WordPress Theme Mechanics

WordPress Theme Mechanics
Because sometimes you need to look under the hood

Common Challenges
• Change fonts and typography? (font size, font color, font face, line spacing).
• Change the background color on a page.
• Customize the theme header (or footer).
• Modify the site layout - change column widths, margins, padding.

In Today’s Webinar
• How WordPress works (conceptually).
• Understanding the WordPress template system.
• Customizing your theme the CSS way.
• How to make a child theme.
• Almost no PHP.

My Assumptions
• You know a little about WordPress
• Adding posts and pages
• Installing and activating plugins and themes
• You have some very basic knowledge of common web terminology
• Primarily HTML & CSS

What are the limits of
WordPress Themes??

What are the limits of
HTML and CSS?
With just a little bit of JavaScript?

Anything is possible*
* when you know the secrets
of the WP theme system
(and HTML and CSS)

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Post Title
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Filed Under: Category Name
Templates
are patterns
for your website

Every type of page
has a template

Header
Footer
Sidebar
Post Title
Normal Paragraph, Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros.
Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac
cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit
amet risus. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur
et. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod.
Post Title
Post Title
Post Title
Post Title
Home Page
Lists posts from newest to oldest, blog style
(aka index.php, home.php, front-page.php)

Header
Footer
Sidebar
Post Title
September 1, 2013 * By Author Name
File Under: Category
Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag
Leave a Comment:
Post
Displays a single post and comments
(aka single.php)

Header
Footer
Sidebar
Page Title
September 1, 2013 * By Author Name
File Under: Category
Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag
Leave a Comment:
Page
Displays a single page
(aka page.php*)
* if page.php doesn’t exist,WordPress uses
single.php for pages

Header
Footer
Sidebar
Post Title
Post Title
Post Title
Post Title
Post Title
Archive: Category, Tag, Date, or Author
Archives
(aka archive.php, category.php,
tag.php, author.php)

Getting More Specific
category.php → category-baking.php
page.php → page-about.php
single.php → single-products.php

Page Content
Header
Footer
Sidebar
Header
(aka header.php)

Page Content
Header
Footer
Sidebar
Footer
(aka footer.php)

Page Content
Header
Footer
Sidebar
Sidebar
(aka sidebar.php)

Content
(aka content.php, content-audio.php, etc.)
Page Content
Header
Footer
Sidebar

Template Master Guide
The Template Hierarchy Diagram (don’t let the name scare you)

h"p://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy

What about those other
files & folders?

functions.php
• Used to enable theme features (menus, widget areas, featured images, etc.).
• Can be used to do anything a plugin can do.

style.css
• The most important ﬁle in your theme.
• Controls all design elements:
• All type settings (style, size, color, line spacing, margins, etc.).
• Positioning of layout, sidebars, header, footer, and everything else.
• Anything you think of as “design” is probably controlled by CSS

The same WordPress
site without CSS...

Theme Customizer
The “No Code” Way to Customize

But what about bigger changes?

CSS
It’s code, but at least it’s not PHP

h1.site-‐;tle
{
color:
#040393;
font-‐size:
2em;
font-‐style:
italic;
}

.site-‐main
{
background-‐color:
#011033;
}

div#navbar
{

background:
#990000;
}
.nav-‐menu
li
a
{

color:
#ﬀf;
}

.site-‐header
.home-‐link
{

min-‐height:
150px;
}

How do I know what
CSS classes to use?

Before you change any
CSS or
a theme template

Start With a Child Theme
• A child theme protects your customizations.
• Child theme templates and styles override the parent theme.

/wp-‐content/themes/mychildtheme/

/wp-‐content/themes/twentythirteen/style.css

/wp-‐content/themes/mychildtheme/style.css

When You Need to “Know” PHP
• To change some common content element on a page (“Leave a comment”)
• To add or remove content elements on a page (title, date, category, etc.)
• Add a WordPress feature (menu, widget area, featured image, etc.)

Inside a Template File
• PHP
• HTML
• Sometimes JavaScript
• CSS is in a stylesheet not the templates

Ready to Dig Deeper Into
WordPress Themes?

Theme Mechanics Workshop
• Five weekly sessions on WordPress themes (60 minutes each).
• In-depth coverage of WordPress theme topics.
• Learn how to customize your themes.
• Q&A with each session.
• Replays available in workshop member portal.
• Session content will be shaped by your feedback and needs.

Workshop Topics
• Setting up a WordPress theme lab on your PC or Mac.
• Working with the WordPress loop.
• Customizing theme templates: add common features like menus, widget
areas, custom headers and footers,WP customization features (with child
themes, of course).
• Creating custom page templates.
• Framework and starter themes.What they are and when to use them.
• Debugging. Fixing stuff when it breaks.

Prerequisites
• You should be familiar working with WordPress.
• You should know a bit about HTML and CSS.
• PHP knowledge is not essential, but you should expect to learn some along
the way.

More Information at:
http://workshop.wpapprentice.com

Code Editor Features
• Color code highlighting
• Line numbering
• Code completion
• Unicode support

WordPress Theme Mechanics

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