Title: Making a theme editor
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Making a theme editor

 *  [alanbaljeu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanbaljeu/)
 * (@alanbaljeu)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/)
 * I’m launching an opensource project to make a WordPress editor for themes, suitable
   for nonprogrammers. To start, I need ideas about interface and functionality.
   I will also need contributors.
 * I’m a programmer, but most bloggers aren’t. Most bloggers would like to customize
   their own themes, but they need to learn programming (relatively simple programming,
   but still) to do the customizing. The alternative seems to be buying expensive
   software like Dreamweaver.
 * To solve this problem, I’d like to propose the creation of an open source project
   to create a tool for interactive template editing. The goal is for this tool 
   to be really simple to use, and powerful enough to handle tweaking the typical
   theme packages out there.
 * I want to keep things simple, so a basic tool can be produced in say a month.
   People can extend it after that as they wish.
 * To start this project, I’d like to hear from **ordinary bloggers **who have ideas
   of
    - what kind of interface we should build, and
    - what kind of tweaks do you want to do
    - Aside from that, I’m interested in people who want to help work on the project.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

 *  [jonimueller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonimueller/)
 * (@jonimueller)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781216)
 * You mean like this:
    [http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/](http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/)
 * or this:
    [http://www.wordpressthemegen.com/](http://www.wordpressthemegen.com/)
 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781217)
 * It’s an admirable goal. Many have tried, few have nailed it.
 * Here’s another link to look over: [http://freshpursuits.com/canvas/](http://freshpursuits.com/canvas/)
 *  [jonimueller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonimueller/)
 * (@jonimueller)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781218)
 * Ooh, sweet!
 *  Thread Starter [alanbaljeu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanbaljeu/)
 * (@alanbaljeu)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781257)
 * yvo’s site is cool but much too basic. wordpressthemegen looks better, but I 
   don’t think it’s there either. What about adding or removing a section of a page?
   What about resizing?
 * Canvas looks much more interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
    Edit: I’ve tried
   Canvas now and it reaallly looks interesting but…. I can’t get the dragndrop 
   layout system to work, and the forums don’t work and all kinds of stuff doesn’t
   work on the website. Is anyone else having better success?
 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781261)
 * Canvas looks pretty dormant now, doesn’t it? It was quite a deal a year or so
   ago. Lots of potential but it was a bit finicky…
 *  [jonimueller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonimueller/)
 * (@jonimueller)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781262)
 * Well. Alan, maybe this is the perfect time for you to swoop in and do a “cleanup
   on aisle 9” and corner this market. It would seem to me that with all the clueless
   newbies out there with shiny new WordPress blogs and sites, there would be a 
   nice market for this. But trouble is quite a few of them are cheapskates so… 
   still… timing is everything. 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [alanbaljeu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanbaljeu/)
 * (@alanbaljeu)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781269)
 * I don’t think I’m looking for a market or anything. It seems to me the thing 
   to do is update Canvas and see if we can get it working. It’s licensed Creative
   Commons, so. Actually, maybe the creators are still around?
 *  Thread Starter [alanbaljeu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanbaljeu/)
 * (@alanbaljeu)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781289)
 * I’m going to discuss this among the WP coders forums, sometime in the next day
   or two.
 *  [sydney078](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sydney078/)
 * (@sydney078)
 * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781292)
 * I myself look forward to seeing what you come up with

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

The topic ‘Making a theme editor’ is closed to new replies.

 * 9 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [sydney078](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sydney078/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/making-a-theme-editor/#post-781292)
 * Status: not a support question

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