Guide to the dkret WordPress Theme

The dkret theme is the result of ongoing improvements over two years now. This theme is my opinion of how WordPress/WordPressMu themes should work.

Plus dkret is more than just a theme - it's a theme framework. Create your own child theme "on top" of dkret3 without coding one single line of HTML code.

Theme Options

Every theme option available is there for your convenience, but won't bloat your site or get in the way of your customization.

Upload your own header image with the help of the settings page. You can even upload more than one image and randomly display different header images.
Hide the titel of your blog or choose to display links to your rss-feeds in the header navigation.
DKret also supports a nice "suckerfish" drop down navigation. Whether you want to display your top level links or choose to display all pages up to the third level- You decide. You can even hide the navigation bar completely.
Maybe you are looking for a descent way to display your WordPress Galleries?
Look no further. Add a gallery category and choose to display a link to a your gallery page.

Have a look at the dkret3 settings page for all available options.

Widgets

The theme comes with some theme specific Widgets. You can place Widgets in one of eight sidebars and use as many Widget instances as you like because all Widgets use the new Multiple Widget Class of Wordpress 2.8.

You don't need seven Widget Sidebars? No problem, Widget Areas completely collapse if you don't use them.

Page Templates

The theme is packaged with some useful Page Templates. Page templates change the way a WordPress page displays or functions depending on the particular template you've chosen.

Archives Page Template:
Show your visitors your category and monthly archives.
Links Page Template:
Will produce an unordered list of your links.
No Sidebar Page Template:
For use on pages where you don't want any widgets displayed.
Guestbook Page Template:
Have your own 'oldschool' Guestbook for your blog.

Layouts

The theme comes with more than 10 different theme layout files (formerly called schemes). Have your siderbar on the left or right side or run dkret without a sidebar at all. Just choose the layout which suits your needs.

You are a CSS genius or have at least some basic knowledge about writing CSS? Write your own layout file and add it to the layout folder.

Have a look at the Settings Page for a complete list of all available layouts.

Built-in Support for Plugins

Child Themes

The dkret Theme is also a good staring point for your own design ideas. It is meant to be used as a base theme to build from. You can extend it through child themes.

Just copy the my-dkret3 folder to your /wp-content/themes folder. So the path is /wp-content/themes/my-dkret3.

Edit the style.css to reflect your URL informations:

    
    /* 
    Theme Name: my-dkret3
    Theme URI: http://link-to-your-site.com
    Description: Describe what your theme should be like.
    Version: 1.0
    Author: Your Name
    Author URI: http://link-to-your-site.com
    Tags: Add, Whatever, Tags, You, Want
    Template: dkret3
    */

Replace the header image and favicon in the /wp-content/my-dkret3/library/images with your customized ones BUT don't change the name.

Add your own styles to the style.css of the my-dkret3 child theme.

To create a visually indepandand theme you have to remove @import url('../dkret3/style.css');. The dkret3 theme offers two basic style cheets which you can import. The reset.css is a fantastic way from to remove browser inconsistencies and the basic.css adds basic styles.

    
    /* Get basic styles */
    @import url('../dkret3/library/styles/reset.css');
    @import url('../dkret3/library/styles/basic.css');
    
     /* Header - You can still change the header image in the Settings panel*/
    #header {
        background:#FFFFFF url(library/images/bg_header.jpg) repeat-x scroll 0 0;
    }

    /* Make your changes to the default layout below */

You wonder how that basic styles will look? This guide uses these styles with only a bit of extra css for the header.

I've compiled a few Child Themes here that can help you getting started.

My own Child Themes

User based Child Themes

Localisation

The theme has native support for english and german. Do you need a different language? Some users have been kind enough to provide some translation files. Note, I am not responsible for any of these.

Writing your own locale or changing an existing one is easy. I recommend the fantastic Codestyling Localization Plugin. If you are used to it you can use Poedit too.

Theme Support

If you have a question, problem or concern with dkret3 you can visit the dkret3 forums .

The latest dkret version, updates and bug fixes are always available at the dkret Project on Google Code.

Donate

I spend countless hours of work to develop dkret3. Please consider donating if you use the theme and would like to support further progress.

Credit

I don't come close to naming all the people that should be credited, but I'll list some of the main folks.

License

Dkret is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPL).

Joern Kretzschmar (2009)

Guide to dkret