Want to create a custom WordPress theme from scratch?
In the past, you had to follow complicated WordPress tutorials and have sufficient coding knowledge to create a custom WordPress theme. But thanks to the new WordPress theme builders, you can now easily create one without learning any coding skills.
Reading: How to create a wordpress website for beginners complete guide
In this article, we will show you how to easily create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code
Here is the list of topics that we are going to cover in this article.
- Creating a custom WordPress theme for beginners
- Creating a custom theme with SeedProd Theme Builder
- Editing a theme with SeedProd Theme Builder
- Change the site-wide theme for your theme
- Apply and publish your WordPress custom theme
- Create other layouts for your WordPress custom theme
Ready? Let’s begin.
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, just read on.
Creating a Custom WordPress Theme for Beginners
A WordPress website uses a theme for the layout and design of the website. These themes consist of template files written in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Normally, you would need to have a good understanding of all these web design languages, or hire a web developer to create a custom WordPress theme.
If you hired a developer or agency, then they can Costs for a custom WordPress theme can reach thousands of dollars.
Because many small business owners cannot afford the high cost of a custom WordPress theme, many simply settle for standard themes. For those who didn’t want to commit, they used either a WordPress page builder or a theme framework to create a custom theme.
While WordPress theme frameworks made building a WordPress theme easier, there are they’re a solution for developers, but not your average website owner.
On the other hand, the WordPress Page Builder plugins made it super easy to create custom page layouts by draggingThis allows SeedProd to automatically generate all template files. These are fully professionally designed themes that give you a head start in editing the templates to your own requirements.
Just click the Themes button and choose one of the available themes. There are different themes for different types of websites, so you can choose one that best suits your needs.
Don’t worry too much about design and layout at this point. All of these themes are fully editable, so you can change any aspect of them in the theme builder.
Once you select a theme, SeedProd will generate all theme templates.
This is the draft version of your custom WordPress theme.
Later in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to edit these theme files to create your theme, and then publish your theme to apply to your website.
2. Manually create theme templates from scratch
Alternatively, you can create your theme from scratch by clicking the “Add new theme template” button. You need to name your template and then choose one of the template types to get started.
You can currently choose from the following template types:
- Header
- Footer
- Single Post
- Single Page
- Archive
- Search Results
- Global Part
- Custom Page
You can also set conditions for using a template. For example, you can apply it to the entire site or a specific section of your site.
Once you save the template, SeedProd will open it in the Theme Builder where you can start editing.
Editing a Theme with SeedProd Theme Builder
Once you have created your theme templates, you can edit them with the SeedProd Theme Builder.
Just click the Edit Theme link under a template file to edit it.
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This will launch the template file in the SeedProd designer builder.
You will see a live preview of the template in the right column with an edit box in the left column.
To change an element in your template file, you can simply point to it and click to edit.
Depending on the article type, you will see different editing options in the left column. You can change fonts, colors, background, spacing and more.
To add new items, you can add SeedProd blocks from the left column. It comes with a range of block types that you can add to your template.
1. Template Tag Blocks
Template Tag Blocks are dynamic blocks that allow you to generate theme elements on the fly from your WordPress database.
For example, you can use the Posts block to list your recent posts, or the Post Content block to show the content of the currently viewed post or page.
2. Standard Blocks
Next, you have your Standard Blocks for adding common web design elements to your theme’s template.
You can use them to represent text, media, buttons, columns, dividing lines, and more.
3. Other Blocks
Other advanced blocks allow you to add contact forms, social profiles, share buttons, WordPress shortcodes, Google Maps and more.
SeedProd also comes with full WooCommerce integration.
If you run an online store, you can use WooCommerce blocks in your theme.
You can create fully custom WooCommerce templates with a custom cart page and test the experience.
Using Sections for Quick Theme Layouts
In addition to blocks, you can also add full sections to your design template.
Just switch to the Sections tab under the Theme panel.
Sections are groups of blocks for different areas of website design. For example, you’ll find ready-to-use sections for your header, footer, calls-to-action, features, and more.
Just click on a section to add it to your design template, then edit it to your own requirements.
Save and Publish Your Template
Once you are happy with the design, you can simply click the Save button and select Publish to save your template.
Repeat the process to edit other template files with your own content and design requirements.
Change the site-wide theme for your theme
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When editing your theme templates, you should ensure that your theme is consistent across your site.
For example, you probably want to use the same typography style, font sizes, colors, and other visual styles on every page.
In traditional WordPress themes, you had to do this manually by editing complex CSS files. This process required using a browser’s inspect tool, locating CSS classes, learning code, and more.
SeedProd makes this super easy too.
Instead of writing CSS code, you can just edit the global CSS template.
The global CSS template allows you to preview common website elements and then just point and click on them to edit their properties.
Apply and Publish Your WordPress Custom Theme
Once you are happy with your WordPress custom theme, the final step is to activate it on your WordPress website.
SeedProd allows you to apply your custom WordPress theme with a simple switch.
Just go to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page and toggle the switch to Yes next to the Enable SeedProd Theme option.
SeedProd will now replace the existing WordPress theme with the custom WordPress theme you created.
You can now visit your website to see your custom WordPress theme in action.
Creating other layouts for your custom WordPress theme
Now that you have created your custom WordPress theme, you have the option to extend its functionality and create more themes and layouts based on your theme to create.
SeedProd makes this extremely easy.
You can further tweak your custom WordPress theme and create multiple templates for different areas of your website.
For example, you may want to add a new header template to your theme to only appear in certain categories .
Similarly, you may want to create a template for specific pages or posts.
You can also add this to your theme.
How about creating custom landing pages?
SeedProd has you covered there too.
You can just go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click the Add New Landing Page button to create one.
See our tutorial on creating a landing page with WordPress for more details.
With SeedProd’s beginner-friendly drag-and-drop theme builder, you can easily create any type of custom layout you need.
We hope this article helped you has to learn how to create a custom layout WordPress theme without learning to code. You may also want to check out our guide on how to speed up your WordPress website for better SEO and user experience.
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