Get the Flash Player

How to Install a Wordpress Theme

Posted on September 1st, 2009 by Marck
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

Republish                

For sites running on self-hosted WordPress, themes help make your site more appealing to the eyes and make the content stand out.  Many bloggers who run on self-hosted WordPress installations spend a lot of time and effort acquiring, designing, and customizing themes.  If you want to install your own unique themes to your WordPress blog, here’s how you can do it.

WordPress Themes: An Overview

Custom themes are available for people who have self-hosted WordPress available for download at WordPress.org. If you have a free hosted blog from WordPress.com, you are limited to the themes that are made available to you, and limited editing provided by the built-in CSS editor or a one-year paid upgrade for a more extensive custom CSS editor.  Remember that a custom theme pack cannot be used on a free hosted WordPress.com site.

If you do have your own site with your own FTP directory, you can find all sorts of themes from the WordPress Themes Directory, or from other online communities that you can access through search engines.  Here are some terms used by theme developers to denote and identify their themes:

  • Columns and colors refer to the overall aesthetic aspects of a WordPress theme.  You can usually preview the site using a live demo provided for by the theme developer.  Themes may take the character of traditional blogs (posts arranged in reverse chronological order), or the theme’s grid-based layout may make it look like an online magazine.
  • AdSense-ready and SEO-ready. Many people make a small income out of blogging.  AdSense-ready and SEO-ready themes have features that integrate Web advertising and search engine optimization with the theme.
  • Widgetized. Before widget support was common in themes for WordPress 2.2, people still used to customize sidebars, headers, footers, and other page elements with lines of code.  Widgets make it easier for users to customize the look and design of their personal websites.
  • Free and premium. Most designers want to keep their themes free for everyone to use under a creative commons license or ask for small donations, while others may use their custom themes as a source of income.  Premium themes can be expensive, but you may want to look into one if you’re really committed to making your blog work for you the way you want it.

Downloading Themes

Most theme packages usually come in a compressed .ZIP or tar.gz file that you can download to your computer for upload into your FTP server.  Depending on the upload method you use, you can keep the single file as is, or extract its contents to different folders.  Make sure to carefully read instructions and release notes that come with the archive for any special instructions that the theme designer may have appended with the file.

Uploading Themes from the Dashboard

The easiest way to upload themes to your site’s WordPress directory is to use the Dashboard, provided you’re already using WordPress Release 2.7 or higher:

  1. Log into your blog.
  2. From the Dashboard, select “Appearance” under the Menu pane, and click “Add New Themes.”
  3. Select “Upload” from the Dashboard.
  4. Choose the zipped file that contains the theme you want to upload, and upload it using the built-in uploader of WordPress.

By default, your new theme will be uploaded to your /wp-content/themes directory of your WordPress install.

Uploading Themes from FTP

While the built-in uploader is very useful for beginners, it’s not as flexible as uploading themes via FTP, especially if the theme has its own plugins and special features.  To upload theme files from FTP, follow these steps:

  1. Extract the contents of the archive to a convenient location (like the Desktop; don’t worry, you can delete the contents later).
  2. Log into your FTP account.  While you can use a browser, it’s better to use a FTP client like FileZilla.
  3. The directory for themes is at /wp-content/themes.  Upload the base directory of the theme to that location using file transfer, and the base directory of the specific plugin (if needed) to the /wp-content/plugins directory.
  4. Log into your blog and test the theme.

WordPress themes are very useful to make your site look impressive.  With these tips, you can attract more readers and have more fun developing content for your site.

Ask a question


Powered by Ask A Question

     

    Comments