template
Basic blog theme updated
A few years ago, I was asked to teach how to use WordPress to students enrolled in the Electronic Media Design Program at Langara. The goal was to provide the students with enough knowledge and understanding of WordPress so that they can create an online portfolio.
Download the Basic Theme Files
Once the curriculum in place, my first decision to make was what theme to start with. At the time, WordPress version 2.6 was around and I didn’t particularly want to use the Kubrick theme. I always disliked it and found it too messy. I had built quite a few sites with a now defunct theme, and decided that if I removed all of the unnecessary code and style, this theme would be a great starting point for my class and all of my projects. Thus was born the Basic Blog theme.
This theme has all the functionality of a typical WordPress theme but very little styling. It’s a bare bones theme or a framework for you to work from and has the following following features:
- Two column website measuring 960px wide.
- Widget enabled.
- Sidebar can be positioned on the right or left simply by switching the float direction in the CSS.
- Can be used to create a website with blog and static pages or just static pages if no blog is required.
- Requires no plugin.
Having gone through 3 intakes of students, I’ve had many opportunities to refine the theme. With the release of WordPress 3.0, I’ve now had to make further updates and the theme now also includes the following:
- Custom post thumbnails
- Custom menus
- Easy jQuery integration
- Excess information from header file is removed
Here’s a copy of the Basic Theme for you to download and play with. If you have any suggestions, comments on how it could be improved, please let me know.
I would also like to say thanks to Tzaddi and Catherine for providing their input on this theme and of course to all my EMD students who have thought me so much.
Customizing widget areas to display different page and post sidebars
Don’t you just hate it when you launch a site, hand it off, get paid and a few weeks later the client says, you know… I think I want to change the templates now. This is not working for me.
My first reaction when I hear this is, “crap, I didn’t do my job properly, how can I fix it“. And the reality is, that without user interaction, it’s often difficult to anticipate what they and the client will want and so this type of feedback should be expected and in fact welcomed.
My last project with Tod Maffin allowed me to learn a great deal from such a request for change.
Chris Coyier’s Blank WordPress Theme
In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, Chris Coyer, one of the authors of “Digging into WordPress“, released his blank theme. In his article he states the following:
I have a “blank” WordPress theme for myself, because I make a lot of WordPress themes. Starting from Kubrick, or any other pre-made theme, would be absurd. There is to much stuff there that would have to be stripped out or fought against to be useful. So, I have my own.
Music to my ears. When I started using WordPress years ago, I couldn’t get my head around Kubrick. Cleaning the code took way too much time and energy. I originally created my own theme for a WordPress class. In order to teach students how to theme a site in 6 weeks, I needed something clean and void of excess stuff so I set up my Basic Theme.
I was thus curious when I read Chris’s article and downloaded his theme. It’s super clean and to my delight it’s not so different from mine. I have a lot more CSS than he does and he’s got some fancy stuff going on in his header.php, but overall I would highly recommend it. Starting from a clean theme to design a WordPress site is the best way to work. If you haven’t had a chance to try a blank theme, you should check it out.
Creating a custom page template in WordPress
While designing your WordPress site, you may want to create a page that’s different from your other pages and posts. I’ve created many websites which have a custom home page, portfolio section, site map etc… WordPress allows you to create custom templates in a few simple steps:
- Open up your page.php or index.php and add the following code at the very top of your page:
<?php /* Template Name: Name of your Template */ ?> - Save your your file as new-template-name.php (you may want to use portfolio.php, sitemap.php, etc..)
- Upload your file in your themes directory
- In your WordPress admin, edit the page that you want custom and select the newly created template from your “Template” drop down which is found under “Attributes”
That’s all it takes to create the template, but now you will need to customize it to make it look different from your other pages. You may want to have a different background, dimension, etc…
20 WordPress theme Frameworks
Over at 1st Web Designer, Dainis Graveris, has put together a great list of resources that will help you get started if you are looking at building a WordPress site from scratch.
Bluelime Media launches Framework Templates
For the past few years, I’ve been working more and more with WordPress as a Content Management System, in fact some of you might have noticed that I’ve changed my website content to reflect this transition. If you’ve looked into WordPress yourself, you will know that there is a huge, very generous community that provides online help, tips and tutorials and themes. These themes can be downloaded, installed on your server and you now have a different looking website. However, the problem with these, is that usually, there is always something that just isn’t right for us. Whether it’s the column layout, the width of the site, the header graphic, etc… Modifying the WordPress templates and the CSS can be challenging at times. It’s like trying to prepare a five course meal in someone else’s kitchen. They might have lots of pots and pans but they’re just not the right ones for you.
As the years have progressed, I found one template that I modified and used as my starting point, but I found myself doing the same things over and over. As a result I decided to create a series of new templates which are very basic. They only have the absolute necessary, are very clean, simple and easy to modify. You won’t find crazy function files with lines and lines of code, they only have one image and the colours are neutral.
The idea behind these templates, is that they should be used as your starting block. Once you have them installed, you can modify the CSS, add your images, required plugins and style them the way you’ve envisioned. I’m hoping that these new templates will be useful for WordPress developers, especially those who are just starting out and learning CSS and how to navigate through the many WordPress files. I’ve released the first three templates at www.framework-templates.com and will be releasing more as time permits. I’ll also keep a blog there where you can read about WordPress, templates and plugins.
Please check out the new site and let me know what you think.