WordPress Theme Documentation

Good documentation turns your custom theme from a black box into a tool your team can confidently use and maintain. We create clear, comprehensive guides covering setup, content editing, customization options, and developer notes.

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43.1%

of all websites run WordPress, yet most custom themes lack proper documentation, leading to expensive support requests and team frustration

W3Techs, 2023

Theme Documentation

Comprehensive theme documentation covering initial setup, content editing workflows, customization options, custom block usage, developer reference guides, and troubleshooting procedures.

What's Included

Everything you get with our Theme Documentation

Content Editor Guide

Step-by-step instructions showing your team how to edit pages, create posts, use custom blocks, and manage media with screenshots and examples

Setup and Configuration Guide

Complete instructions for theme installation, initial configuration, menu setup, widget placement, and customizer options

Developer Reference

Technical documentation covering template structure, custom hooks, function reference, and coding conventions for future development work

Our Theme Documentation Process

Audience and Scope Analysis

We identify who will use the documentation and what they need to accomplish. Content editors, site administrators, and developers each get documentation tailored to their role, technical level, and specific tasks.

Content Creation

We write clear, task-oriented documentation with step-by-step instructions, annotated screenshots, and practical examples. Every section is structured around what your team actually needs to do, not abstract feature descriptions.

Review and Testing

We have someone unfamiliar with your theme follow the documentation to verify that instructions are clear and complete. This user testing catches assumptions, missing steps, and unclear language before the documentation is delivered.

Delivery and Training

Documentation is delivered in a format your team can easily access and search: typically a hosted knowledge base or organized PDF. We walk your team through the documentation and answer any questions to ensure they are comfortable using it.

Key Benefits

Easy Team Onboarding

New team members can learn to use your WordPress site independently by following the documentation. Instead of shadowing someone for days, they read the content editor guide, follow the step-by-step instructions, and start contributing immediately. This is especially valuable for organizations with staff turnover.

Self-Service Reference

When your team has a question about how to do something in WordPress, they check the documentation first. Most routine questions, from adding a new page to configuring a custom block, are answered with clear, visual instructions. This reduces delays and empowers your team.

Reduced Support Costs

Every question the documentation answers is a support ticket you did not have to submit and a developer invoice you did not have to pay. For most businesses, the documentation pays for itself within the first few months through reduced support requests alone.

Research & Evidence

Backed by industry research and proven results

WordPress Market Scale

WordPress powers 43.1% of all websites, and the vast majority of custom themes are delivered without adequate documentation

W3Techs (2023)

WordPress Economy

The WordPress ecosystem supports a $600B+ economy, where documentation quality directly impacts long-term site maintainability and costs

Automattic (2023)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does theme documentation include?

Our standard documentation package includes a content editor guide with step-by-step instructions for all content management tasks, a setup and configuration guide for site administrators, a custom block reference showing each block's options and usage, and a developer reference covering template structure, hooks, and coding conventions. Each section includes annotated screenshots and practical examples.

Can you document an existing theme that someone else built?

Yes. We regularly create documentation for themes built by other developers or agencies. We review the theme's code, test its features, document its behavior, and produce the same comprehensive documentation we would for a theme we built ourselves. This is especially valuable if your original developer is no longer available.

What format is the documentation delivered in?

We deliver documentation in the format that works best for your team. Options include a hosted knowledge base that your team can search and bookmark, organized PDF documents for offline reference, or a combination of both. For teams that use Notion, Confluence, or Google Docs, we can deliver in those formats as well.

Do you provide training in addition to documentation?

Yes. We recommend a training session where we walk your team through the documentation, demonstrate key workflows, and answer questions in real time. This combination of written documentation and live training gives your team the best foundation for managing the site independently.

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Give Your Team the Guide They Need

Whether your theme is new or existing, comprehensive documentation saves time and money. Let us create it for you.