How was the talk "learn how to make your website: WordPress Themes"

Hello wordpressers of Alicante! During the month of December the Meetup de WPAlicante «Learn how to make your website: WordPress themes». In this talk given by Joaquín López Crespo, which was very funny and close, we learned what is a WordPress theme and why Not all topics serve all pages.

We are super pleased with the great success of this call. We had more assistants than ever and we were able to make us a spectacular family photo that we have already placed in our social profiles jejeje.

Before starting with a summary of what we could see in the talk we want to thank everyone who came and shared with us that moment of community and learning.

Small summary of the talk

• 94 people were targeted! A record for us.
• We had 55 attendees, it's been a record too.
• We have received 3 collaboration requests.
• Here you can see the presentation.
• Now we have Facebook. Join!

Photos of the talk

Now yes... we leave a Small summary Of what was the theory of the talk of December.

What is a WordPress theme?

is a set of Visuals And Structures That define the page. It is the part that is responsible for the design of our website. They provide design and file sets (PHP, JS, CSS...).

Each topic is different from the previous one and There are thousands of different. So it is important that we learn the basics about WordPress themes to know that we have to choose.

The topics are responsible for our website to be nice.

Structure of a topic

When you use a WordPress theme the structure of the site changes. The dedicated space is altered for each one of the elements of a page. All these structures and elements are collected in the files of the themes, in folders. It's all in the hosting.

In the image we can see all the types of files that compose a theme. From structure templates to specific style files to modify small items.

What should we take into account when choosing a topic?

There are many important elements when it comes to choosing a theme for your website. The first thing to keep in mind is What are the objectives of your website? and therefore you need your website to meet those goals... a very visual and eye-catching design blog? A simple, fast and navigable blog? Corporate Web? Quick and Easy Store?...

Each of the above examples They need different structures, some more visual, others where entries or products are highlighted more. Therefore certain elements are relatively subjective of whether they are better or worse while there are other elements that we recommend for any topic in general:

• Good structure: A good structure is one that allows your website to fulfill the goal with which it is done. Not always a pretty structure will solve many of the goals. We're talking about airworthiness and design.  That is why it is important to define what needs the user has and what is a good structure.
• Review last update (Recent topics): This is a global and very important aspect. WordPress is constantly updating, an outdated theme without updates can give many errors and problems, you must make sure that the topic is updated regularly to avoid problems in the future.
• No functionality, better performance: When we look for a theme we look for design and not functionalities. Eye! You can choose a theme with functionality like date reservations. But you will be anchored to a subject that may not be the ideal and realize later. We recommend that you limit the functionality to the plugins and the design to the themes.
• Support: Make sure that the topic has an active support with which you can solve all the doubts. Especially if you are starting to use topics is a solution that will save you time and problems in the day to day.
• Price free?: The cheap sometimes comes out expensive. We recommend paying for a good subject, especially one with a good support and that allows you to make all the changes you want. There are good free topics, but you have to find them and sometimes they are not as good as we thought. Paying for a good subject with support and documentation is not throwing money is saving time in the future and problems.

Where to find WordPress themes?

• WordPress Repository: No doubt the best place to start looking for WordPress themes. These are themes that have been reviewed by WordPress so it guarantees a minimum level of quality. There is a great variety. All topics are free although more than one will have option to purchase a premium mode with more features. WordPress.org's own are Automatic so they are completely reliable.
• Independent theme Designers: They are people who have developed their own themes. They are usually paid or obtained by subscription. The advantage is usually that they are very conscientious subjects for a very specific purpose. It is important to look at the opinions and the valuation of the subjects. They can also be found in the repository.
• Marketplaces (Themeforest, Atheme, StudioPress...): We do not recommend looking for a theme in a general marketplace. However, if you decide to buy one look good in the support, in the valuation and everything that includes a theme (plugins, code, etc.). Remember the more elements, but weigh and probably do not need everything but you will have a slow page.
• Design Studios (Eleganttheme, Asíthemes): If you want to invest some money in quality is certainly one of the best options, it is a concept similar to the designers but with a team behind each theme. They usually stand out because they are subjects with good support and good quality.

Remember that the biggest advantage of WordPress is its community and there are many opinions of each of the topics is who it is. So we recommend you investigate before buying a topic or download. Remember that you also have to leave your opinion on the topics you use.

Topics Parents and children themes

The issues parents and children are more and more used. The idea is to get a copy of a topic that we already have. This copy is called the child theme, while the original theme we call it the Father theme. So if we like a theme and we want to work with the without fear of doing something that harms us, we can work with the copy, always having the theme father in case something happens. When we talk about change we talk about Font style, Colors, MenuEtc.

To make child issues we use Child Theme creator (Plugin creation children themes). With the you will be able to make a copy of your songs to modify them without fear of changing the original. The plugin does not need to have it in your system once created the subject son, ie, install it, set the subject child, and then delete the plugin. An example of these topics are Genesis or StoreFront. Careful because you can't make a subject child from another subject son.

Designers work with few themes making children and Personalizandolos themes for very specific projects such as kitchen blogs, fashion stores, etc.

Page Builders

It is important to know their existence. These are the most flexible but complicated issues. They are not usually just a topic but also a plugin. They give you all the flexibility of your website, being able to create each page from 0.

To design the pages they usually use a drag and drop system in the Frontend, viewing the live changes, or a design system in the Backend. This type of topic is only used for pages that need a complex or very specific design.

A drawback of many page builders, is that Relentizan the Web. They are not the most optimal option if you can use a simple theme that covers all the needs.

Other ideas of interest

We also add some interesting points that can complement the presentation or some additional information emerged through the doubts of the attendees:

• The theme should only give style, not add functionality. The functionality must be achieved with plugins. If we have it embedded in the subject, we will always keep that subject and the interesting thing is to change the subject without affecting our functionality.
• Framework theme: It is like a parent theme that is created for free or paid children.
• STARTER: Base theme to create other topics without starting from scratch (example: Storefront for stores).
• If the theme chosen in WordPress is Automatic is a theme of wordpress.org so great.
  • In the photos always put title and alternative text to improve the SEO.
  • If the topic has additional CSS it will not be lost when updating the topic without having to make child themes.
• Plugin Loco Translate:
  • To translate texts from the web (about the father in case of having children).
  • Generates the "Po" and "Mo" files in Spanish.
  • Because they are external files, they are not lost when the parent is updated.

Want to know more?

If you want to know more about WordPress, we invite you to join our small community of Alicante. Every month we will give a little chat and be happy to solve your doubts and concerns.