Buy new:
-41% $26.55
to get FREE delivery Wednesday, November 6
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: RNA TRADE LLC
$26.55 with 41 percent savings
List Price: $44.99
The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
to get FREE delivery Wednesday, November 6. Order within 4 hrs 19 mins
Or Non members get FREE delivery Friday, November 8 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$26.55 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$26.55
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
RNA TRADE LLC
Sold by
RNA TRADE LLC
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$5.99
Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Over 100 million books sold! 100% Money-Back Guarantee. Free & Fast Shipping! Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Over 100 million books sold! 100% Money-Back Guarantee. Free & Fast Shipping! See less
FREE delivery November 8 - 14. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$26.55 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$26.55
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by Better World Books: West.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Thord D. Hedengren
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Smashing WordPress Themes: Making WordPress Beautiful 1st Edition

3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$26.55","priceAmount":26.55,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"26","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"55","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dIFD6wJSs1LZPQ3q%2FbP26FAp%2BgVDJUpUFLQGuZiQYDqxAxa65%2FIkH7dWZi7IqXw8ArdBQS7bSnaoNzpqhhw%2B6Vaat0j3lLTbD60N34qaZON0s74MyLJ%2FKhlS%2F0sMUyDEwbllt0kwZ52N02%2Biayrq7HwBX0%2BsDHJebZlcpCoE2V5do929ejQ2YZntNCGndxUh","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$5.99","priceAmount":5.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"5","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"dIFD6wJSs1LZPQ3q%2FbP26FAp%2BgVDJUpUGygHGjr2IWtjLMkY2kfV0tfV%2BSh6%2BqBr7AjmkwkBbxs%2BylhCSGKUnWBjfBV10N%2BqnCKPzJ%2BO8RIZ%2F1h%2F8k%2FWt1veRf54xhMU9ytLyH5EL4T4iQffUh0zkDplvko34lVSOa80Q3Z9dFkD%2F%2BoJItUVew%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The ultimate guide to WordPress Themes - one of the hottest topics on the web today
  • WordPress is so much more than a blogging platform, and Smashing WordPress Themes teaches readers how to make it look any way they like - from a corporate site, to a photography gallery and more
  • WordPress is one of the hottest tools on the web today and is used by sites including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, flickr, CNN, NASA and of course Smashing Magazine
  • Beautiful full colour throughout - web designers expect nothing less
  • Smashing Magazine will fully support this book by by promoting it through their website and on twitter feeds
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-10
    047066990X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0470669907
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Wiley
  5. Publication date
    January 31, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.4 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
  8. Print length
    368 pages
  9. See all details
Next slide of product details
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Making WordPress Beautiful

From the world’s most popular resource for Web designers and developers comes ultimate guide to WordPress themes. WordPress is so much more than a bogging platform, and Smashing WordPress Themes teaches you how to make it look any way like – from a corporate site, to a photo gallery, to an online magazine, and more.

WordPress expert, Thord Daniel Hedengren, author of Smahsing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, takes you through what really makes themes tick, what you can do with themes, and techniques for getting the best results. Starting with the WordPress Twenty Ten default theme, you’ll learn to work with template tags and create option pages for your themes. Next you’ll explore the child theme concept and create a variety of theme styles – fully customizing the look and feel of your WordPress-powered site.

You will Learn:

  • The Anatomy of the Default Twenty Ten Theme
  • Ways to Hack the Default Theme to Modify Features, Graphics, and Colors
  • How to Work with Theme Frameworks
  • The Best Way to Use Child Themes
  • How to Integrate Theme Options
  • How to Build a Media Theme
  • How to Build a Newspaper or Magazine Theme
  • Tips for Building a Semi-Static Corporate Theme
  • Ways to Integrate Advanced Loop Tricks and Themes

Smashing Magazine (smashingmagazine.con) is one of the world’s most popular Web-design online magazines. True to the Smashing mission, the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.

About the Author

Thord Daniel Hedengren is a professional Web designer and developer who has created numerous WordPress themes, developed plugins, and put WordPress to good use powering both blogs and big editorial sites. He is the former editor of the Blog Herald, a popular Web site for bloggers and WordPress users.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (January 31, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 047066990X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470669907
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.91 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 33 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Thord D. Hedengren

Thord D. Hedengren

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Thord D. Hedengren is addicted to words, and the stories they make. He writes fiction, short and long, as well as freelance articles and columns for various media outlets. You can find some of his short stories in HAUNTED FUTURES, CTHULHU LIES DREAMING and FIRESIDE FICTION MAGAZINE, among other places. Thord is a renowned web developer and designer, and the author of techy books such as SMASHING WORDPRESS: BEYOND THE BLOG and THE WRITER’S IPAD.

