How To Create a WordPress Theme: The Ultimate WordPress Theme Tutorial

We’ve created a second edition of this popular tutorial! It contains updated code samples, coverage of the latest theme development techniques, and more. Check it out at The ThemeShaper WordPress Theme Tutorial: 2nd Edition.
In only 11 individual lessons this WordPress Theme Tutorial is going to show you how to build a powerful, up-to-date, WordPress Theme from scratch. As we go along I’ll explain what’s happening including (for better or worse) my thinking on certain techniques and why I’m choosing one path over another. Essentially, I’ll be teaching you everything you need to know about WordPress Theme development.
Skip to the Table of Contents.


Here’s the list of features your finished theme will be able to boast of:

• All the search-engine optimization you’ll really need
• Including google-supported Microformat markup
• Valid and logical semantic markup structure than can be used to create ANY layout
• Smart default CSS layouts
• Dynamic Body, post and comment classes
• Separated trackbacks and threaded comments
• 2 widget areas coded to disappear when they’re empty
• And all the typical WordPress stuff you expect from a theme

I think that’s kind of impressive—for any WordPress Theme.
At the end of this tutorial, with code in hand, you’ll be able to do almost anything you want. You can even think of the finished Theme as your own personal website development framework for WordPress.
I’ve already used it to start another project of my own, The Shape Theme. Download it and check it out if you’d like to see some of the finished code we’ll be going through, live, in action. Alternately, you can browse through the up-to-date source code for the entire tutorial on Google Code.