I just came across your site as I am looking at a heavy redesign on my personal site (using a stock theme) and on my After Hours Computer Service site. Thank you for all the advice in this article. I’m still learning CSS, and this article is going to be extremely helpful as soon as I can get it completely digested.

I would like to second the recommendation of your No. 2 post by Sarit. I use XAMPP extensively when testing new WordPress themes and plugins, Drupal, and more recently Joomla. It makes it extremely easy to play and learn, and not have to worry about messing up the folder structure on a production site.

I recommend the full XAMPP install, only because you have the full package. You may not use everything, but if you are on the road, without internet access and need something, you most likely already have it. I also recommend the PERL add-on as well. PHP is great, but every once in a while I like to play with a Perl program.

Once I get my new theme up, I’ll trackback to this site.

Thanks again,
Will

There is no sequential order. You change what needs changing and leave the rest alone. The stylesheet governs how each individual template file is styled, as well as the whole. The Sandbox WordPress Theme is a brilliant example worth studying to see how this is all done, a fantastic canvas.

There is no order. You either start from scratch and design the site, then add the WordPress template tags to generate the HTML content, or you start with a Theme design you like, like the Sandbox Theme, and then add your own styles to its stylesheet. You don’t do header first, then footer, then content, then comments. You work on the element that is next on your list, not mine.

The rationale for a lot of design decisions have nothing to do with WordPress. They have to do with the designer and the goals of the site. There are hundreds and hundreds of expert web designers blogging the tips and insights you may need there, but unless you can be more specific, you are in the same boat as the rest of us.

First Steps With WordPress, New To WordPress – Where to Start, Stepping Into Templates, Stepping Into Template Tags, A Guide to the WordPress Codex, The Online Manual for WordPress Users, and my own guide, A Guide to the WordPress Codex, The Online Manual for WordPress Users are the best foundation guides you can find online.

I’m trying to graduate from creating simple page designs to creating a blog theme design. I hope to transition my simple brochure site to a blog, but I’m not a graphic designer. I want to maintain the clean design and colors that I already have in place on my site.

I already know CSS and am comfortable with writing scripts, so PHP template tags don’t intimidate me. But putting everything together seems overwhelming because the pieces are in separate files, and I can’t always interpret how styles in the pre-designed themes are being used. I have read a lot of codex topics but am wishing for a sequential tutorial. I have a book on WordPress Theme Design, but I just don’t relate to the examples or understand the rationale for many of the design decisions.

So in a nutshell, I’m not making much progress. Could you recommend a resource that puts the process together in sequential order?

Best Regards,
Eddie