Creating complex WordPress themes

  • riderofthestorm2

    (@riderofthestorm2)


    15 years, 7 months ago

    I’m taking a looking a look at WordPress as a possible site builder, but I haven’t used it. I’ve been scanning through WP available themes and I’ve noticed that they have a distinctive WordPress blog-like feel to them. The site I’m designing will have a blog embedded in another page (though not on the index page). It’s a three-column fixed-width site with a banner on top. Is it possible (provided you know your xHTML and CSS) to create a WP theme that looks more like a professional, typical website?

    And yes, I’m aware of other CMS systems like Joomla and Drupal, but I’m asking about creating a non-blog look for a WordPress theme.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • alanpace

    (@alanpace)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    I prefer WordPress as a CMS because the admin is less complicated from a client’s perspective than Joomla. Yes, with knowledge of html, css and php it’s possible to get WordPress to perform well as a CMS without hacking core code. Here’s a non-blog-feel site I’m currently working on that’s built with WordPress: http://dev.fotllp.com.

    jbbrwcky

    (@jbbrwcky)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    WordPress can be made to look like anything you want. The only limit is your knowledge of xhtml/css/php.

    Thread Starter riderofthestorm2

    (@riderofthestorm2)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    alanpace, that’s the type of example I’m looking for.

    If anyone else has other examples of non-blog looking WordPress sites, I’d love to take a look.

    I’m heavily well versed in HTML and CSS, but PHP I barely know other than adding required pieces of code where necessary. Could I still have that kind of site with WordPress helping me out with the PHP?

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    I’m heavily well versed in HTML and CSS, but PHP I barely know other than adding required pieces of code where necessary.

    That’s enough. I always say for a WP theme all the PHP your need is advanced copy/paste skills to get the Template_Tags into your files.

    For the beginning you should probably start with a 3 column theme and try to dissect it a bit to understand how a WP theme works.
    Theme_Development

    Thread Starter riderofthestorm2

    (@riderofthestorm2)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    That’s awesome. Because I already have these sophisticated 3-column design layouts that’s very image heavy. There may be three or four different templates that will be slight variations on the index page. I made sure to design them thinking of a good CSS layout in mind.

    I was feeling intimidated thinking while WP is nice, I didn’t know if you could go beyond that distinctive blog look.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    15 years, 7 months ago

    There may be three or four different templates that will be slight variations on the index page

    Be aware that the WP theme’s index is a diffent animal. If you are visual, take a quick look at this visual anatomy: it will show you how the template files work together in a theme.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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