How to Build a WordPress Theme

Who Should Take This Course?

The How to Build a WordPress Theme course was designed for those who are already familiar with WordPress and understand the basics of HTML and CSS.

For me, the transition to building custom WordPress themes came shortly after digging deep into WordPress frameworks.

It’s not uncommon to learn everything there is to know about a framework but have no idea how a standalone theme works. If that sounds like you, this course was designed to help you break out of that framework bubble and do something on your own.

The ideal reader for this course understands HTML and CSS. PHP is not a must. It just shouldn’t be a complete mystery.

What Will This Course Teach Me?

Nowhere in this course will I teach you how to write web development languages. I will also avoid giving you copy and paste code.

Instead, we will use an awesome starter theme called Underscores (_s) byAutomattic. I’ll walk you through the important components of this theme, which you will also have downloaded, installed, and opened on your end.

Theme configuration has endless possibilities. It’s all about your imagination. So teaching you my way is pointless. Instead, we’ll use Underscores to observe a very basic way of doing things. Then, you can develop your own style from there.

When Should I Take This Course?

If you do not know how to build a standalone theme but you know how to tweak one or user a framework, you should take this course now.

To answer the question in another way, you can take this course whenever you’d like as the content was written to be evergreen. If WordPress dramatically changes the way it runs, I will update the course. Otherwise, the information in this course should be valid for years and versions to come.

Where Is This Information Applicable?

What you learn in this course can be applied across all forms of WordPress theming.

The thing to understand is that WordPress themes depend mostly on WordPress code. Therefore, what you learn here can help you build a theme of your own, alter existing themes, better understand frameworks, or even build a framework yourself.

You’ll notice throughout the course that I don’t tell you how to do specific things, like register a widgetized area. All of the code necessary to do these types of things is available to you in the WordPress Codex.

Instead, I’ll show you where, when, and how WordPress expects things to be done, regardless of what it is. That way you open your mind to possibilities as opposed to your own abilities.