07.26.09 | wordpress: creating your own custom theme (part 2)

i feel that i should add a few notes as an addendum to my previous post — call it the “companion pack,” if you will

• after you modify the “default” folder in the “wp-content\themes” directory, make a copy of it and rename it to something… anything…
  • i found this out the hard way. wordpress just recently did a string of updates (currently 2.8.2) and every time i’d do an update, my site would revert back to the default layout
  • luckily i had all my files locally so i was able to re-upload to the default folder
  • it only took me 3 upgrades to figure out that i had to rename the folder so that wordpress wouldn’t overwrite my work

in doing so, a couple changes need to be made:

update the “style.css” header info — by default, it reads this:

/*
Theme Name: WordPress Default
Theme URI: http://wordpress.org/
Description: The default WordPress theme based on the famous
<a href="http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/">Kubrick</a>.
Version: 1.6
Author: Michael Heilemann
Author URI: http://binarybonsai.com/
Tags: blue, custom header, fixed width, two columns, widgets

 Kubrick v1.5

http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/

 This theme was designed and built by Michael Heilemann,
 whose blog you will find at http://binarybonsai.com/

 The CSS, XHTML and design is released under GPL:

http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php

*/

i updated my site’s header to this:

/*
Theme Name: gorirraJoe
Description: The theme for www.gorirrajoe.com.
Author: Joey Hernandez
*/

OPTIONAL: if you want, you can create a new “screenshot.png” file, sized 300 x 225 (px) — it could be a screenshot, a logo, or a goatse photo (if you’re into that)

*upload these files to the server, then go to “Appearance > Themes”

you’ll see your new screenshot along with the text that you added to the “style.css” file

it’s a nice little touch, especially if you created the theme for a client.

tags: themes, tutorial, wordpress