When you start out developing a theme that is built on an existing theme or framework, it is a good idea to duplicate the theme or set up a child theme. There is a great tutorial on making a child theme by op111.net. In this case, since I plan to use the Editor to add and remove sidebars as well as potentially edit functions, I opted to copy the entire theme, editing the details in the styles.css file. A child theme may come later when I get more into styling the options I set.
One of the first things I did after setting up the theme was to add and reorder a few sidebars (excellent tutorial).
I loved the footer areas that are set up by default, but I wanted to add 2 skinnier sidebars below a wider one in the right hand column. Adding and rearranging sidebars is one of the easiest things you can do with a theme to give a unique look — and with lots of impact for little work, it’s a great place to start.
Before discussing the changes I am making/plan to make, I wanted to mention why I chose this particular theme for developing. There were a couple of key points that sold me on the Notes Blog Core Theme.
- It’s free. As much as I love some of the paid frameworks out there, I’m just not going to pay to develop them. Otherwise I can just pay for a fully developed, documented, optioned theme, yes?
- I liked the general theme and style ‘out of the box.’ I could live with the basics while I developed.
- It’s clean. Both the code and the styles seem to be pretty meticulously coded.
- It’s light. I’m comfortable enough with code that if I want dropdown menus or plugins, I can add them myself — retaining more control over my site.
- It’s (relatively) new and there isn’t lots of documentation on it already — so perhaps my development will be helpful to someone.
It’s been a very long time I blogged seriously. Or even semi-seriously. I’ve got a trail of more half-started, abandoned blogs across the internet in my wake than most people have underwear.
In creating this blog though, I realized that what I really enjoy the tweaking and styling and developing parts of blog creation. So, as a project, I’m starting this blog with ‘The Notes Blog Core’ theme, and along with interspersed personal blogging, I’m going to try to document changes and delevopments I make to the theme as I go.
Interesting enough to keep me focused? I don’t know yet. I guess we’ll see.
