Applying ourselves with Appply

Written by Mark Forrester on January 10, 2013 Product News.

2013 kicks off with a theme we’ve spent the large part of December/January giving our utmost attention.

Appply is a bold and spacious theme sharing similar characteristics with our own site, whilst boasting a modern edge that will give your site a fresh 2013 feel. Designed by Chris Rowe you’ll also notice lots of his tried and tested styling elements you might remember from themes like Function and Whitelight.

Support for WooCommerce

As you’ve come to expect with all our new theme releases, Appply comes out of the box with support and styling for our eCommerce plugin WooCommerce. It also supports Features and Testimonials to further beef up the feature set of this versatile theme.

Create quick and simple alternate styles

With simple, bold and flat color styling customizing Appply should be a breeze, and thanks to it’s LESS powered CSS development you should be able to make major changes to the theme with limited code edits. These alternate styles showcase it’s flexibility with each CSS file being only a few lines of extra styling.

Discount Coupon

Grab this theme with a 13% discount coupon, valid until 17th January, 2013. Just use APPPLY13 as your coupon code on checkout.

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144 Responses

  1. Shane Gowland
    January 10, 2013 at 4:01 pm #

    I’m really loving this theme, guys. It’s perfect for a website idea I’ve been toying around with for a few weeks.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 10, 2013 at 7:32 pm #

      Let us know if you put Appply to work on that site!

    • zeerebel
      January 11, 2013 at 3:52 pm #

      same here. Can’t see it member panel

    • Paul Barrs
      January 18, 2013 at 1:26 am #

      Ditto to what Shane said – really love the look of the new Appply Theme. Have been looking for a suitable design to upgrade and combine both my coaching business and my blog / eBusiness websites into one… Appply could be it.

      With a few slight colour mods it could be a winner. Well done Woo!

  2. a.holligan.bf3
    January 10, 2013 at 4:04 pm #

    This theme cant be downloaded from member panel :/

    • Ryan Ray
      January 10, 2013 at 7:39 pm #

      It’s there now, sorry about that!

      • dalewright
        January 10, 2013 at 8:15 pm #

        Ryan, I cant see it my panel either. Could you email me across a copy by email please?

        Cheers

      • a.holligan.bf3
        January 10, 2013 at 8:35 pm #

        Still not showing in my member panel 🙁 Whats wrong ? 🙂

        • joshuawithers
          January 11, 2013 at 5:47 am #

          Negative on the member panel as well 🙂 #addingtothenoise

      • a.holligan.bf3
        January 11, 2013 at 8:44 am #

        STILL NOT HERE! ANY DOWNLOAD BUTTON SHOWING IN !

      • 2Black
        January 12, 2013 at 2:09 am #

        It’s not there and it hasn’t been there for me the entire day.
        Cleared my browsercache and all…, tried lots. No download.

        • 2Black
          January 13, 2013 at 12:04 am #

          Well I finally got the download although the cart still shows full…
          Problem solved, now for the install…

  3. Freddie
    January 10, 2013 at 4:16 pm #

    Fantastic looking theme, chaps! Look forward to playing with this one!

    • Scott Webb
      January 10, 2013 at 7:40 pm #

      Thanks! I agree this is a looker!

  4. Lovely Templates
    January 10, 2013 at 4:53 pm #

    WOW, Very nice looking theme. Good work.

  5. samuelmaes
    January 10, 2013 at 4:56 pm #

    Cannot wait to take a further look at this and put it to work.

    Awesome theme.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 10, 2013 at 7:40 pm #

      Be sure to keep us posted on that!

      • samuelmaes
        January 10, 2013 at 7:52 pm #

        Must be a lot of support staff on line presently =)

  6. Matt Mikulla
    January 10, 2013 at 5:27 pm #

    Great theme. Would be better if there was a black and grey/neutral color option as well.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 10, 2013 at 7:33 pm #

      As I’m sure you know, a few lines of LESS can fix that right up. Maybe one of us will get in there and add it. 😉

      • matthewjamesshaw
        January 14, 2013 at 3:25 am #

        Please let me know if that happens.

      • bnix
        January 15, 2013 at 6:50 am #

        Post example of how you changed color via LESS?

      • chirorehab6226
        February 17, 2013 at 8:50 am #

        That’d be great Ryan. I second Matt’s suggestion for a black and grey or red option.

  7. samuelmaes
    January 10, 2013 at 7:57 pm #

    Guys,

    Cant checkout, keeps emptying my cart.

    • Mark Forrester
      January 10, 2013 at 8:02 pm #

      Please try clear your browser cache and try again. Let us know if the problem persists.

      • samuelmaes
        January 10, 2013 at 8:07 pm #

        Hey Mark,

        Cleared my Caches’. Got a little further but after pressing Place Order, my session expires 🙁

        you can email me on samuel.eden@sky.com 🙂

        • dalewright
          January 10, 2013 at 8:47 pm #

          Same experience here I am afraid. I have logged a support ticket 🙂

          • wdh
            January 10, 2013 at 10:02 pm #

            Hey Guys

            So sorry about the issues you’ve had here with checkout. We had an issue with our cache system, which we’ve sorted out now.

