frugal WordPress Theme Customization Good Practices

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.When creating the frugal WordPress Theme I had two specific users in mind.  These two groups of WordPress theme users cover both ends of the web design spectrum and are equally valuable to the Internet as a whole.

First and foremost, the average, everyday, WordPress user.  This is someone who may know a tiny bit about WordPress, blogging, or just a touch of design, but doesn’t know (or even want to know) the inner workings of PHP, CSS and HTML code.  They just want the best WordPress theme available that looks great out of the box and allows for extensive customization with zero coding required.

Then we have the WordPress developer.  This is someone who either customizes WordPress Themes for their clients, for themselves or both.  These are teams of web designers who require clean code and thoughtful page layouts that allow the greatest flexibility and ease of use.  They want solid back-end features, but not at the expense of comfort with the code.

These two grounds were at the core of frugal’s creation and are the type of WordPress users that I strive to provide the best product possible.

How frugal Meets The Needs of Both The Average User And The Developer

I think it’s pretty obvious when you first step into the frugal Theme Options that I have designed a theme that is novice friendly.  From different layout options, to dimensions, to full color customization, I provide the average user all the necessary tools to create the look, feel and function that their website needs require.

For the developer, though, I’ve also provided clean, easy to understand code and a custom stylesheet option that makes hard coding your customizations a breeze.  With the click of a mouse you can activate the custom stylesheet that overrides all other frugal settings.  Blank by default, you just add the necessary tweaks to the custom.css file and you’ll see your changes take effect.

This custom stylesheet option is essential to making your customizations both permanent and portable.  This is not to say that your frugal Theme Options settings wont stick, but if you were to click the ‘Reset’ button or have a corrupt database or just want to move your site to another directory or server, you’d see those settings disappear.

frugal Theme Customization Good Practices

This brings me to the main point of this post.  I want to share the different ways of customizing your frugal WordPress Theme and then share my thoughts on the safest ways to retain those settings.

style.css

The main stylesheet for the frugal Theme is called style.css and it is located in the root of your frugal Theme directory.  It houses all the stock design settings for frugal.  You can try and adjust these settings and my get good results, but I would strongly suggest that you leave it stock and look elsewhere for tweaks.

style.php

This file is located in the same place as style.css, but houses most of the PHP code that provides easy, non-coding customization.  Once again, you may try and tweak this file, but I would not suggest it.

Alt-Framework

These CSS files house the style settings for the alternate layout options.  I’d stay away from these as well.

CSS Folder

This directory holds an array of CSS files for different purposes.  The arial_font, georgia_font and lite CSS files house a few snipets of code for some of the frugal Theme Options.  Not settings that need adjustment.  And the ie and ie6 CSS files are there for Internet Explorer compatibility, but need no adjustment either.

custom.css (Also in the CSS Folder)

This is the stylesheet I mentioned above.  In it’s stock form it holds no settings, but is perfect for your frugal customization needs.  I have it set so the settings that are added to this file will override all other settings.  So, for example, if the background of your site was #444444 by default and you had changed it to #666666 in the frugal Theme Options, but then made it #888888 in your custom.css file, your background would be #888888.  (I hope that makes sense.)  By all means, you can use this in conjunction with all other frugal css files and options settings, but just know that the settings in the custom.css file are KING.

Best Practices

So the two best ways to make your customizations are the frugal Theme Options and the custom.css file.  You can certainly just use the theme options or just the custom.css file, but the two types should work together seamlessly.

When to use the frugal Theme Options for customizations.

The theme options are setup to cater to the user who either doesn’t know how to adjust their code, or who doesn’t have the time.  As a WordPress user, I feel strongly that you shouldn’t have to know the ins and outs of HTML to be able to create a great looking, custom site.

For the developer, though, the theme options are a perfect way to quickly and easily create their custom design, before they hard code it into the custom stylesheet.  These theme options can cut the initial design time down to minutes, when it may have taken hours to fully bring together.  BUT, if you’re creating the design for a client and want the customizations to be more permanent, you’d then want to transfer the new settings over to the custom.css file and then activate it so it will take effect.  Now you have a hard coded, fully portable and easy to backup custom file that can be uploaded to any current frugal installation.

How Do I Customize frugal?

For me, I use both options fairly equally.  If I’m working on a design that has taken on a lot of fine tuning, I certainly feel most comfortable hard coding the settings in the the custom.css file.  But since I like the overall stock frugal layout so much, I often only make minor adjustments.  Depending the the specifics of the site design, I may just make the changes in the frugal Theme Options area as they would be easy to replicate if they ever go reset or accidentally changed.

Another Advantage of Using The custom.css File

Depending on the changes made in a new version of frugal, you may find that some of your settings get changed or possibly even wiped out when making a frugal upgrade.  I try my best to keep this to a minimum, but sometimes the new features require changes that make the upgrade process a little bumpy.  But if you are using the custom.css file, these changes will be safe and should seamlessly take effect after the upgrade (and assuming it’s activated in the frugal Theme Options).

Don’t Be Afraid To Use The frugal Theme Options

I’m certainly not trying to scare you away from the frugal Theme Options.  They are there to use and enjoy.  I believe they are an amazing tool for the frugal user and I hope they are a great asset to your website needs.  I’m just trying to cover all the bases and make sure you know all the possibilities when customizing your frugal WordPress Theme.  Chances are that your frugal Theme Options settings will stick like super glue and only change as you make them do so, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

It’s just like using a computer.  Your hard drive will probably last a long time and your data should be fine, but we all know that things happen and a crash is always a possibility.  I’m just offering a bit of know-how, so you’ll be best prepared for any possible bump in the road.

I hope the video makes this seemingly complex process a little less scary.  It’s really not that hard to do, but also not necessary if you’re needs don’t require it.

You can download the code editor I use (notepad++) by clicking HERE.