Customizing WordPress Themes
There really are an almost infinite number of ways to customize WordPress Themes. Because WP Themes have almost no code generated from core (with only a couple exceptions, those being the Link Category titles as H2 tags and the calendar, if you choose to use it, as a table) it gives you, the designer, a whole lot of flexibility. You can lay out a WordPress theme in almost any permutation conceivable in xhtml css (actually even in tabled layouts, though I don’t use ‘em anymore.)
Through the creative use of the different template tags and their variables you can lay out either one sidebar or two (or, I guess, even three) along with your content column. Posts can be styled to be enclosed or left wide open. The sidebar lists can be enclosed or open. Dropdown/flyout/rollup menus can be styled into your sidebar(s). Don’t want your category posts to have a headline that says “Categories”?? You can rip it out and leave the list there. Want it to say something else? You can change the template tag for that.
If, in creating or customizing your first theme you use either “Classic” or “Default” as your basis you’ll find that most of the hooks to hang style on have been included for you. Do be careful using the Default, aka Kubrick, to remove the inline styles before customizing since those inline styles are capable of overriding something you might be trying to do in the stylesheet.
Want to learn how to create a great WordPress Theme? Concentrate on learning xhtml and css inside and out first. You’ll find it much easier to build custom WordPress themes if you know the code. Do you have to be a php wizard? I’m not. Familiarity with php does help, but knowing the xhtml and css is much more important.
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