ => ‘370px’ ) ); ?>

    To the main page template, and it worked great. Now, it doesn’t show up no matter where I put it. Please help so I can put this slider back. Thanks!

  15. Thanks for the latest two realeases. As promised they fixed the problem I was having before, with changing the layout to have a sidebar on each side. However, having actually achieved this yesterday using the updated theme, I didn’t like it and changed it back to two on the right.

    Anyway, regarding the new presentation page options, I don’t really understand what this is all about. Is there a demo page, or an example I could look at to see what is possible with this?

    Finally, I want to make a number of changes to the layout and settings of my site (making use of some of the new features and fixes). In case I screw things up I want to have a back up. Is there a way of backing up the settings I currently have, so that I can quickly and easily restore them if things go wrong?

    1. Unfortunately, there’s no demo page for the new presentation page options (we’re always behind on documenting the features :D).
      But you can’t do any harm by trying out various stuff in the presentation page options. Just empty the 5 slider fields and the 4 column fields and set Enable Presentation Page to false when done trying things out.

      There’s no way to easily save/restore settings. If you’ve already customized options, you’ll have to write everything down before messing around. If you’ve changed nothing, there’s a Reset button at the bottom of the Mantra Options page to revert to theme defaults.

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