Use Grid-Style Layout Effectively To Support Your Design

A grid is a two-dimensional structure which comprises of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines. It is used to structure content. A grid layout is a popular web design practice and has become an important component of most websites. Designing along a grid can be very interesting and pleasing. It is easier to build a site with the help of a grid. With a grid style layout you will be able to visualize proportions which look best on the site. A grid will help you to impart an orderly look to the site and reduce visual chaos. With grid-style layout you will be able to highlight important elements in a site without overcrowding.

Use Grid-Style Layout Effectively To Support Your site Design.

Use Grid-Style Layout Effectively

Using a grid-style layout
With the help of a grid you can pull together a site more quickly. It is easier to design a website with a grid than align the elements with hand. You can switch elements easily due to the structure which is provided by grid. If a grid system is implemented correctly it can increase the scalability of a website. Users will find it easier to read the content on the website. There are numerous advantages of a grid layout. You can present the content with greater order and harmony. Users will be able to get an access to information easily.
Developing a grid
Great style layout is the perfect choice for content rich websites. Sites based on grid-style layout are pleasing to the eyes. With the help of a grid you can create a responsive website. With proper implementation of grid layout you can build websites which look appealing on smart-phones, tablets, desktop computers and other platforms. Before you decide on a grid you must ascertain the number of columns that will be used. After you have developed a grid you can spare more time on the design possibilities. This will save you time and money. Your designs will be consistent and moving the content from one side to the other becomes easy.
Rule of Third
A grid provides an organizational framework. You can streamline a site by using a grid system. According to Rule of Third a composition can be divided into nine parts with the help of two equally placed vertical lines and two equally placed vertical lines. You can place the most crucial elements at the points of intersection of the lines. If you align a composition with the help of Rule of third it can create more energy in the composition. Generally it is not possible to use the four points of intersection to highlight important elements. You can use some of the points to place important messages and graphics.

Use Grid-Style Layout Effectively
Use Grid-Style Layout Effectively

Create an efficient grid
A grid can determine the overlook of a website. You can choose among the variety of grid structures. Today the internet is loaded with models and frameworks based on CSS rules which help web designers to create an efficient grid layout. For any purpose you can create a grid. As a web designer you must be ready to experiment with the grid layouts. This will help you to finalize on the most efficient and fast grid. Instead of trying to hammer content size into a predetermined grid you must customize a grid on the nature of the content.
Align elements with a grid
You can use Golden Ratio to organize space. A grid can provide a foundation which is more stable and consistent. A grid can guide the placement of elements on your page. You must give priority to grids if you want to communicate with your audience effectively. You can optimize grid layouts with the help of grid-style layout. The lines of the grid are used by a designer to align the elements.

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system

Earlier 960 grid system was very popular among the wordpress theme developers. But 960 grid system is becoming older. Now days 978 grid system is becoming very popular. So I decided to create wordpress theme with 978 grid system.

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system

In this article I will tell you how to create the wordpress theme with 978 grid system. For this you dont need to the PHP or wordpress API knowledge. If you are having basic HTML and CSS knowledge then also you can easily create the wordpress theme with 978 grid system. Main advantage of creating wordpress theme with grid system is SEO. If you add the grid system in your wordpress theme then that will be helpful for SEO also.

  • Setup the local development environment and wordpress

For local wordpress theme development you need to install PHP, Mysql, apache on your computer or laptop.If you are using the windows then you can install wamp or xxamp server on your machine. If you are using Linux or Max then you need to install the PHP, Mysql, Apache to your PC.

After Server setup first install the wordpress to your local box. Then go to your wordpress installation folder. Go to WordPress root folder and open following folder.

wp-content->themes

Start developing new wordpress theme with 978 grid system.

