I want to build a website, but I think the ones from Themeforest are a bit difficult

Hello!I’ve already been awarded my front end certificate, and I want to build a website for my friend, but when I found a template that I liked I understood that I didn’t know how to build it, I mean there wasn’t much about building websites on FCC, how to work with WordPress, Photoshop.

So I 've got 2 questions:

  1. Is it ok to start building simple sites when you are a beginner?And how did you start before getting a job?
  2. Where can I get advanced knowledges to build custom websites?

I would start just by trying to replicate one theme that you like. I would plan the layout of that page and then start writing the page components.

After the html content is written you should plan for your css. Choose a color palette, choose the fonts. Plan your css classes and apply them to your html.

If you also need interactivity write your js part.

Hey @Nikita - yes absolutely start building simple websites, we all start out as a beginner. WordPress is both easy and difficult. Its easy because it is designed to be friendly to use, and to get going on WordPress the amount of work you need to do is minimal. A big however though is that to be good at WordPress you really need to know a lot of things outside what you have been introduced to here at FCC. You need to know the WordPress way of doing things, the way and order it loads all those files, and how to override some of this behaviour. You need to know PHP, no getting around that. Fortunately PHP is really easy to get into as a second or third language. Learn about child themes ( different concept from a theme ). And plugins, knowing what to use and how to choose a good one simply comes with experience and exposure.

There are lots of free courses on WordPress, and some inexpensive pay ones on places like Udemy. If you find that WordPress is for you, there are a few more expensive places to dive deeper and really learn the inner workings.

I’ve come to enjoy WordPress, and to learn a fair amount about it’s inner workings, but the amount of work I put into this has been every bit as involved as getting the Frontend Developers certification here on FCC, so be warned!

Ok, thank you very much for your detailed answer,I appreciate it.I know that it’s necessary to know PHP, but can I use such starter theme to convert my website from Bootstrap and jQuery into WP?

Hi @Nikita, sure, if you find a WP theme that is close to something you would be happy with as far as a website goes. You basically just move all the images to the WordPress media library so that they will be available to be used, then in the WordPress admin area ( wp-admin ) install the theme, create new pages ( wp-admin > Pages > Add New ) and then just copy and paste the original website page content into the newly created page, add images, hit Publish / Save. Repeat as necessary. Then go into wp-admin > Appearance > Menus and create a new menu and add it to the website.

This gets you the basics. Scrutinize the results, identify the deficiencies and address them one by one. You may need to add some css here, or the theme may have exposed settings in one of the menus to take care of the deficiency. You made need a plugin to get some functionality you are missing, there are tens of thousands of them available. If you like you can have a look at the plugin repository using my name to see my favourite ones. ( wp-admin > Plugins > Add New and click the favorites tab, and type my name in “rickstewart” )

Thank you very much for your help:grinning: