Well, I tried. I loved the Envision theme and used it on this very website for a number of years. Now though, the old framework with the newest version of WordPress (3.81) is completely unworkable with the theme. If it was only lacking the responsive design of the updated version of the theme, it would be ok. But as it is, the theme won’t even allow for me to click into the widgets that are currently active to make edits or add new blogs using the Visual editor. It is completely and utterly broken. I had to write this very blog in a separate test website and copy and paste the code into the text editor.
Last week I decided I would convert this website to the new framework offered by the theme creator, both out of necessity and due to the responsive nature of the updated theme. To be absolutely honest, it turned out to be one of the most aggravating projects I have ever worked on in web design. Every single theme shortcode has changed, seemingly for no reason, which broke the current website in nearly every area. The new framework is not well documented and is still very buggy – things like graphic tabs simply would not insert using the shortcode tool in the WYSIWYG editor. Every slide option has to be reentered since the slider options were seemingly all changed (yet again, functionally kept the same). The way things looked (the testimonials section for example) has also changed – again, seemingly for no reason.
What’s more, even the brand new code based around a responsive website design isn’t working correctly out of the box. I have had problems and though the theme creator’s support has tried to help, the delay due to time zone differences is frustrating. At this point, I may be giving up – and I have already wasted 6+ hours.
It really sucks when a brand new website lasts less than 2 years without a complete code overhaul. Make sure that when you pick a WordPress theme, you know about the company that makes the theme and are sure that they will continue offering support. In a WordPress landscape where things change on a regular basis, this is even more important. I say this not to be negative but just as a cautionary tale to people picking a theme willy nilly. That initial step deserves time, research and thought.
