WordPress.org

1. bumblebee
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   Do you know what would be absolutely fantastic beyond belief? If somebody out there was clever, and bored, enough to create a WYSIWYG WordPress template editor, especially for the CSS pages, but also with the main content.

   I mean, how brilliant would that be for newbies? We could have the option of editing the code, too, so that we could gradually learn what we were doing...at the moment, I'm freaking out because I have no idea how to come up with a really original layout design, and it's all more or less "poking a stick in the dark" as to what the layout will look like when I'm done with it.

   Are there any such programs already out there? If so, I'd love to get my hands on it. :) Otherwise, if you or somebody you know is interested in creating one, then...

2. WildBil2Me
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   There's a WYSIWYG editor for posts, but I'm not aware of one for templates yet.

   You have the option of installing stuff locally to play around with PHP and MySQL databases to get some things done, but I haven't done that in ages.

   I know the frustration of early WP work. Luckily, with the advent of 1.5 and the Codex things have become much easier. In about two months time I've made huge leaps in learning how to get things done.

   What I recommend is starting with CSS. Google some free CSS tutorials, and play around with the style sheet first. Once you know how you want to "block out" your website you can hit the codex for tons of great info or even just ask around this board.

   It is definitely tough at first but, at least for me, learning the ins and outs of WP is as much fun as actually blogging with it.

3. Beel
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   The rest of us have enough sense not to design one (or we are clever enough to know what <strong>Duh!</strong> will look like ;-)

4. JacksonBoyle
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   There's an online template generator at this site :
   http://www.erisfree.com/d2/apart.php

5. Lorelle
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   I recommend that you create a Theme Sandbox. Create a test post with all the headings and styles you would normally use within your site. View the generated page in the Classic or Default Theme - or whatever Theme most closely resembled the end result you want.

   Do a FILE > SAVE AS and save the web page to your site. Start with a single post view and then you can save the front page and other views to get their styling but it helps if you start with the single post view first.

   Put the new html file in a folder along with the style sheet. Using a Text ONLY Editor, edit the new file's head to direct the location of the style sheet to the style.css in that folder. Add images and other things you want in that folder or in a subfolder like /images. Make sure all the links in the test file match the new folder and location.

   Then view the page in your browser and it should look great.

   Using the Firefox browser, get their Web Developers Add-on extensions and use the Edit CSS feature to bring up a sidebar that allows editing of the style sheet AS YOU WATCH.

   It won't show you the background image, but it will show you just about everything else. Edit and make changes and tweak things around, and then copy the CSS to the style.css file and view the page again (total refresh) to see the new changes in place with the background image. Continue to tweak until you get it how you want.

   Change the heading in the style.css to be the new name of the Theme you are working on. It doesn't matter what it is called, just call it something different from the themes you already have installed.

   When you are ready, upload the new style sheet to a COPY folder of the original Theme you started with and then select it through your Presentation Panel and check out your new Theme.

   On the multipost views, you will have to tweak a thing or two, but that's the easy part. You can then do the same thing with the other generated page views and you will have the theme you want.

6. tomhanna
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   <strong>Duh!</strong>

   Sure, but what I can't figure out is why the quicktag is labeled "b" if they weren't just going to use <b>Duh!</b> instead.

7. Beel
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   Given that <b> is not xhtml compliant, a smaller quicktag footprint would be the obvious inference.

8. Class
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   It's called Macromedia Dreamweaver ;)

9. masquerade
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   Also, the general consensus around WYSIWYG editing programs like OpenOffice and MS Word is that b means bold.

10. kwanza
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    as a newbie what i would prefer is a tutorial that just shows me how to creat a theme from scratch, not customize or modify one. seriously i am very frustrated and tend to pick up code pretty fast but this is really confusing when it shouldn't be. i tried some of the lessons and they assume too much and don't help. just show me how to create my own header.php file etc. from nuts to soup and i will be more than grateful.

11. vkaryl
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Did you check the theme sections in the codex?

    And here: http://www.transycan.net/abc/visual_anat.html

    And here: http://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/04/12/themeguide1/

12. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    I'm fairly new to WordPress and I find the codex to be as straight forward as it can possibly be. And I'm no brainiac. I learn from experimenting until I develop a migraine. Just take stuff apart, break it, fix it, print code and hilite for reference, pick a theme and save all the background images and play with them in an editor (I use Macro. Fireworks) then apply them to the theme. Have fun.
    I'm self taught in the areas of xhtml and css, and I find this WordPress stuff fascinating.
    You don't need a WYSIWYG editor to see what you're doing. Just screw with the code and preview it. That's a great way to learn. Leave the WYSIWYG for that 12-year old who spends all his time on his Lars Ulrich Tribute site.
    No offense...but ya' just gotta' dive in head first and experiment.

13. vkaryl
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    *snicker* carburetor, you're a person after my own heart! GREAT reply....

    [I'm a "self-taught" EVERYTHING - beginning in 1984 with my first computer, dos 2.0, and a mimeo'ed "manual"....}

14. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    1984...first computer...dos 2.0...mimeo'ed manual??

    Man, you would have killed for a codex as thorough as this in 1984!

    Kids these days! ha!

15. vkaryl
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Yeah, I would have. I had WordPerfect 1.whatever too.... NO manual (heh, still use it to this day, version 11 or whatever it is now). And a variety of b&w not-quite-text-only games but not far from.... Stonegate ring any bells?

    You should have seen me figuring out how to install my first hard drive, not to mention "upgrading" to windows 3.0 (now THAT was buggier than an anthill! No one today has ever seen a buggy OS unless they dealt with THAT one....)

