DISQUS

Instigator Blog: 5 Things to Avoid in WordPress Themes

  • KWiz · 2 years ago
    Because of this post, I view my choice of theme as absolutely great! I don't know about code or too few or too many files (at least not yet), but my theme gets updated, has support, and is very flexible. Thanks so much for this post!
  • Dawud Miracle · 2 years ago
    I have one other criteria that I find important when choosing a WP Theme...I like to know how if and how I'm going to use 'Pages' in WP before finding a theme. Many themes either leave out Pages or make it difficult to have more than a few Pages. And since I often setup WP for people as CMS, having flexibility with Pages is important to me.
  • Collis · 2 years ago
    If i may, there is one other thing to avoid in WordPress themes...

    6. *Ugly Themes.* The designer may think they have created a masterpiece, but it isn't necessarily so! Some themes are just ugly... You may very well succeed with an ugly template, but it won't do you any favours.

    :-)
  • Josh Kenzer · 2 years ago
    One recommendation I would make is 2 column vs 3 column. It can be very difficult to convert a 2 column to a 3 column and vise versa. Try to pre-think which would work better for you and choose that from the get go.
  • Ben Yoskovitz · 2 years ago
    Thanks for the comments guys.

    Dawud -- Knowing what you're going to do with pages is definitely important. Lots of themes are restrictive when it comes to pages - for example, they don't look good when you list a lot of them (often this is the case with themes that put pages horizontally across the top somewhere.)

    Collis -- Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? Sure, some things are just plain ugly though...

    Josh -- That's an interesting recommendation, 2 columns vs. 3. I like 2 columns, but 3 works too. It's partially a personal preference thing, partially an issue of what you're trying to accomplish with the blog. I DO think that 3 columns can compound issues of messy coding, restrictive coding, etc.
  • Collis · 2 years ago
    Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?

    Indeed it is! Which is unfortunate for all concerned when it comes to Myspace pages! :-)

    Actually Myspace is an excellent example of when a site succeeds *despite* its design shortcomings
  • Sarit · 2 years ago
    This is so correct! I translate Wordpress themes to Hebrew. Hebrew is written right-to-left so fitting a CSS design to a different direction can be frustrating, especially with those "Too Restrictive" templates.
    Thanks for bringing that up!
  • egon · 2 years ago
    After I chose my theme and spent days customizing it (www.AutomoBlog.net,) the author announced that he will no longer be working on it or releasing updates. That sucks, but I taught my self enough PHP and CSS to do what I need, so it's no big deal. The only problem is I can't upgrade to Wordpress 2.1 now; I've heard other people using this theme had problems.
  • Ben Yoskovitz · 2 years ago
    Egon - I think a lot of theme designers abandon themes. It's understandable - they do it for free, they've got tons of other projects to work on, etc. But it's still tough for someone using it.

    And with the WP upgrade to 2.1 it makes it even tougher. You may be able to get someone to help you with the upgrade though, and make sure the theme works properly...If you need any help/advice on that email me (contact info is available on the site.)
  • hoodiaweightloss · 2 years ago
    Wanted to compliment on your site, it looks really good .

    Hank