Creating an HTML5 Boilerplate WordPress Theme

 

I've just had a logo and design done for Furld. I am pleased with the design but it was supplied in HTML and CSS rather than HTML5 and CSS3 so I want to convert it at the same time as I turn it into a WordPress theme.

Furld home page design

I like HTML5 Boilerplate by Paul Irish and luckily there is a WordPress theme called Roots, which is designed as a jumping off point for your own HTML5 theme.

I have installed WordPress locally to use as a development environment so I just have to copy the roots theme to mysite/wp-content/themes/roots and I can activate it.

After activating the theme I can visit the home page and see this.

New html5 home screen

Not very pretty but it is HTML5 and now I can start customising it. Rather than customising the theme itself I am going to create a child theme:

  • Create a directory mysite/wp-content/themes/roots-child/
  • Create a style.css in the directory.

When the Roots Child theme is activated the site should look exactly the same but changes I make in the child theme will override the parent theme. This means the parent theme can be updated by the original author and I will not lose any customisations I make to the child theme.

 

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HTML5 Creating the Footer

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Installing WordPress on your Mac for Development