We’ve been working on Genesis 1.6 for a over two months now, and we had it in beta for 3 weeks. This version includes a number of features that integrate seamlessly with WordPress and also fixes some bugs. Below you’ll see what’s been included…
Footer Widgets
Recent themes, like Venture, Focus, and even Prose, have been using this feature for a long time now. But unfortunately, they had to do things the old way, the hard way. With Genesis 1.6, this gets SO much easier. Now, all you need is 1 line of code in the theme’s functions.php file, and a little CSS (which we’ll be happy to build into many of our themes).
Learn how to add footer widgets with Genesis v1.6.
Custom Header Image
The easiest way to customize Genesis is to utilize the custom header and custom background functions that are native to WordPress and select child themes.
With custom header, this feature can be as simple, or as rich, as you need it to be. The array you pass for it it can handle a number of arguments like text color, default header fallback, and custom callback functions for the admin and front end CSS output.
Learn how to setup custom header with Genesis v1.6.
100% Custom Menu Support
When WordPress 3.0 was released, one of the biggest features added was custom menus. Immediately upon that release, Genesis was updated to include support of custom menus in addition to the Genesis option of list pages/list categories for your primary and secondary navigation. In Genesis v1.6, we’re removing the list pages/list categories options, and relying on WordPress custom menus.
During the upgrade process to v1.6, Genesis will take your old menu options (Page and Category IDs, depth options, etc.) and move them to a safe place where they can be accessed for as long as you need them. Behind the scenes, Genesis will recognize that you’re not quite ready to move to a custom navigation system just yet, and continue to display your old menus.
Learn how to setup navigation with Genesis v1.6.