Wicked WordPress Themes is a step-by-step guide to creating beautiful themes for the world's most popular CMS, WordPress. By following the book's advice, readers can produce designs that are aesthetically stunning, consistent, and for-purpose -whether it's for their own use, or to drive a high price on the theme marketplace. All facets of theme design are covered: from design, coding, and deployment, to ensuring readers' designs are ready-to-go as soon as they're installed. Wicked WordPress Themes teaches readers how to leverage theme design frameworks to dramatically shorten development time, enabling them to enter the theme market faster.
Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes......Page 3
Table of Contents......Page 9
Who Should Read This Book......Page 15
What’s in This Book......Page 16
The Code Archive......Page 17
Raena Jackson Armitage......Page 18
Jeffrey Way......Page 19
Code Samples......Page 20
Tips, Notes, and Warnings......Page 21
Introducing WordPress......Page 23
WordPress Today......Page 24
Why WordPress?......Page 25
WordPress.com and WordPress.org......Page 26
What is a Theme?......Page 27
Why become a WordPress theme designer?......Page 28
And Finally …......Page 29
Planning Your Theme......Page 31
Media and Links......Page 32
Comments......Page 33
The Loop......Page 34
Defining Success......Page 35
Letting Your Content Lead the Way......Page 36
Doing Your Research......Page 38
Plugin Research......Page 39
Avoiding Feature Bloat......Page 40
Planning for the Audience......Page 42
Planning for Publishers......Page 44
The Theme Sitemap and Wireframe......Page 45
The Sitemap......Page 46
The Wireframe......Page 47
Just Recapping …......Page 49
Theme Design 101......Page 53
Color......Page 54
Typography......Page 56
Hierarchy......Page 57
Font Replacement......Page 58
Visual Style......Page 60
The Golden Ratio......Page 61
Fixed or Fluid......Page 62
Layout Options......Page 63
The Anatomy of a WordPress Theme......Page 66
The Header......Page 67
The Navigation Menu......Page 69
The Loop......Page 71
Pagination......Page 73
Comments......Page 74
Sidebars and Widgets......Page 78
The Footer......Page 81
The Home Page......Page 84
The Standard Page Template......Page 86
The Single Post Template......Page 88
The Archive, Author, Category, and Tag Page Templates......Page 89
The Search Results Page......Page 90
The 404 Page......Page 91
Standard Styling for HTML Elements......Page 92
Feature Sliders......Page 93
Custom Page Templates......Page 94
Advertising Blocks......Page 95
Social Media Add-ons......Page 96
Putting It All Together......Page 97
Theme Frameworks......Page 99
Child Themes: The Smart Way to Build on a Framework......Page 100
How do I choose a great framework?......Page 101
Thematic......Page 102
Hybrid......Page 104
Thesis......Page 106
Genesis......Page 108
Preparing Your Canvas......Page 109
Creating Your Child Theme......Page 112
Looking Stylish......Page 114
Keep Poking Away at Those Styles......Page 118
A Frame to Work With......Page 119
How Templates Work......Page 121
Attachments......Page 122
Taxonomy Archives......Page 123
The Template Hierarchy and Child Themes......Page 124
Thematic’s Templates......Page 125
Building a Magazine-style Home Page......Page 126
Ditching That Sidebar......Page 127
Including Files......Page 129
Modifying the Footer......Page 130
Hooks and Filters......Page 134
Adding a Favicon......Page 136
Thematic’s Hooks......Page 137
Putting It All Together......Page 138
Adding a Social Media Button to Your Posts......Page 141
Showing an Author Bio on a Post......Page 143
Posts with Excerpts......Page 144
Setting Up Post Thumbnails......Page 145
Building The Loop......Page 146
Inserting The Loop......Page 149
A Case of Mistaken Identities......Page 151
Keep On Exploring......Page 152
Understanding Widgets and Widget-ready Areas......Page 153
Default Widgets......Page 154
Thematic’s Widget-ready Areas......Page 155
Widget Markup......Page 156
Registering a Widget-ready Area......Page 158
Displaying a Widget-ready Area......Page 160
Removing Widget-ready Areas......Page 161
Introducing the Widgets API......Page 162
Creating the Widget......Page 163
Summary......Page 170
Creating an Options Panel......Page 171
Laying the Groundwork......Page 172
Adding an Admin Panel......Page 176
The Options Form......Page 178
Using Options in Your Theme......Page 182
Altering CSS......Page 183
Altering Markup......Page 184
Altering Functionality......Page 185
Adding Color Variants......Page 186
The Options Form......Page 187
Adding the Style Sheets......Page 188
Custom Page Templates......Page 189
Shortcodes......Page 192
Building Your Own Shortcodes......Page 194
Customizable Menus......Page 196
With Great Power …......Page 197
Understanding the GPL......Page 199
Documentation......Page 201
Convenience......Page 202
Dual Licensing......Page 203
Multiple Color Schemes......Page 204
Freebies......Page 206
Embracing the Latest Technologies......Page 207
Image Sliders......Page 208
Custom Fonts......Page 209
Keep It Simple, Student......Page 210
Browser Testing......Page 212
Educating the Community......Page 213
One Website Per Theme......Page 214
How will the theme be used?......Page 215
Soaking It All Up......Page 216
Index......Page 217
