How to make joomla templates.

Is there any tool, tutorial etc on how to create your own custom templates that work with Joomla?

I love this CMS but sometimes I need a special template since the ones that you can download for free dont always fit the theme of your site.

Thanks

 

Any books or software that can do this?

 

This is an excellent tutorial
http://www.mambosolutions.com/dw_tutorial/

 

Cool thanks!!

 

the link MattUK is the best first step. That tutorial uses tabular design also tutorial author has made things very easy. After that if you want to design some themes with having more insight then try the following link but i would recommend that you read the dw_tutorial by mambosolutions first and then go for :

http://dev.joomla.org/content/view/1136/79/1/0/

 

I find that it's always easiest to start with *something* (unless the design I want is totally different to anything out there...).

I would recommend trying to find something that is half way to where you want it: you should be able to find it at http://templates.joomlaya.com/ where there are 586 templates at the moment. The live demo just makes it even sweeter.

 

Use Joomla Template Cheat Sheet!

 

Joomla Template you can make by starting with a existing template, all the codes are in index.php and very easy. There you can dowload a free joomla template club from www.yjoomla.com and start with it. also there are lots of template in the web.

Note: no software or automated process can help with a perfect template you must have to hand coding.

 

yeah best way of doing it to follow joomla.org

 

Following those other links :

http://www.mambosolutions.com/dw_tutorial/,

and the yjoomla link, it seems they are dead anyway.

Are there others that give tutorials ?

 

still lovin'the old school way,css editing...plus photoshop & dreamweaver, original one

 

Try artisteer
Best software for joomla template and wordpress theme

 

I believe you can do it in dreamweaver

 

Lynda.com has an excellent series on how to build custom Joomla templates. I always use that kind of stuff to get the fundamentals down, then just wing it on your own.

 

use artisteer.., it is a great software.. You can create 1 or 2 sidebar and "customize" header..

 

Lynda dot com is for paid tutorials. Joomla gives out tutorials for free.

 

you can use dreamweaver with joomla extension..
you can download it extensions.joomla.org/extensions/757/details

 

hey anyone want lynda.com traning videos i will provide you!

 

Lynda tutorials are all over torrent sites (which is illegal and dont download them, because I am not condoneing thaT) BUT...its worth the money if you go to Lynda.com...They are REALLY good and you get access to all their tutorials....so if you want to learn PHP tomorrow and CSS the next day you can do it all with no problem...you just have to watch them all online.

 

Me4You's advice is best if you want to get up and going fast. That is, study an existing Joomla 1.5 template and be prepared to hand-edit to customize it. There have been some changes since J!1.0, including built-in override capabilities, so it may take a minute before you're ready to go it from scratch. However, if you truly cannot find an pre-existing template with the core features you want, you may have no choice but to develop one.

Here's a really nice tutorial where someone takes a free HTML/CSS template and completely converts it to Joomla 1.5. This is shown step-by-step, and could be very useful:
http://3by400.com/index.php/15-template.html

Another good one that breaks down Joomla templates piece-by-piece:
http://r3.elasticweavers.com/create-a-simple-joomla-1-5-template.php

Unfortunately, Compass Designs is offline, but that site (compassdesigns.net) has a lot of solid Joomla information.

Just do a search for Joomla 1.5 template tutorials, and you'll find many others.