Thord lives in Sweden, the Land of Kings.

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
33 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Johnnie J. ODell
5.0 out of 5 stars I love it!
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2013
Verified Purchase
I was surprised to find this book in the Kindle selection. I do a lot of academic reading and this book ranks very well in terms of content and readability.
Helpful
 Report
RichInOrlando
4.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Format Is Unusable, Print Version Is Great...
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2011
Verified Purchase
I initially wrote a review on the Kindle version of this product. I gave it 1 star because the code formatting in the Kindle is horrible. Lines of code wrap in weird places and that makes otherwise easy code difficult to understand.

I went to a local bookstore and found this book on the shelves. The print version of this book is great. The layout and typography is very clear and easy to read. The full-color contents add to the readability and enjoyment of the book.

I've been tweaking other peoples themes for a few years and want to make my own themes now. This book is probably a little advanced for total beginners but if you know a little PHP, CSS and HTML you'll get a lot out of this book. It focuses on the latest version of WordPress (Version 3) so you know what you are learning will be practical for a while.

The only negative is that there are a few places where several pages of code are repeated over and over again with only minor comments between the repeats. Seems like a way to pad the page count.

This is the book to get if you want to make themes in WordPress 3.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
theSleeper(pkd)
1.0 out of 5 stars Very Hard to Read!
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2011
Verified Purchase
Ok, half the time I'm trying to figure out when I should be reading and when I should be coding. I'm spending waaay too much time just trying to understand the the author's method of writing/explaining. For example, the author says "add x to your code" but does NOT tell you which page to add the code to. Too much of this type stuff. Just code, code... a few meager explanations...and some more code.

Now, mind you, if your already a wordpress expert this might not be a problem for you. But coming to it "cold" will simply frustrate the heck out you (or at least it does for me). One minute were working off the twentyten theme (editing sidebar.php etc), the next he is telling us to go get his own notes theme. Oh great. So what happens with the half-coded twentyten theme you just told me to edit? Just leave it? Way too many assumptions.

I'm used to training which basically does this:

1. In this chapter were going to learn how to [x].
2. Using [x] allows you to achieve [y,z]
3. Now, lets code an example, create a new page [a] and add the following code...
4. Now, lets walk through the code, so as to explain it (mostly) line-by-line.
5. We coded this because [explanation]...
6. Now run the page to see the result(s)
7. To recap, in this chapter we learned how to [x].

That aint happening in this book.

Don't get me wrong, his explanations are great, but his execution (by way of a step-by-step method of completing a task) are sorely lacking.

Too confusing.

my $0.02
26 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The cannonical WordPress themes book
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2011
Generally I write reviews only to correct (in my opinion) reviews which are off target. So, don't buy the Kindel version. Do buy the print version.

The term "Child Themes" is very misleading in WordPress. Hedegren's "Beyond the Blog" says, "If child themes are in wp-content/themes/ just like ordinary themes, then how do you use them and what do you need? Basically, all you need is a style.css file to tell WordPress that it is a theme, and in fact a child theme, as well as point to the mother theme. Whenever a template file is called for, WordPress will look for it within the child theme, and if it isn't there, it'll load up the one in the original mother template theme. The lingo may be a bit hard to follow, by the way, because the community really hasn't decided on what to call this relationship between themes yet."

Ok. So what did that say. It said, the benefit of Child Themes is the functionality of the template. WordPress looks for functionality in the Child first and if it does not find it there it resorts back to the Parent theme.(At least in my brain, it would be better to call it 'Child Functionality' instead of Theme. I think of the Theme as the skin). But this is the essence of the problem. You need the CSS, you need the HTML, and you need the Theme functionality. If you don't know how the Theme functionality works, then that is why you buy this book.

The book, "Making WordPress Beautiful" essentially starts with that paragraph and tells you how to build your own themes. You begin with Twenty Ten and grok the details until you are ready to build your own themes. (Really, your own templates with template tags.) And the book does it very, very well. Saving countless hours of downloading code, making flow diagrams, and in general staying in front of a computer for a week figuring out your own strategy.

Just buy the book. Save some time. However don't expect magic.I've already invested about 3 weeks reading the book. Of course I am reading other books at the same time and keep coming back. But it is an investment of time. Set up a MAMP, WAMP or LAMP development environment. And do multiple blogs for clients without colliding all of your projects together. (The book tells you how to set up a MAMP or a WAMP development environment on the localhost.) The first three chapters are the hard read. At different points, little light bulbs go off in your head. I will say, at some point (at least for me) the romance with WordPress ends. It is just programming with PHP template tags. But the payoff is competence with the subject and the confidence that comes therein to use WordPress as a CMS for lots of projects.

