Archive for October, 2008
Posted on October 30, 2008 with 5 Comments
This is the ‘Introductory’ post of my ‘WordPress Theme Design Tutorial For Hyper n00bs series‘. As I said before I am splitting this tutorial into many episodes to avoid confusions in your mind. Here I am going to show you each steps in creating a simple clean WordPress theme by your own. If you want a reference book (the dictionary for the WP) keep WP codex opened while you try the following lessons.
Basic Rules
1. Close all doors you have opened while progressing.
Many of the beginners leaves the page without closing all the tags which are opened, That will not give a result which you are looking for. Usually a tag is wrapped inside a < and > symbols and a / before the name indicates its closed, means <> is the opening tag and </> is the closing tag, for example<html> and </html>
The common place where you repeat this mistake is the usage of lists tag like:
2. Every WordPress theme must contain a style.css and index.php files
A WordPress theme consist of a css file, where you will define how the theme should look. and the Index.php file, where you will apply that css into a WordPress ready template file. Here is the complete list of files we are going to create for our test theme. Don’t get worried about them now we will learn to make them in coming classes.
- index.php
- single.php
- page.php
- header.php
- footer.php
- sidebar.php
- archive.php
- comments.php
- search.php
- style.css
- screenshot.png
Common Terms
Template: A set of codes that is reusable, without re-writing the codes again and again in many places.
Template File: A file that contains many templates, for example index.php, single.php etc..
Theme: The set of files like template files, images, and styles etc…
Post: Now you are reading a post from my blog. Simply its equal to the article in a magazine or a page from a diary.
Hierarchy
For the better experience, we order and organize every theme file in a specific manner. Can simply call it modular type or something similar.
In the above illustration we can see each green elements are included in the blue area. single.php, page.php, archive.php, search.php are some page templates which is very similar to the homepage template. but each of them has some specific usage and they will appear only when a request for them is made, like index.php will be used when ever a user loads the homepage of the blog, but search.php loads only when some search query is processed.
If some template files are missing in the theme, consider archive.php is missing, the WordPress will not put a ‘Archive template missing in the theme’ error screen, but the request will be redirected to the parent container index.php
There are many useful sides for this practice, we will learn them in up coming classes.
If you have any questions or doubts add them to the comments and check this page later for the reply, don’t email me them, you might not get a reply ! 
And stay tuned to the series for creating a WordPress theme by yourself !
Posted on October 29, 2008 with 1 Comment
Today’s capsule consist of some websites where you can search for free stock photos and Vector Stocks.
Free Vector Stocks
Free Stock Photos
Crestock is a paid royalty free image source, but they are giving away one free image each day !
Posted on October 28, 2008 with 7 Comments
There is a reason why I called you a ‘Hyper N00b’. I call myself noob, don’t know anything completely.. still learning.. etc.. are the reasons.. So if a noob is teaching someone something, I must call him Hyper Noob
So you are looking for a n00b-ready tutorial to create WordPress themes ? Here we go I will teach you how to create a basic WordPress theme with common functionality.
I am not creating a unique thing here, similar tutorials have been made on the web by many good designers before I heard of WordPress ! Now you will ask ‘Then Why ?’ OK most of the tutorials is scaled to fit a normal guy who have an average knowledge about WordPress, php, html etc.. On my first day with WordPress Theme, It was a bit difficult for me to understand. And many of my friends came through IM’s asking for help and step by step information for creating a WordPress theme by their own. Sometimes it will be a bit annoying, answering their ‘hyper-noob’ questions Now you might have got an idea about what we are going to do.
This tutorial is splited into some episodes for easy grasping. Each day we will learn about some elements of a basic theme. Today we will by creating an environment for studying. Here our environment consist of an WAMP server, The WordPress Software, WordPress Codex as a reference (Please guys now use this one, am trying to simplify what CODEX says with my new ****** 
) Some desktop Applications of course time and dedication.
Tools You Need
To run WordPress locally on the computer, you need to setup a AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) Software package, Many are there and you can choose accordingly Everything depends on the platform you are using, WAMP for Windows users, MAMP for Mac users, LAMP for Linux users etc… Here is the Complete list of AMP.
WordPress Codex has all explanations for you on ‘How to Create a WordPress theme’ But here am using WP Codex just to refer you about the Functions and Template Tags Used in WordPress themes. Don’t get nervous if I said something that you can’t grasp, Just leave a comment here, I will respond to you !. Install these things on your computer and wait for my next post, It will be posted soon for sure ! If you can’t Install WordPress, WAMP or anything email me or leave a comment here. If you have selected WebDeveloper Server Suit, WordPress should be Pre-Installed in it, If it is not the latest Just Upgrade it. and navigate to http://localhost/wordpress.
All the Tools I said above are noob ready there are many advanced softwares with simlar functions available, Its up to you which to choose, I will be following the listed things.
Tags: Code, CSS, Design, Free, HTML, Programme, Series, Template, theme, Tutorial, wordpress
Category: Tutorials
Posted on October 23, 2008 with 1 Comment
Heard of milk ? It spread via the StumbleUpon once. Hope you still remember it. Now here are some more furniture ! which will make your office look hot and arranged.
Milk
The hero as always. This hot design by Søren Kjær spread via StumbleUpon website like a virus.This got style apple like feel, and minimalism makes this thing my all time favorite. The modularity of this designs makes it more usable, productive and keep your desk organized. Go to their full featured flash website to learn more about it.
OneLessDesk
This is another design adventure. Beautiful space saving computer desk. available in many physical variations like Silver, Grey, Steel, White etc..
idesk
Very cute, small and space saving design for your mac desktop, (LCD / Single piece PC also do ; ) ). Futuristic and modern in look and feel.
IDesk
Say ‘Made for Mac’ another mac ready table design. Best suits the minimalistic interiors.
Posted on October 20, 2008 with No Comments
Hi evey one we are starting a new section (A remixed ‘Capsule’ section) where you will get some exciting news from web / development / design or any field we are familier with.
Last day I have posted some good minimal-designs that came before me. Most of the minimal designs uses less images or colors and applies css tricks and template beauty intelligently..
Recently i stumbled upon a site which is minimal, but its gives an invert effect of what you thinking now.. Stop gussing and take a look and see the Web Without Words.
Posted on October 15, 2008 with No Comments
Splicd is an online app which will help you to share any YouTube videos with the online friends and contacts by assigning a custom starting. Which means the viewer will not forced to watch the whole video to see a specific part of the timeline.! You can see some goodie in the url structure itself. think about it Is that app helped you ?