            You shouldn’t be having any issues with checkout now, so please go ahead and make your purchase 🙂

  8. pedro67
    January 10, 2013 at 8:01 pm #

    sorry to see that they all look the same for months – nothing new, no stylish stuff.
    You have put your focus on WooCommerce which is a great idea. I can understand that.
    I love your framework, but the market has changed long time ago and I see so many cool templates with fantastic design on themeforest and some of them even with WooCommerce.

    I see that those themes are old school – sorry.
    No full screen stuff, no cool sliders like uSlider, Revolution Slider, Retina support and similar stuff.

    What is so awesome on this theme?
    I suspect that the first recommendations are from your own team (friends),

    I was a fan from you for years, but I guess maybe I just need sometimes Woocommerce for a client but the design basic setup from somewhere else

    • Michael
      January 10, 2013 at 8:17 pm #

      have to agree!

    • 21cdb
      January 10, 2013 at 11:50 pm #

      Me too. Looks the same as the last several themes … no more innovation. I miss the time where you did some application themes or at least some innovative designs. Looking forward for “LMS / Sensai” and “MegaMenu” Plugin. Anything new on these one?

      By the way? I’m missing portfolio component. Will it be released as plugin too?

      • James Koster
        January 11, 2013 at 12:44 pm #

        App Themes are finished. The key lesson we learned there was that people wanted to use the functionality of an app with a different theme. Hence we’re moving that kind of functionality into plugins (WooCommerce, Testimonials, Features, WooSidebars, WooSlider etc) which makes it portable between themes, Woo or no.

        Show us some examples of innovative design 🙂

        • Marcus Tibesar
          January 11, 2013 at 5:59 pm #

          So is Appply the “new Canvas” ?

  9. samuelmaes
    January 10, 2013 at 8:05 pm #

    Im not a friend or a team member (otherwise my comments would be green).

    The themes are not all the same, they are all different 🙂

    Woo are really focusing on making things better for its users and in my eyes are presently doing a great job.

    • pedro67
      January 10, 2013 at 8:18 pm #

      I know the green ones… yeah yeah….

      the structure is since about July 2011 similar. The shops as well (there was once a little change with round pics I guess).
      But hey… you cannot close your eyes on what´s going on on Themeforest. Comon…

      I use some of the themes, but the latest I used was BURO and we updated CANVAS. That´s it.
      Since about a year (!) design stands still.

      I guess I will quit my developer licence. There is no more use for paying each month 25,-
      If I need some Woo Commerce add-ons, I have to pay them anyway separately.
      And I can read in many Blog Entries, that there are a lot of disappointed members.

      • samuelmaes
        January 10, 2013 at 8:28 pm #

        As the statistics say;

        An Unhappy customer is more likely to spread the news of upset 3 times more than a customer who is happy.

        A unhappy customer is likely to tell at least 10 people, where as a happy customer is more likely to tell 3.

        Thankyou, Goodnight

  10. dalewright
    January 10, 2013 at 8:18 pm #

    This theme is going to save my bacon! (Sorry, im British)…

    I customised the hell out of Canvas for a client project and fell out of love with my work a week before the deadline.

    Kudos!

  11. wideblueyonder
    January 10, 2013 at 8:30 pm #

    Really brilliant theme – love the style! Going to use straight away to give one of my sites a fresh start for 2013.

    Not showing up in my downloads list at the moment despite clearing cache. Any known issue?

    • wideblueyonder
      January 10, 2013 at 8:42 pm #

      In fact tried three browsers all with completely cleared cache and no sign

    • wdh
      January 11, 2013 at 4:06 pm #

      Hey Guys

      So sorry about the issue here, we’ve fixed that up for people on the Standard Club membership and anyone who may have bought the Standard theme.

      Apologies for the inconvenience!

      • Marcus Tibesar
        January 11, 2013 at 6:01 pm #

        Can’t enter the coupon code for a standard purchase

  12. Matty Cohen
    January 10, 2013 at 10:03 pm #

    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for reporting the issue with not seeing “appply” in your dashboards.

    I have checked with our webmaster and can confirm that “appply” should now be available for download for all who are eligible (club subscribers and single-theme purchasers).

    Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused here.

    Thanks and regards,
    Matty.

    • samuelmaes
      January 10, 2013 at 10:36 pm #

      Hey Matty,

      Ive finally managed to purchase it, it hasnt appeared in my download list though…

      A copy of Canvas has that i chose as a bonus theme..

      it links to this though
      https://woo.com/?product_variation=18885

      and the title of it is Variation #18885 of Canvas.

      I keep ending up at alot of 503 pages…

      Please help 🙂

      • Ryan Ray
        January 11, 2013 at 9:44 pm #

        Just contact us directly, we’ll check in on the order and make sure it works from there, sorry everyone! – info[at]woocommerce.com

    • dalewright
      January 10, 2013 at 10:42 pm #

      Hi Matty

      Strange thing, the theme is now listed but the download button is missing.

      All caches have been cleared.

      Any ideas?

