WPLover provides some tips for launching your new WordPress theme. Here’s a snippet:

The first thing to do is to write about it in your website. Either as a blog post or a specific page, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s there. This is to be the home page of the theme, which will serve a bunch of purpose: you include the link to this page inside the theme’s style.css, you link to it when announcing your theme, people can come to it to comment and ask around if they encounter some problems, and so on.

Aside from mentioning some prominent sites where you can announce the theme, the article goes into detail about creating demo sites. You can also check out the author’s workflow for announcing and submitting new themes. Great stuff for anything you may have missed in your own workflow.

When you’re done promoting your new theme elsewhere, don’t forget to submit your theme to our website!

BloggingPro has a great rundown of the newest theme files introduced in the latest version of WordPress. Here’s the short list:

• The category-slug.php template: Before, theme authors were limited to using category dependent theme files that used the category ID. In WP 2.9, category slugs can now be used in the category ID’s place. That’s a 100% more descriptive and convenient than the old way.
• The tag-id.php template: Tag-based templates are now available too. Although it suffers the same old problem as the category-id.php template. Maybe we’ll have to wait for several more WP version updates for that to be addressed.
• The page-slug.php and page-id.php templates: Page-based templates complete the circle. Now you can also style specific pages based on either its ID or slug.

While we’re on the topic of custom theme files, let’s talk about the old but still useful theme features applicable to sidebars:

Sidebar templates, introduced in version 2.5, can create lots of sidebars files other than sidebar.php itself, and call it via the parameter in the the get_sidebar() function. For example, if you want to include a right sidebar called sidebar-right.php, just use get_sidebar('right') instead of the include() function.

Now that you know all about these custom theme file features, you’re ready to create WordPress themes that are smarter and more powerful than ever!

Two beta versions of WordPress 2.9 are out in the wild, so you know the final release will be announced soon. Have you looked at the newest features in WP 2.9 yet? If not, check out Technosailor’s round-up. The big news for WordPress theme authors is that post images are now integrated into the core. Since adding a featured image to each post is one of the popular ways to add value to a theme, getting this done is now a cinch.

To make the new feature appear in the Write Post screen, you’ll need to add support for this feature via your functions.php file:

<?php if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) {
add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
} ?>

Sidebar widgets also support a new field: widget descriptions. An added convenience especially for themes with lots of widgetized areas.

Looks like WP 2.9 is all about making things easier for both theme authors and its users!

Avocado is a white, green, and orange 3-column theme with rounded corners. It comes with a PSD and a font file which you can use to create a custom header for your blog.

Green is the in thing today. We do want to save the Earth and the human population from a radical change in climate. The Avocado Theme reflects this philosophy, both with the green-themed color scheme, and with how the editorial and design team of Performancing strive to be green in the way we live and work.

Preview and download the theme now.

Not everybody blogs in English, and neither should your WordPress theme be exclusively coded that way. With the help of localization plugins you can ensure that the next WordPress theme you’re building has text that can be translated into different languages. Cats Who Code has a great tutorial on it.

The gist is: Whenever you’re writing custom text, be sure to enclose it in the _e('text, 'domain') and __('text', 'domain') functions. Both basically output text as echo normally would, but used with a language file editor it lets you translate text quickly and easily. _e() is for printing text the usual way while __() is for printing text inside of PHP functions.

For more details, check out How to make a translatable WordPress theme.

Most of the time theme designers assume WordPress and its themes are so easy to use that documentation becomes optional. Premium theme or not, users need a manual for your theme. It makes your work more professional.

Thankfully, Jarel Remick at the ThemeForest blog has written a great guide on creating better theme documentation. There’s even a sample template you can download and customize, so you’ve got no excuses this time!

It’s official, WordPress themes are GPL too. Matt Mullenweg announced at the Development Blog that after consulting with the Software Freedom Law Center, it was determined that “PHP in WordPress themes must be GPL” although “artwork and CSS may be but are not required”. This means that WP theme code can be modified and distributed in any way without restriction. Read more about GPL here.

Still, Matt and the rest of the WordPress team pushes for 100% GPL compatibility instead of partial compliance, so if you’re aspiring to get your theme into the WordPress theme directory, keep that in mind. That said, GPL commercial themes are now accepted in a special section of the theme directory.

The latest version of WordPress, version 2.8 and codename “Baker”, is now out. If you haven’t updated yet, you might want to do so now. One of the biggest features in this version is the ability to install WordPress themes from within the admin dashboard, just like plugins.

Theme authors will also be happy to hear about several new functions/template tags like automatic_feed_links(), body_class(), comments_open(), pings_open(), wp_lost_password_url(). But they should also take note of several deprecated ones.

The complete list of changes are documented in the Codex.

Performancing Themes has come out with another great-looking free WordPress theme called Treasure. It’s designed by Randa Clay and supports the latest theme features added in WP 2.7.

Ever wanted to explore for hidden treasure as a kid? Well, most of us have longed for, and still do long for, this kind of adventure. Most would keep other sorts of treasures in all sorts of places, in their proverbial treasure chests. Love letters are kept in drawers. Photos in photo albums. Toys in toy closets. Blog posts, of course, precious that they are, are kept online.

But what if you can keep your blog posts in “treasure chests” of their own? This is what Performancing’s Treasure Theme for WordPress is all about. Each blog post is kept enclosed in its own box–or what you can call its treasure box. This is very appropriate for bloggers who want to consider each and every published post as precious ad gold and gems.

Preview and download the theme now.

Some WordPress theme-related articles designers might want to peruse:

• Creating Theme Options
• Premium only in name: The state of paid-for WP themes
• A premium solution
• Custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8
• Build A Theme With Thematic
• WordPress Child Theme Basics
• What’s in store for WordPress themes in 2009?