Creating Websites With WordPress CS 49 – Week 3: Themes!

Agenda Themes Modifying Themes with CSS, HTML, and PHP

What’s a Theme? To a certain extent, themes let you "skin" your site. But, it is more than just a "skin." Skinning your site implies that only the design is changed. WordPress Themes can provide much more control over the look and presentation of the material on your website. A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a site. These files are called template files. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Themes may include customized template files, image files (*.jpg, *.gif), style sheets (*.css), custom Pages, as well as any necessary code files (*.php).

Obtaining Themes You can obtain themes in a number of ways: http://wordpress.org/themes/ From within your Dashboard: Appearance > Themes > Install Themes > Search From 3rd party vendors

Installing a Theme To install a theme: Log into your site as an admin. In the Dashboard, go to Appearance>Themes. Click Install Themes. If you’re searching for a theme, locate it; if you have already downloaded a theme, click Upload and then upload the theme. Click Install Now. To activate, click Activate.

Modifying Themes Dashboard > Appearance > Themes If your theme allows editing in the Dashboard, click Customize/Menus/Header/Background/Footer to edit within WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Editor Click the appropriate PHP/CSS file Edit the PHP or CSS accordingly Using Chrome’s and Firefox’s “Inspect Element” can help you figure out what needs to be changed.