How to create a WordPress Template or Theme
This tutorial was created for WordPress 2.0, and is three years old. This tutorial is currently being revamped for WordPress 2.7/2.8 in a new series. Although most of the stuff in this tutorial still applies, you still might want to head on over and follow along with the new stuff, since there’s updated info over there.
Another WordPress question that is asked a lot is how to take a current website design and make it work with WordPress.
This is actually quite a simple thing to do, at least in my opinion it is. This website was actually the first “WordPress Theme” I ever created. In fact, prior to using WordPress, it was actually using pMachine (but pMachine stopped being developed/supported, and I was having issues I couldn’t get resolved, so I moved to WordPress. Been in love with it ever since!)
I’m going to tell you how I integrate website designs and WordPress into a happy co-existence. What I do isn’t exactly the same as what they tell you to do in the Codex on the subject, and I also tend to use a bit more “plain English”…but my problem sometimes is that I assume you have some knowledge of things. I’m usually wrong on that point. So, if I go over your head on anything, feel free to leave a comment asking me to clarify.
This tutorial is exactly what I do when I have 1) an existing site that needs to be integrated with WordPress, and/or 2) the urge to create a new theme design specifically for WordPress. So you can use this tutorial for either purpose: theme creation or site integration.