      • wideblueyonder
        January 10, 2013 at 10:45 pm #

        +1 on that issue. Thanks for looking into it so promptly.

      • samuelmaes
        January 10, 2013 at 10:46 pm #

        +1

      • Ryan Ray
        January 11, 2013 at 5:47 am #

        Is this still happening on your side guys? I’m able to download it from my account.

        • a.holligan.bf3
          January 11, 2013 at 8:45 am #

          It isnt at our member panels, check it !

        • wideblueyonder
          January 11, 2013 at 10:30 am #

          Yep – issue still persisting. Appply shows up in the download page for subscribers but no blue download button in the right hand column of the table.

          • dalewright
            January 11, 2013 at 2:33 pm #

            Still a problem for me too i’m afraid. Could I get an email copy please?

          • beate73@gmail.com
            January 11, 2013 at 3:53 pm #

            Ditto!

  13. Page
    January 10, 2013 at 11:21 pm #

    Good clean design! I noticed one thing on the iPhone in portrait mode: the featured slider buttons block the slider title.

  14. FireIFA
    January 11, 2013 at 1:02 am #

    I agree with guys who says that this theme is like other. I am thinkink in no resuscribe to club here. Themeforest, themify, magazine3 and elegantthemes are doing things better. Woo doesn’t have nothing exciting since a year ago. Is a shame

    • pedro67
      January 11, 2013 at 1:21 am #

      agree – once Woo was the star.

      • samuelthan
        January 11, 2013 at 3:37 am #

        I’ve been fan of WooThemes and all things Woo especially the WooCommerce.
        I would have to agree with some of the comments about the new themes that have been released is very blend in the design. I have no doubt that the functionality of the theme is getting better with the introduction of Testimony plugin, Feature plugin…

        To WooThemes, keep doing what you are good at. I’m getting a feeling that you are stronger/focusing on WooCommerce front.

        If i could offer a suggestion of tapping the design talent/hunger of the current Woo fans here. Maybe introducing sort of competition for designers to hand up their “dream Theme” design for a chance to win so good prize (1-2 year free WooTheme membership, or 5 free WooCommerce extension)….. blah blah

        🙂 anyway. Keep up the good work again.

        • Mark Forrester
          January 11, 2013 at 11:03 am #

          Hey Samuel, we’ve always had the “Submit your design” page, but aren’t actively promoting since our re-design. http://woo.com/submit-your-design/

          The submissions we receive are seldomly theme ideas we believe our community will like, and the design elements are usually below par. However, we always point

          Regarding a competition we are very weary of getting caught in the spec work debate.

          I’m confident at least one of the two themes we have in development will please some of the vocal few with a very unique layout in comparison to our recent work.

          • gd6d
            January 11, 2013 at 12:10 pm #

            Good news, Mark. I also would be pleased to see something really different, for instance a business theme without a slider on the homepage…

          • James Koster
            January 11, 2013 at 12:47 pm #

            @gd6d You know the sliders are optional right? 🙂

          • beate73@gmail.com
            January 11, 2013 at 3:54 pm #

            I’m looking for a good “book blogger” theme for a couple websites, any chance something to that effect coming our way from Woo any time soon?

      • Marcus Tibesar
        January 11, 2013 at 6:05 pm #

        Agree. I abandoned them months ago and now go with Genesis. No monthly fees and no drama. Easy peasy.

        • Ryan Ray
          January 11, 2013 at 9:46 pm #

          Thanks for the feedback here Marcus.

          It would be very similar as if you purchased Canvas from us. Although not quite a true framework, it’s the most comparable. 🙂

  15. Davys
    January 11, 2013 at 1:25 am #

    I have to agree. I posted some ideas for new themes, but my post got deleted. It`s time to come up with some new designs. Some of them look the same. I would like to see more WooCommerce themes geared for digital products and even regular products. But themes that look like a store.
    I am happy to see that I am not the only one the feel this way.
    It time to change up a little, or maybe a lot. As you can see the customer`s here are starting to be unhappy, and pretty soon they are going to be looking else. The only reason why I do not buy more themes from themeforest is because each designer does their themes in different ways, and it would be hard to get support and keep things standard.

    Come on guys pay attention to what your customers are saying. This is not the first time I see people sharing this type of thoughts.

    I am sure you guys are busy with the new version of WooCommerce and the new WP 3.5, but it is time to blow are minds with some really cool WooCommerce Themes..

    That`s my 50 cents.

    Thanks
    Davys

  16. Moonworks
    January 11, 2013 at 2:54 am #

    It does seem that themes are similar.

    I like this one though, maybe because I am a big fan of purple (it’s a Wiccan dream).

    To those not seeing it in your downloads, I grabbed it about 7.,30/8pm (UK time, and there weren’t any problems.

    I’m already using it on my site at http://www.business-web.co.uk and will be workign on it tomorrow.

    • Moonworks
      January 11, 2013 at 2:55 am #

      One thing I’m confused about though, is the use of the green in the theme.

      This really doesn’t seem to fit in with the whole purple feel.

