Developing WordPress Templates for the Web

A Template or Design Your Own Theme

Here’s the good news on using WordPress. You have options. In the world of web design that is the best news that we can get. Pre-made templates are boring and lack in originality.

Just to elaborate, here’s the list of features your finished theme will be able to boast of:

• All the search-engine optimization you’ll really need
• Including google-supported Microformat markup
• Valid and logical semantic markup structure than can be used to create ANY layout
• Smart default CSS layouts
• Dynamic Body, post and comment classes
• Separated trackbacks and threaded comments
• 2 widget areas coded to disappear when they’re empty
• And all the typical WordPress stuff you expect from a theme

I think that’s kind of impressive for any WordPress Theme.

Download Free Templates Online

In the case of WordPress, the templates online are unlimited. Courtesy of Smashing Magazine's website, 100 free high-quality WordPress themes are available for consumers. Together with hundreds of other designs, these themes have been manually selected, installed and tested over the last weeks. They all can be downloaded, customized and used for free in both personal and commercial projects. Links to demo-versions provide a direct preview of a theme. These templates can also be edited to fit your specific needs.

You can also go to WPDaddy, perhaps the internet's leading WordPress Themes gallery - where you are offered to browse various categories of the most visually stunning free WordPress templates. Its marvelous collections of professionally designed free WordPress skins will stun you by the diversity of styles and colors, high quality and fresh ideas.

Want more? Trust me, it's definite out there. Check out wptemplates.org for even more WordPress themes.

You CAN Design Your Owe Templates

I hate to plug a site shamelessly, but you have to check out seowebmeeting.com for this incredible step-by-step tutorial. In this 10 minute video, you’ll learn how to make your own custom WordPress Template from start to finish. If a student like myself can do it, anybody can. Using this method isn’t cheating – it’s using the same tricks the pros use! They just don’t spend the time making custom templates anymore. There’s no need to.

You can also check out smashingwebs.com for an excellent tutorial on template creation, but don't take my word for it . . . see for yourself!

Modifying an Existing Template From Scratch

After an hour of surfing and research, I have narrowed it down to one intriguing template. The results of my hunt is the fresh, clean, user-friendly and playful WordPress theme 'Dilectio," a smashing layout that I uncovered from Smashing Magazine. When you first open the template, all images are clickable and lead to the demo-version of the theme. You’ll find the preview- and download-links on the site. Needless to say, the template provides an awesome starting point for reconstruction.

This is a fairly clean template with a layout that can be modified to fit my overall needs. The key is to utilize the resources that the template currently provides and develop it from within. It's really that simple. Content Management Systems are your friend and, sometimes, the very best friend a web designer can have.