I’m currently converting a strictly HTML template into a WordPress theme. In the process, I’ve run across a ton of really useful items that I thought many of you might find useful!

Take a peek. In no particular order:

• WordPress Cheetsheat [pdf] by Ekin Ertac
• Ultimate WordPress Dev Toolbox. This page contains an awesome list of tools worth implementing immediately. A few of my personal favorites from the list are: WP Advanced Code Editor Plugin (for syntax highlighting while creating posts), Preserve Code Formatting Plugin, SQL Executioner Plugin (gives you a MySQL commandline in wp-admin panel), WordPress Console Plugin (allows for testing and instant execution of WordPress php functions!), as well as instructions on theme design and creating a control panel for your theme to place in the wp-admin panel. This post has everything.
• WordPress.org’s Theme Development Page. Really breaks down the nuts and bolts, including what each theme files does etc.
• WordPress.org’s Site Design and Layout page. Surprisingly non-technical, with lots of example code.
• WordPress 2.x Hooks/”Action References” Comprehensive List. Useful for plugin development, as well as the functions.php in theme folders. Used as the $tag argument with the add_action(); function to define when a custom function is run (“hooked”).
• WordPress.org’s Action Reference/”Hook” List
• WordPress.org’s Full List of Template Tags. Used to tell a theme where to put dynamically generated content. Different than the $tags argument specified by add_action.
• WordPress.org’s Function Reference Page. Contains a list of functions with some overlap with the “template tags” page (which, in actuality, is also a list of php functions defined by wordpress.
• WordPress.org’s Description of “The Loop” Used to Retrieve WordPress Posts from the DB. Integral to all templates that display posts.
• WordPress.org’s Description of “Child Themes.” This is the simplest a theme gets, essentially a child theme at bare minimum is only a style.css file in a folder of its own. Useful for creating themes that are only a small variations of a larger, more comprehensive theme.
• Using the “Custom Menu” Functionality Added in WordPress 3.0. This feature allows people to add any link they want to their wordpress menus, and display them using the wp_nav_menu(); function. This function will create an unordered list which will require styling to actually be a “menu.” Also learn how to use custom css classes for extra styling with this feature… here.
• WordPress Codex Adding an Administration Menu into WP-Admin for a Plugin
• Full list of “named” colors. Easier than remembering hex codes, though probably not as widely supported?
• Kuler (by adobe) color scheme sharer. Useful if you don’t have an eye for color patterns, like me.
• ColourLovers.com. Very similar to Kuler but doesn’t require an annoying registration just to get a few hex codes.
• ColorSchemer. A useful tool for finding the exact hex code of obscure colors rapidly. Powerful.
• 0to255. One more color tool… probably my favorite yet because it also gives the “dark” or “light” accents of a given color, which are useful for contrasting borders, link hovers, etc.
• WhatTheHex – A game engineered to get you better at guessing hex color codes!

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