Thord, provides excellent resources on his site and at Wylie to complement the book. The only other resource that I would suggest is the excellent video by Chris Coyier (the CSS-tricks Chris Coyier). His WordPress video on Lynda provides an alternative view of the subject. I have found that I need both resources to stretch my mind around the subject.

So finale warning. "Beyond the Blog" is not a beginner book. And this book, "WordPress Themes" is the book that you read after you understand the importance of the "Child Themes" paragraph in "Beyond the Blog". If you are at the right stage in your WordPress career (building multiple WordPress sites), both book together form the cannonical book for WordPress that you have at your desk.

I would also like to say, that the layout of the book, quality of typography and depth of writing are refreshingly appreciated. This is a quality book.
13 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
webdevpro
2.0 out of 5 stars Status Quo Low Quality Tech Manual
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2011
I've read very, very few tech manuals that haven't been riddled with code errors. Smashing Mag's Making Wordpress Beautiful is no exception.

Be warned none of the examples this book will work if you follow instructions. The chapter about creating a media theme omits the necessary loop files altogether.

There is also a ton of duplicate/filler content. The book is around 360 pages, much of this is spent repeating entire scripts just to show the addition of a couple lines of code.

Also note, there really isn't any instruction about design principles or building a beautiful theme as the title implies. It's mostly about how to create and place widgets, menus and a couple other WP tools.

Now that I'm done bashing on this book, I will say it does have some value. After my second read through I've learned a good bit. If you don't mind tracking down the bugs yourself and doing your own research you might benefit from reading it.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

David Waddington
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, well written and well researched.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2014
Verified Purchase
A very interesting, well written and well researched book. I would recommend it to anybody with and interest in Reiki.
Report
Heidi Mueller
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview of Theme Development
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
I found this an excellent book on WordPress in general and theme development in particular. The quality of the book is really excellent and especially the use of colour makes it easy to follow the many code listings.
By giving several worked examples, Hedengren really makes the process of theme development clear. I highly endorse/recommend this book.
Report
Joris Heyndrickx
3.0 out of 5 stars Code fragments presentation could have used more attention
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2014
Verified Purchase
Not talking about the code itself but the way it has entered the book. Copy pasted without thinking about readability. Why offer code fragments in the first place if you present them in a way that's hard to follow? Even when readers are not expected to copy or type the code shown, it distracts from reading the book which is a pity because the book itself is okay.
Report
Maria Vig
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2016
Verified Purchase
Satisfied with the product and delivery service
Report
RichyBoy
2.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable in-depth look at Wordpress themes but sloppy presentation of code
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2012
Verified Purchase
I am in the process of modifying a Wordpress theme (Classipress) for one of my businesses. I am grappling with learning (or re-learning in some cases) java, php, ajax, sql programming to hack'n'slash this theme into something I need. As such, I am reading a lot of coding books at the moment.... :-)

Wordpress Themes is a useful book in that it goes into some depth on themes, what they are, and how to customise them. Great... just what I need. It is well written and in a lively style that's quite engaging for what can potentially be a very dry subject.

However, I do feel that more thought should have been given to how the code examples are handled. For example, when explaining certain concepts about Wordpress or illustrating how a certain theme works, it really is not good enough to simply 'copy and paste' a .php file into the book itself which then takes up over six pages(!) and expect the reader to be able to find that a useful experience.

There is no interjection of comments by the author to break up the code a bit (for example, after each function, or after each important process has been completed). No - instead we are left with 6-7 pages of code which we then have to wade through (I didn't bother in the end).

What is worse is that the code itself isn't even formatted in a book-friendly way. Instead the code is heavily indented just like a normal piece of code would look like but, c'mon, this is a book!!!! For example, in a section discussing one the loop.php script (this is one of those 6 page long sections of code) there is one page where, I jest not, that most of the page is white space because the code is on the right side of the page because of all of the tabbed indents!!!!!! It's hard to explain but basically there has been NO ATTEMPT AT ALL to re-format code to be presented in the book and instead a whole chunk of operational code has been copied and dropped into the book whilst they were editing. Why not just refer the reader to the software itself? Or give them extracts or snippets???

Very poor, sloppy, and lazy.

I'm disappointed and I'll be returning this for a full refund.
Report