How do you prefer to work when creating your wordpress themes, what do you start on first? Do you prefer figuring out and placing where you will have your sidebars and all that first, or do you begin with designing a header or do you do it some other way? Basically what works better for you and allows your work to flow to go along in a way you feel most comfortable with.
First of all I select the layout - how many columns or if left/right sidebar and then I usually start with the header.
Thanks andrej, whats your preferred approach for headers? do you style just in CSS or would you go for putting a fancy looking header image together in something like photoshop?
I'm saving as much time as I can... Here's my usual work flow for totally new theme (although I have prepared few universal themes that are easily modified to look different - so sometimes I don't create the theme from the scratch but I just use some of my prevous ones and modify it)... 1) First of all, I design the theme in Photoshop (or sometimes I also buy some templates here at DP, if they are good). 2) Before I start coding, I look at the template and I plan forward, so I won't need to spend additional time editing the code then. I look at the layout (fixed width or fluid width? how many columns? where and how are posts being displayed? will I need some aditional plugin or custom coding to create the layout?)... 3) Ok now I know approximately what I'll need, so I activate apache and php... go to localhost in my browser. I have already "test" wordpress installation on my pc where I'm testing new themes. First I install the needed plugins (if needed). Next I make the basic layout (very simple wordpress theme - just white backround, black text, no images/graphics). I play with it until it's the same as the PSD (widths of columns, their organization etc.) 4) Now when I have the basic working template done, I start transfroming it to look exactly like the PSD. I start with the header. I style it in stylesheet, slice the header part of PSD and put in required images so it looks the same as on the image. 5) I continue with the sidebar (or sidebars, if there are more than one). The same process as with header. I slice the required images from PSD (NOTE that I always use only as many images as needed and compressed as much as possible for speed optimization - everything that can be done without images, just with CSS, I do that way). 6) The "content part" where posts will be displayed. The same work flow as above. 7) I make comments part... 8) Footer... 9) Ok now it's almost done. I compare the final look to PSD one more time and if there are some slight differences, I further tweak the template. 10) I test the functionality. I ty making new posts, posting comments, adding categories, pages etc... if nothing breaks then it's great. The template is almost done. 11) Crosss browser compatibility check. I try the template in more browsers (IE 7, FF, Opera, Safari... more if requested by the buyer) and I make sure it looks the same and works flawlesly in all browsers. 12) Ok. The last thin I do is I upload the theme at my "test domain" and I test it online. Then I run it through validator (html and css) and make sure it's 100% valid. 13) I show it to the buyer. He sends me the money. I send him the theme. Or, if I made the theme just myself, without any directions, I list it at Sitepoint or DP for sell or I just give it away as a free template when I'm in a good mood. Hope this is what you wanted to hear
risoknop wow, yes, that is exactly what i wanted to hear it sounds like your very organised and can work in a way where nothing can slow down your process, ideal and its worth getting organised like that. Thanks very much for explaining in detail.
Its a really good approach, and as you mentioned above you have a few universal themes, which when you can use them will save precious time. I like this, i will get myself organised like this, i feel its worth the preparation to help the work flow as smoothly as possible.
Hi MarRome, nice to see you around Thanks very much for the link, it looks useful, will check it out.
I start with the location a right wp layout in line with the basic theme of the domain. It is followed by micro details like design and color.
It makes sense, getting the color choice and things like that decided on first and the design of course.