Themes

A WordPress installation has three main parts: the WordPress core, a theme, and plugins.  The core is the CMS platform of WordPress, i.e., WordPress itself.  See the short article about it. 

Themes are the next level of the website’s structure.  A conventional WordPress website must use a theme, it’s the framework that supports the content.  Themes provide the look and feel of the site.  Different themes will bring different functionality and allow editing or customization of different aspects of the site.  Some themes are specialized.  For example, there are themes for portfolios — whether artistic, photographic, or design; themes oriented towards ecommerce; themes specifically meant for religious organizations; themes oriented towards food or food establishments; and themes meant for blogging. 

Appearance related features brought by different themes can include the number of columns, a left or right sidebar, a grid layout, a single page setup, or a parallax presentation.  An important and desirable functional feature in some themes is that they are responsive.  This means that they work well on screens of all sizes, from large desktops to mobile phones. As the size of the screen changes the theme allows the presentation of the information to adapt.  Blocks of content may be shifted, menus may be collapsed, and images may be resized.  

WebsitesbyKTS.com is built with a responsive theme.  If you are viewing it on a desktop browser, you can see the effects by changing the width of the browser window.  At full width, the top menu spreads across the header and there are sidebars on the right.  In a narrow window, the menu collapses into a vertically expandable button and the sidebars are presented below the page’s main content.  With the increasing use of mobile phones, it is important to use a responsive theme.  Using a responsive theme removes the need to have two versions of the website – a standard or desktop version and a mobile version.  

The two screenshots below illustrate the responsive behavior of WebsitesbyKTS.com’s Home page.  The first one, for a desktop, which was taken with a compressed view to capture the entire page, has the menu on the upper right.  The sidebars are present at the right, and the two images are side by side.  The second one, taken from a narrow browser window, but with the page at 100% size, shows the clickable Menu button stacked under the rest of the header, the sidebars (not shown in the screenshot) are below the main content, and the two images have been shifted from a side to side display to an up and down display.