Templates are the files which control how your WordPress site will be displayed on the Web. These files draw information from your WordPress MySQL database and generate the HTML code which is sent to the web browser. Through its powerful Theme system, WordPress allows you to define as few or as many Templates as you like all under one Theme. Each of these Template files can be configured for use under specific situations. More information on creating Themes can be found at Theme Development.
General Theme Articles
- Using Themes
- Basic information about using and installing themes and templates
- Migrating Plugins and Themes
- Content information how to upgrade a theme for compatibility with new versions of WordPress
- Theme Development
- How to develop and build your own themes
- Theme Frameworks
- Build a child theme on the foundation of a parent theme. You can start with a theme that you like and easily modify the parts you want to change. Do more in less time.
- Theme Review
- How to prepare your Theme for public release and submission to Theme Directory
- I18n for WordPress Developers
- Internationalization, including a section on how to internationalize your theme
- Theme Compatibility List
- List of which Themes are compatible with various Versions WordPress
- Creating Admin Themes
- How to create a plugin that modifies the look of the Admin section
- Integrating WordPress with Your Website
- Using WordPress with your existing website
Template File Articles
General References
- Stepping Into Templates
- Introduction to the building blocks of WordPress Themes, the template files. Explains how they work together to build a web page and how template files can be included in other template files.
- Template Hierarchy
- Description of the order of preference of templates for the generation of various pages. Briefly lists the various templates that WordPress checks for in the process of generating a requested page on the weblog.
- The Loop
- Description of the WordPress Loop, which is the part of a template file that generates the content
- The Loop in Action
- More about the WordPress Loop
- WP Query
- WP Query is a class that refers to the $wp_query object used in the WordPress Loop. There are times when you may have to interact with the WP Query, for instance when creating multiple Loops, or when dealing with Conditional_Tags.
Header, Footer, Sidebar, and Content Sections
- Designing Headers
- Customizing the header.php template file.
- Adding Post Feeds to the Header
- How to add RSS feed links to your header template file
- Customizing Your Sidebar
- Customizing the sidebar.php template file.
- Customizing the Read More
- Customizing the look of Read More links on your excerpts
- Next and Previous Links
- Customizing the look of next/previous post/page links
- Styling Page-Links
- How to break up single posts into multiple pages, and customize their links
- Separating Categories
- Putting custom separators in the category list for your posts
- Using Custom Fields
- How to add custom meta-data to your blog posts, and how to display it
- Adding Asides
- How to add side notes to your blog posts
- Enabling Popup Comments
- How to make comments come in a pop-up window
Archives, Categories, and Special Pages
- Creating a Static Front Page
- How to make a static home page, or splash page, for your blog
- Author Templates
- Customizing the author.php template file which showcases information about the author and their posts.
- Category Templates
- All about defining and customizing templates for the various category archives for your blog.
- Tag Templates
- All about defining and customizing templates for the various tag archives for your blog.
- Alphabetizing Posts
- How to make a category page use alphabetical rather than chronological order
- Creating an Archive Index
- Customizing the archives.php template file which showcases posts by date.
- Pages
- Describes WordPress Pages, and the relationship between Templates and Pages feature.
- Page Templates
- Describes the Template Hierarchy for Pages and Custom Page Templates.
- Styling Theme Forms
- Describes how to make forms in your templates for comments, search, etc.
- Creating a Search Page
- Customizing the search.php template file.
- Creating an Error 404 Page
- Creating a template file Page to feature a customized Error 404 Page.
- Displaying Posts Using a Custom Select Query
- Modifying which posts are displayed on a page
- External Resources
Template Tags Articles
- Stepping Into Template Tags
- Introduction to the use of template tags in template files.
- Template Tags
- The core set of functions used to draw information from the database and display it on the web. For example, the Content of a Post is displayed with the Template Tag the_content().
- Anatomy of a Template Tag
- Understanding the structure, usage, and parameters of template tags used in template files.
- Include Tags
- A document describing the tags that are available to include and use WordPress’ template files.
- Conditional Tags
- These tags (always of the form is_*(), such as is_home()), report what sort of page is being displayed (e.g. the Main Page, a Category Archive, etc.) and can be used within a Template to control the Template’s output depending on what the tags report.
- Query Posts Template Tag
- A description of the query_posts template tag, which is used to control which posts are displayed on a page. Query posts alters the main query that WordPress uses, and is therefore not recommended to display different posts than those that would normal show up at a specific URL. It is best to use pre_get_posts for any changes that need to be made to the main query.
- Get Posts Template Tag
- A description of the get_posts tag, which is used to retrieve a list of posts matching criteria set through the tags parameters. This is the preferred method for quickly creating new criteria for your Loop, or to create a specific array of posts.
CSS, Design, and Layout
- CSS
- How to integrate CSS into WordPress, with list of other WordPress CSS references
- Blog Design and Layout
- List of articles and resources for WordPress blog design, and layout
- Know Your Sources#CSS
- List of general CSS references
Tools, Testing and Validating
- CSS Fixing_Browser Bugs
- CSS Troubleshooting
- Validating a Website
- Plain Text Editors
- A list of plain text editors for all platforms.
