Some not-design-related theme basics

For you to be better informed while choosing and installing themes, let's have a quick look at some factors to consider, and what actually makes a theme.

The structure of a theme

A WordPress theme is actually a collection of files in a folder. There are no special or unusual formats, just a few requirements for those files in the theme folder. The only requirements for a folder to be a valid WordPress theme are as follows:

• It should have a style.css file and an index.php file

• The style.css file must have the basic theme information in its first five lines

There are a number of additional files that you'll find in most of the theme folders. They are as follows:

• The screenshot.png file is the little thumbnail that shows what the theme looks like

• The images folder is where all images associated with the theme live

• A variety of files that are used for different purposes, for example header.php, footer.php, page.php, single.php, archive.php, and so on

You don't have...