Title: Creating complex WordPress themes
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Creating complex WordPress themes

 *  [riderofthestorm2](https://wordpress.org/support/users/riderofthestorm2/)
 * (@riderofthestorm2)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/)
 * I’m taking a looking a look at WordPress as a possible site builder, but I haven’t
   used it. I’ve been scanning through WP available themes and I’ve noticed that
   they have a distinctive WordPress blog-like feel to them. The site I’m designing
   will have a blog embedded in another page (though not on the index page). It’s
   a three-column fixed-width site with a banner on top. Is it possible (provided
   you know your xHTML and CSS) to create a WP theme that looks more like a professional,
   typical website?
 * And yes, I’m aware of other CMS systems like Joomla and Drupal, but I’m asking
   about creating a non-blog look for a WordPress theme.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [alanpace](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanpace/)
 * (@alanpace)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861560)
 * I prefer WordPress as a CMS because the admin is less complicated from a client’s
   perspective than Joomla. Yes, with knowledge of html, css and php it’s possible
   to get WordPress to perform well as a CMS without hacking core code. Here’s a
   non-blog-feel site I’m currently working on that’s built with WordPress: [http://dev.fotllp.com](http://dev.fotllp.com).
 *  [jbbrwcky](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jbbrwcky/)
 * (@jbbrwcky)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861584)
 * WordPress can be made to look like anything you want. The only limit is your 
   knowledge of xhtml/css/php.
 *  Thread Starter [riderofthestorm2](https://wordpress.org/support/users/riderofthestorm2/)
 * (@riderofthestorm2)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861644)
 * **alanpace**, that’s the type of example I’m looking for.
 * If anyone else has other examples of non-blog looking WordPress sites, I’d love
   to take a look.
 * I’m heavily well versed in HTML and CSS, but PHP I barely know other than adding
   required pieces of code where necessary. Could I still have that kind of site
   with WordPress helping me out with the PHP?
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861648)
 * _I’m heavily well versed in HTML and CSS, but PHP I barely know other than adding
   required pieces of code where necessary. _
 * That’s enough. I always say for a WP theme all the PHP your need is advanced 
   copy/paste skills to get the [Template_Tags](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags)
   into your files.
 * For the beginning you should probably start with a 3 column theme and try to 
   dissect it a bit to understand how a WP theme works.
    [Theme_Development](http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development)
 *  Thread Starter [riderofthestorm2](https://wordpress.org/support/users/riderofthestorm2/)
 * (@riderofthestorm2)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861654)
 * That’s awesome. Because I already have these sophisticated 3-column design layouts
   that’s very image heavy. There may be three or four different templates that 
   will be slight variations on the index page. I made sure to design them thinking
   of a good CSS layout in mind.
 * I was feeling intimidated thinking while WP is nice, I didn’t know if you could
   go beyond that distinctive blog look.
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861655)
 * > _There may be three or four different templates that will be slight variations
   > on the index page_
 * Be aware that the WP theme’s index is a diffent animal. If you are visual, take
   a quick look at this [visual anatomy](http://moshublog.com/2005/03/31/visual-anatomy-of-a-wp-15-theme/):
   it will show you how the template files work together in a theme.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Creating complex WordPress themes’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Themes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/themes/)

 * 6 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-complex-wordpress-themes/#post-861655)
 * Status: not resolved

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