  • Create new theme folder in themes folder. (you can keep name as per your choice. I kept grid978 name for my wordpress theme)
  • For creating wordpress theme following files need to be created in theme folder(for me in grid978 folder)

style.css – The main stylesheet. This must be included with your Theme, and it must contain the information header for your Theme.
index.php –  The main template. If your Theme provides its own templates, index.php must be present.
comments.php – The comments template.
single.php –  The single post template. Used when a single post is queried. For this and all other query templates, index.php is used if the query template is not present.
page.php – the page template. Used when an individual Page is queried.
author.php – The author template. Used when an author is queried.
archive.php –  The archive template. Used when a category, author, or date is queried. Note that this template will be overridden by category.php, author.php, and date.php for their respective query types.
search.php – The search results template. Used when a search is performed.
attachment.php –  Attachment template. Used when viewing a single attachment.
image.php – Image attachment template. Used when viewing a single image attachment. If not present, attachment.php will be used.

Or If you are not having knowlege of creating those files then you can download the empty wordpress theme or you can download wordpress framework. Check following article and download empty framework.

List of free wordpress theme frameworks for wordpress theme developer

I always like the Twenty ten wordpress theme. If you are not having good knowledge of CSS then you need to download this theme form following URL. After downloading copy paste the all the files in to your theme folder.

Twenty Ten

Or If you are having good knowledge of CSS then you can download the complete naked and blank wordpress theme from following URL: (I used the starkers wodpress framework)

http://starkerstheme.com/

  • Download the 978 grid system

Then go to following site and download the 978 grid system.

http://978.gs/

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system

I downloaded the zip file called brothersroloff-978-Grid-System-9bea20f.zip file. I extracted the folder.The package comes with a lot of files. I just coped the 978 Templates\CS978.css file in my wordpress theme folder. I opened the file and copied css code into my theme style.php file.

  • Change your Theme name

Open your style.css file and put following code in that file.


/*
Theme Name:grid978
Theme URI:https://purabtech.in
Description:The completely 978 grid system ready wordpress theme (Based on Twenty Ten)
Version:1.0
Author:purabtech.in
Author URI:https://purabtech.in
Tags:wordpressapi, grid, 978 grid, 3 column, clean, basic
*/

you need to change the theme name and other information as per your choice.

Create Screenshot.png file with size on 400 width and 350 height and put that in your theme folder. Now if you check your theme in wordpress admin section. Your theme will be visible in wordpress admin section.

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
  • Use Reset CSS in style.css file

You need to use the following style code in your style.css file for applying the reset CSS.


html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td{background:transparent; border:0; margin:0; padding:0; vertical-align:baseline}
body{line-height:1}

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6{clear:both; font-family:Helvetica,Arial,verdana,sans-serif}
ol, ul{list-style:none}
blockquote{quotes:none}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after{content:''; content:none}
del{text-decoration:line-through}
/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table{border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0}
a img{border:none}

If you taken the twenty ten theme as a base then you dont need to put reset css in that file.

  • Select your grid system and layout for your wordpress theme.

I planned the keep 390px as sidebar area and 558px as content area. For more information you can check following image.

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system

Plan your layout for developing the wordpress theme with grid 978 system. I planned the following layout for creating the wordpress theme.

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
  • Start using the 978 grid system for building the theme

Note :In this tutorial I am given the whole wordpress theme files for download with all the assets. You can download the our grid978 wordpress theme and check the code.

For setting the main container. I first opened the header.php file and inserted the following code after the body tag.


<div class='layout-978'>

Then I opened the footer.php file and before wp_footer() function put the close div code.

  • Setting header and menu section using 978 grid system.

Open your header.php file and after ‘layout-978’ div put following code in file.


<div class='row header'>

// Here is all header and menu code

</div>

  • Setting footer section using 978 grid system.

Open your footer.php file and after ‘layout-978’ div put following code in file.


<div class='row footer'>

// Here is all footer code

</div>

  • Setting up the main content area and sidebar area with grid 978 system

Using following code you can set the main content area and sidebar.


