In this WordPress How To post I will be explaining how to install new themes onto your WordPress blog. There are several ways of installing a new theme onto your WordPress blog and I will briefly go over each of them.

How to Install Themes via the Dashboard of WordPress

You have two options for installing a theme via your WordPress Dashboard. The first way is to search for a theme. To do this, login to the Dashboard area of your WordPress blog and click on the ‘Appearance’ tab on the left hand side of the Dashboard, then click on the ‘Install Theme’ tab. Then you can either type in the name of the theme you would like to install (if you know the name of a theme you would like to install) or enter a term for what type of theme you are looking for, or tick the filter boxes for the type of theme you would like and click the ‘Find Themes’ button. You will now be shown a variety of themes or the theme for which you entered the name of. You can now install one of the themes you like by clicking on the ‘Install’ link below your chosen theme. You can now click on the ‘Activate’ link to apply the new theme to your blog, alternatively click the ‘Appearance’ tab over on the left to return to the ‘Manage Themes’ tab where you will see your new theme under ‘Available Themes’.

Now let’s take a look at uploading a theme from your computer. If you have purchased a premium theme or downloaded a theme to your computer, it will have to be uploaded to your WordPress blog. To do this login to your WordPress Dashboard, click on the ‘Appearance’ tab and then the ‘Install Theme’ tab. Under the top tabs you will see a row of links, if you click on the ‘Upload’ link it will allow you to choose a theme from your computer to be uploaded to your WordPress blog. You need to make sure that the file you select to upload is contained in a zip file otherwise it will not work. Choose the zip file from your computer and then click on the ‘Install Now’ button. Your theme will now be uploaded and  installed onto your blog. You can now either click the ‘Activate’ button now to use the theme immediately or click the ‘Return to Themes’ page to view all your available themes.

Using an FTP Client to Upload a New Theme

To upload your themes via an FTP client, you will need to have an FTP client installed and setup on your computer. If you check out ‘Why You Need An FTP Client When Using WordPress’ it will show you step-by-step how to download install and setup Filezilla, a free open source FTP client.

Now that you have an FTP client installed and setup you are ready to upload your theme. First you will need to open your FTP client (Filezilla), then you will need to locate your blogs directory in the right hand side window ‘Remote site’, once you have located your WordPress blogs directory, open the ‘wp-content’ folder and then the ‘themes’ folder within that. Now locate the theme you wish to upload from your computer in the left hand side window ‘Local site’. Before you upload the theme make sure you have unzipped the folder and are only uploading the theme folder itself. You can now drag your new theme from the ‘Local site’ window on the left to the ‘Remote site’ window on the right, once you have done this you just need to wait while the files upload. Once you see that your FTP client has finished uploading your new theme you can login to the dashboard of your WordPress blog, click on the ‘Appearance’ tab on the left. You will see your newly installed theme at the bottom under the ‘Available Themes’ section, if you want to use the theme you have just uploaded all you need to do is click on the ‘Activate’ link under the theme.

There you go – nothing to it, installing a new theme is a simple enough task to carry out and there are various ways you can do this as I have just shown you. Just by changing your blogs theme, you can freshen up your blog and make the look and feel of your blog that much better.

Thank you for taking the time to read this WordPress How To guide and I hope it has been of use to you.

Alester:-)
WordPress How To

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