I am thinking about applying to a part-time contract position at a company that is re-designing their website. Based upon the job description, I can tell that they already have already picked a WP theme, but I don’t know if they want the web developer to modify the theme or if the theme is the type that can easily be customized.
We have over 100 pages that need to be converted to a new layout/design consistent with our new Wordpress theme. We are looking for a web designer proficient with HTML, CSS, and Wordpress to assist with this task.
If I have to modify the theme, what does this process usually entail? How difficult is this?
Can you recommend WYSIWYG editors that can easily modify WP themes?
In your previous experiences with re-designing a regular site into a WP site, which tasks are the least and most challenging for someone with 1 year of experience?
What are several general things that a web editor should know that demonstrates his/her proficiency in editing WP pages?
A year ago I participated in a class where we used the Annotum Base theme to create a website. Here is what I already know:
I already know how to save WP to the desktop and create a new child theme.
I am familiar with the user interface and how to make changes to a WordPress theme using the Appearance menu, Widgets and Plug-ins
I know how to upload and arrange media on the page.
How to change the default blog post settings to a page.
I’m also familiar with several popular Widgets/Plug-ins.
Finally I know that themes are made of separate php files (such as header.php) and that I will have to go into each php file to edit the CSS.
Modifying a Wordpress theme is not that difficult if you understand Wordpress. A small amount of PHP knowledge will be necessary, but not much. You will have to have good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Wordpress template tags.
The real question is whether or not the company posting the job understands what they are going to need or whether they are going to hit you with surprises like coming up with a plugin for them. From the small amount of text you posted, it sounds like they already have the theme made and need someone to dump content into Wordpress such as text and images. If all they have is a PDF of a design and need it translated into Wordpress, that is another matter. Also, do they want to preserve the current URL structure? Can you come up with a similar structure in Wordpress? Will you need to use 301 redirects?
No. As Wordpress themes are PHP and HTML you will be doing it by hand. (Unless somebody knows something I don’t!)
Understanding the template hierarchy. Understanding that sometime things can come from more than one location.
Only one: prior experience.
If they need anything more than copying and pasting content from static HTML into the Wordpress editor, you should pass on this gig.
Many times when people say theme they tend to include features that may or may not require custom development. That might be anything from installing existing plugins to creating custom ones. You should probably get more clarification before digging a grave for yourself. Normally when people mention the word redesign it requires rebuilding a completely new site: design, programming and all. So be for warned that this probably isn’t just installing wordpress or limited to some small css and html changes.