Photo Credit: Vladitto via Shutterstock
Lately, I’ve been using Thematic–a framework for building WordPress themes faster.
Thematic gives you a solid, bare-bones theme with reset CSS styles, a very basic layout, no color and limited typography. A clean slate.
Don’t Touch That Theme!
To create your theme, you don’t actually edit any of Thematic’s theme files. Instead, you make changes using a separate child theme.
It’s really powerful since you’re not actually touching any part of Thematic. You just get a nice starting place, without worries about future Thematic updates overwriting your code edits.
You don’t have to rewrite a bunch of code all over again–you’re just adding the bits that you want to be different. This works very much like the custom styles on WordPress.com hosted blogs.
I’ve collected together 40+ Thematic resources, tutorials and links to help you get up and running faster.
Thematic and WordPress Child Theme Basics
Theme Hooks
- Thematic 0.9.6.1 Is Live (Updated 2/10/2010)
Details about newest version. Contains new hooks and filters for even more control. - Using Action Hooks in WordPress Child Themes
- Theme Hooks
- Adding Custom WordPress Hooks
- Using Filter Hooks in WordPress Child Themes
- Theme Filters
- Frameworks, Child Themes, Filters and Hooks?
- Overriding Parent Theme Functions in Child Themes
Thematic Tutorials
- 10 Design Tips For Your Custom WordPress Theme Built With Thematic
- Edit Your Theme With Functions.php
Tons of fun by adding functions to edit your theme. - How I Used a Custom Page Template to Redesign My Blog the Smart Way
Step-by-step creating a new child theme. - Replacing WordPress Content With an Excerpt in a Thematic Child Theme
How to replace the_content() with the_excerpt()–without touching your theme files. - Add “Featured Posts” to Your Thematic Child Theme
- Use WordPress as a CMS With Thematic: Part 1
- Add a Header Image to Thematic the Easy Way
- Add a Search Box to the Thematic Menu
- Adding Theme Options to WordPress Themes
Creating theme option pages to your WordPress theme. - ThemeShaper Forums
If you get stuck, the Thematic Forums is the place to go for help.
Editing Parts of Your Theme With Thematic
There is a whole series of tutorials on the Thematic website for edit particular parts of your WordPress theme:
- Thematic 0.9.6.1 Is Live (Updated 2/10/2010)
Details about newest Thematic version. Contains new hooks and filters for even more control. - WordPress Themes Template Tutorial Series
- Working With the Index Template
- Editing Your Thematic CSS
- Editing the Header Template
- Editing the Sidebar Template
- Editing the Single Post, Post Attachment and 404 Templates
Thematic Cheat Sheets
- Thematic Structure Cheat Sheet
A visual look at all of Thematic’s main elements–div’s, theme actions, hooks and widget areas. Very, very useful. - Widget-Ready Areas
Images of widget-ready areas for each major template and section of Thematic.
Thematic Child Themes
There are already some nicely-designed Thematic child themes.
SimpleCart (js) – E-commerce theme
Update: 3HoursTheme (by Matteo Stagi. Also includes tutorials to help you to use the theme)
Cosmos Labs
I can’t include Thematic themes without mentioning Cosmos Labs. They have released several nice child themes. Here are a few.
Element Templates
These are not full child themes, but themes for specific parts of a WordPress site that can be used along with another child theme.
- Login and User Registration Page Templates For Thematic
- Replacing the Thematic Menu With a DropDown List of Categories
Hopefully these links will give you a good place to start using Thematic.
What Do You Use?
Do you use Thematic? Do you use some other WordPress framework? Tell us in the comments.
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22 Comments to 'Build WordPress Sites Fast With the Thematic Theme Framework'
September 29th, 2009
You forgot the inspirational http://thematicgallery.com/
September 29th, 2009
Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know about that one. Looks like a nice gallery site.
Even includes one of my personal projects (Recipe Drawer).
September 29th, 2009
I’ve found this useful resource list following a @iandstewart tweet.
Cool. But it is a pity that my tutorial child theme is missing
September 29th, 2009
Thanks for the suggestion, Matteo. It looks like a great theme.
I’ve updated my post to include a link to it now.
September 29th, 2009
Thank you very much Shawn! I’m glad you find it useful.
November 2nd, 2009
I’ve recently been working a lot with Thematic as a framework. Here’s a couple filters I’ve found very useful: http://wordpresstheming.com/20.....c-filters/. And if anyone is developing themes for the public or clients that need a theme options page, this child theme starter kit might be helpful: http://wordpresstheming.com/20.....ons-panel/.
November 4th, 2009
Thanks for sharing. I may have to try the options framework on my next project.
November 21st, 2009
I think that there are many people find worpress themes, but in many sites the themes are the same, i think that all post a different kinds oh themes, more thematics, , thank for this post, regards..
diseño web chile
November 22nd, 2009
Thanks for the great info, hope to use it soon.Thanks again
December 6th, 2009
I just starting using thematic and I’m on my second site design using acamas. It’s a very flexible framework that I’ve found very powerful and extensible.
January 15th, 2010
Thanks for all that.
February 7th, 2010
I have only just discovered the thematic theme but I’m already loving the customization it gives you.
Excellent stuff!
November 5th, 2010
Here’s how I used the Thematic framework on my blog – http://www.vibesphere.com/2010.....n-my-blog/
December 26th, 2010
Thanks for this resource. Here’s another that I found helpful for supporting featured images: http://docwhat.org/2010/08/the.....ed-images/
September 5th, 2011
Thank you for the resource – just what I have been looking for…. brilliant!
November 2nd, 2009
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