We (think) we want to use Atahualpa, and are wondering where to get started. Is there any getting-started guide for developers besides the "read me" in the download?

We plan on customizing this heavily. In general, we're trying to figure out what's possible to change in options, what can be changed in CSS and what can't be changed at all.

The "manual" is really Atahualpa itself. The settings are very well described and most everything can be configured/changed via CSS and otherwise.

Thanks for answering.

We're new to WP, but we're all very experienced developers. We're putting up a company info site in the form of a blog.

Can we assume that we can specify the layout/graphic design on one track, and then implement after that's specified, and pretty much anything we specify will be straightforward to implement?

We're not doing anything that out of the ordinary. Mainly a company info site Just a four/five-column layout with three columns for posts and aggregations, and one/two sidebars. Click through from post to archive pages. And then lots of custom graphics. That kind of stuff.

Implementing some of the items you mentioned (IE multi-column posts and design on one track) are not the same with WordPress/Atahualpa as with "standard" web development. If you want to get the "look and feel" before implementing with Atahualpa you would need to build a separate site and then move it per instructions you can find on the forum. With the new Themeframe (not yet out) you should be able to build your theme and then upload when done. Multi-columns are another issue and a bit difficult to explain in this short message but suffice it to say you can do multi-column but it will require some tweaking to the code or another theme. There may be someone on this forum who could tell you how to code multi-colulmn posts however.

Bottom line is that Atahualpa is VERY flexible but to that end has a steeper learning curve than other themes but since you are developers that probably wouldn't be much of an issue and this forum is great for getting answers.

I hope I've been helpful and if there is anyone else out there who can jump into this discussion please do.

Thanks again, Larry.

Actually, I don't think I explained myself well.

We'll specify the design as a mockup in illustrator. Then we'll implement it. I just wondered how much flexibility there is to style the visual elements in Ata/WP - borders, font, background images, font, etc. I'm not expecting to automatically convert the mockup.

Re multi-column, I don't meant multi-column posts. I just meant three distinct visual containers or regions (i.e. boxes :-) (Do we call those widgets? Not sure about the terminology.) Posts wouldn't spill over from one to the other.

So, I assume we're on solid ground there?

Yes, you need to learn the terminology so we can all communicate. Sounds like you want to use WP as a CMS. It's doable. And Atahualpa makes it as easy as possible, although it will still take some work to get all the plugins and widgets you need to work together.

My main site is a community newspaper. We moved the whole thing over to Wordpress, not counting legacy content dating back to 2002, about a year ago. Lots of work to get everything to function as we wanted. Using PHP code in some of the widgets was a great help, to display certain things only in certain places, for instance. There are plugins that will help, like Widget Logic, but sometimes some custom PHP code was the best way.

I suggest you read the Codex at wordpress.org, for starters. Make use of the plugins directory there. Take a look at http://larchmontgazette.com to see how we pull a lot of disparate information together using categories, pages, plugins and widgets.

Originally Posted by csguys

TI just wondered how much flexibility there is to style the visual elements in Ata/WP - borders, font, background images, font, etc.

In a single word... LOTS. All of what you mentioned is very doable. Here are several sites from forum members all using Atahalpa. Some are not completed but can give you an idea of what can be done. You can also search through the showing off forum. Some are pretty basic and others are quite "creative".

www.quilttraditions.com
www.callofthemuse.com
www.smart-retirement.us/watch
www.hearttheearth.org
www.hyde-end.com
www.justperioddrama.com/wordpress
www.proportionfoundation.org
www.bestbiztips.com/susankmorrow