If you want to customize Thesis WordPress theme easily, by far the single most useful plugin is Thesis OpenHook WordPress plugin. It makes new Thesis theme users get a hold of the Thesis hooks easy.
Thesis Hooks and Crashing custom-functions.php
I have been playing with our amazing new SEO optimized Thesis WordPress theme for the last week, and have edited out custom-functions.php file hundred of times to get the right look while customizing Thesis theme. But if you read our Thesis review, its clear that custom-functions.php file is a powerful file and any error can cause PHP errors and bring your site down instantly. No wonder it comes with a warning.
Since the Thesis theme lacks common files like single.php or sidebar.php, it is difficult for new WordPress users to edit the Thesis hooks. We had the opportunity to edit this file and bring our site down over 8 times!
The biggest problem is your wordpress admin also becomes inaccessible and the only way to fix it is via FTP, keep a back up of the custom-functions.php file before editing and restore it to get your site working.
Then I started keeping back files of custom-functions.php on the server by date, to restore them in case I messed up. I also always edited the file via FTP only (instead of WP admin), just in case I need to restore it via FTP. This was getting very cumbersome. No wonder many Thesis sites look all alike.
Moreover, if you really need to customize Thesis theme, then chances are you will keep on adding custom Thesis hooks and your custom-functions.php file become huge, cluttered and unmanageable.
Thesis OpenHook Plugin: The Single Best Thesis Plugin You Need
As I was getting frustrated, a few readers suggested the Thesis OpenHook wordpress plugin and customizing Thesis has never been simpler. OpenHook gives each hook its own box with various options like “Execute php on hooks” and some commonly used options like Remove Thesis default 404 content, remove Thesis attribution or add debug information etc.
Now my custom-functions.php file is back to default as I have scattered all my Thesis hook to their respective slots and no longer have to worry about messing the code. Whenever I want to change something, I know exactly where the code has to be changed. I never knew there were so many Thesis hooks and drop down menu make navigating Thesis hooks easier and gets you exactly where you want to edit.
If you buy Thesis theme, then like me don’t suffer the agony of customizing Thesis yourself – immediately after downloading Thesis wordpress theme – install your first plugin Thesis OpenHook. I suggest the Thesis designers should incorporate this wordpress plugin by default, it will sell more Thesis themes.