{"id":1461513,"date":"2018-01-11T10:20:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T10:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpml.org\/?p=1461513"},"modified":"2020-04-29T12:03:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T12:03:16","slug":"wordpress-starter-themes-to-consider-for-your-multilingual-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpml.org\/fr\/tutorials\/2018\/01\/wordpress-starter-themes-to-consider-for-your-multilingual-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress Starter Themes to Consider for your Multilingual Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most critical decisions you make when building WordPress sites is to choose a theme. Fortunately, there are thousands of excellent themes that you can choose from. Today, we\u2019d like to talk about using minimalistic starter themes, when they\u2019re a good option and why.<\/p>\n

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All-included, speciality and minimalistic starter themes<\/h2>\n

Theme development in WordPress evolved in several directions, appealing to different audiences and needs.<\/p>\n

The most popular themes today are the \u201cmulti-purpose\u201d themes, which actually include everything in them. Avada, Enfold and Divi are great examples. They include different design \u201cskins\u201d, their own page builders and a ton of functionality that you can enable and disable from the admin dashboard.<\/p>\n

Some sites require special functionality, that\u2019s hard to achieve with a multi-purpose theme. Real estate and directory webistes are good examples. For these, there are dozens of specialized themes, which include what you\u2019ll need to build the sites. These themes offer a tailor-made solution for very specific applications.<\/p>\n

And, many developers prefer to build it themselves and choose the various components they\u2019ll use to develop the site. For them, a minimalistic starter theme works best, because it offers the bare essentials without overloading the site with bloat.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s room for each of these approaches, I\u2019m going to talk about the minimalistic themes, when they are most useful and how to get the best out of them.<\/p>\n

What should a minimalistic starter theme not have?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s actually easier to define a minimalistic starter theme by what it should avoid.<\/p>\n

I think that the most important thing in a minimalistic theme is avoiding vendor lock-in. When you create your site with an all-inclusive theme, you get everything that you need. However, it may turn out to be like signing a strict contract. You get everything you need from the theme but there\u2019s no going back. Ever. If you love everything about the theme, it\u2019s great. But when you run into problems, you have to accept them, because it\u2019s virtually impossible to switch the theme.<\/p>\n

A really minimalistic starter theme will offer you what you need (from a theme), but would still allow you to switch theme, in case you ever need that. Of course, switching the theme will require some work, but it\u2019s not going to be like building the entire site from scratch.<\/p>\n

Switching a theme on a production site is never \u201cfor sport\u201d. Nobody just switches themes because they\u2019re bored. You may need to switch the theme if it reaches its end-of-life, or proves to have problems that you didn\u2019t realize when you chose it. It\u2019s rare, but when you\u2019re developing dozens of sites for clients, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve run into this situation.<\/p>\n

What should a minimalistic starter theme include?<\/h2>\n

So, there\u2019s no lock-in, but what does the theme absolutely need to provide? Well, the answer for this actually evolves. Today there\u2019s a certain set of requirements and I\u2019m sure that next year there will be others.<\/p>\n

Minimalistic themes that we use today all offer:<\/p>\n