One of the things I love to do is play around with WordPress themes – pulling them apart, piecing them back together and learning something new almost every time. I’ve tried designing a few of my own by using a variety of open source themes as a foundation, but I usually end up disappointed. Either the CSS is convoluted, or it’s rife with errors.
The thought of setting up a standard templating system and throwing out at least some redundant starter tasks became more and more appealing. I decided to dismantle the default theme to use as a starting point for creating a generic “baseline” template for rapid development.
You’re welcome to try the theme out. No graphic elements were used as part of the design. In fact I even stripped out many of the CSS hooks that I felt were extraneous. The layout lines up well on a grid, though I’m sure it’s not flawless. My experience with grids (at this time) is limited.
Major elements are neatly grouped and commented for quick recognition of typical content modules. This should make orientation a snap. Very minimal styling was applied, as this is obviously intended to be a clean slate type of theme. All the most commonly used pages are included (i.e. archive, search, 404, etc.) as well.
If this helps you get your own builds off the ground faster and minimize time spent on repetitive tasks – drop a line!
10/08/2007
Great stuff. Been looking for just this type of thing for learning more about Wordpress themes. Cheers.
11/14/2007
Thanks, Charity. With over 50 blogs to develop in quick time, these templates will no doubt become a valuable asset to me. :)
1/31/2008
[...] got the idea for this theme from Charity Ondriezek and her Rapid Development Toolset For WordPress Theming and this theme is actually based on the BaseFR theme from that package. I made the theme so it [...]
4/14/2008
[...] most generic, baseline theme I could find to bend to my will. After a lot of looking I decided on one of these themes provided by Charity at Design Adaptations. It’s well developed, very well commented and absolutely gets out of the way of anyone who is [...]
4/17/2008
Hey there, this is great. I’m using your Baseline as the foundation for a theme I’m working on. Happened to find a “bug” in your stylesheet:
should be:
Any plans to update for WP 2.5?
4/18/2008
Justin – I would like to update all the free themes (including the baselines) very soon. I know they need some attention but I have a couple other things I want to roll out first. It’s on the list though!
5/30/2008
[...] work today to sit in on an interview for a new English teacher but plan to have a good look at the Rapid Development Toolset for Wordpress Theming when I get a [...]
6/24/2008
Charity, sounds good. If you create a new post, it’d be great if you could link to it from here, as I refer back to this post occasionally.
6/24/2008
Oh, and shameless promotion, the site I used your baseline design for is live now, it’s called White Noise Lounge a photoaudioblog of collected ambient sounds. Gotta say that working from your baseline made it really easy to go from idea in my head to finished product in short order. Thanks again.
7/18/2008
Thank you — this is exactly what I was looking for!
8/03/2008
[...] run to work today to sit in on an interview for a new English teacher but plan to have a look at the Rapid Development Toolset for Wordpress Theming when I get a [...]
8/17/2008
oh great learning process for me. i totally agree with ehab i just learn new thing here and these zip files are great help for me. thanks for putting them in file.
11/01/2008
Thank you Charity!
Why did no one else think of a base line theme? So grateful to you for this handy construction.
And I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but any chance you’ll be widgetizing these themes any time soon?
Thank you thank you thank you,
Susana