Design a Wordpress 2.7 Theme – Day 3 : Dynamic Sidebar and Functional Footer

Introduction

Although the main content is always the most important part of a web design, the secondary content plays a fundamental role in guiding the user through the website. The sidebar helps direct the flow of the page, gives it useful information, and can display some of the most important aspects of your website.

Seeing as these tutorials are based off of Wordpress 2.7, there is no need to go into detail about static sidebars. You can easily add these in, with your knowledge of XHTML and the use of the very detailed Wordpress Codex.

Footers are also a very important feature of your site. Because they are at the bottom, they are often overlooked. Many people don’t realise how important it is to have something to look at once you finish reading a post and so the footer is an ideal opportunity to maintain readership.

Design a Wordpress 2.7 Theme – Day 2 : File Separating and The Loop

Introduction

You have your basic page structure, but there are none of your posts visible. Because there is a lot of PHP needed, and because it can get messy some times, Wordpress give you an easier way to separate your template theme pages into different files. With Wordpress, you can and it is extreemly easy!

Design a Wordpress 2.7 Theme – Day 1 : Structure and Heading

Introduction

The first thing to consider when designing a Wordpress theme is to think about the layout of site. Who is it for, why do they need it, how many columns, what colours? For this tutorial, I will be working on something to give away for free on this site ( a sort of follow-up to the series). I cant decide on your design, so you will have to get all of these beforehand.

Design a Wordpress 2.7 Theme

Ok so I’m a fan of tutorials that show you step by step as to how to accomplish something. One of my favourites, and one that has helped me in my quest in becoming a Web Designer is WPDesigners.com’s – So you want to create WordPress themes huh?. It was so detailed and informative, but sadly that was 2007, and now it’s time for a refresh.

Seeing as he doesn’t seem to be doing so, I thought I might give it a shot. This is an extremely ambitious series of posts, as this is a fairly new blog, from a fairly new blogger/web designer. So please, don’t treat my words as gospel, and always strive for improvement. I shall be doing these posts every two -three days so please stick around. If you have any trouble you can find me here