      • Ryan Ray
        January 11, 2013 at 5:49 am #

        Glad you do like Appply! The green button is an addition to the initial purple [ button ] shortcode. You don’t have to use the green button at all!

    • Davys
      January 11, 2013 at 3:53 am #

      Looks good.
      Congrats.. I guess I will setup mine kind of like yours..

      Cheers

      Davys

  17. andyjoe81
    January 11, 2013 at 5:05 am #

    Very nice. Almost got it though I don’t even need it right now, then saw that its not responsive entirely though it is so close i cant understand why. Also its a shame the header and slider don’t share the same background.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 11, 2013 at 5:50 am #

      What issues do you note with it being responsive?

      • davidjohn610
        January 11, 2013 at 11:55 am #

        slider image does not get small enough from my testing.

  18. cucogut
    January 11, 2013 at 6:31 am #

    Don’t see the download button in my download page! I’m a club subscriber!

  19. a.holligan.bf3
    January 11, 2013 at 8:46 am #

    Im subscriber but this theme is in my panel but without download button?!

  20. webjump
    January 11, 2013 at 10:38 am #

    Love this theme – it’s clean, no “wooy-look” and really versatile (if you can design properly and see through the negativity. More like this please.

    Forget comments re Themify and Elegant Themes – I have a great deal of them, many are unusable for real-world projects, and when you have to roll your sleeves up to build- they’re really too much like hard work.

    Woo, this would make a great Canvas child theme too. BTW can you recommend a good portfolio option as I can’t see one here?

    Bravo though, Woo.

    PS. Let’s not forget, how you (and Jigo Shop) basically single handily, drove affordable eCommerce forward last year and helped make developers lots of money.

    (short memory some people – like most when they get something for nothing).

    Keep up the great work 🙂

    • Mark Forrester
      January 11, 2013 at 10:54 am #

      Thanks for the kind words!

      • webjump
        January 11, 2013 at 5:08 pm #

        Always welcome Mark.

        Hey, let’s all do the math:

        $70 = £43 / 3 = £14.30 per theme incl. great support, best framework, free plugins and update – oh, and you can use the theme for unlimited sites.

        Basic website £500 for a days work – gee, let me have a good think about that one!!

        DUH?

    • Ryan Ray
      January 11, 2013 at 6:43 pm #

      I’ve not searched far and wide for a plugin to add portfolio functionality, BUT our portfolio functionality in most of our themes has plans to become a plugin.

      Just like we’ve done with features and testimonials. 🙂

      • webjump
        January 11, 2013 at 10:09 pm #

        Thanks for that Ryan.

        I’ve searched far and wide for a good portfolio (Good Layers themes are great actually).

        Good call. Makes sense to make the Portfolio a killer plugin, as it’s something not everyone needs for every site, so why waste time implementing.

        We could use lots more options re thumbnail image control, rollover event handling and multiple image management. I do think that all pretty much suck on WordPress, so hope you guys have a fab one in dev.

        PS. Can I now easily add a blog to my Canvas 5 easily via widgets, or am I mistaken?

      • Moonworks
        January 11, 2013 at 11:12 pm #

        This would be a great way to go. For one thing, it means just having to concentrate on the plugin when making updates, rather than every theme with a portfolio.

        I think this is also a great way to keep the themes lean, as we can then add the plugin we need, such as WooCommerce or Portfolio.

        • webjump
          January 12, 2013 at 12:10 am #

          Defo. A few months a go, I was seeking to build a few restaurant sites. Unfortunately, at that time I couldn’t find a decent, responsive food menu – only ones were on a few theme sites. I hated the design on everyone – too themy!

          I eventually found a crackerjack plugin that befitted my design properly.

          The fact is, no one theme does everything because all needs differ. The best way forward is to always start with a basic, clean site and build up layers of design and functionality.

          If you look closely at almost any website or product, it’s the subtle changes that make the difference, so lets focus on getting the basics right like high performance and robust expandability.

          A website should be led by its business functionality first and the design modified to enhance its experience and aesthetic appeal.

          Woo is so on the right track and I look forward to plugins that do the job well.

      • Freddie
        January 13, 2013 at 11:55 pm #

        Hey Ryan,

        I think Woo are going down the right route with the plugins, however, a Portfolio plugin for this theme is very much needed (IMO).

        Hence, my question:

        When?

        Ta.

        Freddie

        P.S. Love the features and testimonials plugins, they certainly work seamlessly with this theme.

  21. Surbma
    January 11, 2013 at 12:16 pm #

    I like the new design, very impressive and beautiful theme.

    However I have to agree with others, that the new themes are boring and very similar to the previous themes.

    And please, please test the themes on smaller screens! You don’t even need an iPad, you can resize your browser to test the responsive styles.

    It is disappointing, that the front page has problems with the slider even on a 1024 px wide resolution.

    In iPad portrait mode, the page looks terrible! No margins?

    So my conclusion is: it’s a shame WooTeam. You can do better, I know.

    • southernweb
      January 13, 2013 at 6:45 am #

      Beautiful theme but iPad Portrait looks awful!

