1. Principles of WordPress
Theme Design

2. Template Files

3. StyleSheet
• style.css
• The only required file
• Includes Headers that will be used by
WordPress
/*
Theme Name: Custom Theme
Theme URI: http://emmense.com/
Description: A Child Theme of Twenty Ten
Author: Aaron Brazell
Author URI: http://technosailor.com
Version: 1.0
Parent: twentyten
*/

4. Most Common
Templates
• index.php • functions.php
• single.php • archive.php
• comments.php • search.php
• header.php
• footer.php
• sidebar.php
• page.php

5. Other templates
• category.php • category-x.php
• tag.php • tag-x.php
• taxonomy.php • taxonomy-x.php
• attachment.php • author-x.php
• author.php • 404.php
• page-x.php

6. Template Hierarchy

7. Theme Frameworks

8. Why use a Theme
Framework?
• Themes present content according to the
desires and tastes of the designer
• Frameworks provide an extensible way of
empowering designers within a set of
guidelines.

9. Why use a Theme
Framework?
• Frameworks realize the principle of
separation of content and presentation
• Early Predecessor: CSS Zen Garden
• Change a theme using only CSS. No
markup modifications

10. Hybrid
• Hybrid (http://themehybrid.com)
• Templates for everything
• Admin Pages for content control

11. Thematic
• Thematic (http://themeshaper.com/thematic/)
• Focuses on Widget Areas and Grid layout
• Modify EVERYTHING via CSS

12. Carrington
• Carrington (http://carringtontheme.com/)
• Most Robust: Focuses on Typography,
semantic markup and Ajax
• Includes a Mobile Theme

13. Best Practices

14. Use Hooks In Themes
• Let plugin devs build for your template
• Add filters and actions throughout themes
• Examples:
• do_action(‘before_content’);
• apply_filters(‘logo’, ‘logo.jpg’);

15. Internationalize!
• Internationalization (i18n) is important
• Use load_theme_textdomain() in
functions.php
• Utilize __(), _e(), _c() and _x() to provide
translatable strings
• Don’t forget the .po file
• More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers

16. Essential Plugins

17. Essential Plugins for Any
WordPress Blog
• Headspace 2 SEO (http://wordpress.org/
extend/plugins/headspace2/)
• Akismet (http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/akismet/)
• MobilePress (http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/mobilepress/)