Coding for Wordpress

[redtapegraphics]

Why did I agree to design and code a wordpress theme when I have never done it before??? The design is pretty much in place, but I am going crazy trying to figure out the coding.

I attempted to use one of the free services on-line: Dynamic Web Pages from your Photoshop Designs in Seconds! | psd 2 CSS Online - but it ended up being very glitchy. So now I am spending this beautiful Saturday trying to figure this thing out. Hopefully, before the weekend is over I will have it under control.

If anyone has any helpful links or information, it is greatly appreciated. I think my biggest issue is going to be with the header and the roll over images for the navigation. Not to mention, CSS and I aren't exactly on a first name basis!

[brandyarnold]

I wish I could help you... but, I'm completely clueless when it comes to anything web design related... whenever I need to be humbled, I just look at some code. haha. Good luck!

[redtapegraphics]

Thanks Brandy! I have made some progress - but my roll overs are not working!

Once I get a little further I will post a link on here.

[sevehn]

hi redtapegraphics - i used to be a webDev quite sometime ago, and i enjoyed my time in the development of websites (front and back end) - especially dynamic webpages, and by that i mean connecting webPages with databases =) ... during those wee-wee-wee-ol' days - i used classic ASP with a mix of javaScript which sits on an MSSQL Server as its db - my main devTool - was DreamweaverMX ... hehehe =D (i know ... it sounds jurrassic now - since .Net technology and such are booming! and making things easier) - not to mention options such as php (which i have not even used yet) and other such coding ...

anywho, i have not used wordpress ..... yet, tho i wanna explore that seemingly very talked about "wordpress" soon ... but here is a tutorial i browsed swiftly a while ago ... hopefully it helps you out ...

(this one uses jQuerry)
Simple Image Rollovers in WordPress with jQuery - Kalamazoo Web Design and Development Professional - Fro Designs

(this one uses CSS)
WordPress › Support Rollover buttons breaking menu, not following display:inline

a.rollover {
display: inline-block;
width: 188px;
height: 60px;
text-decoration: none;
background: url("http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/images/archive.jpg");
}

a.rollover:hover {
background-position: -188px 0;
}

.displace {
position: absolute;
left: -5000px;
}


btw - how does a snippet of your roll-over code look like?

[redtapegraphics]

Thanks for the code, Sevehn. I will have to give that a shot. Yesterday I gave up on the roll-overs with the CSS and inserted the standard Navigation bar with dreamweaver using Javascript. Which for all I know could be a major no-no to mix the two, but it was the only thing working for me.

Currently I am still tweaking the CSS styles for the padding/text/colors, etc ----- and right now - the strange thing that is happening....when I try to adjust the padding for the sidebar titles, it is being applied to the navigation bar as well and throwing everything off. I tried to go back over the code to see how they are connected, but I really have no clue.

I uploaded what I have so far (please bear in mind this is very rough and still needs a lot of work, especially since this is my first time to do anything like this). You can take a look at it here: J.J. McBrewster's

And if you want to take a look at the CSS...here is the link to that: http://creativityonaroll.com/test/style4.css

Any insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I know I am spending way too much time on what would be so simple for someone with more experience.

[GoldenZ]

Hello, redtapegraphics:

Wordpress is one of the hardest theming after Joomla CMS i was like no way i can Create a template for Joomla, Because the Environment is different you cannot actually see the real layout on your Editor, But after a research I found an Extension for Dreamweaver and it show you the Real Layout in dreamweaver and how easy you can customize it, thats works for me with Joomla CMS, I think it should be easier too in Wordpress, The company who did the Extension for Joomla did another extension for Wordpress and it worth a try.

But you have to pay like $50 for this Extension, but i assure you, that creating such as these layout will be so easier with these extension if you know how to work with dreamweaver.

At the end, its really hard to figure out your problem since i dont have an Wordpress extension for Dreamweaver.

Just be aware that some CSS classes are loaded from many extrernal CSS files, and whatever you did a modification you have to trace the Original CSS who control this Style, I advice you to get a Firefox extention called Firebug, it shows you which CSS are using these Style.


good luck.
-Amr

[redtapegraphics]

Amr, thanks for the great information and resources to check out! They sound like they could be a big help!

When I got to work I checked my files from our browser since we use IE and I wanted to scream at the results. Of course, nothing looks the same and all the png's have grey backgrounds. So I have to add that to my list of things to fix. Luckily, you posted a quick fix for that not too long ago, so hopefully that won't be too much of an issue.

I appreciate everyone's help.