Trying to make a theme

  • palmettostar

    (@palmettostar)


    17 years, 9 months ago

    I am currently in the process of designing my site, however at this time I am currently using Movabletype as it is what I am use to basing my designs around and it is a much easier concept (imo) to master as far as coding goes.

    I would like to turn this layout I have created: http://these-words.org/index2.html (please please view in Firefox) into a theme that I can use in WordPress (obviously :P)

    I understand the basics behind a WordPress theme as far as what the WP tags do and where to put them, but I’m unknowledgeable as far as the actual php part goes. I have looked at various sites that explain php includes, splitting the designs into header, footer etc pages…but I’m still not sure where to begin and how to go about cutting up the coding I currently have to make a theme.

    I know this is asking a lot, but I would really like to learn I just need some info on where to start =/ Any help would be appreciated.

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Samuel B

    (@samboll)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Designing_Themes_for_Public_Release

    BenWyatt

    (@benwyatt)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    As a general rule, splitting up the header and footer are pretty simple.

    The header should have any code that comes before the main content of the page. The footer is anything that comes after.

    Looking at your code, I see you have a div called “Content”. Everything before that div is your header. Everything after it is your footer.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    If you think the “visualization” of the splitting might help… take a look at this anatomy.

    Thread Starter palmettostar

    (@palmettostar)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    Thanks for the links, I will definitely take a look and see what I can figure out 🙂

    mjwood

    (@mjwood)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    Looks like a nice theme. It shouldn’t be too bad as others have mentioned. The anatomy link really helped me when I was trying to figure out how it all went together.

    Also, once you get the new theme done, you may want to look into validating it. I believe that this is why it doesn’t work right in IE and works fine in Firefox. Firefox is a bit more open with invalid code.

    Another good tip for starting a new theme is to look at current themes you think are structurally similar to what you want to create. And by all means, DON’T use the default theme. It’s very hard to modify!

    For validation help, you can look here:
    http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fthese-words.org%2Findex2.html

    Good luck!

    Thread Starter palmettostar

    (@palmettostar)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    Well this is what I have come up w/ so far: http://www.these-words.org/wp/

    Obviously it’s not perfect and I still have alot of the old coding in areas that it probably shouldn’t be, but…how do I fix the area where the “blog” is suppose to show up? In IE one post appears at the very top then theres a post in the position it SHOULD be located it, then in Firefox its the same way except its moved down the page =/

    Any ideas? Like I said earlier I’m learning this, so my coding probably isn’t placed in the right area etc. I’m trying to go through right now and place the WordPress coding where the Movabletype coding was.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    I’m trying to go through right now and place the WordPress coding where the Movabletype coding was.

    That’s never a smart idea. I mean I’ve never used MT, but trying to think about a new tool with the mentality of an old tool… will just get you in trouble.
    Forget MT, and try to learn the WP’s logic. It will make your life easier 🙂

    Thread Starter palmettostar

    (@palmettostar)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    Well, I understand the <?php the_time(‘l, F jS, Y’); ?> type coding of WordPress, and basically it’s just putting those codes in the place of where I had the Movabletype ones 😡 And for the most part I have been able to convert it successfully except for the way the actual blog is showing up with one entry being in the wrong place.

    —
    The post that is the original welcoming post for WordPress is correctly formated, just not in the right place (in IE or FF) and the post is missing some of the formatting, I’m not sure what coding I need to change to fix this.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    WordPress.org Admin

    17 years, 9 months ago

    palmettostar: You have two <div id="content"> sections. That’s your biggest problem.

    What you want is to have one <div id="content"> section which wraps around *all* the content. If you want to put each post in a div, that’s fine, but make it a div with a CLASS of post or something. ID’s are supposed to be unique on the page.

    mjwood

    (@mjwood)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    I believe Otto is right on. It looks like your <div id=”content”> is somehow in “the loop”. If I’m not mistaken, you’ll want to start this class before the loop and end it after.

    Inside the loop you could then have a <div id=”post”> or something. This is where you would format each individual post.

    It’s a little confusing at first. Basically, your content is everything below the header, to the right of the sidebar and above the footer (if you have one).

    Hope this helps! Looking great so far!

    mindfeck

    (@mindfeck)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    Just my opinion about the theme, the graphics are gigantic in actual size and in kb. It pushes all content to the lower right, and that’s not where the focus is. Besides that, it’s looking good.

    Thread Starter palmettostar

    (@palmettostar)

    17 years, 9 months ago

    OMG *does a happy dance* I got the “blog/entries” to show up in the correct location!! Thanks so much for all the help ya’ll have been given me…it’s all starting to come together.

    Now I have a different problem; I have the actual “blog/entries” settled and placed, but this causes the actual footer (the graphic that is suppose to be at the very bottom thats all over the place right now) to be in the weirdest place…I guess I have to make it’s how div for that too because right now I think it’s just sitting at the bottom of the page, I’ve tried putting it in it’s own div tag w/ CSS to go w/ it but I can’t get it to move 🙁

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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