WordPress Theme Generator
WordPress Theme Generator is a web-based, simple WYSIWYG tool that lets you customize a tag and widget enabled, but otherwise basic layout theme. If you like minimalistic WordPress themes, then this tool will suit your style. When you are done specifying your colors (the interface has color pickers so that you don’t have to know your hex codes), layout settings, and backgrounds, the tool automates the process of saving the theme files in the standard .zip file format (easily uploaded and extracted via the WordPress Admin Panel under Appearance | Add New Themes menu). WordPress Theme Generator is a quick and easy way to build a free WordPress theme customized to your preferences without having to have any CSS or PHP knowledge. All it takes is only 10-15 minutes to generate a decent theme.
Themes generated by WordPress Theme Generator Tool use valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional, can be deployed on WordPress 2.1 to WordPress 2.8 , and are cross compatible with all A-Gradebrowsers. The tool has been online since mid 2007.
Side Note: If you like this tool, you are going to LOVE a new tool called THEMEFRAME (by the makers of Atahualpa Free WordPress Theme). It is similar in concept, but far more advanced, and is built into the WordPress Admin Panel. THEMEFRAME is set for release in Fall of 2009, and will be featured here on WordPressZen!
Atahualpa WordPress Theme
Atahualpa is my hands-down favorite free customizable theme solution.
And this endorsement is coming from someone who has, literally, spent hundreds of hours searching for and testing free themes for WordPress.
Any WordPress theme can be ‘customized’ (if you can speak PHP, CSS and mySQL and are willing to risk editing your theme files directly). But even if you do understand and know how to edit code, it will take a chunk of your valuable time to tweak a theme on the backend.
What makes Atahualpa so great is that it comes bundled with a comprehensive Theme Options menu that enables even the most code challenged WordPress Webmaster to completely change the look, feel and layout of their site. You should note that the ability to control and change the location (layout) of page elements is a very rare thing indeed in any WordPress template, let alone a free one. There are other free themes that have a Theme Options menu that lets you change a few colors here and there, but Atahualpa lets you modify HUNDREDS of site elements.
…and it gets even better! Atahualpa has an active support forum athttp://forum.bytesforall.com. You can also stay up to date with releases and bug fixes and download the latest beta release of Atahualpa from the developer’s website. But, as usual, the easiest way to download and activate the Atahualpa theme is from within the WordPress Administrative Panel under Appearance | Add New Themes.
Oh…and while I’m raving about this amazingly robust free WordPress theme, I will annoy you again with my strong urging for you to adopt a policy of thanking the various open source free tool developers with a monetary donation – no matter how small! It is thanks to their coding time and generosity that there exist so many fabulous options for WordPress Plugins, Themes, and other open source tools. It’s the least we can do to support the developers of those tools that we make a permanent part of our site building arsenal…and it’s also a way to try and ensure that our favorites continue to be updated!