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Creating Your WordPress Theme – Part Two

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Last week began this series on how to create YOUR OWN WordPress theme!

This week we are going to create the style.css file!

So here is the CSS!

Declare this a THEME!

/*
Theme Name: Your Theme Name
Theme URI: http://yourdomain.com/
Description: A custom design by YOU
Author: YOU
Author URI: http://yourdomain.com
*/

WordPress requires you to put that little chunk of information at the TOP of your style.css so that it can “find” it as a theme.

All Over

/* MAIN*/

body {
      background: #f2f2e8;
      font: 14px Georgia, serif;
      color: #534741; 
      text-align: left; 
      margin:0; 
      padding: 0;
      height: 100%;
      }
#container {
      position:relative; 
      background: #f2f2e8; 
      margin: 0 auto;
      color: #534741; 
      width: 1000px; 
      }
a, a:link, a:active {
      color: #e07e0a;
      text-decoration: none;
      }
.clears {clear:both}

.line {
      background: url(/wp-content/themes/tutorial/img/hor-line.png); 
      height: 2px; 
      width:100%;
      }

This portion of the CSS is “generic”. What I mean by that is all of the code here will affect ALL of the design. It is NOT specific to the blog area, sidebar, header, or footer. We are defining the all over background color, font, font color, and throwing in a height of 100% because that helps the footer after all is said and done.

We are also defining the container div which, as the name suggests, CONTAINS the majority of the markup we will do later.

The class “clears” is to help us keep the content (blog) area and sidebar where they should be. We will go over this a bit more when it comes to the actual markup.

The line class is going to be used in the content (blog) area and the sidebar. You may have noticed it calls for an image file, those will be available to download in a zip file at the end of this post!

The Header

/* HEADER*/

#top {width: 1000px; font-size: 120px;}


#menu {
      position: relative; 
      margin:-100px 0 0 625px; 
      font-size: 35px; 
      color:#036890; 
      width: 350px;
      }
#menu a, #menu a:link, #menu a:active {
      text-decoration: none; 
      color:#036890; 
      margin-right: 1px; 
      font-size: 30px; 
      }
.menutitle {
      font-size: 40px; 
      color: #534741; 
      }

Here we are creating the very top part of the design. The header area. This has our blog name in big letters and that navigation menu in the parentheses.

The Content (Blog) Area

/* BLOG*/

#blog {
      float:left;
      margin: 20px 0 0 50px; 
      width: 600px; 
      }

#blog h1 {
      color:#5f9610; 
      font-size: 50px; 
      font-weight:normal;
      }
.title {
      color:#5f9610; 
      font-size: 60px; 
      font-weight:normal;
      float:left;
      width: 400px;
      margin: -5px 0 0 6px;
      }
#blog h1 a, #blog h1 a:link, #blog h1 a:active {
      text-decoration: none; 
      color:#8cb206;
      }

.date {
      background: #d8d0a6;
      border-radius:12px; 
      -webkit-border-radius:12px; 
      -moz-border-radius:12px; 
      padding: 3px;
      float: left;
      width: 55px;
      height: 58px;
      font-size: 15px; 
      color:#534741;
      text-align:center;
      }

.datetitle {
      font-size: 35px; 
      margin-top: -10px;
      color:#534741;
      }

.datemonthday {
      font-size: 20px; 
      margin: -10px 0 -6px 0;
      color:#e07e0a;
      }

.commentlink {
      text-align:right;
      font-size: 40px; 
      color:#e07e0a;
      }

Here we have a few different classes set up just for the date box alone! That is because we want the date title to have different qualities especially since it will be utilizing the WP-Cufon plugin. We also want the month/day portion to be different, in this case with a larger font size and that lovely orange color.

Because we are creating a two column design, having the content (blog) area and sidebar area next to each other, we introduced the “float” attribute.

The Sidebar

/* SIDEBAR*/

#side {
      float:left;
      margin: 20px 0 0 50px; 
      padding: 0 10px;
      width: 253px; 
      background:url(/wp-content/themes/tutorial/img/vert-line.png) 
             repeat-y top left;
      }

#side a, #side a:link, #side a:active {
      color: #17808d;
      text-decoration: none;
      }

#side h3 {
      text-align:center; 
      font-size: 35px; 
      margin: -10px 0 10px 0;
      font-weight:normal;
      }
.widget {
      padding: 10px 0;
      }

Nothing fancy here, again we are using the float attribute and styled up the color of the links on the sidebar to be that awesome blue color. We also styled the H3 selector since that will also be using the WP-Cufon plugin.

You will also notice again, another image. Here we are creating that vertical dashed line by telling it to display the image on the Y axis (vertical) and to have it start from the top left corner (if you were to imagine a box).

