Wordpress themes and editing

[webbyrobster]

Ok, so I'm not keen on the idea of purchasing a Wordpress theme, but I'd like to customise one so it looks how I want it to look. Which, out of all the available Wordpress themes is going to be the easiest to edit and take forward as a project? Bearing in mind my PHP isn't great but my HTML/CSS is a little better.

[chipbennett]

Ok, so I'm not keen on the idea of purchasing a Wordpress theme, but I'd like to customise one so it looks how I want it to look. Which, out of all the available Wordpress themes is going to be the easiest to edit and take forward as a project? Bearing in mind my PHP isn't great but my HTML/CSS is a little better.

There probably isn't a definitive answer to your question, as it depends heavily on your needs and intended uses.

I will make one suggestion, though: whatever Theme you choose to modify, I highly recommend that you not edit the Theme directly, but instead create a Child Theme. That way, you can focus on maintaining your modifications, without having to worry about maintaining the bulk of the Theme.

[BinaryMoon]

I totally agree with Chip. Whatever you decide you should make use of child themes for sure. As long as the parent theme you use is being maintained you should have a nice solid base to work from.

In terms of what theme to use, there are loads of good 'uns. I am partial to my own theme, Elemental (http://prothemedesign.com/) but that costs money so if you don't want to spend then I would go for Thematic (http://themeshaper.com/thematic/), it's probably the best (most popular) free framework/ parent them around.

[chipbennett]

I totally agree with Chip. Whatever you decide you should make use of child themes for sure. As long as the parent theme you use is being maintained you should have a nice solid base to work from.

In terms of what theme to use, there are loads of good 'uns. I am partial to my own theme, Elemental (http://prothemedesign.com/) but that costs money so if you don't want to spend then I would go for Thematic (http://themeshaper.com/thematic/), it's probably the best (most popular) free framework/ parent them around.

...and I don't think I'd try to tackle a Theme Framework, until I understood the basic WordPress template system fairly well first.

TwentyTen and Coraline are probably both good Themes to use as a starting-point for Child-Theme modification.

Also, I wrote Oenology specifically to be used to learn how WordPress Themes work. If you give it a spin, please give me some feedback regarding whether or not it is helpful as an educational tool!

[Siobhan]

I agree with Chip - I'd try out a Child Theme with TwentyTen to begin with. It's a really great place to start. I love Thematic but when I started out using it I found it pretty confusing. TwentyTen is much simpler. Of course, you can do loads of cool things with Thematic once you get going.

Here's a simply walkthrough on how to set up a child theme: http://www.doitwithwordpress.com/wha...mes-wordpress/ It's very simple.

You should also get Firebug for Firefox - http://getfirebug.com/ This is a great tool that will help you learn about CSS. You can inspect and edit elements in your browser so you can try things out before putting them in your theme.

[dgwyer]

You should also get Firebug for Firefox - http://getfirebug.com/ This is a great tool that will help you learn about CSS. You can inspect and edit elements in your browser so you can try things out before putting them in your theme.

+1 Firebug rocks!

[chipbennett]

+1 Firebug rocks!

And don't forget Chrome Developer Tools!

[Siobhan]

I've been using that more and more. Especially since I hate Firefox 4 as none of my addons work!