  22. Dawson
    January 11, 2013 at 12:48 pm #

    Very clean and professional design. Happy its responsive to some extent. Will recommend this theme to my clients. Kudos Woo team.

  23. a.holligan.bf3
    January 11, 2013 at 2:48 pm #

    Can anyone fix download link in our member panels ?? HALLO !!

  24. iowa600
    January 11, 2013 at 3:52 pm #

    Guys – the main page slider image isn’t responsive and stays large on small screens. Can you fix?

    thanks!

  25. zeerebel
    January 11, 2013 at 4:04 pm #

    I was finally able to download it using IE9…
    The download button does not show up on Firefox or Chrome

  26. EnergyFreak
    January 11, 2013 at 5:34 pm #

    It looks nice, but I would like to see you guys develop a theme concentrated more on ecommerce and less on blogging, by that I mean, make it look more like a store.

    Like this one for example: http://themeforest.net/item/breeze-html5-css3-store-template/full_screen_preview/3722352

    The themes developed are nice but to me it seems like they are all very similar except for some unique theme tunings and colors. The next one should be 70% store and 30% blog. Anyway, this is just my 2 cents, let me know if this is in your future plans.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 11, 2013 at 6:48 pm #

      Our philosophy, and in general the philosophy on WordPress themes, is that the theme should only be the colors and layout. Essentially the design you put your content into.

      Plugins are then there specifically to provide functionality, like adding sliders, testimonials, ecommerce, etc…

      So with that in mind, we try to have unique designs that are still very flexible in their nature. If you want your site to be 70% store and 30% blog, you can then setup this theme to do that. It has support for WooCommerce and includes a blog page template, so you can do something like set the shop page as your homepage or craft a custom shop homepage. Then use the blog page template as you see fit to have the other 30% be a blog. 🙂

      • CateFergOnline
        January 12, 2013 at 1:16 pm #

        exactly
        🙂

      • EnergyFreak
        January 12, 2013 at 6:41 pm #

        I understand what you are saying, you are trying to make the theme fit for everyone’s needs and if we want, we can tune it to however we want. I’m just saying that the themes in my opinion are not designed (styling) to look like an Ecommerce website. it just looks like another blog theme with a little bit of Ecommerce added to it, it’s perfect if you want to sell some t-shirts and hats for your brand, but if you are thinking large scale like many users and myself, it won’t work. This plugin is more than capable of doing this, so we need something to fit those needs. Most users are not speaking out about this, but the demand is there. Themeforest authors are making a fortune by doing this. I prefer your themes, because they are professionally coded, but I wouldn’t buy any at the moment because I can get a free blog theme that looks very similar (again, styling, not functionality) to what you created and tune it to my needs.

        • James Koster
          January 14, 2013 at 6:40 pm #

          We’re working on a theme right now that I think you might like. Watch this space.

          • EnergyFreak
            January 14, 2013 at 7:11 pm #

            Great, i’m looking forward to it!

  27. allmyhoney
    January 11, 2013 at 6:06 pm #

    A clean rock solid design. I think with all the basics covered in this theme it could be used for anything like Canvas can. With a little skill adapting this alot seems achievable. I would strongly disagree with themes that are overly designed and too clever for their own good. I think for 9 out of 10 projects Canvas those the trick and can be adapted into anything. So I hope you can continue on this road. Thanks again.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 11, 2013 at 6:51 pm #

      I would agree with your points here on Canvas. I think we should start thinking of Canvas as a theme framework, and thus treating as such.

      It’s still positioned right now between a theme and true framework I think though. 😛

      • cbesett
        January 11, 2013 at 7:57 pm #

        That would be great. I mainly use “blank” themes so i can put my own design around it — such as Catalyst, Genesis and Thesis, etc. I would use Canvas more but those just have benefits on most sites that Canvas doesn’t (although I love Canvas for some projects.)

        Look forward to Canvas become a real framework as you say.

        • Ryan Ray
          January 13, 2013 at 7:03 pm #

          Just note, these are my personal thoughts. Not necessarily a definitive direction we’re going.

          I’d have to make the case to our whole team and people who have the final say, but it’s a worthy idea I think. 😉

      • Moonworks
        January 11, 2013 at 11:16 pm #

        This is what I was saying a while ago, along with others.

        It would also be good to see some Canvas child themes being released, so we can use Canvas and then have different looks at the click of a button.

      • Achim
        January 12, 2013 at 2:15 pm #

        Yesss !

        Make Canvas a real Framework so we can build awesome sites on this. You could release some nice childthemes and show us some woo magic 😉

        I am using canvas on nearly every site I build so I am really thinking of stopping my developer membership and only buy canvas because we don’t use any other theme.

        And as already said here before, the new themes all look alike. When I first saw Appply, i thought, it was a new version of Optimize …

        And looking at Appply I think this is really easy building something like this with canvas.

        So, why not using canvas ? 😉 Really guys, make canvas a cool framework !

