January 18, 2014 Install your WordPress Theme Welcome back, last article I wanted you to find a theme you like so that way we can learn to install it. There are 3 ways to install a theme: 1. Manually through your FTP client into your hosting account file manager. Obviously if you are reading these tutorials this method is not for you, so we wont go into that. 2. Installing from the Appearance>themes>add new> then search using the criteria you may want; colors, columns, layout, features, header and subject. clicking find themes and installing 3. Is finding a 3rd party theme, downloading the files to your computer and uploading them at the Appearane>themes>add new>upload page. Lets go with the pros and cons of the 2nd two choices. Installing through the 2nd method are approved WordPress themes that don’t have the greatest out of the box features, but through plug ins and widgets and some customization you can get the desired look you want. Since these are approved they will have continued support and updates to the themes and updates to support future versions of wordpress. They are also free, which is a nice selling point. The 3rd method gives you the ability to find the exact look you want for your site with 1000’s of themes out there, again customization options can be hit or miss depending on how the developer structured the theme. Some of these themes may or may not be supported for future updates both to the themes and updates to wordpress, premium(not free) versions most likely will and free versions you never know. You may never need an update to the theme if there is no conflict with wordpress updates, so this may never become an issue. Our choice for paid themes that always have continued support and full functionality is themeforest. Here is a link: Theme Forest Installation Lets take our 2nd method and that is from the wordpress theme depository i like to call it. Appearance>themes>Add new>seach or featured, now pick some options, I like things to have a responsive layout and have a right or left sidebar depending on your preference. Click find themes at the bottom. You will see a grid view with quite a few theme options, find one you like and preview it. If you like the way it looks click install now below it. WordPress does all the work, if the install was successful you activate it as your new theme. If you do not activate it will stay installed in your theme section and you can always activate other themes or go back to that one. Here is a quick video tutorial of that method. Now the 3rd method involves finding that theme you love on third party website and downloading it to your computer and uploading and installing it to wordpress through the dashboard. First I hope you are familiar with downloading a file to your computer and knowing where to find it, usually in your default downloads folder. Once you find a theme, download it from the site with whatever link they give you. Now go to your dashboard>appearance>themes>add new>upload. You will be given the option to choose file. Click on choose file and find the zip folder that you downloaded and double click, or click and select open. Once the file name is in the box next to choose file click install now. Now you can live preview it, if you like it click activate. Here is a quick tutorial for this method. In the next article we will start the customization of our theme. There are some common options with most themes and vastly different other options and we will try and go over as many as possible.