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A brief introduction to the idea of themes in Wordpress - what are they, how they work, how to choose a new theme and what the implications for changing a theme are. Written for Wordpress 3.1 this still has plenty of relevance for the latest Wordpress.
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What is a “theme”It is the design for your site.
Wordpress = design + contenti.e. they are separated
You can change the whole look of your site just by changing the theme and your content stays the
same.
On the next slide you will see how dramatically this can change the look of your site - with just a click!
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Same Site: Three themes
The following images are showing the same PAGE of a website: same content but different themes.
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How do I get a theme?There are many many themes available: free and
paid for that you can simply download.
Or you can have a theme designed for you.
Wordpress now even provides an option to search for themes from within the dashboard.
- Sign in to the Dashboard- Go to Themes on the left- Look for the Install Themes tab (see left)
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Then choose your options
You then get the option to Preview or Install. Preview
will be the standard view for that theme, not your
content.
If you are happy, click install - but read on before you Activate!
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Remember: a theme is like a pretty cover for your content
A theme that you buy or download for free is like buying an 'off the peg' dress or shirt.
While it will almost certainly “fit” you may find you need to
tweak it a bit.
Think of a theme as the pretty colours and shapes around
your content.
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Activated a theme and lost some things on your site? Don’t worry - they are not lost.
It’s just that that theme doesn’t have a placeholder for that particular piece of content.
It’s STILL THERE in your database, it’s just not showing up at the moment.
Help, something’s missing
Let’s look at these two examples
more closely.
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One has a heading of Minutes on the menubar and one doesn’t. (I know its small - sorry - that is what it says, honestly!)
So what’s happened?
Spot the difference
These are the same Parish Council page from the test
site.
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So you just need to re-organise the menu. But the point is *don’t panic* if something doesn’t appear. 10 to 1 it’s that the new theme just does not, at present, know how
to show it.
In this case... its the menu
The theme on the left is
slightly older and doesn’t use the new
menu system now available
in WP.
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Wordpress makes it very easy to load new themes as we have seen.Once you have installed a theme you can PREVIEW it.This preview will show YOUR content without actually activating the theme.
To test a theme:- Go to your Dashboard then Themes- Under Manage themes you will see your current theme at the top then any other themes already loaded- Click on Preview under the theme's description. This will show you an image of how the theme might look if you activated it on your website.
So how can I solve this?
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Check over the Preview carefully.
If all seems OK, then you can click on Activate.
Whilst changing themes is easy, you can spend a long time fiddling with bits and pieces getting everything in the right place, only to have it all change when you activate a new theme.
So really its best to settle on your theme when you are building your site.
If you want to change after a while, run a complete back up first. And preview carefully.
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http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ is a good place to start for a range of free themes. If you look there
you will see the following info for each theme:
What to look for when choosing a theme:
Is it reasonab
ly well used? (If
so, its probably
been tested and is also
updated regularly.
)
When was it last
updated? It should be within the last
few months ideally.
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Wordpress is being updated all the time. If you have the most recent version (and I hope you do as it will be the most secure and also contain the very latest
tools) then you need a theme to match. Some themes will say that they are Wordpress 3.1 ready but if they don't then a clue to when the theme was last
updated will give you a good idea as to whether it will work with your particular version of Wordpress.
(How do you find out which version you are running? It will be on your Dashboard somewhere. In the latest versions of Wordpress click the “W” in the top left of
the Dashboard.)
Why is this important?
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Why pay if themes are free?There are a LOT of very good free Wordpress themes out there. However with a paid theme you might get any of the following extras:
- help with any issues on the theme (like content not appearing)- automatic updates to the theme - extras on the dashboard allowing you to easily change colour schemes, add slideshows etc.
Beware: Sometimes you pay for a theme because it does have that extra level of complexity to set up. If you are new to WP and have bought a theme, don’t be afraid to ask the developer for help.
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Here are a some more theme sites to look through to give you some ideas:
http://www.solostream.com/wordpress-themes/http://www.woothemes.com/
http://www.elegantthemes.com/
There are also many blogs who will give you lists of Wordpress themes that they recommend:
http://slodive.com/freebies/professional-wordpress-themes/http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beautiful-wordpress-3-
0-ready-themes/
Resources:
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If you are looking for something fairly specific don't be afraid to try that in your search: "wordpress 3 themes", "wordpress magazine style themes" for
example.
Have fun!
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