I am currently in the process of creating my first free-to-download WordPress theme. The possibilities are endless, and not helped at all by the fact that I have never actually used a theme that someone else has built. This means I have only a limited perspective on what people want, or need, from a theme and I would like your help.

I have no problem with diving into my theme and editing the code directly, whenever I fancy a change, and that means I have tended to design my own theme with the intention of modifying it once I start using it. Not ideal for a theme release.

What I need to do is to compile a list of essential properties, or features, that a theme must have.

Over the next few days I am going to download a series of themes and give them a try. It will give me an idea of what other people do with themes but that still won’t tell me what it is like to actually run a blog based around someone else’s theme.

So what I want to know is, what really matters to you?

I take it as a given that it should be widgety, and gravitarised, but what else absolutely must be there? What would make or break a theme for you? Is there anything you have been searching for that you haven’t found?

Lastly, what feature have you seen in other themes that you thought was un-necessary, added to the complexity or was simply a wasted effort?

If you have used my Fun With Plugins WordPress plugin generator tool recently you may have noticed that it now produces two different files if you want them both: The plugin file and the read me file.

You might also have noticed that instead of providing a nice handy downloadable ZIP file with folder structures that you just need to download you need to set up the folder structure yourself.

There is a reason for this.

Since I first started developing it I have been looking for a good PHP zip solution. Unfortunately no matter where I look I just can’t find one that will open natively in Windows XP. That’s fine if you use something else, but with 79% of site visitors using Windows I just can’t assume they are all using non-native applications.

That’s why I am writing this plea.

I really think that to take it further I need a good PHP ZIP solution that produces ZIP files purely dynamically, i.e. doesn’t rely on there being a physical file on the server but I have hit a dead end.

Any suggestions are welcome.