AutoComic

stripShow 2.5 introduces a new feature intended to get new users up and running quickly.

Of course, stripShow ships with a theme framework called stripShow Sandbox. This framework is intended to be easy to customize, but customization takes time. What if you want to get your comics up NOW, and worry about customizing your site later? Perhaps you've found a WordPress theme you like, and want to use that for your comic instead of stripShow Sandbox?

Well, AutoComic is the solution. By enabling AutoComic, you can make nearly any WordPress theme into a webcomic.

What does AutoComic do?
AutoComic adds a few things to your theme -- the comic itself, and a special sidebar called AutoComic Sidebar. This sidebar can contain any WordPress widgets, including the stripShow widgets. If you enable no widgets, this area (below the comic) contains a navigation bar.

Here's what it looks like:



How does AutoComic work?
One of two ways:
 * AutoComic can work with some popular theme frameworks, using action hooks to put the comic area into your pages directly. Currently supported frameworks are:
 * Thematic
 * Hybrid
 * K2
 * The Buffet Framework
 * Ashford


 * If you're not using a theme based on one of these frameworks, AutoComic can insert a comic area the hard way, using JavaScript. WordPress includes jQuery, which is what AutoComic uses to place comics. This method is slower than using direct insertion, though, and there may be a slight delay after the page loads but before the comic appears.
 * You can insert an AutoComic section into any theme, wherever you want, by opening a theme page (such as single.php) in the WordPress Theme Editor and adding this code:
 * 
 * This will allow all the features that AutoComic provides, with minimal alterations to your theme files.

How do I use AutoComic?
First, you'll need to find out where you want to put the comic on a given page. View the index page of your theme, and determine where you want the comic to go. Usually, people put it just below a header of some sort.

Now you'll need to look at the code for the page... many browsers (like Safari and Firefox with the Firebug add-on) have an option where you can right-click on a section and inspect it, so you can see what the section is called. Otherwise, you'll have to view the source for the page.

For instance, you might see that the header is a &lt;div&gt; element with a class of "header". So now we know where the comic should go -- below the "header" class.

From the stripShow menu on your WordPress admin page, select AutoComic. Then from the insert comic after element with dropdown menu, select class and type "header" into the text box.

Then hit Save Changes. That's all you need to get going immediately.

For more detailed information on the options availabe to configure AutoComic, see AutoComic Options.