WordPress Theme Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

Customize your WordPress sites and blogs with ease! Now there's a step-by-step WordPress theming guide for everyone from beginning bloggers to experienced web designers, developers, and content specialists. WordPress experts Tris Hussey and Catherine Winters introduce essential WordPress theming skills using HTML, PHP, and CSS, techniques that can be applied to theme development for any CMS, including Drupal, Joomla, and Blogger. In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Tris and Catherine help you use the power of the WordPress theming engine to take control of the look, feel, and behavior of your website or blog. Each lesson builds upon the previous one, teaching simple to state-of-the-art skills and integrating them in three complete theming case studies: magazines, portfolios and mobile environments. You'll review WordPress basics and set up an efficient theme development environment; work with WordPress features like custom headers and backgrounds; customize your theme's headers and footers; and create and edit page templates and stylesheets. Tris and Catherine show how to enhance your themes with plugins and widgets; use child themes; update older existing themes; leverage advanced CSS techniques, custom taxonomies, and custom post types; preview emerging trends in theme design; and share themes with WordPress users around the world. Step-by-step instructions walk you through the most common questions, issues, and tasks. Quizzes and exercises build and test your knowledge, and "Did You Know?" tips offer insider advice you can't find anywhere else. Tris and Catherine also point out WordPress quirks and how to avoid theming pitfalls. By the time you're done, you'll be ready to build custom themes for any WordPress site or blog, no matter how large or complex!