I’ve taken a few xhtml/css templates and EE’d them in a few hours. I can’t imagine that a wordpress theme would be any different. All you need to do is take the theme and swap out wordpress code for EE code.
For a newb I would say just go slowly and keep track of your revisions so that you can back up if you make a mistake. One other thing is that the forum here is top notch for getting help from seasoned developers. That’s how I learned, trial & error and lots of questions on the forum.
Additionally go through Michael Boyinks tutorials: Building an ExpressionEngine site and building a church site in ExpressionEngine.
The best way to learn is to just do it, you don’t need to be technically inclined - all you need to be able to do is copy & paste and make minor modifications in the code based on what you’ve read and what is different in your site.
The other thing I would suggest doing is following various forum threads related to ideas that you might want to do on your site or that the title sounds interesting to you. I regularly open various threads and click the “subscribd to this topic” link at the top of the thread in order to follow what’s going on and pick up tips that I can use for myself. it’s a great way to see how different people approach problems and can help you be a better trouble shooter.
One of the first things I learned that way was dynamic=“off” is a very common solution to exp:weblog:entries problems. That doesn’t mean that’s always the answer, but if I now have a problem, I’ll drop that in to see if it solves the problem.
anyhow good luck with your site, I’m sure with a little sweat and effort you’ll be more comfortable coding in no time.
