Author: Mitch Keeler

Messing around with WordPress can sometimes be a scary task to put on your proverbial to do list. What does all this stuff do – and what if I break things? This is especially true for new bloggers wanting to change their theme.

With that in mind I figured I would create a simple and sweet guide to changing and installing a new WordPress theme for those out there who are a little frightened by the task at hand.

Number one thing you must remember is honestly there is nothing scary about this whole process. WordPress does a pretty good job at keeping it simple.

Step 1: Find the Theme of Your Dreams

There are tons of great themes and theme designers out there today. For an example, lets just take the free WordPress themes that Todd created. You could always just randomly search Google for “free wordpress themes” to find a few good ones too. My other favorite way of hunting down good looking WordPress theme-age is by going to the WordPress Theme Viewer.

Step 2: Unpack and Install Your New WordPress Theme

Most themes you find Online will be zipped or have some of the file compression done to them. You will need to open that up, and drag the theme folder (usually has the same name as the theme) to your desktop. For an example, let us just call it “greenlayout” Now open that folder up, and make sure that you see a lot of PHP files, one or two CSS files and maybe some other miscellaneous stuff (depending on the theme you are using). Some themes a fairly simple and others are pretty complex.

Now you get to move to the uploading phase. Connect to your hosting account with the FTP client of your choice, and get inside of your WordPress install. Usually the path you will want to take is:

public_html > wp-content > themes

Each folder in here represents one WordPress theme. Now I want you to upload that folder you unzipped earlier to this location. Take that folder (the one named “greenlayout”) and move it inside the themes folder. The hardest part is now done.

Step 3: Activate Your New Theme in WordPress

Now go back to your browser, login to your WordPress administrator interface – and go to the “presentation” section. Once there you should now see a new listing for your new WordPress theme you just installed. From there, click on the one you want and you are done. Now go check out your web site and see how you like your new theme.