Title: Custom templates Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # Custom templates * [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/) * Hey everybody, * I’m a graphic designer and new WordPress user, wondering how much knowledge is needed to create custom templates from scratch without much programming experience. I know basic html, and own GoLive CS2 if that helps (though I know very little about the latter). An example of the level of customization I’m looking for is here: * [http://www.beastieboys.com/](http://www.beastieboys.com/) * I am pretty sure this site uses WordPress for the main blog. If WordPress requires too much programming to use my own designs, can someone recommend something I could implement without learning CSS or PHP or something like that? I looked at blogger.com but that seemed even more complicated than WordPress. I’d appreciate some help, thanks! * cheers, * Adam Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/page/2/?output_format=md) * [Cal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/themesbycal/) * (@themesbycal) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623289) * Almost all of the CMS and Blogging platforms available use CSS for the themes. You almost have to know it if you want to mod or create a theme. You don’t really need to know php, but CSS is pretty much necessary. * Hope that helps. * Thread Starter [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623290) * Thanks for the help. Do you possibly know of any good resources for learning CSS? * [Cal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/themesbycal/) * (@themesbycal) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623291) * Great Forums, Articles, Books and Videos [http://www.sitepoint.com](http://www.sitepoint.com) * There are literally hundreds of great sites with CSS tutorials and articles. I would suggest just going to our great friend Google for more resources. * Hope that helps * Thread Starter [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623292) * Sure does, I appreciate it! * [meyithi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/meyithi/) * (@meyithi) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623306) * I found that playing with the CSS present on wordpress themes taught me the fastest. If I got stuck I’d go research what I was stuck on! * You quickly learn what does what with a live example, theory and practice together. * Thread Starter [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623341) * that’s exactly what i thought to do, and how i learned HTML. when you say you played with “the CSS present on wordpress” .. what is this exactly? everything i downloaded says PHP, and when i go to edit these files in GoLive, it’s a bunch of programming nonsense to me, i have no idea where to start …. * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623343) * 1. Edit the WP files only in a plain text editor. 2. Every WordPress theme ( not template!) is built from several template (.php) files AND a CSS file – style. css. * The template files are (X)HTML files with PHP snippets in between for retrieving the data from the database. They are called [template tags](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags). The Codex, the online manual can be of great help for understanding the theme system: [Theme_Development](http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development) * [hairball](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hairball/) * (@hairball) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623352) * I would too like to design my own wp-theme but, I don’t know pHp well enough yet. I just started reading and doing online tutorials 2 days ago. * But to mOd someone else’s theme is this c00l to do ? * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623353) * Depending on the license – most of the themes are GPL, meaning you can freely modify them… of course, a reference to the original author in the stylesheet MUST be left there. It is a great way to learn your way in theme design to start with an existing theme. * [hairball](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hairball/) * (@hairball) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623358) * OK Thanks for the inFo. * [Geezerjim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/actorjiml/) * (@actorjiml) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623374) * Another great source for learning css is: [http://w3schools.com/css/default.asp](http://w3schools.com/css/default.asp) * [Cal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/themesbycal/) * (@themesbycal) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623375) * And let’s not forget….. * [http://csszengarden.com](http://csszengarden.com) * 🙂 * Thread Starter [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623469) * Awesome, thanks for the great resources! * Thread Starter [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * (@adweinbe) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623471) * Quick related question — right now, the big thing i want to do is simply change the column widths for the default WordPress blog layout. What files should I edit to change this? I searched a bunch of them and couldn’t find what I would think would be obvious attributes. * At the moment my plan is to insert a WordPress blog into an existing design ( w/o learning CSS or PHP for now) by creating an html “inframe” and linking to the blog from within the page. The thing is, I need to shrink the praportions of the blog / column dimensions to have it work within the design. Does this sound feasible?? * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/#post-623515) * 1. If you are a beginner – do NOT touch the default theme. Sorry, it is not easy to modify. 2. Embedding WP in an iframe has nothing to do with your initial question (=designing a custom theme/template). 2a. It’s a very bad solution putting it into an iframe but someone else might have some good advice how to do it. ( I don’t know anything about frames because I can’t stand them.) Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Custom templates’ is closed to new replies. * 18 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [adweinbe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adweinbe/) * Last activity: [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-templates-1/page/2/#post-623535) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics