How To Change A Wordpress Blog's Appearance

Download, Install And Change A Wordpress Blog Theme Using The Dashboard

In the previous section I taught you how to Import Media Into An Article, amongst other things, in order to show you more features of Wordpress. In this section I will teach you how to change the theme (appearance) of a wordpress blog. Why? Because the appearance of a blog can make all the difference to your traffic.

Picking the right appearance (theme) tells a visitor about your commitment, enthusiasm and dedication towards your blog project, and more importantly it tells them something about your personality.

When you go to a job interview you dress nicely, have a C.V that took time, energy and dedication and you speak nice and clear to the interviewer in order to stand a good chance of getting that job. And the same applies to your blog theme. The right theme, with the right colours and fonts, gives you a better chance of attracting visitors and being noticed for your authoritative articles, dedication, commitment and enthusiasm.

SEARCH  FOR  A  WORDPRESS  BLOG  THEME

Begin by taking your web browser to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/   (the Wordpress Themes web page), type a Theme keyword into the SEARCH edit box (i.e. Flower, Grunge, Business, Wood, Black, Design, Color, Blog, Etc) and then click on the SEARCH THEMES button to continue.

Fig 6.1  Enter a keyword and then click on the SEARCH THEMES button to continue

After clicking on the SEARCH THEMES button you will be shown a thumbnail for each available theme, if any, that contains your typed keyword. In this example I typed flower and was shown a list of themes that contain the keyword (tag) flower. It is important here to note that you are looking for a keyword. If you type langauge for example it may not produce the same theme listing as typing spanish for example. It depends on the keywords (tags) submitted by the author.

An author might of tagged (keyworded) their theme with spanish in reference to "This theme can be translated into Spanish", but it does not mean the theme is written in spanish. Anyway. Scroll down the theme list, if need be and if possible, and then click on the theme LINK (theme name) above the thumbnail to continue.

Fig 6.2  Click on the LINK associated with the theme you want to preview/download to continue

Clicking on the theme link (above) takes you to the theme page for that theme (below). The theme page has quite a lot of information on it that is worth investigating. For example. You could visit the author's homepage (website or blog), the author's theme page (to download the latest theme/update) or preview the theme's statistics (by clicking on the STATS tab) as well as previewing the theme and downloading it.

DOWNLOAD  A  WORDPRESS  BLOG  THEME

One thing to point out here, that might be a little obvious, is that you do not want a theme to be too popular otherwise everyone will be using the same theme. I know there are currently 1,193 themes but divide that by millions of bloggers.....! In this example I previewed the theme (not shown here) before clicking on the DOWNLOAD button.

Fig 6.3  Click on the DOWNLOAD button to continue

Most, if not all, themes are in the ZIP file format and should work with the current version of wordpress even if they do not say so (or state an earlier version). Clicking on the DOWNLOAD button takes you through the standard download procedure - A SAVE AS file requester appears asking you to navigate to a folder where you would like the .zip (theme) file saved into. In this example I just saved the .zip file to the DOWNLOADS folder.

Fig 6.4  Click on the SAVE button to save the theme (pink-tulip.1.1.zip) file




Fig 6.5  Navigate the SAVE AS file requester to the folder where you would like the theme file saving to




Fig 6.6  The theme is being downloaded (saved) into the DOWNLOADS folder

EXTRACT  THE  THEME  FILE  AND  UPLOAD

Once a theme's zip file has been downloaded right click over it and then left click on the EXTRACT ALL menu-item to unzip it (see the Install Wordpress Blog section, Fig 2.0 onwards, for an example). The Windows extraction (unzip) wizard will guide you through the process. Alternatively, use a program such as WinZip, WinRar or 7-Zip to unzip the theme file.

When the theme file has been extracted (unzipped) you should be left with the original theme (.zip) file and a new folder named after the theme (i.e. pink-tulip.1.1). Many zip programs encase/surround the actual theme folder (i.e. pink-tulip) inside the main folder (i.e. pink-tulip.1.1) thereby making the actual theme folder a sub-folder. Either way, the next step is to upload that actual theme folder (sub-folder) into the Wordpress Themes folder by navigating your ftp client to the WORDPRESS >> WP-CONTENT >> THEMES folder inside your web space.

Fig 6.7  Upload the actual theme folder to the WORDPRESS >> WP-CONTENT >> THEMES folder

CHANGE  THE  WORDPRESS  BLOG  THEME

At this point you need to be logged into your wordpress blog, if you have logged out of it since viewing the previous section, by taking your web browser to http://www.yourwebsite.com/wordpress/wp-admin/  (the Administrator url).

Once logged in you need to click on the APPEARANCE menu, under the POSTS menu, which will auto-matically open the Manage Themes page where you should then see your newly uploaded theme. You may have to scroll down the page a little. Click on the theme's thumbnail (Fig 6.8 below) in order to preview it (Fig 6.9). If you like what you see simply click on the ACTIVATE 'THEME NAME' link (i.e. ACTIVATE PINK-TULIP) to activate the theme - Activate means make the selected theme the default theme.

Fig 6.8  Click on your newly uploaded theme's thumbnail to view it




Fig 6.9  Click on the ACTIVATE 'THEME NAME' link, in the top-right corner, to continue




Fig 6.10  The new theme has been set as the default theme

Setting up other themes is done exactly as above. Simply go to the wordpress themes page, or a wordpress themes website you found on the internet, and download the theme's zip file. From there, upload the actual theme folder into your website's wordpress blog THEMES folder and then apply it as the default using the above process.

Fig 6.11  Your blog title, articles and so on will remain intact even if you change the default theme

Another way to install a theme (not shown here) is to click on the ADD NEW THEMES menu-item, under the APPEARANCE menu, to display the Install Themes page and then click on the UPLOAD link. It will then allow you to BROWSE for a theme .zip file, within your wordpress themes folder, using its CHOOSE FILE TO UPLOAD file requester. Once the zip file has been opened with the file requester click on the INSTALL NOW button on the Install Themes page. It will then install the theme for you. Now all you need to do is click on the ACTIVATE link to activate it. That's it!