Comments on: Resources for becoming a WordPress master

Question: Resources for becoming a WordPress master

c:\awesome — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:03:46 -0800

I'm looking for the best resources (online or offline) for WordPress Theme development. Beginner to advanced -- I'm a sponge right now, so nothing is too dumb-downed or overly-technical for my consumption. What resources have you found to be most helpful on your quest to being a WordPress master?

If it matters, I'm a web designer by trade, and I know my way around PHP and mySQL just as well as CSS and XHTML. I'm equally as interested in learning backend stuff as I am design tips and tweaks. Thanks!

By: TomMelee

TomMelee — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:10:18 -0800

Someone recommended it to me a few weeks ago and I'm in love with it. It's all about the sandbox. It's uh-may-zing.

By: ijsbrand

ijsbrand — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:40:12 -0800

My favourite adresses for the useful but most often not too complicated tips to make a theme more useful:
WpRecipes.com
WP Engineer

By: ZeroDivides

ZeroDivides — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:00:12 -0800

I had to create a Wordpress theme for a local business a few weeks ago and I found this to be very helpful.

A lot of it was more basic than I needed, but it was nice to put the thing together myself piece by piece instead of just screwing around with an existing theme to see what that-thing-there does. Sort of like assembling a piece of furniture. I understood how the whole thing worked better for having put it together.

By: anthom

anthom — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:46:24 -0800

Themeshaper had a decent tutorial a few months back.

By: backwards guitar

backwards guitar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:04:55 -0800

A good framework as a base is a great start. Lately I'm partial to Hybrid, but Thematic is great too.

CSS Tricks is a great resource (some excellent Wordpress screencasts). The author of that site also has a book called Digging Into Wordpress - the website for the book is digwp.com.

Lastly, How To Be A Rockstar Wordpress Designer, seems like a pretty good introduction to Wordpress theming.

By: camcgee

camcgee — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:56:09 -0800

This is a year old but is a fairly good list: Smashing Magazine's WordPress Developer's Toolbox.

By: lovermont

lovermont — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:57:26 -0800

This tutorial on converting XHTML/CSS to WP is really basic, but it was just the thing I needed to get started; it helped me to understand how everything works and fits together. I used this as a jumping-off point. Once I created the index page, I felt more comfortable getting deeper into everything else, including functions and whatnot. Don't know if it'll be useful to you, though—I didn't know much about PHP/MySQL when I started. (But I did when I finished!)

By: daviss

daviss — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:59:11 -0800

Might be self-evident to say, but the best practice is experimentation. Pick a (free) theme you like, figure out how you'd like to alter it, and get to it. You'll learn a lot through trial and error. This might be more effective after going through the resources above though.