Title: Cannot customize themes with PHP
Last modified: August 24, 2016

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# Cannot customize themes with PHP

 *  [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * (@indieburner)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/)
 * The problem with WP is that one needs to know PHP which locks out a lot of people
   from customizing themes. Is there a way to customize themes using CSS? If so,
   how? I tried a few plugins but they don’t seem effective.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * (@stephencottontail)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047182)
 * What theme are you using? What customizations are you trying to make?
 *  Thread Starter [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * (@indieburner)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047184)
 * I tried Nature One and Gardena
 *  Thread Starter [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * (@indieburner)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047185)
 * I usually code in Dreamweaver, which uses HTML and CSS, not PHP. Do I need to
   learn PHP?
 *  [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * (@stephencottontail)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047189)
 * I haven’t used Dreamweaver in quite a long time, but from a quick look it appears
   that you can code PHP in it.
 * I’m not entirely familiar with either of the themes you mentioned, but whether
   or not you’d have to learn PHP would depend on what kind of customizations you’re
   trying to make. What are you trying to do?
 *  Thread Starter [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * (@indieburner)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047294)
 * Thanks,
 * I want to add new CSS classes to the template but it appears that I need to learn
   PHP, which I don’t have time to do. I guess the reason why so many WP sites look
   the same is that most designers who don’t know PHP are stuck with the existing
   templates. It’s a shame becuase the websites are designed using HTML and CSS 
   code. It’s back to Dreamweaver for me.
 *  [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * (@stephencottontail)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047333)
 * It still might be possible to do what you’re trying to do without having to add
   new classes. Can you post a link to your site and explain exactly what you’re
   trying to do?
 *  Thread Starter [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * (@indieburner)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047357)
 * Thanks but I can’t show the website yet because my client doesn’t want it published.
   In any case, I’m going to build my own template in Dreamweaver and upload to 
   WP.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Cannot customize themes with PHP’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [customize themes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/customize-themes/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 7 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [indieburner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/indieburner/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-customize-themes/#post-6047357)
 * Status: not resolved

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