Parent/Child Themes in WordPress: The Future of WordPress Themes

WordPress 2.7 now features parent/child WordPress Themes, a new feature that protects installed WordPress Themes while allowing customization. Customizations are storied in the “child” Theme, which loads first. If a Child Theme isn’t detected, WordPress loads the “parent” Theme. If you do not intend on making any customization to your WordPress Theme on your WordPress […]

WordPress Themes: Start With a Solid Framework

Why I Created a WordPress Theme Framework by Justin Tadlock is a good look at the reasons why WordPress Theme designers and developers should work with a framework when designing a WordPress Theme. A strong Theme framework creates a solid canvas upon which to build your WordPress Themes. If you are or considering building WordPress […]

Designing WordPress Themes For the Slowing Web

Jonathan Bailey of the Blog Herald wrote about Surfing the Slow Web, a summary of his recent experience trying to connect to the Internet as an evacuee from Hurricane Gustav. While most web designers are pushing the limits of heavy handed design towards high bandwidth, the world still doesn’t work that fast or wide. According […]

WordPress Themes: The Ignored Footer

Have you looked lately at the average WordPress Theme footer? That little bit of color and text at the bottom of a WordPress Theme? Lately, it seems that the only time it gets any attention is when people are looking for design credit, embedded links and ads, and other nasties. Sometimes I think the web […]

Kubrick and K2 WordPress Themes: Collection of Theme Tips

When WordPress 1.5 was released, it brought with it a novel concept: WordPress Themes. One of the first of these innovative Themes that revolutionized how blogs are designed was Kubrick, designed by Michael Heilemann and Chris J. Davis. It is also known as the Default Theme. It’s innovative design and use of WordPress template tags […]

Microformats and WordPress Themes

By Otto of Nothing to See Here Question: What are Microformats? The short answer: Microformats are a way to make your web pages readable by more than just people. The idea is that you put special forms of HTML in your page, around the stuff you already have in your page. This special code lets […]

It’s Official. Sponsored WordPress Themes Are Out.

Matt Mullenweg has made the WordPress policy on sponsored WordPress Themes official: Before WordCamp all sponsored themes should be removed from http://themes.wordpress.net. He’s not alone. Mark Ghosh on Weblog Tools Collection declared that he would no longer feature sponsored WordPress Themes on Weblog Tools Collection, one of the most important sources for news on new […]

Accomplished: WPDesigners One Month Challenge on WordPress Themes

Small Potatoes of WPDesigner has completed the task of a WordPress Theme a day for the past month, as of tomorrow. Amazing. And what makes this Ridiculously Mind-Numbing WordPress Self-Challenge even more of an accomplishment is the release of WordPress 2.1 in the middle of the challenge, bringing with it new WordPress template tags and […]

Alex King: WordPress Themes Versus Templates

Alex King’s “WP Themes vs. Templates” discusses the modular system of how WordPress Themes work with some good tips on creating a template form to work within your WordPress Theme. While the theme system works well as advertised, it doesn’t work exactly the way I like to set up my web front-end code. Luckily, it […]

Are WordPress Themes and Plugins Ready for Internet Explorer 7?

In the very near future, you may go to bed and wake up to check your WordPress blog and find the WordPress Theme web design borked or bent. Microsoft is getting ready to force feed Internet Explorer 7 onto Windows XP computers automatically in the next month or so, and your WordPress Theme or Plugin […]

Integrating Google Gadgets Into WordPress Themes

As if you weren’t satisfied with all the WordPress Widgets, you can also incorporate a wide variety of Google Gadgets into your full version WordPress Theme. Google Gadgets are, well, anything. They are services, searches, feeds, games, toys, information, and anything. Basically, they are tools, utilities, and games you can add to your web pages […]

Review of Best Minimalist WordPress Themes

Are you looking for a simple, clean, and very basic looking WordPress Theme design? Plaintxt.org has reviewed many WordPress Themes and recommends “The Best Minimalist WordPress Themes”. I’m sharing some of the best—and more interesting—minimalist WordPress themes that are publicly available. Many may react to these by thinking of all the ways they could be […]

One Year Anniversary Review: Designing WordPress Themes for the Public

An article I wrote during the past year that got a lot of attention, and criticism, was “WordPress Theme Designers: Slapping You Upside the Head”. It was a rant, but also a guide to help those who design WordPress Themes for public release, and to WordPress.com and those who choose and prepare WordPress Themes for […]

One Year Anniversary Review: Designing WordPress Themes

WordPress Theme design is fairly unique in web design techniques as a WordPress Theme isn’t just about the design of the website, it is about web design based upon generated and controllable content. Programming code helps to create each page on a WordPress blog, influencing the look and feel of every element of a WordPress […]

Blogging Pro WordPress Themes and Plugins Contest

Blogging Pro started a WordPress Themes and Plugins Contest on June 23 with a deadline of June 30th. The goal of the contest was to 1) revitalize the WordPress creative community, and 2) feature the best new Themes and Plugins on Blogging Pro to help promote them. Unfortunately, it was a flop. I found that […]