Existing HTML/div layout to a new WP template?

  • Hey, WordPress looks great so far! The interface seems very easy to use and manage, and I really want to use it on my website! I only have a manual, no-comments blog right now, and if I could get WordPress to fit into my existing layout it would be brilliant!

    See, it took me a while to design an HTML layout I really love, and I don’t want to lose it if I switch over to this new PHP. It seems like the standard WordPress default ” style” should work on my present layout because I have a large div layer for text/blogging and a div sidebar for navigation. I’m probably doing a poor job of explaining it, so I’ll just let the picture suffice for the thousand words: https://obliviouslyyours.com/blog.html

    I’ve spent a long time trying to tweak the templates in the admin section of WordPress, but I’m really unfamiliar with the different features and I’m having a lot of trouble. I’ve mixed with just about every category there, but I cannot get rid of the standard design, add a background color, or insert my images. Obviously I will have to spend a lot of time researching template making for future reference, but before I start all that frustration I was just wondering if there was an easier way. I highly doubt it…but is there any possibility I could contain WordPress inside div layers? Upon looking at my layout, do you have any helpful suggestions about where I should start? Is there any way I could keep my layout?

    Thanks for your time; I really appreciate any advice you could give me. =)

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  • I’ve found this article really helpful. It dissects the Kubrick “default” theme, and tells you what you need to change to customize it. Since you already seem to have the understanding of the underlying css, I’m sure you’ll be up and running on your own layout in no time. Using this article it took me about 5 to 6 hours for the first one. Now I can knock out a theme in a couple hours. One piece of advice before you start tearing everything apart- certain key areas are central to each theme. Header, sidebar, content, and footer are the biggies, and there are some classes you’ll want to alter and use rather than delete. You’ll do better to change your div names to ones already in use for those areas, it’s a mistake I made on my first one, and had to go back in and fix.

    The article:
    https://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/04/12/themeguide1/
    https://www.urbangiraffe.com/2005/04/22/themeguide2/

    The other place to go for answers is the codex. After you’ve gotten your theme working and you just wanna tweak this here and that there, the codex has the answers– and if that fails you already found this messageboard.

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Main_Page

    Good luck! I’ll be looking for your newly created theme on the “strut your stuff” thread . . .

    Just to let you know, I worked VERY long and hard on my website design, and wanted to keep it desperately when I made the move to WordPress. During the process, I had to make a lot of compromises, since hand-coded HTML has much more “control” over what appears on EVERY page and WordPress uses template files that pull content from the database, giving up some of that per-post control. And what I found was that I had more power over a lot of things I didn’t have before, and yet lost some things making compromises along the way. And I found that I wasn’t happy with my website look.

    I broke all my own rules and now I’m thrilled beyond belief to finally have something that it unique, appropriate, and totally fitting with our content.

    You can do whatever you want, but keep your options open, and realize that compromises can be good things, too.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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