The Extricate theme layout is based on an elegant, intuitive fourteen-column grid. This structure will lend a graceful form to your content, but only because, under the surface, the layout is based on cold, hard maths. Let’s take a look.

Here’s how the layout looks on a small screen, like a MacBook Air (twelve columns wide):

And now, here’s that same layout, but with the grid columns overlaid on top of it.

Each column is fifty pixels, and each gap is twenty pixels, giving a total of 820 pixels:

But that’s not all! The sides of the layout also include extra padding, which gets used when pages are viewed on a larger screen.

However, the Extricate grid is not just based on columns; it also has rows, each forty pixels in height:

So, putting that all together, we can see that the entire layout is underpinned by a strong, intuitive grid, allowing for pixel-perfect content placement within a harmonious, well-proportioned structure. Cool, right?

Extricate is great at presenting your content, and that includes images and videos, not just text. For example, say you wanted to post a nice soothing image of wind turbines in rural northern Germany (sized at 468 pixels wide to match the grid), well, then, that’d look a bit like this:

Nice, right? Ok, so maybe you liked the wind turbines so much, you want to post a bigger image — how about 608 pixels wide? Still matches the grid, as long as it can use the full width of the post column. And it can, with the addition of the hang-left class to the image (go to image settings, then advanced settings, then simply add hang-left in the CSS class field):

Very cool. But let’s suppose you also have some video. Let’s put it in, at a grid-matching 470 pixels width:

Or, by again adding the hang-left class to the video, let’s go big and embed it at a full-width 610 pixels:

Pretty sleek! Of course, there are other options for inserting your images and videos into posts — best to give it a go for yourself and see what suits your needs.

One of the more difficult things to get right, on any blog, is how to share content on social networks. Although there are many plugins available to add social sharing functionality to WordPress, they can be cumbersome to install, and difficult to fine-tune.

Fortunately, the Extricate theme has social sharing links built-in, allowing your work to be shared on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious, without having to battle through any plugin setup or tweaking. When the feature is turned on, each post displays a row of icons giving links to share the post on these social networks:

And, yes, if you don’t want any social sharing links on your work, don’t worry: simply turn them off in the theme options page:

Extricate comes with two built-in widget-ready areas, in the sidebar and in the footer. The  sidebar can have as many or as few widgets as you like (and, of course, is also resizable), and the footer is optimised to have three widgets (but can have more or less if desired). Never go hunting through raw code again — just drag and drop to make your sidebar and footer look great.

So, in the sidebar, add whatever content you want:

And in the three widget areas in the footer, drop in whatever extras are needed:

Block quotes:

A curmudgeonly gargoyle among preening pantomime rebels. The rabbit killer left his home for the club and said goodbye to his infertile spouse. I feel withdrawn. And I feared fear was making sludge of my head. Academic male slags, ream off names of books and bands. Like your psychotic big brother, who left home, for jobs in Holland, Munich, Rome. Nymphette new romantics come over the hill.

Block quotes within block quotes:

There’s no need to go berserk if you don’t scratch my nice blue Merc. The man whose head expanded knew, who stole cafe collection box. I’m away being refurbished. Haven’t you heard of me?

Recruited some gremlins to get me clear of the airline routes. I used to have this thing about Link Wray, I used to play him every Saturday. Your mystic jump suits cannot hide your competitive plagiarism. He sees jawbones on the street, advertisements become carnivores.

In the marble halls of the charm school, how flair is punished. Republic grim truth hot blood erupts, you’re like a pair of dogs loose in McGregor’s kiln. Carry bags strewn all around the room.

Ordered list:

1. There’s a silent rumble, in the buildings of the night council
2. Buffalo lips on toast, smiling
3. Republic grim truth hot blood erupts
4. Mirrors can’t hide the toxic of disfigured poxes
5. Jingles! Cabaret! Merseybeat!

Unordered list:

• His oppression abounds — His type is doing the rounds
• I’m Joe Totale, the yet unborn son
• This hideous replica!
• Wireless enthusiast intercepts government secret radio band and uncovers secrets and scandals of deceitful type proportions
• Leave the capitol, exit this Roman shell

Code:

body {
    background: #eee;
    color: #333;
    font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
    text-align: center;
}
#wrap-nav, #wrap-main, #wrap-footer {
    clear: both;
    border-top: 1px solid #666;
}
#wrap-nav, #wrap-main {
    background: #fff;
}

Headings (h1 through to h6):

H1: Insect posse will be crushed

H2: The fantastic is in league against me

H3: There is no mail in the house of contempt

H4: Suck on marrowbones and energy from the mainland

H5: On that fruited plain the corporate bishops graze

H6: I skin my cat with rubber teeth

The Extricate theme comes with a couple of nifty options for formatting your posts. By default, every post displays an author, a list of categories, and a link to the comments:

However, in the theme options, you can choose to remove the author and category information, if it suits your blog better… up to you.