Are you a hyper noob who wants to create a wordpress theme ? Follow me
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.
- I recommend Web Developer Suit Community Edition for Easy Installation and Configuration,XAMPP can be used for more.. (If you are advanced )
- Download and Install the Latest WordPress Package (Very Easy)
- Intype or NotePad, I use Intype it has Syntax highlighting and simple
- An FTP program if you are testing theme online, May be FileZilla or SmartFTP
- Bookmark XHTML Validation and CSS Validation services to find errors in your codes, Or use WebDeveloper Add-on for FireFox
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.
Inspiring start.
I want to learn with you.
I use XAMPP for localising servers.
[...] have already started the tutorial series, you can refer the posts made on FeatherPot and I have also made a unified URL where you can see all posts at [...]
Hi Ben,
I have downloaded xampplite and extracted the files to one of my folders. Now I am not sure how to run it!
I can see many files like - xampp_start, xampp_restart, xampp-control etc, clicking on which almost nothing happens, except a popup of Dos prompt and some commands running automatically(hope with the help of some .bat files).
Please guide. I am having problem in my 1st step to creating wordpress theme
@SATISH , The first step of learning is to obey the rules, obey the teacher.
)
Hope you have seen my first point in the 'Tools we need'
I recommend Web Developer Suit Community Edition for Easy Installation and Configuration,XAMPP can be used for more.. (If you are advanced
I know it will be a bit hard to configure and run XAMPP on a fresh users computer, That's why I recommended (WDS)Web Developer Suit Community Edition which is free for download. WDS Comes with pre-installed WordPress. The only thing you need to do is, download it, and install.. Its Installations is just like a regular software.. In Windows Installer Wizard..
Here is the link to download: http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=187164&use_mirror=nchc&filename=wdsetup-v2.00.exe&45076512
@Ben, Thanks for the link. Downloaded it and installed without any hassle, as you said.
Hi Ben,
I too use Xammp lite to install wordpress locally..Thnx for making me aware of Web Developer Suit Community Edition. will give a try. good & easy tutorial looking formard for more
Definitely I need such tuts, but now, no time, will bookmark and read later