WordPress Base Theme

Download WordPress Base Theme v3.0 – Last Updated 11-19-2011

This theme is meant to be a starting point for your WordPress theme. It contains some formatting already but you will need to make changes to the theme’s CSS files to make this base theme into a fully designed theme.

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You can modify the theme files themselves or create a child theme to make your changes on.

If something isn’t working as you’d like, go to the theme’s function.php and edit, remove, or comment out the appropriate code.

Theme Features

editor-style.css
removes unneeded head tags
removes gallery CSS from generated HTML
allows shortcodes in widgets
supports menus, featured images, and automatic feed links
enqueues jQuery and a JS file for menu enhancement
defines two sidebars: primary and footer
custom login logo and link and custom backend logo (see Frequently Asked Questions)
removes unnecessary classes from menu links
menus use relative links
adds class field to widgets
menu widget features dropdown list of predefined classes that are styled by CSS (see Frequently Asked Questions)
removes unnecessary dashboard widgets
removes unnecessary default widgets
removes unnecessary post and page metaboxes
adds a subpages shortcode (see Frequently Asked Questions)
removes unnecessary admin menu items for admins and non-admins
defines a custom order for admin menu
removes unnecessary columns from edit posts and pages lists
adds additional valid elements to TinyMCE (div)
hides the version update reminder on the admin screen for non-admins
replaces Howdy with Welcome
strings in theme files are set up for localization
allows editors to change widgets and menus
sets the content width (650)
sets featured image size (100×100)
sets featured image on single page template (250×9999)
adds an additional image size (75×75)
links the featured image to the post’s permalink
replaces the comment display with custom HTML
changes ?s= to /search/
custom excerpts – allowed HTML, length, and read more link
is_subpage() function
has_children() function

Not on by default (must be activated by uncommenting in functions.php):

remove front-end admin bar
remove content formatting
enable post formats
custom backend footer
change the default number of gallery columns
create custom menus upon activation and assigned them to theme locations (Main, Secondary, and Footer)

Frequently Asked Questions

Custom login logo and link, custom admin logo, and custom admin footer
Upload to /wp-content/themes/cleverness-base-theme/images/
Change the height, width, and file name as needed in functions.php

Menu widget classes
Located in /css/menus.css
They are menu, dropdown, tabs, blocks, vertical, toplevel
These can be combined in various ways such as menu dropdown or menu vertical blocks toplevel

Subpages shortcode
[subpages] or [subpages title=”The Title”]

I created this theme because none of the blank themes I found fit what I needed. Different people have different tastes so maybe you’ll prefer one of these other base themes. Some have some formatting and others have no formatting at all.