Once you get the hang of it, it’s not that bad
When you start, it can be a bit intimidating. There’s a lot of WP specific code in the template that makes you wary to move anything. However, the best thing to do is try things.
That being said, it’s tough to undo changes to the code in WP‘s theme editor. You need to be doing this in a local editor like Dreamweaver or Notepad++(my favorite).
Editing on you local machine makes things easier, but it’s still a pain to upload and refresh until you see what you want. So how do you cut out that part?
- Download WAMP
- Install WordPress inWAMP’s www folder.
- Put all of your themes in WP‘s “wp-content/themes/” folder.
- Edit and test you templates
After that you can access your WP installation via “http://localhost”. WAMP turns your computer into a local server that you can test PHP on. This is perfect for WP testing and debugging so you wont have to edit your live install.
Once you’re all set up and ready to make a theme, you’ll probably want to check out a blank/barebones WP theme. Here’s a couple:
Whiteboard
WPFrameWork
After that you’re good to go. Just experiment. If you hit a snag, Google is a great resource, or you’re welcome to email me.
You’d be suprised at all the things you can do. I’m constructing a website where visitors leave condolences rather than comments. Morbid, I know, but it’s just an example.
Link soon.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
If you’re using Dreamweaver, and you want to avoid the need to setup WAMP, or your test crazy like myself and just prefer to test stuff on the exact same server it’ll be running on live, there synchronisation features built in. When you setup your new site, you can enter FTP details. If you do so then at anytime u can upload the file ur editing by pressing CMD-SHFT-U (Mac), or you can synchronise what’s on the server with what you have on your local system.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
True, but then you run the risk of breaking something and having to clean it up before someone visits your site.
January 19th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Ah sorry I wasn’t meaning test it on the ‘live’ site, but rather setup a dev live site if that makes sense.
So you have a live site at http://www.mylivesite.com/ and then you have your dev site at http://dev.mylifesite.com/. And you can put HTTP Auth password protection on it if you don’t want people to stumble onto it.
When you’re ready to roll your site out, you can just copy the files on the server from the dev site path to the live site path
.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
I got ya. That’s definitely a good option too, if you have Dreamweaver.