WordPress Tutorial: FAQ on Themes?

New and Existing users of WordPress may have questions on WordPress, WordPress Tutorial, WordPress Themes and D5 Creation. Users may find this answers helpful for them.

What is a WordPress Theme?

Simply stated, a theme dictates the design and functionality of your website without changing the basic WordPress software. A WordPress theme is your superhero clothing. Your WordPress Pages, Posts, Permalinks and other basic structural elements are the arms, torso and legs of your superhero. The theme is the cape, lariat, boots and gloves.

Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is a way to "skin" your weblog. Yet, 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 weblog. 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).

How Should I Choose a Theme?

Changing Themes is not as easy as pressing a button, so you should really start with a few Basic Questions about the goals of your WordPress Site. Like:

  • Are you using WordPress for only blogging or an entire website as a CMS? The more complicated your site design and functionality, the more robust and flexible you'll need the theme to be. Like, D5 Creation Offers Simpliest Theme Options with the Premium Themes so that a New User also can configure the Site Easily.
  • How does the theme reflect your brand or personality? Some themes have a very fixed look and feel which can only be tweaked with code. Other themes, like CORPORATE is extremely flexible in both style and functionality.
  • Can the theme enable your site to change and grow along with you and your goals? Again, you'll want something flexible enough for future growth.

You also want to be asking a few questions related to the theme itself:

  • What kind of support does the theme developer offer? This is one of the main differences between Free and premium WordPress themes. Like D5 Creation's Paid Members Receive Dedicated Support by Support.
  • How flexible is the Page layout? Does it allow you to have 2 columns on single posts and one column on your about Page? This will be more important if your designing a website and not just a blog that's added to an existing site. Like D5 Creatiuon's Themes have one column, two column, full width layouts.
  • Does the theme have a developer community that shares creative ways of using the theme? Like D5 Creation has a FORUM.
  • Who else is using the theme? How are they using it? What industries do they represent? If you're launching a website to talk about legalizing marijuana and most of the users are lawyers, pick another theme. The Number of Users and Visitors of a Theme Developer Site may represent this.

Get out pen and paper and take notes on what you find. Begin with the first Theme and take time to closely look at all the details on each of the page generated views:

  • Front Page View
  • Single Post View
  • Archives View
  • Category View
  • Search View
  • Comments

Pay close attention to how each page view differs from the other. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is the single post view different from the multi-post view?
  • Is the sidebar viewed across all views or just certain views? Which?
  • Do you see the number of comments on all of the multi-post views of the posts, or just some?
  • Does the header change on any of the views?
  • Does the width of the content area change on any of the views?
  • If there is a sidebar on all the views, do the items on the sidebar change depending upon the view?
  • How is the navigation? Can you find the different parts and pieces to move around the site?
  • Is everything easy to read and find?
  • Do you like the colors?
  • Do you like the width of the parts and pieces or do you wish they were wider or narrower?
  • Test the links – they change when hovered over. Do you like the results?
  • Are the links easy to see and separate from the text without being distracting?
  • Are the colors complementary?
  • Are their icons, symbols, and small graphics on the site that enhance or distract from the overall look?

Now Compare D5 Creation's Theme with Others! D5 Creation's Themes and Theme Options are as Simple as you like the best

How Shall I Install a WordPress Theme?

If the Theme that you are installing provides instructions, be sure to read through and follow those instructions for the successful installation of the Theme. It is recommended that Theme developers provide installation instructions for their own Themes, because Themes can provide special optional functionality that may require more steps than the basic installation steps covered here. If your Theme does not work after following any provided instructions, please contact the Theme author for help. Make sure you have a copy of your old theme on your computer in case something goes wrong with the new theme. All the processes described below will overwrite your existing Theme Files but keep the posts, pages, contents, settings etc. as it was.

Adding New Themes using the Administration Panel

  Follow the Second Option of the Video.
  • Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels
  • Select the Appearance panel, then Themes
  • Select Add New
  • Either use the Search or Filter options to locate a Theme you would like to use ( For Free Themes )
  • Click on the Preview link to preview the Theme or the Install Now link to upload the Theme to your blog
  • Or use the Upload link in the top links row to upload a zipped copy of a Theme that you have previously downloaded to your machine ( For Free or Premium Themes )
  • Install and Activate Theme

The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini Problem ?

This is not a Theme Issue. This is because your host/server has set a maximum file upload size for PHP which is lower than the Theme ZIP size. A Standard WordPress Host should have more than 20MB Size but many hosts have lesser than 2MB. So, if you face this problem, please contact your host/webmaster to increase the Maximum File Upload Size in PHP.ini or follow the Adding New Themes Manually (FTP) Method

Adding New Themes by using cPanel

If your host offers the cPanel control panel, and the Theme files are in a .zip or .gz archive follow these instructions. Note: This assumes the Theme you download is a compressed (zip) file and the files in the zip file are in their 'named' folder.  
  • Download the Theme zip file to your local machine.
  • In cPanel File Manager, navigate to your Themes folder. If you have WordPress installed in it's own folder called wordpress, you would navigate to "public_html/wordpress/wp-content/themes" and if WordPress is installed in your web-root folder you would navigate to "public_html/wp-content/themes".
  • Once you've navigated to the Themes folder in cPanel File Manager, click on Upload file(s) and upload that zip file you already saved.
  • Once the zip file is uploaded, click on the zip file name in cPanel, then in the panel to the right, click on Extract File Contents, and that zip file will be uncompressed.
  • Follow the instructions below for "Selecting the Active Theme"

Adding New Themes Manually (FTP). The Most Active Way That You Should Use

  To add a new Theme to your WordPress installation, follow these basic steps:
  • Download the Theme archive and extract the files it contains. You may need to preserve the directory structure in the archive when extracting these files. Follow the guidelines provided by your Theme author.
  • Using an FTP client like FileZilla to access your host web server, create a directory to save your Theme in the wp-content/themes directory provided by WordPress. For example, a Theme named "d5-corporate" should be in "wp-content/themes/d5-corporate". Your Theme may provide this directory as part of the archive.
  • Upload the Theme files to the new directory on your host server.
  • Follow the instructions below for "Selecting the Active Theme"

Selecting the Active Theme

To select a Theme for your site:
  • Log in to the WordPress Administration Panel.
  • Select the Appearance panel, then Themes.
  • From the Available Themes section, click on the Theme title (or Theme screenshot) for the Theme you wish to activate.
  • A preview of the Theme will be shown.
  • To activate the Theme click the Activate "Theme Name" link in the top right.

Read More On

Configuring Theme Options

Our Themes are distributed with the Simplest Theme Options which have Powerful Features. It is as Easy as You think for using. You will find the Theme Options by:
  • Log in to the WordPress Administration Panel.
  • Select the Appearance panel, then Theme Options (Like Small Business Options).