Test drive your wordpress theme
Vladimir Prelovac posted a link to his new plugin this week in the Blogging Tips Forums. I have been pretty busy this week but got a chance to try out his new plugin Theme Test Drive today.
So what does the plugin do? Here is how Vladimir explains it :
Ever wanted to live test another theme you are designing or you just wanted to see how a different theme looks with your site content?
Theme Test Drive allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as an administrator, while visitors still use the default one. It happens completely transparently and they will not even know that you run totally different theme for yourself. Best part is you can even set the testing theme options (if it has them) in the Admin panel while test driving.
Click on the image below to see a preview of the plugin screen
I’ve tried the plugin out and I must say, it’s fantastic! As you know, I am a huge fan of simple wordpress plugins which add functionality to your blog. In your average blogging day this plugin will not do anything for you or your blog but if you are working on a new theme for your blog this plugin saves you a lot of hassle and lets you see get your theme working perfectly before making it live.
Bottom line, this is a great little plugin and I encourage you all to give it a try 
Zac Johnson | December 6th, 2007 at 7:47 pm #
Excellent plugin that makes it easy to work on your new design, so you don’t have to risk your visitors seeing what’s to come… then they refresh to a new page and it’s gone! I recommend this one as well.
Michael Martine | December 6th, 2007 at 8:50 pm #
Man, that’s awesome! Incredibly useful idea!
Alex | December 6th, 2007 at 9:19 pm #
Thanks for sharing. This plugin can be a life-saver for someone working on a new design for their blog and are not ready to put it to life.
Ability to test your customizations of the theme will be perhaps the biggest benefit of this plugin!
The Web Guy | December 6th, 2007 at 9:23 pm #
Awww man … I could’ve used this a few weeks ago instead of going “maintenance mode” all the time I wanted to look at changes I had made.
At least it came in used for half-a-day and will be used in the future for all of my sites.
Excellent plugin, works like a dream - thanks!
Steven Snell | December 6th, 2007 at 9:36 pm #
Pretty cool. It’s a great idea.
Wayne Liew | December 7th, 2007 at 5:25 am #
A great plugin indeed but because I am not a plugin writer, I always want for more. What about we can test drive it without uploading the theme into our FTP?
Anyway, already using it on one of my blog so ignore the whines above. Good job, Vladimir.
Interwebhunt | December 7th, 2007 at 8:28 am #
This plugin rocks plain and simple. Normally I’d test my new theme on a completely separate installation of wordpress, this eliminates all that hassle. Definitely a plugin that you should have handy if you’re coding new themes or just wanting to switch themes.
Vladimir Prelovac | December 7th, 2007 at 8:46 am #
Hey all,
I am so glad you find my plugin useful. I am a theme junkie myself and I designed it with that in mind
If you have comments or suggestions for improvement drop me a comment or email.
Cheers
Vladimir
dave webwinkel | December 7th, 2007 at 6:16 pm #
Thxs for this tip..I’m planning to re-design my blog and this little tool will save me a lot of time and frustration
Thxs!
dave
Zander Chance | February 5th, 2008 at 3:16 pm #
I’m so glad I stumbled across this post.. I was just getting ready to start working a new theme for one of our high-traffic sites, and I was going to setup a whole new installation for testing purposes. This will make my life a LOT easier. Thanks!
Top Seo Blog | February 12th, 2008 at 3:10 am #
Thank you for the tip