This document discusses principles of WordPress theme design. It covers common template files like style.css, index.php, single.php, and others. It also discusses other templates like category.php and tag.php. The template hierarchy is mentioned. Popular theme frameworks like Hybrid, Thematic, and Carrington are covered. Best practices like using hooks in themes and internationalization are also summarized. Finally, some essential plugins for WordPress blogs are listed.

1. Principles of WordPress
Theme Design

2. Template Files

3. StyleSheet
• style.css
• The only required file
• Includes Headers that will be used by
WordPress
/*
Theme Name: Custom Theme
Theme URI: http://emmense.com/
Description: A Child Theme of Twenty Ten
Author: Aaron Brazell
Author URI: http://technosailor.com
Version: 1.0
Parent: twentyten
*/

4. Most Common
Templates
• index.php • functions.php
• single.php • archive.php
• comments.php • search.php
• header.php
• footer.php
• sidebar.php
• page.php

5. Other templates
• category.php • category-x.php
• tag.php • tag-x.php
• taxonomy.php • taxonomy-x.php
• attachment.php • author-x.php
• author.php • 404.php
• page-x.php

6. Template Hierarchy

7. Theme Frameworks

8. Why use a Theme
Framework?
• Themes present content according to the
desires and tastes of the designer
• Frameworks provide an extensible way of
empowering designers within a set of
guidelines.

9. Why use a Theme
Framework?
• Frameworks realize the principle of
separation of content and presentation
• Early Predecessor: CSS Zen Garden
• Change a theme using only CSS. No
markup modifications

10. Hybrid
• Hybrid (http://themehybrid.com)
• Templates for everything
• Admin Pages for content control

11. Thematic
• Thematic (http://themeshaper.com/thematic/)
• Focuses on Widget Areas and Grid layout
• Modify EVERYTHING via CSS

12. Carrington
• Carrington (http://carringtontheme.com/)
• Most Robust: Focuses on Typography,
semantic markup and Ajax
• Includes a Mobile Theme

13. Best Practices

14. Use Hooks In Themes
• Let plugin devs build for your template
• Add filters and actions throughout themes
• Examples:
• do_action(‘before_content’);
• apply_filters(‘logo’, ‘logo.jpg’);

15. Internationalize!
• Internationalization (i18n) is important
• Use load_theme_textdomain() in
functions.php
• Utilize __(), _e(), _c() and _x() to provide
translatable strings
• Don’t forget the .po file
• More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers

16. Essential Plugins

17. Essential Plugins for Any
WordPress Blog
• Headspace 2 SEO (http://wordpress.org/
extend/plugins/headspace2/)
• Akismet (http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/akismet/)
• MobilePress (http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/mobilepress/)