How Customizable is WP?
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I’m on the ropes right now with a host (HostGator), picking my new domain, and choosing WP as the new home for my design business site. The only question I really have is this ….
1. How easy is it to customize the layout of an WP theme?
And I don’t mean going into some dashboard and opening a widget and slapping in a boring rectangular box for a header. I want to know if I can customize the entire graphical layout – sidebars, title headings, post titles, header, footer, etc.
If there are WP themes that can allow this please let me know which ones they are, because I’ll need to choose one after I get my hosting and the domain.
Thank you.
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Hmm, not exactly the answer I was hoping for. CSS isn’t graphical – it’s code. My question concerns the graphical layout. I want to know if there are any WP themes (or whatever you call them) that I can do this with.
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My question concerns the graphical layout. I want to know if there are any WP themes that I can do this with.
Yes, many. But not using wordpress.COM, only on wordpress.ORG.
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WordPress themes are written in PHP script so that they can be dynamic, and for styling use CSS.
Additional functionality can be added in most cases via plugins. There are more plugins for wordpress.ORG blogs than you can imagine.
98% of what people typically want to do with “customization” happens through CSS.
There are several theme “frameworks” out there that allow an incredible array of customization right from within the dashboard (admin) of a wordpress.ORG blog, but typically this level of sophistication and ease of use comes at a price and you have to buy a “subscription” in order to download and use the theme. Prices can vary from $20 per year, to as much as $100 per year depending on the theme.
The bottom line is though, if you want a unique blog that no one else has, you have to dig into the code. Editing PHP isn’t something that I would recommend unless you have a good level of experience and know a good deal about security issues.
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Ok, so I’m still left wondering what WP theme do I go for? You say WP.org has more of these customizable themes then WP.com, but where are they? And the way it’s sounding I may not even want a WP “theme” if I can’t design the graphics for it and then put them on the site (not blog).
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WordPress is first and foremost a blogging platform that can serve as a basic, no frills CMS (content management system). As for changing the look of a theme, CSS is how it is done. If you want structural changes you need to be good with PHP scripting (and javascript). If you want additional functionality, there is probably already a plugin out there that does what you want.
As for where to find themes, if you search on the internet, you will probably find 10,000 of them. Google “free wordpress themes” (16,700 hits) or “wordpress themes” (16,600 hits).
This is also a good place to start on themes: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ . No one can make a decision on a theme for you. You will have to do that yourself.
If you do not want a wordpress theme, then I would suggest staying away from wordpress entirely. WordPress is not a “slap together a bit of HTML and upload it to the web” sort of thing. It is written entirely in PHP script, utilizing a MySQL database. Building something from scratch in wordpress isn’t for the casual user that has no programming experience. WordPress has extensive capabilities and you don’t get that level of capability with 50 lines of HTML.
Build yourself a static, generic HTML site using one of the graphical type web page design packages.
Alternately you can hire a designer to do it for you. I’ve seen costs ranging from $100 for simple themes to as much at $3500 for complex special-purpose sites.
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I want to know if I can customize the entire graphical layout – sidebars, title headings, post titles, header, footer, etc.
If by graphical you mean adding background images, changing backgrounds and or font colors, etc., it is possible with the CSS upgrade. Now, if you want to change the functionality of the theme, then you would have to open the hood and tweak the code to your needs; that, however, cannot be done here at wp.com… like TSP already mentioned, you’d have to use a self-hosted blog for that.
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I appreciate all the advice and the time you have all taken to write your replies. I am sorry to be a pain, but I have no experience in this area. I’m just a designer. Ever since I decided to focus on turning my talent into an actual full time income everyone has been pushing me to get on WP. I finally took the plunge and got hosting and a new domain for the endeavor, but I’m still unsure about what to do next. I was under the mistaken impression (from all those pushy people) that WP would be the catch-all for my new site.
Well, after reading all your replies, I’m not so sure now. Regardless, I needed to get my own hosting account anyway. The guy that programmed and coded my folio site is never around and I need to update that place badly. So at least I can move it onto the new sever (maybe).
Thanks again for all your advice.
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