Newbie on WP, need some tips regarding customization

Hi

I have realized i have to learn mysel how to use a CMS, and wordpress seems to be the way to go. I have tried ExpressionEngine and i like that u get a clean slate to start with, but i feel i need to know wordpress aswell as big as it is.
So I installed WP locally, and opened up the twentytwelve theme in my texteditor… And even this simple theme has like a million different files and thousands of lines of CSS. I felt overwhelmed… where do I start?!

Im not the type that wants to put my own mark on a website, not just buy a theme without tweaking the looks to my liking. I like it best when i start with a blank slate. But coding blogs etc is way to timeconsuming…

So what is the best way to customize different themes, Do I really have to scroll thousands of lines of codes to find what i want to change? Like if i buy a theme, but i want to customize it beyond recognition… HOW? There has to be some more developer friendly way than to dive into thousands of lines of code?

If you want to make changes with the theme, you have to be familiar with PHP and Wordpress’s theme system:[URL=“http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development”]

http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development

I have pretty basic PHP knowledge… i can make a blog but thats pretty much it.

I read something about childthemes? Seems like a good way to put your own style on a theme?

PHP is a programming language. For the most part, you don’t ever see it when setting up wordpress.

I read something about childthemes? Seems like a good way to put your own style on a theme?

Yep: http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

I started with making my own basic theme and it has been working great, have “transferred” an old static site to wp with my own theme. I started with making the theme as basic as possible, and then i can add more the more i learn.

ReGGaeBOSS,

If you are having trouble finding elements that you want to change based on a jumble of code, there are tools that you can use to identify where the code is that you need to change in order to make your customizations. For example Firefox has Firebug and Chrome has the Elements Panel. Personally I’m partial to Chrome’s elements panel. You can right click on any element in a web page and find the HTML and corresponding CSS that is associated with it. You can even make changes in the tool so you can see what they would look like before you actually make the changes. Its pretty handy.

More on that here,

Hope that helps,

Shawn

thx dude will try it out!