Check the theme author’s reputation first!!  You are downloading this piece of software to your server, so treat it like it is a piece of foreign software.

Here is selection method D:

Look for these:

We are looking for function in this phase, as that is very difficult to change without php & html knowledge.

• good ad placement opportunities (under featured section, top sidebar, possibly in header)
• supported featured slideshow on front page – we can add this ourselves, but there is a chance that the plugin will conflict the theme we’ve chosen.  This way, we know it will work.
• single nav bar – this is my personal preference for readability
• enough sections for my content, but not so many that it is difficult to find things
• width of template – it is a bit of a hassle to change the width of the container that holds everything, so I generally try to find something that is the right width right off the bat

Disregard these:

We can live without these features as they can easily be configured through the stylesheet.

• search placement & style
• subscribe /rss buttons placement and design
• colors
• typography
• logo images/ sidebar backgrounds / posts background/ blog background / decorative details
• outlines – rounded or square
• nav bar placement – above or below header
• size of header

Check under the hood for the following:

How the theme is written is actually more important than any of the outside stuff.  This is why, for the professional design services, I usually select the template we’re working with, not the client.

• CSS File: there are 2 ways most of us write CSS files.  Here is the method used less often (and I find it really hard to read):

• And this is my preferred style:  I only look for this in a theme as a “good to have” not a make-or-break it item.

• drop-down navigation bars
• favicon and stylesheet links, & the wordpress version link is removed.  If these things are done, it tells you that the author was current and thorough in his work.
• each multi-post page should have an if-then-else statement for the headers – this tells you that the author was up on his SEO practices
• a legendary comments template – this tells you that the theme is not only backwards compatible but also the author didn’t skip corners and it is likely to be forward compatible too
• look for all the text to be wrapped in tags like this:  <?php …  ?>  This means that the site is likely to be compatible with browsers for the sight-impaired

By this time you should have a very nice, easy to edit, theme.

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Did I miss something that you must have in your theme?  Let me know in the comments!

My preferred themes?  Without a doubt, StudioPress themes.

We use StudioPress themes for a number of Premium Professional WordPress Designs.  And sometimes we just add the templates ourselves, depending on the theme set up.  What we do with this type of front page, is create a template that WordPress will automatically use for the front page (home.php).  So you do nothing except select which categories you’d like to show up on the corresponding “blog” template.

Since WordPress 2.5 (I think?) they have integrated an option for those who do not have a custom front page template.  Another reason you want to be on WordPress software: it is not only supported, but expanded and improved regularly!  Find these options under Settings>> Reading (detailed tutorial in last week’s screencast.)

Be sure to check with your theme designer on which option your theme uses.  If you do have an automatic set up, and then you select the WordPress Options by mistake, you will ruin the set up of your theme, and likely see a blank static page for your home page!

Now you know!

Here is the tutorial that I guest posted elsewhere a month ago.

How to Create a Landing Page or Static Home Page

Enjoy!

The Featured Content Gallery(FCG)
- this is the slideshow that is across the home page.

1.  To get an image to show up in the Featured Content Gallery:

2.  Nothing is showing up?

3.  To select which posts show up in the FCG

Home Page Options

1.  To change the content in the boxes on the front page

• go to Appearance>> mytheme Options Page
• Each section on the front page, has a corresponding section on this page.  Find the section (usually described by “bottom left”, “top right” etc) and select the category from the drop down box.  Sometimes you can also select the number of posts to display, and whether or not to display thumbnails.

2.  To change the content in the right-hand side / sidebar

To Edit the Sidebar
- for a description of the widgets page, see the “Home Page Options “, #2

1.  To add a link to the sidebar.

• go to Appearance>> Widgets
• drag a new text widget from the left over to the desired sidebar box on the right
• give the new text box a title (optional)
• add HTML to the box as follows:  “<a href=”http://mylink.com” title=”this goes to my link”>My Link</a>” without the quotes.
• edit the above link to hold your URL, your title, and your text(green).
• click “save/update”
• go to the front page of your blog and refresh your browser to see the new link in your sidebar/widgeted area

