Well, this is something new, now isn’t it? I’ve decided, after receiving many emails asking about how I create my Wordpress Themes, to create a five week, or longer, guide to help and demystify some of the finer details of this powerful blogging system. My plan is to write one tutorial every week, and in between blogs, I will be open to questions and comments.
So, let’s get started.
First of all, Wordpress is not as complicated as some people make it out to be. My blanket rule is, if I can do it, you can definitely do it. Before you start with Wordpress, however, I assume that you are well familiarized with basic coding. If you aren’t, this may be a bit frustrating.
- The most helpful things to do when starting anything new is to learn from the masters. I started off by downloading many beautiful themes, and I dissected them until I could figure out what was what. Although this took many hours of trial and error, it was well worth it.
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
- After you’ve downloaded a few things, one of the first things you might notice is that the number of files in each theme is not that consistent. This is because Wordpress has a template hierarchy, http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy. Basically, if you don’t have a specific set template for say, a page, Wordpress will automatically use the index template.
- Now, every template contains something called “The Loop” http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. Basically, if WP were a cake, the loop can be seen as the spongy base, and all the extra styling should be added around the loop like frosting. Here is a very nice explanation of The Loop.
- Once you get past the loop, you can get to the fun stuff- that is, really customizing Wordpress to do your bidding. Most people might not realize that WP is very capable of becoming the structure of, for instance, a social networking system, a CMS, or anything really. In the following weeks, I’ll explain how I used WP to create http://roodesigns.net/, which wasn’t as hard as you might imagine.
And so to end this introduction, here is a list of all of the things I plan to cover. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask, and I’ll be sure to add it to the list!
- Week One: Wordpress custom fields
- Week Two: Styling Wordpress comments
- Week Three: Styling Wordpress posts
- Week Four: Using Wordpress as a CMS – pt 1
- Week Five: Using Wordpress as a CMS – pt 2
Filed under:
tutorials /
Posted on: Nov, 27
Comments:
17
Design wise. I can’t seem to get way from the minimalistic style I’ve been getting into lately. Now, I can’t tell if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing… since well, at least it validates nicely.
Anyways, FREEDOMMM. At last~! I’m looking very forward to Turkey Day, or in my world, eat-till-you can’t-eat-no-more Day. And unlike last year, when I had to wake up at 5:00 and go to a horrible horrible place where I spent hours peeling bananas and basically froze my fingers off with banana juice, I can finally sleep in. Yes, I’m still very bitter about that… especially since the lady in charge contacted me a year later when I asked about the volunteer hours. I know volunteering is supposed to make you feel warm and happy inside… but, ohhh, I will never, never, not in a million years, go to Turkey Trot again.
Site Wise
I am in the progress of making some new CSS templates, so those should be up in about 1-2 days. Otherwise, I’ve been contemplating whether or not to make an extensive vectoring guide. And I think, actually, I might do it in a series of blogs that will extend over maybe a week or so. So if that goes well, I’ll start taking requests for blog-orials. (Hehe…get it?)
Filed under:
Blogroll,
Life,
Updates /
Posted on: Nov, 26
Comments:
5
Today, a group of my friends and I went to the Nasher sculptor garden, but why we went during possibly the coldest day of the year, I have no idea. I was pleasantly surprised that I recognize over half of the artists featured there, including Picasso, Gaugin, Oldenberg, Calder, Warhol, Rodin, and Moore. I felt extremely smart for about forty minutes – which I have to say, is very rare for me. When we finally went back to the Dart station to catch the next train back home, a group of pigeons caught my attention. I usually don’t notice birds, especially since I have an irrational fear that they like to pick out people’s brains. But I noticed these pigeons, why? Because they were extremely fat. The garbage in Texas must be mighty nutritious, or maybe pigeons are fat by nature… Since I had my camera on me at the time, I had to take the opportunity to take a few pictures. Mistake.
I never knew that birds could be so irritable with flash.
Or maybe it was because Kevin, a very mean little fish, decided to throw cookie bits at me. Well, I’m certainly adding this to the list of unpleasant things I’ve experienced while taking the Dart. (more…)
Filed under:
Life /
Posted on: Nov, 22
Comments:
6
I’m not sure if it’s just me… but everything seems to be going a whole lot faster around here. I used to be able to enjoy my weekends of absolutely nothing but coding, eating until I could literally see fat growing on arms, and sleeping like there was no tomorrow. Now however, it seems that my weekend is over before it even started. I always get a feeling of dread when I wake up on Saturday mornings because I know that my freedom is basically over at that point. Sad, I know. I think I’m having a pre-mid life crisis. Thankfully Turkey break is coming soon, in seven days, and I can’t wait until I can finally take time to put up a new layout. I really miss updating Rooeh, and so, to keep me motivated, this blog is mainly a to-do list of everything that needs to be and will be fixed.
- New three column CSS templates
- Pixleing and/or vectoring tutorial
- New Wordpress templates, yes, it’s going to be awesome.
- A new layout.
- Update RD… -shifty eyes-
- Fix the asides template… so that all you lovely visitors can comment on them. If you want to, that is.
- Write a decent blog.
Well. Now I have to go write a paper on herpes simplex. How fun, jolly good, jolly good.
Oh, right… I need to make more charms too. For instance, my new peppermint creme pies.
Filed under:
Blogroll,
Life /
Posted on: Nov, 16
Comments:
7
