This article is for web masters with HTML websites becoming too large to manage efficiently. This shows how to make an easy transition to sites based on a free Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress.
Using off the shelf free WordPress themes is for people more interested in content, and who do not have web design skills. For the HTML savvy it can be frustrating trying to find and configure themes to express their design ideas. Designers can spend hours trying different themes and still nothing quite shares their vision and priorities for their site.
The Internet is a competitive environment and web designers need to establish their site’s identity. While the basic structures are similar, the details set their contents apart. Looking like everybody else with that WordPress look marks the site as not quite at the professional level. Your theme reflects what you want to do and giving it an individual look helps sets your content apart.
Why WordPress?
One big advantage of WordPress is that it is a free open source system with a large number of users and a vibrant development community. Most web site hosts support the easy installation and maintenance of WordPress based sites.
In a static web site each page exists as a permanent structure, or entity, and updating the contents means each page has to be individually edited. A WordPress site is a dynamic entity where the page is not constructed until it is called by a browser.
WordPress separates the content from the page structures and appearance. While each page contains unique content there are many things that are the same. The common items and structure are contained in the WordPress page template and CSS file. WordPress references the template for the page structure, the CSS for the appearance and then retrieves the content from the database to finish the page and present it to the browser.
Good design practice is to maintain a consistent look and style across a site, and in a growing site a Content Management System makes this easy. Using template files to construct pages web masters only need to edit the template file and any changes are applied to all the pages.
Using a CMS also allows others to add content without jeopardising the site’s design or page structure.
Creating The Theme
This method is based on the technique of using an existing design and turning it into a custom WordPress theme. The first step is creating a prototype site using HTML code and a CSS file and these are the basis for the custom WordPress theme.
This WordPress custom theme development method assumes a good working knowledge of HTML and using Cascading Style Sheets, but does not require a great knowledge of PHP, which is the programming language of WordPress and other CMSs.
The PHP component of the CMS manages the content stored in the database and incorporates it into the appropriate places in the HTML code presented to the visitor’s web browser. Some aspects of the page are permanent and are written in template files in HTML code, and the whole appearance is determined by the CSS. WordPress provides a number of pre-written functions that are included in the HTML code to do all the database retrieval and template functions.
HTML and CSS are still important because this is what the visitor’s browser will see. The PHP and WordPress generate the HTML code for the content from the instructions in the template.
Prototyping the web site's structure and appearance with HTML and CSS techniques, then using WordPress’s standard functions to include the content, offers a gentler introduction to custom theme design without the intimidation of mastering PHP.
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