Create a home.php for your theme, copy index.php, modify as needed..
It goes in your theme’s folder, obviously.. 🙂
Not quite clear …
– I know how to design pages using HTML and CSS. How much PHP will I need to know to create a “home.php” page?
– “Copy index.php.” Copy the content of index.php (see below) to home.php?
– Does my final, newly-minted home page, go in the Theme folder as “home.php” or is it then renamed “index.php”?
FYI: My Theme’s default index.php code:
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="content" class="clearfix">
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<div id="left">
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/wp-loop.php"); ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
You can use whatever template file you want to use as a basis, it was just easy to give the index as example, but yes, you’d be renaming the copied file to home.php …
Simply put, using a home.php with the theme, allows specific control over what’s seen on the “home” page..
See here for a visual aid in how WP determines which file to load in given scenarios.
http://codex.wordpress.org/images/1/18/Template_Hierarchy.png
FWIW, your home.php could simply contain, if you so choose..
get_header();
echo 'foo bar';
get_footer();
or
echo 'nothing';
The point being, what’s in this file will only be present when it’s the home page, which is what you originally asked for..
