The first thing you need to create a theme in Wordpress is to understand how templates are put together otherwise you are going to be working in the dark. Another useful reading resource to help you with this can be found within the manual under ‘Stepping in to templates’.  If you are sure all this makes sense then you are ready to start creating templates for Wordpress.

Wordpress Theme Tutorials

There are many resources available online that can help you develop a Wordpress theme. The following is a list of tutorials. Tutorials will guide you through the process of developing a Wordpress theme using a step-by-step process. This is by no means a comprehensive listing, however I have tried to include a variety so you can look through them and determine which tutorial you find easy to follow.

• http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial
• http://themetation.com/2008/07/14/how-to-create-wordpress-themes-from-scratch-part-1
• http://blog.themeforest.net/screencasts/new-wp-video-series-and-free-rockstar-book
• http://designreviver.com/inspiration/how-i-learned-to-build-wordpress-themes/
  XHTML/CSS resources

If you would like to obtain a good working knowledge of both of these, a great resource for those new to web programming or those moving over from older languages is www.w3schools.com. Here you can find hundreds of tutorials, scripts and quizzes to help you get your head around things, and working in conjunction with this you will need a text editor. Notepad++ is a popular choice, and we recommend the Firefox web developer toolbar so you can test and check your coding. It is brilliant when you are making live changes to your CSS.

Graphic design resources

You are going to find life so much easier if you have a decent graphics package on your computer. Photoshop and Fireworks are two of the best for the job, and this is where you will create your graphics.  The issues you need to consider for your Wordpress templates are things like color schemes, fonts and images.   For inspiration there are a number of resources. www.designmeltdown.com is a good site for ideas, as are the gallery pages of www.cssbeauty.com that have collected some of the most excellent examples of sites that look good.

You need to come up with a clear color scheme that presents the image you are seeking, and if these sites do not help inspire you enough, try checking out somewhere like beta.dailycolorscheme.com where you can see hundreds of schemes and download them too.  Finally some of the best inspiration for color schemes comes from life, so browsing through photographs on a site like Flickr can also prove invaluable.  Free fonts can be downloaded, or you can purchase professional ones from Linotype, and the same goes for images free stock that can be found at SXC, whereas paid for images are found at iStockPhoto.

Finally you need to have an understanding of plugins, and you need to learn how to install them and when you should be installing them. Some great plugins can be found at WP-Plugins.net. Overall the best tip we can offer you is to read plenty on the net about Wordpress and Wordpress templates – and above all enjoy!

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1. 6 Essential WordPress Development and Design Cheat Sheets
2. Getting Your First Blog: Creating a Wordpress.com Account
3. 5 WordPress Plugins to add Professionalism to your Blog