[p1esk]

Come on. This is a trivial situation, no need to lament the status quo. What the OP needs is to spend a couple of hours learning PHP syntax/infrastructure, then attempt to solve his specific problem. If he does not know how to start/gets an error, the solution is probably on SO somewhere.

60k questions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/php+wordpress

Add the keyword specific to the problem, and if can't find it, just post a new question.

[BigJono]

> the solution is probably on SO somewhere

SO (especially the PHP and JS parts) is full of terrible answers that basically instruct people to throw darts at the board until one hits, without explaining any of the underlying concepts behind what's happening.

This sounds like a great strategy if OP wants to become a mediocre programmer.

[p1esk]

It does not look like OP wants to become a programmer. He wants to "better work with my programmer, and make some small modifications myself".

For that, there's no need to go deeper than what I suggested.

[graeme]

Well, eventually I'd like to. But, I know I probably can't fully get into it while working full time on my business.