Chapter 7. Developing Your Own Theme

You know how to find themes on the Web and install them for use on your WordPress site. However, you may not be able to find the perfect theme, you may want to create a thoroughly personalized theme, or you may be a website designer with a client who wants a custom theme.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to turn your own design into a fully functional WordPress theme that you'll be able to use on your own site. You'll also learn how to convert your theme folder into a ZIP file that can be shared with other WordPress users on the Web.

All you will need before we get started is have the following:

• Your own design
• The ability to slice and dice your design to turn it into HTML

We'll start out with tips on slicing and dicing, so that your HTML and CSS files are as WordPress friendly as possible, and then cover the steps for turning that HTML build into a fully functional theme.

Note that I assume that you are already comfortable writing...