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"Brian Casel is a web designer and owner of ThemeJam WordPress Themes and CasJam Media.\u00A0 You can follow Brian on his blog at briancasel.com or on Twitter @CasJam.\nWordPress is the fastest growing CMS platforms in today's web design industry (yes, it's a true CMS).\u00A0 Much of the action in the WordPress community is largely driven by the market for WordPress themes.\nThe vast selection of free and commercial themes is what makes WordPress so attractive.\u00A0 But the theme is often only a starting point for further customizations.\u00A0 Web developers and DIY website owners like to start with a great theme and tweak it to perfectly suit their (or their client's) needs.\nMany themes, particularly commercial themes, come packaged with a robust theme options page, which lets you to configure many aspects of it.\u00A0 You should check out those available options before diving into the code.\u00A0 That said, all themes are different, and sometimes you need to get your hands dirty to fully customize it.\nBelow are some of the most common things website owners like to tweak, and of course, how to tweak them!\u00A0 This article is based on the assumption that you have at least a light background in website design, code editing, and a familiarity with WordPress.\nOne general tip before we get into specifics:\u00A0 It's often a good idea to make your modifications by creating or editing a \"Child Theme,\" rather than editing the \"Parent Theme\" itself.\u00A0 The benefit here is that if and when the theme author releases updates to the core functionality, you can easily update your theme without losing your modifications.\u00A0 Check out the WordPress.org Codex to learn more about Child themes.\n1. Edit Your Theme's CSS\n\n\n\n\nIf you're looking to tweak colors, fonts, layout, backgrounds, spacing, and other visual elements, your best bet is to start by editing the CSS.\u00A0 Most of the time, your theme's CSS styles will be located in the file style.css.\u00A0 This file is always present in a theme, as this is what defines the theme in the WordPress admin.\u00A0 But sometimes there are additional stylesheets, which may be located in a sub-folder.\nThe best way to track down a particular style and location within the theme files is to employ a browser web development tool, such as FireBug.\u00A0 It's a FireFox extension, which allows you to inspect and tweak CSS styles on the fly, and quickly locate the stylesheet and line number you need to edit.\u00A0 If you don't already use FireBug, it's time to start.\n2. Display Post Excerpts or Full Content\nSometimes, by default, your theme displays the full content of your blog posts on your home page.\u00A0 Let's say you would rather display only a short excerpt from the post as a little \"teaser\" to click through to the full article.\u00A0 Or perhaps it's the other way around \u2014 the theme shows excerpts, but you'd rather display full blog posts.\u00A0 Here are the two tags you need to swap:\nThis tag displays your full post content:\n\nMore info on this tag.\nThis tag displays your post excerpt (in the Edit Post screen, it's the text box just below your main body box):\u00A0 \n\nIf no excerpt is set, it will automatically display the first few sentences of your blog post. More info on this tag.\n3. Create a Custom Page Template\nSometimes you have one page that requires a unique layout \u2014 something different from the others.\u00A0 You'd like some flexibility in the HTML markup, but don't want to affect all the pages on your site.\u00A0 WordPress makes it really easy to create unique templates and assign them to specific pages.\u00A0 Here's how:\n\n1. Duplicate your theme's page.php file.\u00A0 This is the file WordPress uses to display your generic pages.\n2. Re-name it anything you want.\u00A0 In this example, let's call it pricing.php (we will be creating a unique \"Pricing\" page). \n3. At the very top of the page, add this to the code: \n/*Template Name: Pricing*/?&gt;\n4. Modify the markup and CSS for this page template however you want. \n5. Create your \"Pricing\" page.\u00A0 Using the \"Template\" drop-down, select \"Pricing.\" \n6. Save your page.\u00A0 It now displays using the markup you created in your unique template. \n\n4. Crafting The Loop: Excluding/Including a Category\nLet's say you'd like to display posts from all categories with the exception of one.\u00A0 This is a common request for a variety of reasons.\u00A0 One example would be if you have a featured posts slider at the top of your home page, showing posts categorized as \"Featured.\"\u00A0 You'd like to display the rest of your posts below the slider, but avoid displaying the same post twice on one page.\u00A0 Here's how you do it:\nAdd this code before your loop:\n\u00A0\nThis will exclude all posts which have the category ID 8.  Change this number to whichever category ID you'd like to exclude.\nPerhaps you'd like to do the opposite: Display posts only from one category.