<div class='row'>
<div class='col7'>
// Main content Area
// This block code used in loop.php, single.php and page.php file
</div>
<div class='col5'>
// Top Side bar Area
// This block code used in sidebar.php file
</div>
<div class='col5'>
// Main Side bar Area
// This block code used in sidebar.php file
<div class='col2'>
// Primary Side bar Area
// This block code used in sidebar.php file
</div>
<div class='col3'>
// Secondary Side bar Area
// This block code used in sidebar.php file
</div>
</div>

For this I used the header.php, footer.php, singe.php, page.php and sidebar.php file.

Note : In this tutorial I am given the whole wordpress theme files for download with all the assets. You can download the our grid978 wordpress theme and check the code.

  • Set the content width for your theme

Open your functions.php file and find the following code and replace it to


if ( ! isset( $content_width ) )
 $content_width = 558;

  • Set the menu with CSS style

For multilevel menu support you need to put the following code in to your style.css file.


/* =Menu
-------------------------------------------------------------- */
#access{display:block; float:left; background:#51011f; margin:0 auto; width:978px; border-bottom:1px solid #28000f}
#access .menu-header,
div.menu{font-size:14px; font-weight:bold; margin-left:0px; width:978px; text-shadow:1px 1px 1px #000}
#access .menu-header ul,
div.menu ul{list-style:none; margin:0}
#access .menu-header li,
div.menu li{float:left; position:relative}
#access a{color:#fff; display:block; line-height:34px; /*line-height:38px; */padding:0 10px; text-decoration:none}
#access ul ul{box-shadow:0px 3px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.2); -moz-box-shadow:0px 3px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.2); -webkit-box-shadow:0px 3px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.2); display:none; position:absolute; top:34px; left:0; float:left; width:180px; z-index:99999}
#access ul ul li{min-width:180px}
#access ul ul ul{left:100%; top:0}
#access ul ul a{background:#51011f; line-height:1em; padding:10px; width:160px; height:auto; opacity:0.9; color:#fff}
#access li:hover >a,
#access ul ul:hover >a{color:#B8F01C}
#access ul li:hover >ul{display:block}
#access ul li.current_page_item >a,
#access ul li.current-menu-ancestor >a,
#access ul li.current-menu-item >a,
#access ul li.current-menu-parent >a{color:#fff; background:transparent url(images/arrow2.png) top center no-repeat}
#access ul ul li.current_page_item >a,
#access ul ul li.current-menu-ancestor >a,
#access ul ul li.current-menu-item >a,
#access ul ul li.current-menu-parent >a{color:#fff; background:#853E08}
* html #access ul li.current_page_item a,
* html #access ul li.current-menu-ancestor a,
* html #access ul li.current-menu-item a,
* html #access ul li.current-menu-parent a,
* html #access ul li a:hover{color:#fff; background:#853E08}

You can change this code as per your wordpress design and colors.

  • Set the footer widget area

Open your functions.php file and find and replace the following code.

find before_widget section for footer section and add the div with class “col3”. I used the 222px grid size for footer widget section.

You can add this code in sidebar-footer.php file also. you just need to add the div with class “col3” before all widgets.

Your wordpress theme is completed with 978 grid system. You can change and add more styles to your wordpress theme as per your design and colors.

  • How theme is looking

After creating theme is looking as follows:

  • How to mange the widget section the grid978 wordpress theme.

If you check your wordpress admin area. Go to appearance->Widgets section. This will look as follows:

how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system
how to develop wordpress theme with 978 grid system

Apart from this you can mange the Menu, Background and header image from this wordpress theme.

You can download the complete source code here.

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Download Source Code

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If you want to see the Demo of Grid978 wordpress theme then you need to check following URL:

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Grid978 Theme Demo | Download

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This 978 gird system based free wordpress theme framework is created by purabtech.in. If you are having any doubts about developing wordpress theme with 978 grid system then you can write to me on wordpressapi@gmail.com

wordpress theme with 978 grid
wordpress theme with 978 grid