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1. 

   SarahQT
   Member

   I'd like to be able to "tweak" WordPress themes. What videos, books, classes, etc...do you recommend? Thanks.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Trisha Miller
   Administrator

   Hi Sarah

   Most Theme customizations and tweaking can be done just by changing some of the Theme's 'styles' such as fonts (typefaces, sizes, colors, etc), background colors and images, and some layout, and all of those are in the CSS (aka cascading style sheet, that is typically named styles.css), so getting familiar with CSS is a must.

   Personally I love the "For Dummies" series of books to learn anything, so check out your local library or bookstore for something like "Cascading Style Sheets for Dummies" (an older but still very good edition) or "CSS Web Design For Dummies" (newer and a bit more comprehensive, not as good for beginners).

   Naturally, keep a backup of your styles.css somewhere safe, and then make incremental backups as you go along (and are happy with the changes).

   Other things you can do to tweak a theme is to make use of Widgets and Plugins that modify your sidebars by adding components.

   If you're comfortable with modifying the HTML, you can also learn about all of the various Template Tags that WordPress uses and see how your Theme is using them, with an eye to making changes - these pages on the WordPress.org site are a good starting point:

   http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Template_Tags
   http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags

   There are a lot more pages to browse at the Wordpress Codex if you're interested in learning more about how Themes work and how to use them.

   Good luck!

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   SarahQT
   Member

   Thanks, I'll check out the "Dummies" series. I need to get up to speed with HTML. I know a little but don't feel comfortable going into the coding.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   TravGirl
   Member

   Another thing you can try if you're not comfortable modifying the Theme's styles or HTML is to get one of the Themes that allow for some customization built in....here is a short list to get you started

   http://www.sueblimely.com/flexible-customizable-wordpress-themes/

   Another site I came across that is pretty cool (and I've just started playing with it) is this one (called the Wordpress Theme Generator) that lets you build your own custom theme:

   http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/

   I hope you find these useful!

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   Maria Staal
   Member

   A great theme that has loads of customisation built in (and a very good help forum) is Suffusion. I can recommend that for anyone who feel unsure about tweaking themes as it gives you loads (and I mean loads) of options to customise the theme by just a few clicks of the mouse.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   SarahQT
   Member

   Thanks for the great tips and links. I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

   Posted 1 year ago #

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