Installing Other Themes

Many people have created themes they are willing to share with other WordPress users. These developers usually also allow you to modify their themes. This makes it easy to start with a theme you like and customize it so it meets your needs.

Installing a theme takes only minutes. Just download the theme file and upload its folder to your blog's themes folder. Once installed, you can activate it with the Themes administration panel.

Tips

• There are many theme repositories, some of which are listed in Appendix A.

• Be sure to read any terms and conditions for a theme so you know what kind of use and modification the theme's developer allows.

• We explain how to choose or activate a theme in Chapter 1.

To install a theme

1.	Locate a theme you like and download it to your computer (Figure 3). or Create your own theme and store its files in a folder. Figure 3. Here's an example of the Connections theme being downloaded from the Theme Browser available on AlexKing.org. Maria uses a heavily customized version of this theme on her wickenburg-az.com site.
2.	If the theme folder is compressed, expand it.
3.	Use your FTP client to copy the theme folder to /wp-content/themes/ on the server (Figures 4 and 5). Figure 4. In this example, we're using Fetch to upload the connections theme folder to the themes directory for a WordPress blog. Figure 5. The new theme folder appears in the themes directory.
4.	Follow the instructions in Chapter 1 to choose or activate the theme you installed (Figure 6.). Figure 6. Here's what the theme installed in Figures 4 and 5 looks like after activation. This particular theme does not include a preview image.

Tips

• Theme folders must go inside the themes directory inside the wp-content directory.

• Some themes require additional plugins or other files. Refer to the theme's documentation for details. We tell you more about plugins in Chapter 7.

• It's a good idea to view your site right after activating a new theme to make sure it looks okay. If it doesn't look right, you can always re-activate the previously activated theme.

• Appendix B provides detailed instructions on how to use popular FTP clients.