For those with Wordpress Blogs!

[jhawk]

Hi all,

I have posted this question in GeekChat without a response, so I'll ask those of you who have used Wordpress, or currently do use it for your cycling or other blogging pursuits.

Today, I spent some time creating a poorly-designed template of how I want my website to look. Since I don't have the cash to get it professionally designed to my specs, I've turned to WP - and have been hosting my site using their platform for quite some time. I like it, the themes are clean, and easy-to-navigate. But, they're not what I'm looking for...

I'll show you my poorly-drawn-out, very rough design template.

Those menus up the top would drop-down to reveal several sub-menus and such...

I'm wondering whether anyone can help!

Cheers,

Jack.

 

[ColinJ]

I think one of these themes might do the trick?

I am slowly working my way through the demos to choose one for my own use.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

WordPress themes are basically HTML and CSS which is pretty simple. What kind of help do you need?

 

[coffeejo]

WordPress themes are basically HTML and CSS which is pretty simple. What kind of help do you need?

They're php which is less simple IMHO. Mainly because the WP help articles are written for those who already speak it.

My recently discovered tip: when it comes to themes, don't rely on the live preview - activate it and change the settings as the theme options in the preview don't give you the full range of customisations.

 

[AndyRM]

WordPress is a more complicated beast than it presents itself as.

I'm fluent in HTML and CSS but attempting to WordPress a site broke my mind.

It wouldn't take mega bucks to create the layout you're after. @ColinJ's link looks like it's got some near as damnit alternatives.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Wordpress IS a pro tool in the right hands, I make part of my living from building Wordpress sites. I've been site building for about fifteen years and Wordpress is the best tool I've ever used.

At first glance I'd use a basic theme and then use one of the many short code plugins to pull information into where you wish to place it on your homepage.

 

[Edwardoka]

Wordpress is a great way to quickly roll out CMS-driven sites, but believing that it's anything other than a series of shonky hacks that happened to gain market traction is a sign of delusion.*

* Been working with PHP for 13 years, for my sins.

[edit]
I should qualify my statement as it could be seen as an attack on people who use WP - It's not. I've built several sites using it and it's fine for most use cases.

It's an attack on the people who wrote it in the first place
[/edit]

 

[IDMark2]

 

[Ian A]

Just started with wordpress hoping to make things easier. I'm an occasion HTML and attemotped CSS person as and when needed for work, which isn't very often. Thought this may work better. By the sounds of things I might be wrong!

 

[coffeejo]

It's much more user-friendly than it used to be, in that there are loads of themes and plug-ins to do the things you want rather than having to code it yourself. This is both a blessing and a curse, since it makes the whole thing much more clunky. But I've always preferred WP for blogging, despite the annoyances. Played about with blogger for a while but I've just gone back to WP.

 

[IDMark2]

@Ian A You might be advised to wait a bit before making ahem, a quick decision, I have a feeling a middle ground between 'It's the best thing ever' and 'It's the worst thing ever' might take some sorting out yet.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

They're php which is less simple IMHO. Mainly because the WP help articles are written for those who already speak it.

My recently discovered tip: when it comes to themes, don't rely on the live preview - activate it and change the settings as the theme options in the preview don't give you the full range of customisations.

The theme design itself is mainly HTML and CSS imho. I consider the delivery method being a PHP script but the output remains HTML
The physical design of the WordPress theme template is not dependent upon PHP it is only required for component placement. As the original question was related to design aspect rather than functionality of the template I feel I responded in the appropriate manner, but I appreciate your point.

 

[Edwardoka]

It's a great application, albeit a terribly written one, if that makes sense. More importantly it has a low barrier to entry and an active community of people developing themes and plugins for it.

Now, don't get me started on Magento...

 

[IDMark2]

Now, don't get me started on Magento...

Aww, go on, I enjoyed 'a series of shonky hacks'...

 

[Andrew_Culture]

It comes down to budget:

>£25k = Ruby on Rails
£10k to £25k = Drupal (depending on application)
£0 to £10k = Wordpress
<£0 = Blogger