When you use WordPress to build your website, one of the most thrilling parts is getting to design how it will look and feel. WordPress themes are what you use to design the appearance and user experience of your WordPress website or blog, without coding knowledge. This chapter will also introduce what WordPress themes are, guide on how to choose the best theme for your site, and reuse an existing theme by cloning it into a different folder.
Introduction to WordPress Themes
3.1 What are WordPress themes?
Just like food, a WordPress theme is a set of files that determine the look and layout of your site. Themes manage how your site looks—everything from styling your typography and colors to the page layouts you can use, as well as where any available widgets will appear. Themes provide structure but let you personalize and brand your site the way YOU want it.
WordPress offers hundreds of themes for niche industries, all with a wide range of options, and the styles (especially image sizes in sidebars) vary dramatically. This means that no matter what you’re building, whether it’s a simple blog layout or a big business professional site, there’s always a theme to meet your needs.
Why Themes Matter:
• Uniformity: By providing a uniform theme, themes can keep your website design consistent across pages and devices—making it polished and cohesive.
• User Experience: A good-looking theme improves user experience with organized text and responsiveness to mobile users.
• Custom Design: While templates are great for their out-of-the-box appearance and functionality, sometimes they mean you are limited in your colors, fonts, or layout choices.
• SEO Benefits: Certain themes are SEO-friendly, ensuring good loading times for your site and following best practices.
3.2 Selecting the Best Theme for Your Site
The theme is crucial because it forms the foundation of your website’s design. With so many options available, it can be difficult to choose the best one. However, using a methodical approach can help narrow down your choices.
Steps to Select the Right Theme:
• Determine the Purpose of Your Website: Start by figuring out what your website is meant to achieve. Is it a personal blog, an online portfolio, a business site, or an e-commerce store? Choose a theme that aligns with your website’s purpose. For example, if your site is an online store, look for themes optimized for WooCommerce.
• Think about Features: Themes vary widely in terms of built-in features. Make sure the theme you select comes with the features you need, such as a homepage slider, different layout options, or integration with specific plugins. Also, confirm that the theme is mobile-responsive, meaning it looks good on all screen sizes.
• Look for Ratings and Reviews: Whether you’re choosing a free theme or a premium one, user ratings and reviews can provide insights into how well the theme performs in real-world use. Look for themes with high ratings and positive reviews, particularly for reliability, ease of use, and support.
• Theme Demo & Testing: Most themes provide demo versions that allow you to test out the design. Explore the demo to understand the layout, typography, and overall feel. Also, test the theme on different devices like desktop, tablet, and mobile to ensure it’s responsive.
• Customization Options: Many themes allow you to adjust design elements via the WordPress Customizer or theme settings. If you have specific design needs, such as changing color schemes or font sizes, check if the theme offers those customization options.
• Speed and Performance: A slow theme can hurt both the user experience and SEO. Test the theme demo’s speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. A fast-loading theme ensures better efficiency and keeps your site competitive in search engine rankings.
3.3 Customizing Themes: Using the Customizer Tool
After selecting your theme, the next step is to customize it to fit your needs. WordPress has a built-in tool called the Customizer, which lets you visually modify your website without writing any code.
Accessing the WordPress Customizer:
- Log In to the WordPress Dashboard: Open your WordPress dashboard.
- Appearance > Customize: From the left sidebar, click on “Appearance,” then select “Customize.” This will bring up the Customizer interface.
- Explore Customization Choices: On the left, you’ll see the customization panel with setup options, while a live preview of your website appears on the right.
Key Customizer Options:
• Site Identity: Upload your logo, set the site title, and add a tagline. You can also change your site favicon (the small icon in browser tabs).
• Colors and Backgrounds: Most themes allow you to adjust primary colors. Modify background, header, and link colors to match your brand.
• Typography: Some themes let you change fonts, font sizes, and line spacing.
• Menus and Navigation: Create custom menus and choose where they will be displayed (e.g., header or footer).
• Homepage Display: Choose between showing recent blog posts or a static page as the homepage.
• Widget Editing: Customize widget placement and content in sidebars, footers, or other areas.
Before saving, the Customizer lets you preview all changes in real-time. Once you’re satisfied with the layout, click “Publish” to apply the changes live.
3.4 Create a Child Theme for Extensive Customizations
While the Customizer lets you modify many aspects of your theme, there are limits to what you can do without altering code. For more advanced customizations, such as editing theme templates or stylesheets, it’s best to create a child theme.
What Is a Child Theme?
A child theme is a sub-theme that inherits the functionality and styling of its parent theme. By creating a child theme, you can modify the appearance and functionality of your site without affecting the original theme’s files. This ensures that your customizations remain safe even when the parent theme is updated.
Why Use a Child Theme?
• Keep Customizations: Any changes made directly to theme files will be lost when the theme updates. A child theme protects your customizations.
• Safely Test: A child theme lets you experiment with design and functionality without risking the stability of your main site.
• Revert Easily: If you make an error while customizing your child theme, it’s easy to revert to the original theme without losing your work.
How To Create A Child Theme
- Create a Child Theme Folder:
- Use FTP or your hosting provider’s file manager to navigate to the wp-content/themes directory.
- Create a new folder for your child theme. Name it something like themename-child.
- Create a style.css File:
- Inside the child theme folder, create a file named style.css.
- Add the following code to the file:
css
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/*
Theme Name: Your Child Theme
Template: themename
*/
- Replace “Your Child Theme” with your chosen child theme name, and “themename” with your parent theme’s directory name.
- Create a functions.php File:
- Create a functions.php file in the child theme folder.
- Add the following code to enqueue the parent theme’s stylesheet:
php
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<?php
/** Child theme enqueue styles */
function child_theme_enqueue_styles() {
wp_enqueue_style( ‘parent-style’, get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/style.css’ );
}
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘child_theme_enqueue_styles’ );
?>
- Activate the Child Theme:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Themes, and activate the child theme.
With the child theme active, you can now modify its files to make more advanced customizations, like changing layouts or adding new features. You should now have a solid grasp of how to choose, customize, and modify WordPress themes. Whether you’re making small tweaks or diving into advanced child theme customizations, WordPress provides all the tools needed to create a stunning and functional site.
The next chapter will guide you on creating and organizing content with posts, pages, and media.