        • bsmity
          January 16, 2013 at 3:57 am #

          +1

      • dotp
        January 13, 2013 at 3:58 pm #

        Please consider moving Canvas to a “theme framework”. That is what it’s name implies. Because it’s positioned in the middle of theme and framework, it is often neglected and is falling into no mans land in both categories. New Woo themes get nice functionality features but Canvas does not. The portfolio functionality is woefully inadequate as is the slider compared to what is currently available on ThemeForrest for most themes. Plus, when I get ready to use Canvas as blank theme, I end up spending time stripping design out of the theme (those rounded corners everywhere) so I can make it truly blank and usable. The result is that I often have to look at other themes (and use them) to build client sites when I would rather use Canvas for all my custom builds.

        • James Koster
          January 14, 2013 at 6:41 pm #

          I assume you’re using our WooSlider plugin? How do you mean the slider functionality is ‘woefully inadequate’?

          • dotp
            January 16, 2013 at 1:45 pm #

            Compare WooSlider features and functionality to Revolution Slider and you’ll see what I mean. I assume that you don’t need portfolio examples.

            James, my intent isn’t to get down on Woo, just to make you aware that clients are demanding more (they see a slider on a site and want it). Now I have to go outside Woo and Canvas to get that functionality which I don’t like to do.

            Same goes with the portfolio capabilities of Canvas. Because I don’t have the time (or skills) nor clients the budget to code/integrate/recode the Canvas portfolio with all the latest ajax bells and whistles, rollovers and make it responsive, I’m forced to look for a non Woo theme that has that capability.

            If the portfolio and slider capabilities of Canvas could be upgraded to keep up with what my clients are seeing in other themes, Canvas would be unbeatable. That’s my two cents at least.

  28. joelreeves
    January 11, 2013 at 8:50 pm #

    To be honest it looks and feels a LOT like a whole bunch of the woo theme portfolio at present.

    While you guys have a great functionality and ease of use the design side of things is becoming somewhat rinsed. Some of the replies from Woo on this blog tend to come across as defensive too.

    The fact is design is becoming an issue and if so many are saying it then maybe taking the view that “submitted content wouldn’t suit our customers” is not quite true. After all, aren’t submitted design ideas coming from ‘fans’?

    Try not to become a victim of your own success.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 11, 2013 at 10:02 pm #

      Hey Joel,

      Sorry if we come across defensive, we are really just trying to dig deeper and get more feedback.

      From our perspective we are creating very similar themes to what some users complain is done better on themeforest. Like we say, it all is subjective too.

      As an example, in one post there was a comparison between a themeforest theme and Whitelight. They said the TF theme was better, but it had the exact design and layout of Whitelight.

      That’s why we definitely try get more info, examples, etc… of what is wanted from our community. I don’t think we ever mean to be defensive, but it is hard to hear after working hard on a great theme. We do need to still defend what we love and have convos around that.

      Concerning the content about submitted design, Mark mentions the bigger debate around spec work. That’s some of the reasoning we don’t promote that avenue as much. There isn’t a guarantee that a submission will be made into a theme, thus they’ve spent a lot of time and work for no results.

      So in general, I think we do need a bigger conversation with our community about design. 🙂

      • dotp
        January 13, 2013 at 4:07 pm #

        It’s hard to be critical of your own work. You need an outside perspective (someone qualified) that is neutral to evaluate and provide feedback for your theme designs BEFORE they get approved coded. I’ve really not seen anything new in months from Woo on the design end and Appply is no exception. Why not form a small team of hand picked designers from outside Woo to evaluate the designs and provide feedback to concepts? I know you’ve hired outside designers to design themes, but there needs to be a voice that’s not a Woo team member or the designer themselves. I suspect that the problem isn’t really the designer or the Woo team, it’s the original design brief and purpose for the theme that sets things down the same path over and over.

        • James Koster
          January 14, 2013 at 6:53 pm #

          As I understand it, all the negative comments regarding design are from people who want more niche styled themes.

          The problem is, and this is a fact, the more niche the design becomes, the more specialised… the lower the sales. The vast majority of our customers want themes that they can easily customise depending on the project. It doesn’t make business sense for us to deliver themes that are ‘over-designed’ when they’re only going to satisfy 5% of our userbase and then be unusable for the other 95%.

          What we’re trying to explain is that with a little work your end it would not be difficult to make one of our themes look like the famous ThemeForest themes out there. In building the themes our focus is very much on flexibility and I think our case studies are testimony to what can be done with a little elbow grease.

          Maybe that’s not clearly communicated? Perhaps we need to do a series of blog posts / tutorials demonstrating how easy it is to dramatically change the appearance of a theme with a few lines of code?

          • dotp
            January 15, 2013 at 4:42 pm #

            I think this is why every time a theme like Appply or Whitelight comes out, you get comments on the one hand like “is this supposed to replace Canvas” or “this is a Canvas killer” and on the other “this theme is too generic” or “it looks like every other theme you’ve done lately”. Customers don’t know whether its supposed to be an SUV, truck or a minivan, but they know it isn’t a sports car.

