Top 10 Tutorials for Developing WordPress Themes

Being able to design custom WordPress themes is almost a must for today’s web designers. The fun thing with WordPress is that there’s always something new that you can learn to make the platform work better for you and your clients. These 10 tutorials will teach basic WordPress theming as well as some more advanced skills.

Designing for WordPress

Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks has a three-part video series for downloading and installing WordPress, all the way through everything else involved with designing a custom theme. The example theme that is built through the series is a personalized homepage theme.

How to Create WordPress Themes from Scratch

Kai Loon wrote this popular series (see parts 1, 2, 3a, and 3b). It’s very detailed and covers designing the theme in Photoshop, slicing and coding, and all of the files involved in the theme. If your looking for a great guide to take you through the etire process of desigining and coding, this is a good place to start.

How to Make a Control Panel for Your WordPress Theme

While there are plenty of good tutorials for designing and coding themes, there are very few that touch on the process of creating a control panel. This one from Cats Who Code takes you through the process, as used in the Mimbo theme.

How to Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch

NETTUTS has a two-part series (see parts 1 and 2) that’s a good resource for new theme developers. It cover the basic files of the theme, including CSS, and the tutorial walks through the development of a basic sample theme.

Build a Newspaper Theme with WP_Query and the 960 CSS Framework

For a non-traditional or magazine-style layout, this tutorial will take you through the specific WordPress coding that’s involved and you’ll create a simple, but attractive, sample layout.

Build a Basic Newspaper Layout with WordPress and jQuery

This is another excellent tutorial from NETTUTS for building a different newspaper layout. Of course, it covers all the coding of the various WP files involved.

So You Want to Create WordPress Themes Huh?

Small Potato wrote a detail 16-part series on all aspects of theme development. Most of the individual sections of the theme are not that long, so 16 parts isn’t as intimidating or time-consuming as it may seem.

How to Create a WordPress Template or Theme

This tutorial from Aneko Studios was one of the first ones I read on WordPress theme development. It covers the different files that make up the WordPress theme and the basic coding that is involved with each.

Dissection of a WordPress Theme

An older tutorial, but still relevant, this is an in-depth series from Urban Giraffe (See parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) that will take you through the entire process of developing a WordPress theme, with plenty of explanation to go along with the code samples.

Developing a WordPress Theme

Deziner Folio did a tutorial that covers the basics of the header, sidebar, footer and index files. This one is not as in-depth as some of the others on this list, but it is a good place to get a quicker understanding of theme development.

One Final Resource

In addition to the ten tutorials listed above, the WordPress Codex is also a great resource with loads of information. The section for theme development is a great resource, especially if your new to WP theme development.

For more posts on WordPress, see:

Originally Published October 22nd, 2008

48 Responses

21 Most Wanted And Essential Resources Specially If You Are Developer - Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers | October 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm

[…] Top 10 Tutorials for Developing WordPress Themes […]
Elliot | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm

This is just what Ive been looking for, thanks!!, the more I can learn about wordpress the better:)
Max | Design Shard | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm

These will definatly be useful very soon, Awesome
jbj | October 23rd, 2008 at 12:16 am

Thanks for linking to our article
Ian | October 23rd, 2008 at 4:12 am

I start off with a blank seo’d wordpress theme.

Most changes can be made with CSS, see it at http://ianpurton.com/seo-wordpress-sandbox-theme/
David Shaw | October 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 am

I will be looking through these!!

This is something that I am currently working on!
David Airey | October 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 am

Superb, Steven! Bookmarked for sure. Thanks.
Jason | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 am

Thank you — bookmarked you and will be coming back to visit !
Sean Reviews | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 am

This is one brilliant post, you guys are the best! The only problem is that I now have no excuse not to make my blog a lot better.
Vandelay Design | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 am

Great, I’m glad it can help.
Vandelay Design | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:48 am

Ian,
Starting with a blank theme is a good practice.
River Girl | October 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 am

Great post. Bookmarked.
IDoBlogs | October 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 am

You guys consistently put out great posts. Thanks for these suggestions!
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Eric | October 23rd, 2008 at 11:09 am

Great list! Thanks for sharing
Vandelay Design | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

jbj,
You’re welcome. Thanks for a great tutorial.
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ThomasP | October 24th, 2008 at 6:44 am

Hey, thanks a lot for that great list. I thought of creating a WP-Theme for a long time, but I never really knew how to start. Now I’ve got something to do in my free time
I already linked that list on my blog.
thx again

Thomas
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Grt…. list …. Awesome….
Sean the mover | October 24th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

I can relate to this ! , I’ve heard some goody things about this blog !
Dainis Graveris | October 25th, 2008 at 6:51 am

Man, that’s great - lovely for me to use those tutorials..:) I am really enjoying this article!
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Tutorialvine.com | October 25th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Hi, great list. I need this for developing my very first Wordpress Theme.. Wish me luck!
Mal | October 26th, 2008 at 8:54 am

Another great post. I am glad I stumbled on this blog. I checked out the control panel link. That would be an immense time saver for maintaining a home page. One of the things I struggled to understand is the options for showposts and wp_list_categories… etc. I have still never seen them listed all in one place atone time. But the control panel concept would allow someone to change all their homepage elements at one time from one place instead of going to 3 different files like home.php and home right-sidebar.php and home-left-sidebar.php and so forth. Brilliant.
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Sofhal Jamil | October 26th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Nice collections you have. Tks. Keep on Smiling. Salaam.
thinkdave | October 26th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Great post. Even for someone who’s built a lot of WordPress themes I like to know that there’s a list of resources to refer back to. Keep them coming.
Paul Antony Jose | October 27th, 2008 at 5:42 am

Man …i luv ur website.
Like all of your tutorials very very much
this post especially awesome
flash animator | October 27th, 2008 at 6:21 am

Good tutorials for wordpress themes… I have learned a lot from this site…Thanks!
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Movies | October 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am

I’m too lazy to make my own themes so I prefer to download them )
Fred Campbell | October 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Love it. Used Chris Coyier’s to build mine
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Teknoloji | November 3rd, 2008 at 9:54 am

These will definatly be useful very soon, Awesome
Sumesh | November 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm

That’s quite a list there - I’ve already read most of them. I’m surprised you didn’t include WPDesigner’s series - which I believe is one of the best available.

Thanks for the link to CatsWhoCode about making an admin control panel, I’ve been pondering over one for weeks now.
A Vermont Web Design | November 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm

Wow what a list, Word Press is the way to go. I have used others in the past, but WP is the best.

Allen
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