The dkret theme is the result of ongoing improvements over two years now. This theme is my opinion of how wordpress themes should work.

Plus dkret is more than just a theme - it's a theme framework. Create your own child theme "on top" of dkret3 without coding one single line of HTML code.

Theme Options

Every theme option available is there for your convenience, but won't bloat your site or get in the way of your customization.

Have a look at the dkret3 settings page for all available options.

Widgets

The theme comes with a lot of Widgets. You can place widgets in one of seven sidebars.

Plus, widget areas completely collapse if you don't use them.

Page Templates

The theme is packaged with some useful page templates. Page templates change the way a page displays or functions depending on the particular template you've chosen.

Archives Page Template

This template will show your visitors your category and monthly archives.

Links Page Template

Will produce an unordered list of your links by default.

No Sidebar Page Template

For use on pages where you don't want any widgets displayed.

Guestbook Page Template

Have your own 'oldschool' Guestbook for your blog.

Layouts

The theme comes with more than 10 different theme layout files (formerly called schemes). Have your siderbar on the left or right side or run dkret without a sidebar at all. Just choose the layout which suits your needs.

You are a CSS genius or have at least some basic knowledge about writing CSS? Write your own layout file and add it to the layout folder.

Have a look at the settings page for a complete list of all the available dkret layouts.

Built-in Support for Plugins

Child Themes

The dkret theme is also a good staring point for your own design ideas. It is meant to be used as a base theme to build from. You can extend it through child themes.

Just create a new theme folder in your /wp-content/themes directory. Call it something like mytheme. So, you'd have a directory like /wp-content/themes/my-dkret. Then, create a style.css file within your theme folder. At the top, add this information:

    
    /* 
    Theme Name: mytheme
    Theme URI: http://link-to-your-site.com
    Description: Describe what your theme should be like.
    Version: 0.1
    Author: Your Name
    Author URI: http://link-to-your-site.com
    Tags: Add, Whatever, Tags, You, Want
    Template: dkret3
    */
    
    

Now, you have your own theme! Of course, you might want to style it.

The best idea for slight changes is to IMPORT the default dkret3 style.css and only add code changes. Updates to the base dkret theme won't (most likely) force an update to the child themes style.css.

    
    /* Get base dkret3 CSS (style.css)*/
    @import url('../dkret3/style.css');
    
    

If you want to create a visually indepandand theme you should at least import the two supplied basic styles reset.css and basic.css.

    
    /* Get basic styles */
    @import url('../dkret3/library/styles/reset.css');
    @import url('../dkret3/library/styles/basic.css');
    
    

These imports will give you time for the design process because Suckerfish navigation and needed styles for images and text elements are set.

You wonder how that basic styles will look? This guide uses these styles with only a bit of extra css for the header.

I've compiled a few Child Themes here that can help you get started.

My own child themes

User based child themes

Localisation

The theme has native support for english and german. Do you need a different language? Some users have been kind enough to provide some translation files. Note, I am not responsible for any of these.

Important Links

The latest dkret version, updates and bug fixes are always available at the dkret Project on Google Code.

Credit

I don't know if I can come close to naming all the people that should be credited, but I'll list some of the main folks.

License

Dkret is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPL).


Joern Kretzschmar (2009)