I agree. But it's tough enough to develop software that will now work on various OS platforms and display correctly in various browsers. Throw various third party software like WP, Joomla, and Drupal into the mix (and subsequent updates) and the headache will be huge. That is what I was stating in an earlier post. But one can hope, right?

I use Artisteer, mainly for prototyping and for simpler WordPress sites. As long as you stay with what Artisteer does out of the box, you can avoid coding. If you want to go beyond this then you are going to have to be prepared to modify various PHP files and the style.css file. The generated code isn't going to win any prizes, either. The first project I did (for money) using Artisteer had the Search box inline with the top nav menu above the header. Artisteer doesn't support this so I had to create a couple new CSS classes and modify header.php and search.php to get it all to work.

Artisteer tech support is almost useless. I have gotten better support from the Forum than from their Support desk. Still, it's a great prototyping tool. The WordPress only version is a good deal at $49.
The other negative with Artisteer is that you have to renew and pay them each year in order to continue getting updates. This is fairly common with premium WP themes, too.

I would like to see CoffeeCup come up with a simple to implement and use CMS.

I have and use Artisteer, as well (the $130 version). And I like it. But I would love for Coffeecup to develop a Wordpress template creator / editor that is more focused. Artisteer is trying to do too many things. It's good software, IMHO, and the support folks have treated me well - but I often feel that the program is getting bloated.

In the meantime, the good 'ol CC HTML editor is great for editing Wordpress themes. I use it for all my child themes, even when the parent theme was made with Artisteer (I prefer using Twenty Ten, the default Wordpress theme, for child theming). For me, using Coffeecup to edit WP themes results in an excellent workflow.

But yes - a Coffeecup Wordpress theme creator would be fantastic.

Michael, this has been asked before. If you were a developer, would you want to revise your product every time WordPress revised their software? What a pain that must be.

I've no doubt that that's true, but a program that was intended for Wordpress alone wouldn't necessarily be so hard to develop and update. I have older theme files that still work fine as WP has been upgraded. The general theming mechanism doesn't usually change much from one WP version to another.

For a Wordpress theme / template studio program, you need something that allows you to set up, open, view, and edit theme files (index.php, header.php, etc.) and the css - something that perhaps allows WYSIWYG editing, but even WYSIWYG is not necessary.

For comparison's sake, there's a product called ThemeDreamer, which is for Dreamweaver users, and which allows WYSIWYG creation and editing of Wordpress themes - but you must have Dreamweaver in order to use it.

Perhaps Coffeecup could develop something that jump-starts a new theme, sort of the way that its new file wizards work in its other programs, and then allows the user the edit that theme. The ability to create navigation buttons and multiple page templates (layouts) for a single theme would be a real plus. Meanwhile, Coffeecup could sell pre-designed WP themes that can be further customized with the new Wordpress theming software.

In the interim, I will just use the Coffeecup HTML editor to organize and edit my Wordpress themes. It's especially useful for creating and editing child themes, which are arguably the best way to get the most out of almost any theme.

ThemeDreamer sounds cool. Too bad I'm a Expression Web guy. What about plugins? Do all plugins work with all themes?

No - there are issues with certain plugins not working with certain themes. I use as few plugins as I can for each WP site, tending to stick with a core group of essential plugins that thus far work with all the WP sites I manage.

But I've seen plugins interfere with WP sites, in at least one case not allowing users to log in to that site anymore. I fixed the problem by FTPing to the server and removing the offending plugin files.

a Coffee Cup WP Template creator would be a Total Hit !!!!

Double +1 to that:

I agree
I wouldn't mind if I had to do a few fixes when there was an upgrade. I wouldn't mind if not all plugins worked without a few tweeks. I'd just love something that would make me a basic wp or buddypress template. Then let me do the rest.