How to Add a New Theme to your WordPress Site
There are lots of sites offering both free and premium WordPress Themes. Just use a search engine to search for WordPress themes. You will find plenty of sites to choose from. In this example, I’m going to use the WordPress.org site, but these instructions should work for most sites.{+}
Download the theme
Most sites offer you the chance to preview a theme before downloading it. Once you’ve chosen your theme, download it. I have a folder on my computer named “wp themes” so I can find my downloaded themes easily. I’m going to use the “Open Air” theme from WordPress.org.
Unzip the theme
Most themes come as .zip files. Use your computer’s built in unzip software, or another unzip program such as Winzip, 7 Zip or Coffee Cup Unzip to extract the theme to a folder on your hardrive. As above, I put mine in my wp-themes folder so I can find them.
Add your ftp account details to Filezilla
Upload the theme
Use ftp software to upload your theme to your WordPress site. I use Filezilla, which is free. You can download it from http://filezilla-project.org/. Choose Filezilla client.
- If you haven’t used Filezilla to connect to your site before you will need to set up your ftp account in Filezilla
- Click on File/Site Manager and then fill in the details of your site.
- Choose “Normal” from the Logontype box. Enter your username and password. Note this is NOT your WordPress username and password it is your hosting account username and password.
Once your ftp software is connected to your site:
- Navigate through the left-hand (Local site) menu to find the saved (unzipped) theme on your computer.
- Then navigate through the right-hand (Remote site) menu to find your wp-themes folder. This is usually located in public-html/wp-content/themes, if you host more than one domain this could be public_html/mydomain/wp-content/themes.
Upload a theme to wordpress
- Make sure that “themes” is selected in the Remote Site menu.
- Right click on the FOLDER containing your theme in the Local Site menu.
- Click on Upload.
- Your theme will be uploaded to your WordPress site
Appearance menu
Activate your new theme
- Login to your WordPress admin area and look for “Appearance” in the lefthand menu (I use WordPress 2.7)
- Select Themes
- You will see a list of installed themes
Activate your new WordPress Theme
- Click on your new theme and you will see a full size preview on your screen
- Click on “Activate theme-name” at the top right of your screen
- If your theme is customisable you might see a new item has been added to your Appearance menu.
- Here you can see the Openair options item has been added
- Click on the new options item to customise your new theme. Some themes are more customisable than others. Don’t be afraid to try several themes in order to give your website the appearance that you want.
Wordpress Theme Options Menu