    Y'know what though? I have had SO MUCH FUN since then.... machines and software ARE fun.... I would not trade it for anything in this world or the next (well, I might trade it for another 200 or 300 years....)

16. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    It is fun. My last computer was a 1998 NEC Ready 9880. I knew that computer inside and out by taking it apart like a curious 10-year old, and upgrading out the wazoo.
    Then my wife makes me buy this turbo charged HP, and I ain't allowed to come within 10 feet of it with a screw driver!
    I just see so many posts by people expecting someone else to wave a magic wand and cure all of their cyber ills. I read the codex for fun even when I'm not looking for anything specific. But it's true that people should not be afraid to ask questions in here. If certain people get fed up with the same questions being asked over and over again, they'll get over it. But the codex and the searching is key.
    If I ask a question, and someone responds with, "hey jackass, this horse was already beaten in the following thread a million times"...well, I'll still consider that helpful, and I'll be grateful for their help. I've been called worse.
    Too much coffee racing through my viens...sorry.

17. Beel
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    I built my first in '74 with 15k of memory after I read an article in an electronics magazine - my parents thought I was nuts putting out all my lawn mowing money for a "toy". Apple and Commodore came out a couple of years later as I recall. Not many around here probably remember the 8080 and 8088 IBM chips.

18. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Okay you too...play nice and I'll seeya' back in here later.
    Be well!
    Rob.

19. Mark (podz)
    Support Maven
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Beel - no :p

20. kwanza
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Thanks for those two links and yes I did check the codex but obviously missed these somehow. That is totally what I was talking about!

    As to many of the comments that followed mine, they are pretty smug. I am self-taught as well and build my own computers. Why the comment about magic wands and 12-year olds? I take stuff and break it apart but just because lessons in the codex are easier for some to understand and others not, it doesn't call for the snarkiness. Maybe just better tutorials?

    More to the point I specifically stated that as a newbie I didn't really want a WYSIWYG but tutorials more like the links that were posted. Rather than post about how long smart you are prove it and build a WYSIWYG template editor like the post suggests, instead of being contemptuous.

21. kwanza
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Oh and one more thing. THIS LINK: http://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/04/12/themeguide1/1/

    Was very helpful and *gasp* not in the codex. Thanks again to the person that posted it.

22. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    kwanza, none of that was aimed at you. Sorry you took it that way.
    I was speaking of those who always want the easy way out and don't care to learn and experiment.
    It was sort of a heads-up to those people. Ya' know? This isn't FrontPage or Homestead.
    Personally I hope to never see a WYSIWYG associated with WordPress.

23. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    "Rather than post about how long smart you are prove it and build a WYSIWYG template editor like the post suggests, instead of being contemptuous."

    I never claimed to be "long smart"

    Why would I want to build a WYSIWYG when there are already ways to develop your theme and preview them? Besides, if you read what I wrote you would realize that I'm against them. Were moving forward with this thing called The Internet...not backwards. You want a WYSIWYG template editor. YOU build one and stop crying. I'm not your Mother.

24. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    I meant that last part as a joke. One thing you don't want to be in here is sensitive. I'm bound to be ripped on and yelled at in here for questions I'll be asking.

25. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    kwanza,
    This might be of interest.
    Hell, I might even check it out just for use in faster posting.
    But I don't think it's an all-out Frontpage type of WYSIWYG.

26. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    DOPE! I fotgot eh URL
    http://mudbomb.com/archives/2005/02/02/wysiwyg-plugin-for-wordpress/
    See, I'm not as bright as you think I am.

27. Joebar
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Here's a good WYSIWYG editor for those not willing to dig in and play with code.

28. moshu
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    I guess the last two posts went away from the OP. The original question was not about a wysiwyg post editor, but about a template editor...

29. billsaysthis
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Personally I'm happy to dig in with code. But in the bigger picture, meaning how does WordPress get adopted by as many blog writers as reasonably possible, the comments in this thread are way off base and more than a little arrogant.

    *puts on flame-retardent underwear*
    Having a WYSIWYG template tool doesn't mean that those of us who enjoy it won't still dig in to the code but I don't understand why you would suggest this is the best path for everyone. To me that's the same as saying everyone should have to learn WordPerfect formatting codes (or LaTeX) to style their documents. Some people would rather spend their time and effort on creating content and not building a system, but they'd still like to have a personalized site design.

    For those of you who prefer the handbuilt way, do you use any plugins? For that matter, why are you even using WordPress when clearly you ought to be developing your own software instead of being lazy and using WP? Carberator, Beel, I'm looking at you.

30. carburetor
    Member
    Posted 7 years ago #
    

    Lazy? Build our own system? You're really reaching, Billy.
    My original site was built from scratch using xhtml and css. That's going thru a redesign and I'm using WordPress to keep my viewers up to date until the new design is launched.
    What makes me laugh are the millions of people who rely on WYSIWYG editors to build their sites, and never learning what goes into it behind the scenes. Then when something goes wrong with their site, they either cry about it in support forums, or abandon the site like a broken toy. Did you notice that when you search for something in Google and Yahoo! and you have to weed through tons of crap before finding what you need? Everyone and their grandmother has a stupid Web site.
    I hope we reach thte point with Web Standards where all those millions of sites get desolved and cease to exist, rejected from every current browser. But now we want easy-to-build WordPress blogs so millions of idiots can create templates and blogs and get bored with them and leave them floating around in cyberspace to annoy the rest of us.
    Yeah....great idea.

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