The “3-Column-Page” Template
This template gives you the opportunity to display three different categories in a static page. It can be a nice starting point if you use it e.g as the entry for a news section with three sub-categories. You don´t have to enter any content via the WP write panel since this page shows the most recent posts from three categories that you define.
The code for the three columns uses three different loops to display the most recent post of three different categories and Tim Thumb script to crop, rezize and display the image on top of each article. In addition the most recent posts of the specific category are teasered below the excerpt of the post. As an alternative you can use widgets in ths lower area as well.
Everything can be setup in the themes optionspanel in the WordPress admin area. You find the options panel unter Appearance > BranfordMagazine Options (as an example for BranfordMagazine). Here is a Screenshot (click to enlarge).
It´s important to set real and existing category IDs. If you set a category ID of “25″ and this one doesn´t exist in your database it can´t work. Also don´t set a category ID of “0″ because there is never such a category. Also do not set a “0″ for “number of posts per category”. Both settings will make the template cause errors or at least unexpected bahaviour.
The result should look more or less like this.
