Free Technology Tutorials

In the following videos I demonstrate a simple technique to change the color scheme of the WordPress Arjuna theme using Gimp–free image editing software. The technique I show here can be used on any image-based theme and shows a real simple technique using layers, color, and opacity to change the overall theme color scheme.

Part 1 of 2:

Part 2 of 2:

WordPress 3.0, due to be out around mid-2010, will be getting a new default theme. So, if you love Kubrick, I’m sure you will still be able to use it and customize it, but it won’t be the default with the next release–at least not in its current form. If you would like to provide input on what the default theme should be, look like, features it should have, etc., then be sure to stop over at WP.org and post your 2 cents.

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/342819

Since I don’t participate in those forums any longer, I’ll just provide my thinking here.

In a nutshell, I don’t really care what the default theme is. The first thing most people do once they get WP installed is change to a custom theme anyway. So putting a lot of thought and effort into what is the “default” theme may be important to WP and its image or brand, but it’s not important to end users…in reality, the default theme is really nothing more than just one of over a thousand GPL themes anyone can install in just a few seconds through the theme installer in the WP admin.

Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not trying to throw a wet blanket on the theme initiative and I’m sure it’s important for WP to show that they are staying “up to date” and on the cutting edge. Simple fact is, WP is hands-down the best blog software (and fast becoming the best CMS software) available today–open source or proprietary. So, best of luck with the default theme initiative, but I’m far more interested in how WordPress MU will be incorporated into WordPress–which is also due to happen in 3.0.

Note: The following is made available under GPL from http://codex.wordpress.org/GPL. It may be edited a little from its original form, but probably not a lot. There is no guarantee this information is accurate…use at your own risk.
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Stepping Into Templates
Template files are the building blocks of your WordPress site. They fit together like the pieces of a puzzle to generate the web pages on your site. Some templates (the header and footer template files for example) are used on all the web pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.
A traditional web page consists of two files:

1. The XHTML page to hold the structure and content of the page and
2. the CSS Style Sheet which holds the presentation styles of the page.

In WordPress, the (X)HTML structure and the CSS style sheet are present but the content is generated “behind the scenes” by various template files. The template files and the style sheet are stored together as a WordPress Theme. To learn more about creating Themes, read Theme Development….
Download complete article in pdf format: Stepping_Into_Templates