<p>What are the best resources for Wordpress theme-development? I am currently in the phase of starting my own blog, and don't want to use one of the many free themes. I already have a theme for my website, so I want to read about best-practices. </p>

<p>Any advice on how to get started would be very welcome :)</p>

<hr>

<p>I have now created my theme (wohoo!), and thought I should summarize the best resources I found. Lets see..</p>

<p><strong>Resources:</strong></p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://themetation.com/2008/07/14/how-to-create-wordpress-themes-from-scratch-part-1/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ThemeTation's three-part guide to create a wordpress-theme from scratch</a></li>
<li><a href="https://code.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-create-a-wordpress-theme-from-scratch--net-706" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Nettuts.com's guide: How to Create a Wordpress Theme from Scratch</a><br>
Didn't actually use this, it's a quite new article, but anyway - it's great. It will get a follow-up in the next few days too..</li>
<li><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wordpress.org's own guide on templates</a><br>
Definatly a must-read for everyone new to wordpress-designing.. </li>
<li><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"The loop"</a><br>
Essential knowledge, also a must-read</li>
<li><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Directory of all the template tags</a><br>
Used by wordpress to actually output blog-content..</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Inspiration:</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>Smashing Magazine's lists: <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">first</a>, <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/02/09/83-beautiful-wordpress-themes-you-probably-havent-seen/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">one more</a>, <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/25/30-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">yet another one</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wordpress.org's theme-directory</a></li>
</ul>

[{'answer_id': 13712, 'author': 'Mark Biek', 'author_id': 305, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/305', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Here\'s the WordPress doc on <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Theme Development</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 13713, 'author': 'Andrew Grant', 'author_id': 1043, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1043', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>The Wordpress part is the easy bit. That's basically taking your static HTML pages then converting them to PHP and inserting the Wordpress tags to pull content from the database. In some places these tags will be in a loop, e.g. for a list of pages.</p>\n\n<p>The most difficult part is the design. You should identify the page types you want (e.g. main page, lists of posts, static pages, about) and create the actual templates with mockup text. ONly when you're happy should you think about the Wordpress part.</p>\n\n<p>If you search with Google you'll find plenty of pages on creating your own Wordpress theme or converting HTML to a theme.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 13719, 'author': 'Yaakov Ellis', 'author_id': 51, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/51', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>I think that the best way to learn is to look at how other people construct their themes. The first one to start one is the Default Kubrick theme that is included in the standard WordPress install. It has all of the basics and will show you some advanced techniques like including sidebar widgets. Next, in conjunction with the docs on <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development" rel="noreferrer">theme development</a> (previously mentioned by Mark), <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_Design_and_Layout" rel="noreferrer">Blog Design and Layout</a> and <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes" rel="noreferrer">Using Themes</a>, go to the <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/" rel="noreferrer">Theme Directory</a> on the Wordpress.org site, download a couple of popular themes, and go through them, looking up any <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Template_Tags" rel="noreferrer">template tags</a> or techniques that you don\'t understand. After you do this, you should be more than well-equipped to write your own theme from scratch, or modify an existing theme to your needs. </p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 13744, 'author': 'Nathan', 'author_id': 541, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/541', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><a href="http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/09/28/designing-a-wordpress-theme-from-scratch/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here\'s another good article on the topic</a>. And of course, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=designing+wordpress+theme" rel="nofollow noreferrer">there are many more like it</a>. I have reviewed this particular article in the past though, and found it to be a good, detailed tutorial with some nice external references where required.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 685126, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Found a new one over here. it\'s a good resource if you want to make a simple theme. :)</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://www.webhostingsearch.com/articles/create-your-own-wordpress-theme-tutorial.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.webhostingsearch.com/articles/create-your-own-wordpress-theme-tutorial.php</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 1208977, 'author': 'Tyler Carter', 'author_id': 58088, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/58088', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">codex.wordpress.org</a>.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 1210953, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>check css-tricks.com Chris has a few screencasts up.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 1221200, 'author': 'windyjonas', 'author_id': 49521, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/49521', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>There is a really good book on WordPress Theme Design, called "WordPress Theme Design" :)\nAvailable from <a href="http://amzn.com/1847193099" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Amazon</a> and other book stores.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 2255579, 'author': 'George Wiscombe', 'author_id': 1702931, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1702931', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>\'Starkers\' is a great blank WordPress theme to start any theme development. </p>\n\n<p><a href="http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/2008/free-starkers-wordpress-theme/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/2008/free-starkers-wordpress-theme/</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 3127815, 'author': 'farinspace', 'author_id': 97433, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/97433', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>This <a href="http://farinspace.com/wpalchemy-metabox/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WordPress Meta Box PHP Helper class</a> might help you when working with WordPress Meta Boxes.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 4690049, 'author': 'Chris Adams', 'author_id': 15479, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15479', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'ve found this illustration shared by Yoast to be really helpful for explaining how a Wordpress theme is built:</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Full image here <img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/g4OXu.jpg" alt="cropped versin of Yoast image"></a></p>\n\n<p>This is a crop of the full image - I\'d suggest <a href="http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">checking it the full page there</a>, as it\'s extremely clear, and very well thought out.</p>\n'}]
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