2.  to add an image to the sidebar

• go to Appearance>> Widgets
• drag a new text/html widget from the left over to the desired sidebar box on the right
• give the new text/html box a title (optional)
• add HTML to the box as follows:  “<img src=“http://this is my image.png” alt=”image” title=”this is my image” />” without the quotes.
• src= source | this is the URL of your image – you can use photobucket or flickr or the media library in WP
• alt=alternate | if the browser can’t render the image, it will display the text you put here
• title= title | search engines like it when we tell them what the image is and this is displayed when a mouse hovers the image
• /> = end bracket | this is VERY important – don’t forget to tell the browser where the image ends with the end bracket!
• click “save/update”
• go to the front page of your blog and refresh your browser to see the new link in your sidebar/widgeted area

3.  To add a linked image

• combine the above two html tidbits (link & image) into a text/html widget like this:
• <a href=”http://mylink.com” title=”this is my link”><img src=”http://this is my image.png” alt=”image” title=”this is my image” /></a>
• change the urls to your URLs.  As well as the alt text, and title text.
• click on save/update.
• go to the front of your blog and refresh your browser to see the new link in your sidebar/widgeted area

4.  Troubleshooting

• there’s no image showing!!??
  • be sure that you included the “alt=” attribute in the image tag, as well as closed the image tag with the end tag “/>” without the quotes
  • Does your image url end in .png, .jpg, .gif?  If not, you may have the wrong image URL

5.  Add another feature to the sidebar – like a newsletter sign up or a twitter icon

• go to Appearance>> Widgets.  If none of the widgets already there (archives, categories, search bar, recent posts, etc) will do what you are looking for, then do the following:
• go to Plugins>> Add New
• In the search bar, enter your search terms ie: “drop down archives”
• Look among the search results for a plugin that is updated regularly, and with a good rating, click the far right side “install” link
• Click on Install Now
• Click on Activate
• Go to Settings>> plugin-name | search for a page that may have been added by the plugin, not every plugin does this
• Configure the settings as requested (different for each plugin)
• Go to Appearance>> Widgets
• Drag your new widget from the left hand side to the appropriate sidebar.
• Open the widget and configure the options, if any
• Click on save/update
• go to the front page and refresh – the changes should be immediate.

6.  It didn’t work!!!

• Check your plugin instructions – be sure that you followed the instructions on the settings page, if any.
• Double check the Appearance>> Widgets page to be sure that the widget didn’t walk away.
• Clear the cache in your browser and refresh several times.
• check the sidebar in another browser – if you use IE, then try Firefox, or vice versa.
• lastly, go to Plugins>> Edit, and select the plugin from the drop down list, click on go
• read down the right-hand list of files until you see a “readme.txt” file and read it! It will describe where to get help/ how to use the plugin
• If all these options don’t fix the problem, then you don’t have the content that it needs to display properly or the widget doesn’t work = deactivate this plugin, and try another one.

To Edit the Navigation Bar(s)

1. To add items to the navigation bar:

• the nav bar is pre-programmed by the theme author usually to display the Pages
• If you wish to have a new navbar link, go to Pages>> Add New
• The title you add now will display on the nav bar.
• Add the content. | Optionally assign a template and an order number.
• Save/ publish the page.
• The link will automatically appear in the navigation bar.

2.  To add drop-down items

• IF your theme is programmed to handle drop down pages, then you can create some in the Admin panels.
• Go to Pages>> Add New.
• The title you assign will appear as a drop-down link.
• Add content,  | Optionally assign a template and/or order number.
• Look for the “Attributes” box beneath the publish box.
• Select a Parent Page from the drop down box.
• Update/Save.

3.  They don’t all fit on the bar – what do I do?

• Make some pages drop-down items: (see To Edit Nav Bars #2)
• OR exclude the pages all together:
  • Go to Pages, and choose a page to EXCLUDE from the nav bar
  • Hover over the page title, and click on edit
  • In the address bar you will see: http://mydomain/wp-admin/page.php?action=edit&post=##
  • That number (##) is the page id – make a note of it.
  • Go to Appearance >> Edit
  • Select the header.php template from the list on the right.
  • Towards the bottom of the file, look for a line like this:  <?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&’);?>
    • Add an exclude argument like this:
    • <?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&exclude=##‘);?> where the number is the page ID
    • to exclude multiple pages, add the exclude argument like this:
      <?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&exclude=##,##,###’);?>

4.  FAQ