Applying a new Theme
April 25, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is a way to “skin” your weblog. Yet, it is more than just a “skin.” Skinning your site implies that only the design is changed. WordPress Themes can provide much more control over the look and presentation of the material on your website.
A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog. These files are called template files. A theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software.
I like to think of WordPress, the software as the frame or studs of a house.
themes are the drywall, paint and wallpaper you put on to make everything look nice, to tie everything together.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of awesome themes that can be applied to a WordPress website.
You can easily do a Google search and find many many. There are several common styles:
- 2 column with a sidebar on the left side
- 2 column with a sidebar on the right side
- 3 column with two sidebars on the right side
- 3 column with a sidebar on the right and left side
It doesn’t really matter what you choose, you want to find a theme that matches your needs best. If you are using your WordPress website for a business, you want to look for professional and easy to navigate. If you are focusing on personal, definitely find some thing fun and exciting.
Let’s get started…
There are 2 really easy ways for applying themes:
Applying the theme by Search
From the Dashboard
Step 1 – Under Appearance, Click on the Add New Theme
Step 2 – Enter keywords in the Search box i.e. technology, Click Search
or put check marks in the Feature Filter box, Click Find Themes
Look through the themes to find one that you like, you can click on preview to see a larger version of the theme.
Step 3 – Click on Install link.
Step 4 – In the pop up window, Click Install Now
Step 5 – Click Activate
You can manage all the themes that you have installed from this page, by clicking on the activate link under each thumbnail.
Applying the theme by Uploading
There is a small task that you need to do first… while you were off goggling for cool new themes, I hope that you found one and downloaded to your computer. You should have saved it somewhere, you can find it again. 
From the Dashboard
Step 1 – Under Appearance, Click on the Add New Theme
Step 2 – Click Upload
Step 3 – Browse to the file that you saved
Step 4 – Click Activate
As you add and try themes they will be stored on this page.