Tutorial: How to change your WordPress theme
Posted on July 9, 2009 by Carol
One of the wonderful features of WordPress is how easily you can change the look and feel of your website! Well, it’s easy when you know how, I guess …. so here’s a quick tutorial:
- Have a look through the WordPress themes here and find the theme you like.
- Click the “Download” link next to your chosen theme to download a zip file to your computer.
- Unzip the file so you’re left with a single folder (named after the theme) with its files inside.
- Now, the semi-complicated bit: You need to send a copy of these files by FTP to your website. You’ll need to use an FTP program such as FileZilla (which is free). If you haven’t used FileZilla before, you can download it from here and read the user guide here.
- Once FileZilla is installed, you need to enter your websit’s FTP details, as provided by your hosting company. They’ll look a little something like this
ftp server: ftp.yoursite.com
username: yoursite.com [or a username, such as 'admin']
password:3jh32kkjh3
- Once you hit Connect, you’ll need to find the correct folder. Your website will have a folder structure and you’ll need to click through each folder to find what you need. The main folder is usually called something like “wwwroot” or “public_html“. Within that, you’ll have a folder called wp-content and within that is a folder called themes.
- Once you’ve found that folder, you need to click and drag your NEW theme across into the themes folder.
- Now, go back to WordPress Admin and click on Appearance > Themes. You’ll find your new theme is available to select – just click on its name, then click Activate.