            By customizing Canvas, you can make just about every theme that Woo has produced (provided Canvas gets the back end capability or plugins of the new theme, which it has not always). Canvas is a theme framework (not a true framework, as you already have that with the Woo Framework) that Woo has positioned as more of a theme than a framework. People want and expect Canvas to have all the functionality, structure and flexibility (either coded into or through Woo plugins) of any new theme but do not want it to have styling (be gone rounded corners). Instead Canvas doesn’t always get the bells and whistles functionality updates new Woo themes do, and then every time Canvas is updated, the styling is added which isn’t wanted.

            The rest of the Woo themes with the exception of Canvas, should be positioned more as a unique, specialized, niche theme right out of the box. I’m not talking about over designing them, Focus making each theme’s site layout and functionality specialized while keeping the visual elements simple and flexible. This will help your themes sell and keep customers from having to “dramatically change the appearance of the theme” — that’s the whole point of a theme — while still purchasing something unique. Otherwise point them to Canvas and tell them it’s the best suited for dramatic customization.

            In summary, I suggest positioning Canvas to be a framework (with all the bells and whistles but no styling) and then position all your other themes to be bolder, more specialized in design layout and functionality.

        • dondowell
          January 18, 2013 at 2:33 am #

          I really wanted to echo DOTP’s suggestions regarding Canvas – specifically the need for a newer slider option as well as a newer portfolio section – but it wouldn’t let me reply to that comment. I thought we were going to get a newer portfolio section months ago when Canvas 5.1 was promised. The feedback committee is a good idea. I HATE going outside Woo, but when clients see stuff and say they want their site like this one, you have to try to give them what they want (UberMenu, Revolution slider, a basic Reservations / Schedule theme / plugin etc)

  29. cucogut
    January 11, 2013 at 10:21 pm #

    Guys, I think your themes are great, and I like them a lot, the code it self is clean and love the framework but, I agree with some of the comments… the layout it always look really the same ( I still like it, though)… there are a lot of design examples of different stuff in terms of design… take a look at the stuff Themezilla is doing o Themeskingdom… I prefer you, guys, though, because of the support, framework, plugins and the way you do business, but clearly, at least just talking of design, the work of this two examples are a good example of different, clean, and original designs that you should give an eye on theme…

    Just try to get out of your confort zone, I think now that you just released one theme per month you got the time to do it!

    Cheers, guys!

  30. shahrulizam
    January 12, 2013 at 2:46 am #

    Hi Is there a problem paying with credit card? Still cannot make payment the transaction was declined. Ive tried so many times… 🙁 still no answer from you guys. Thanks

    • Moonworks
      January 13, 2013 at 3:03 am #

      I had a similar problem recently, and it turned out to be my bank stopping it (they didn’t say why). Luckily my bank called to check on the transaction, and once I spoke to them they pressed one of their miracle buttons and it all went through.

      This was the bank side and not Woo causing the problem.

    • Ryan Ray
      January 13, 2013 at 7:00 pm #

      Please do contact us so we can check on the error message and do everything we can on our side to fix it. 🙂 – info[at]woocommerce.com

  31. mithun
    January 13, 2013 at 4:52 pm #

    it’s glorious theme i have a blog and it’s theme is really very heavy so can u informed me about a easy going theme. oooooooo my blog is made by wordpress. plz reply……

    • Ryan Ray
      January 13, 2013 at 7:01 pm #

      If you’d like some recommendations of our themes, just contact us. We can figure out what functionality, aesthetics you like, etc… and recommend a theme. – info[at]woocommerce.com

  32. matthewjamesshaw
    January 14, 2013 at 3:33 am #

    I’m curious if The One Pager is still in development…?

    • Magnus
      January 14, 2013 at 10:50 am #

      It is going into development as we speak, set for release in the coming months.

  33. Alex
    January 14, 2013 at 12:16 pm #

    Great theme. Would be better if there was a black and grey/neutral color option as well.

  34. Alan
    January 16, 2013 at 2:53 pm #

    Will this be compatible with the upcoming LMS plugin?

    • Magnus
      January 16, 2013 at 5:09 pm #

      Sensei (LMS plugin) will work with any theme.

      • Alan
        January 16, 2013 at 5:20 pm #

        Yes, I understand that, but will it have styling, templates, etc. like you said Definition will. Do you have a list of what themes will upon release?

        • Sandie
          January 21, 2013 at 12:40 pm #

          I raised a support ticket asking whether Sensei would work out of the box with this theme and received the following reply “Right now, Appply would be a theme that it would need to be themed into. It would probably work out of the box but there may be tweaks needed.”

          I’m therefore taking the view that quite possibly Sensei is only being tested with Defintion currently.

  35. agelfand
    January 16, 2013 at 8:45 pm #

    I’ll add my vote to to this – focus on developing Canvas as a true framework, minimize the styling (which I too have to strip away with 75% of my customization projects), and focus on more unique “niche” designs for the other themes. Canvas is such a marvelous tool. I just tried to build a site with a non-woo theme (against my better judgment) and when it crashed and burned, I turned to Canvas. I’ve built out the broken theme’s original design in an hour, and this time I know the theme will WORK. Hooray for Canvas; it’s your best treasure.