Lastly, The Footer

/* FOOTER*/

#footer {
      margin: 60px auto;
      background:url(/wp-content/themes/tutorial/img/hor-line.png)
            repeat-x top left;
      height: 2px;
      width:1000px;
      }


#copyright {
      background: #d8d0a6;
      border-radius:4px; 
      -webkit-border-radius:4px; 
      -moz-border-radius:4px; 
      padding: 3px;
      margin: 20px auto; 
      width: 1000px; 
      text-align:center;
      font-size:11px;
      color:#630460
      height:10px;
      }

.box {
      float:left; 
      width: 290px; 
      margin: -20px 0 0 40px;
      }


.box h3 {
      text-align:center; 
      font-size: 35px; 
      margin-bottom: 3px;
      font-weight:normal;
      }

Again another repeating image! Here we are doing a dashed line on the X axis (horizontal). We are also creating the CSS for our 3-column footer. The copyright div is just a little area to put your basic copyright information. We are making it rounded with the same background color as the date box.

Now granted, you can get far more fancy, far more crazy, and far more complicated but you don’t NEED to. I go insane when diving into pre-made themes because people can’t customize them! The css is confusing, messy, and generally VERY bloated. I highly suggest taking a peek at your current theme right now, look at the stylesheet, is it easy to read (for the most part anyway!) or bloated and confusing?

So with me so far? Here is the style.css and images for download! Go over the stylesheet and let me know if you have ANY questions!

Remember, THIS is what we are trying to achieve!

theme image

Next week we are going to tackle header.php!

This post is over a year old which means the content may be outdated or no longer accurate.

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Click to Skip to comment form

Catie
posted on June 5th 2010 at 11:29AM CDT

I’m so excited that you’re doing this series. Maybe I’ll learn how to understand CSS. haha!

posted on June 5th 2010 at 3:21PM CDT

LOL thank you!!

Kristina Brooke
posted on June 5th 2010 at 3:31PM CDT

Great tutorial. I agree, I am glad that you are doing this.

posted on June 7th 2010 at 1:53PM CDT

Thank you so much!

Bree Anderson
posted on June 5th 2010 at 5:54PM CDT

I am really really ‘considering’ moving to WP from my www.breebee.com blog. I have a url/host package but nervous to move. I don’t want to lose anything & I do want a nicer look. tweeting mama said maybe you could be of assistace? can you or do you help? I like your tutorials and i am willing to try it myself but I am also willing to let someone else do it as well- can we talk?

posted on June 7th 2010 at 2:17PM CDT

Hi there! You can check out my Price List for how much I charge for moving blogs, importing posts, and design work!

Keeshia
posted on June 6th 2010 at 12:19AM CDT

Woot, another wonderful piece of the series :) Good job <3

posted on June 7th 2010 at 1:52PM CDT

Yay thank you!

Damita
posted on June 6th 2010 at 4:15AM CDT

Yay so going to have to try this after Thursday and I have some free time :) Thank you

posted on June 7th 2010 at 1:53PM CDT

You are so very welcome!

liz
posted on June 7th 2010 at 1:02PM CDT

i’m so amazed by all this. i do want to make myself sit down and try to make sense of it, though. there must me a method to the madness, right? :)

posted on June 7th 2010 at 1:53PM CDT

I think once we get a basic framework up, it will be much more exciting lol.

Michelle
posted on June 8th 2010 at 11:01AM CDT

Now that I’ve read this, I’m off to give it a go. Thanks so much for sharing this! Peace. :)

Michelle
posted on June 8th 2010 at 11:31AM CDT

OK, I’m very new to this stuff and was wondering just how I go about viewing what the finished style sheet looks like? can I view it in my browser, or do I have to view it by uploading it to WP…? Thanks. :)

posted on June 8th 2010 at 12:35PM CDT

Well that will be applied in the future tutorials when we dive into the markup of header.php, index.php, and footer.php!

Michelle
posted on June 8th 2010 at 4:59PM CDT

Great, thanks! :)

Darren
posted on June 9th 2010 at 2:45AM CDT

Another great post, lovely and clear, and really helpful. From someone who has stumbled around on wordpress, learning as I make mistakes, this is a great series… if only I didn’t have to wait for each post :)

Looking forward to the rest of the series

posted on June 9th 2010 at 5:39AM CDT

Thank you so much! Lol well I have to hold SOMETHING out each week to bring y’all back!

Penny
posted on July 9th 2010 at 1:30PM CDT

Great tutorial. When I do mine, I find a very basic pre-made wordpress them and remove all the design stuff and put my own in.

Starting from scratch, which I have never done, seems like it would go more quickly. Looking forward to more tutorials on this!

Nadia
posted on July 30th 2010 at 9:48AM CDT

Im currently working on my blog in wordpress(Although it is not live yet) and i wanted to know if you could help me with how to figure out how to put that gorgeous date settings you have! I LOVE it! If you want I can give you my test site addy :)

Also do you recommend any contact us forms?

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