Customize Your Wordpress or Blogger Template
Do you want your web site or blog to stand out from other templates?
Do you want to brand your business with a customized design?
It’s easy to just grab one of the hundreds of free templates offered for WordPress but often they do not fit your business model. It’s relatively easy to customize a template or designing your own.
Here are the top 7 reasons to choose WordPress
If you want to create a home page which doesn’t look like a blog, use a static page.
Here are 2 ways to create a static page:
1. Design an original template
2. Customize a WordPress template
1. Design an original template
a) Design your home page template from scratch in your favorite html ediitor using XHTML and CSS (I use Dreamweaver). You won’t be able to add content to this template from the WordPress dashboard so include all your html tags i.e. doc type, meta tags, header and html code.
b) Add these 4 lines of code to the top of your template (above the doc type tags)
<?php
/*
Template Name: NewTemplateName
*/
?>
<html>
Give your template a new name. This will help you identify it in your administration panel.
c) Create a php file
Copy and paste all your code into notepad (or any text editor) and save it as front.php (or whatever.php)
d) Upload template to theme directory
Place your new template in the same directory as your current theme files. e.g., If you are using the default theme place it in this folder.
e) Adding the custom template
Login to the WordPress dashboard
Click Write
Click Write Page
Write a title for the new template
Click the drop down box on Page Template (far right of your window)
Select your new WordPress template and click publish.
f) Create a blog page
If you wish to use your new template as a static home page, you also need to create a blog page.
Create a new page and give it a title. Don’t write any content for it. On the right side of your screen type the same name as the title in the post slug box and click publish.
g) Activating your new template
To display your customized template as the front page
Click options-reading
Check the Static Page option
Specify your new template as the front page
Specify your newly created blog page as the posts page and click update options.
Your web site should now display your new template as the front page
h) Create a link to your blog page
Link to the blog page by including it on your home page.
Visitors will now see a normal looking web site, however you retain all the benefits of using the WordPress features.
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Development, SEO, Hosting
Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/
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