\u00A0Simple! Remove the \" - \" before your category ID, like so:\n\nMore info on The Loop and Query Posts.\n5. Crafting Your Page Navigation the Easy Way\n\n\n\n\nMany themes display all of your pages across the top of your site, perhaps with drop-down menus for hierarchical navigation.\u00A0 But let's say you'd like to exclude a page from your main navigation.\u00A0 Sometimes you have pages on your site that don't need to be right out in front, like a \"Privacy Policy\" page for instance.\u00A0\nHere's an easy way to exclude a page from your navigation.\u00A0 Find this code, which displays your list of pages:\n\nChange it to this:\n\nYou're telling WordPress to list all of your pages except for the page with ID 5.  Change this number to whichever Page ID you'd like to exclude.\nMore info:\u00A0WP List Pages\n6. Enabling Menu Management in WordPress 3.0\nLet's say you'd like to have complete control over your site navigation including setting your own order, including/excluding pages, categories, and external links.\u00A0 WordPress 3.0 provides an awesome new feature called \"Menus,\" which gives you this flexibility.\u00A0 However, you can't use this feature unless your theme supports it.\nHere's how to change a traditional page navigation (using wp_list_pages(); above) to the new admin-controlled menu.\nNOTE: You must be running WordPress 3.0+.\nFirst, you must enable this feature by adding the following code to your theme's functions.php file:\n\nThen, add your menu to your theme, likely somewhere in your header.php file:\n\nOf course, you will need to create your custom menu by going to Appearance &gt; Menus.\u00A0\nMore info:\u00A0WP Nav Menu\n7. Create a Simple Conditional Statement\nSometimes, you'd like to display or modify a piece of content depending on which page is currently being viewed.\u00A0 For example, when viewing your \"Pricing\" page, you'd like to display a message in your sidebar reading \"Pricing Plans For Any Budget,\" but on all other pages, you'd like this message to read \"Quality Products, Reliable Service!\"\nHere's how to set this up using a simple conditional statement:\nPricing Plans For Any Budget!\nQuality Products, Reliable Service!\n\nMore info:\u00A0Conditional Tags\n8. Add Post Thumbnails\n\n\n\n\nWordPress 2.9 introduced a handy feature called Post Thumbnails.\u00A0 As the name implies, it allows you to set a thumbnail image for a post, without the need for custom fields or embedding within the post content.\nNOTE: In WordPress 3.0, this feature has been renamed to \"Featured Image,\" but the functionality hasn't changed.\nPost thumbnails are useful for adding a colorful dynamic to your post listings, or if you're using WordPress posts as your portfolio.\u00A0 There are many other ways thumbnails might come into play.\u00A0 Here is how to enable and insert post thumbnails in your theme:\nLike menus, Post Thumbnails need to be enabled in your theme.\u00A0 Add this code to your theme's functions.php file:\n\nThen, insert your post thumbnail image within your loop, using the following tag:\n\nYou may want to tweak the layout using some CSS.\u00A0 You can also add various thumbnail sizes, and cropping options.\u00A0 Check out this detailed tutorial about the Post Thumbnails feature for more information.\n9. Add Something (Anything) to the End of Every Blog Post\nSometimes, you'd like to add a bit of content to the end of every blog post \u2014 something constant, like a promotional message about your services, a link to subscribe to your newsletter, an advertisement, etc.\nThe file you want to edit is your theme's single.php.\u00A0 This is the template that displays your single articles.\u00A0 Open that file and find a good spot to add your additional message.\u00A0 A good spot is usually after your article, but before the comments, like so:\nYour additional message here...\nYour theme may have additional formatting tags and whatnot, but this should point you in the right direction.\n10. Add Google Analytics Tracking Code\n\n\n\n\nEveryone wants to know how many visitors come to their site.\u00A0 Google Analytics is the most popular tool for tracking your traffic.\u00A0 Setting up Google Analytics is very easy.\u00A0 Once your free account is created, Google provides you with a chunk of code, which you need to embed on your site at the bottom of every page.\nYou want to add that tracking code to your footer.php file.\u00A0 Paste your Google Analytics tracking code just above the  tag.\u00A0 It is now included on all pages of your site.\n\nFor more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n\nMore WordPress resources from Mashable:\n- WordPress 3.0: The 5 Most Important New Features- HOW TO: Add Facebook \u201CLike\u201D Buttons to Your WordPress Blog- HOW TO: Secure Your WordPress Blog- 7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress- 14 Fantastic Free WordPress Themes"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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