Simplest Guide to Custom WordPress  Themes

Here’s the most straightforward, least detailed guide on what you need to do to create your own custom WordPress theme.

Steps

Very little detail, by design to keep this short and sweet:

1. Create a new folder in your /wp-content/themes/ directory, this will be your theme.
2. style.css contains a specific set of comments at the top to define the name of your theme (and other details). It also can contain the CSS for your theme; it will load automatically.
3. screenshot.png is what’s shown as a preview under Appearance > Themes.
4. page.php is the template that’s used for all the Pages you create in WordPress.
5. front-page.php will be your homepage after you adjust your Settings > Reading to use it.
6. post.php will be the template used for all the Posts you create.
7. functions.php is where you add stuff that’s not part of a template.
8. index.php lists your posts and is also the template used if no others exist.
9. header.php is the global header that starts all templates.
10. footer.php is the global footer that ends all templates.
11. 404.php is what’s shown for a page not found (404 error).
12. search.php displays search results.
13. archive.php is a list of filtered posts used for categories, tags, dates, etc.
14. category.php is like archive.php, but for listing posts in one category only.
15. tag.php is the same thing but for posts by tags.

Demo

I’ve set up a basic theme demo of this that’s publicly available on GitHub:

Full Demo on GitHub

Stylesheet Comment Format

/*
 * Theme Name: Basic WP
 * Description: Basic custom theme for WordPress that's easy to follow and learn from
 * Author: Kevinleary.net
 */

Goals

My ultimate goal here is to provide a very short, easy to follow, no frills guide to setting up your first custom WordPress theme. It’s very beneficial to understand the bare minimum capabilities first. It’s also much less daunting. Hopefully this helps.