Building a new WordPress theme can be a daunting task. Far from just creating a basic HTML and CSS template, you’ve got use PHP, dig into the WordPress codex to find cryptic ways to access core functions, and create plugins to make your theme tweakable. It’s usually just easier to head to ThemeForest or your favorite WordPress theme site and buy a theme.
That’s why our own writer Joe Casabona just wrote a new book: Building WordPress Themes from Scratch. Published by Rockable Press, part of our own parent company Envato, this book helps you learn how to create your own WordPress themes, even if you’ve never created a theme before. Let’s take a look and see why you might want to check out this book.
A Book That Will Help You Create
So many times, technical books tell you about the technology or coding language, but you’ll come away without knowing exactly what you’re going to make. Building WordPress Themes from Scratch, on the other hand, takes you step-by-step through the process you’ll need to make a responsive WordPress theme that would work great for your next site. You’ll need to know a bit of HTML, CSS, and PHP, but if you have no experience creating WordPress themes, you’ll still be able to craft a theme just by following this tutorial-style book. Instead of teaching the top-level tech behind WordPress theming directly, it takes you step-by-step through each part of making the theme that the book is built around.
The Book
The good thing is, you don’t have to only create the theme that the book guides you though. You could take the exact same approach, but use your own ideas and expand on the book’s basic guidelines to make a new theme that perfectly suits your tastes. The best way to approach the book, though, might be just to go through it and make the theme as guided. Most of us learn best by doing, so keep the book open beside your favorite code editor, follow the guide in creating the theme, and learn as you’re going along how to approach your next WordPress development project.
The theme you'll learn to create
Because honestly, WordPress theme creation can still be confusing. Just take a peek at this diagram in the book, showing WordPress template hierarchy. It’s enough to give anyone a headache! You could just dig through WordPress documentation and try to find everything you need to make a great theme, but you’ll likely miss something. It’s way more complicated than most of us want to get into without any help.
Joe does a great job in this book at showing you how all of your template files will work together, making it all a bit simpler and easier to comprehend. There’s a method to the madness in WordPress, and this book helps you bring it all together so you can make the theme you’ve always dreamed of.
This just might be why WordPress theme dev is so tough
So is this the book for me?
If you’ve been looking into getting a new theme for your WordPress powered site, but would rather understand how your theme works so you could tweak it or build new themes in the future, it might be a great idea to grab a copy of this book. Sure, we might be a bit biased, since it’s written by one of our own writers, but I do think it’s a great resource if you’re looking for an extended tutorial taking you through every part of WordPress theme development while helping you actually put that knowledge to use.
The book will set you back $19 for an eBook, or $29 for a paperback copy if you still prefer your books on dead trees. And, in the near future, it along with all other Rockable Press eBooks will be available for free download if you have a Tuts+ Premium subscription. Tuts+ Premium, another Envato venture, is a great place to learn how to create on the web and more, and if you’re just getting started with web development, don’t forget to check out their free 30 Days to Learn HTML and CSS course.