Help needed with WordPress theme

[Jochim]

Hi everyone,

I just got into WordPress and making custom themes for it. But I can’t understand the structure of the already existing themes. I’m looking for a _verry_ simplistic (without any css) theme that I can easely understand and customise. I’ve already tried Starkers and Bones but both of them have a confusing structure.. The functions are way to complicated for a beginner I found. I can’t seem to figure out how most functions work and such. Please help! If you want to help me make a theme please let me know! Or if you know/have a simple theme wich doesn’t use complicated functions please share it with me :)

[chrisburton]

@Jochim That’s just how WordPress is. It takes some time to learn. If you want something really easy without a database, try Kirby.

[Ahrengot]

You’re probably looking to build a child theme. It takes an existing theme as a starting point and then allows you to overwrite the CSS and PHP templates as needed. To learn more check out [this video on WordPress.tv](http://wordpress.tv/2010/09/19/aaron-jorbin-building-child-themes-the-smart-way-to-develop-wordpress-themes/) and [the codex](http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)

[Underscores](http://underscores.me/) is a sorta-like-html5-boilerplate theme for WordPress, created by Automattic, that would be a good theme to build a child theme from. Another option is the minimal new [Twenty Twelve](http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/twentytwelve) theme.

[chrisburton]

I prefer the HTML5 Reset WordPress Theme: http://html5reset.org/#wordpress

[darrennickerson]

Sounds like you need to do some more research on WordPress before you start with theme customization. Not a lot because the best way to learn is through experimentation. Just take a look a The Codex and see what all those functions do. The most basic starter theme I used before is Chris’ Blank Theme although a bit out-dated now, still a very good base for any theme. I have since started using Underscores and it’s awesome, but I can see where a beginner may get confused with it. Good luck with everything.

[Author]

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