  36. mabouchalkha
    January 17, 2013 at 3:57 am #

    Hi

    I can’t apply coupon code it’s says This coupon has expired. Ans it just 16 juanry

    • Ryan Ray
      January 17, 2013 at 9:03 pm #

      Shoot us an email if you need help! – support[at]woocommerce.com

  37. iain@dataworld.co.uk
    January 17, 2013 at 5:00 pm #

    Nice but you’ve got to proof read better!

    In the front page you say you “kicked of 2013” and call the stype both apply and appply – and here you talk about “it’s flexibility”. Possessive “it” has no apostrophe – this stuff drives us mad on the web because it means parsing every instance through a mental check to get the correct sense…

    Appppply

  38. iain@dataworld.co.uk
    January 17, 2013 at 5:00 pm #

    Style, not stype! Whoops

    • bsmity
      January 18, 2013 at 5:28 pm #

      Wow, I’ve never seen someone troll themselves before.

  39. Josse
    January 18, 2013 at 9:10 pm #

    This theme really needs a Portfolio template. Even if Woothemes releases a Portfolio plugin later it will not be very helpful for the average user. Woo plugins come with very little documentation or examples of how to style. So good luck with asking support for help with styling the Portfolio plugin to work with the theme – you will probably be referred to a Woo Worker. I have experienced this response multiple times when trying to use the Woo themes Testimonials plugin and in trying to implement the Wooslider with Whitelight.

  40. shwn
    January 21, 2013 at 8:17 am #

    May seem like a dumb question, but how do I add a teeshirt to the cart?

    When I select size or color, there is nothing to select, thus no add to cart button. Tested in both FF and IE9. I guess the theme is broken as the xml file is the same import I use in other woo themes?

  41. shwn
    January 21, 2013 at 8:18 am #

    btw, can I use this theme, once it works, with the new woocommerce 2x beta?

    So far I have no idea if it is ok to start working with any custom woothemes with the new commerce beta and as it is coming out very soon, I wanted to get to work…

  42. leroy
    January 23, 2013 at 8:47 am #

    It’s funny the condescending tone that’s taken when telling us to submit our designs to you.

    First of all that page inspires ZERO confidence in the person putting in all the work, and quite frankly it’s hard to take seriously.

    Secondly, assuming we would need to “collaborate” with your team at all shows just how out of touch you really are with the community.

    Why would I waste a finished site on woothemes when I can have it selling in an hour on themeforest?

  43. banarani
    January 24, 2013 at 5:37 am #

    ummmm….my guess might be that you would have a lot more sales and therefore make more money if it gets accepted on woothemes? 😉
    considering that they release only one per month approx and have a lot of audience (like me) that might buy just ‘cos they like it, the way they might a new dress?

  44. Boat Rollers
    January 26, 2013 at 11:26 am #

    Great theme here, but the color scheme is a bit off current trend. Using the dark header requires lots of white text. I would like to see a version with white/neutral color header area so that black text can be used. Thanks

  45. GeeksOnTheGo
    January 29, 2013 at 5:20 pm #

    Is this a true responsive theme?
    When I go to the demo site from my iPhone or look at the responsive layouts view in Firefox the slider and margins are not right.

  46. petermeadit
    February 4, 2013 at 3:08 pm #

    Looks pretty, real pretty.

    just wondering with the slider, would it be possible to make it act like a carousel? I would like to be able to get it so display several images at once time and slowly slide through them instead of just flicking through one image at a time.
    Are there options for this?

    Thanks 🙂

  47. PuZzleMan
    February 5, 2013 at 9:24 pm #

    Very nice theme …. one issue though …… when in the widget area and you add widgets to the homepage like features, Woo component (page content), and testimonials ….. you end up with some widgets having 2 grey border bars underneath them, >> (Woo component (page content) ….when you only want one…. ?

  48. glaxxon
    February 5, 2013 at 10:27 pm #

    Another thing i noticed is that in the Appply theme, the images are restricted to a particular size. I can’t make the images in the slider full width or even as much as the width of the container.

    I couldn’t accomplish this even after using the WooSlider plugin. Any solution for that?

    • webdesigner
      February 25, 2013 at 9:36 pm #

      good question… did you ever find a solution for making slider images full width in appply without major edits to files?

      • webdesigner
        February 25, 2013 at 10:28 pm #

        looks like disabling the current slider and adding in flexslider 2 is the ideal fix.

  49. lghughes
    February 15, 2013 at 7:26 pm #

    Very nice.

    Love to see a black header with red buttons and links, then dark grey or black text.

  50. Sydney
    February 16, 2013 at 12:11 am #

    Hi,

    Lovely theme, but totally agree with Boat Rollers, a lighter theme, maybe white or light gray with the ability to use black text would be a winner. I may see what I can do with some CSS.

  51. mouservice
    February 18, 2013 at 5:26 pm #

    Fantastic looking theme, chaps! Look forward to playing with this one!

  52. iwebsolutions
    February 28, 2013 at 7:50 am #

    so.. will wooslider work with appply theme and show full width images that link to post urls?.. need it to be on homepage via index or header temp tag.. seems like many are having issues with no response or support being provided? would buy along with many others if had a few more answers. Thanks