WordPress allows you to completely match the appearance of your site with its content. It is important to know that all your data (texts, images, etc.) will be completely separated from the material used to display them. For these purposes, the so-called theme and you can change it without any risk to the existing data.

So far I have used a theme called Twenty Fourteen Theme, which is one of the themes that belong to the standard version of WordPress. Considering that several different themes are automatically added to the program and that there are many new ones on the Internet, it is not uncommon for them to be changed and in this way the entire site is effectively redesigned. In this lesson I will show you how to do it. To make it easier to follow the whole process, I will keep the old look of the site in a separate section and change some parameters in parallel.

The selection of a new theme can be done in two ways. The first involves using the Toolbar and selecting the Themes option, and the second involves switching to the Dashboard and activating the option of the same name from the Appearance menu. In any case, you will see the so-called Theme Selector Page, a page where you can see all the themes available to you. The currently active theme is shown on the left, and I can currently use two other different systems – Twenty Thirteen and Twenty Twelve. I have to emphasize that the theme I am currently using is designed for magazine-type sites, while the other one is much more suitable for the so-called Blogs. It is characteristic that all the content is in one column, which is the complete opposite of what the third theme offers you. The third theme represents a typical Content Management System (CMS), which means that you can use it for mixed content.

For each of these themes, there is additional information, and to display it, simply click on the corresponding field. After that, an additional panel will appear on the screen, which means that in addition to the graphic display, a detailed description will also be available to you, and there is also a direct link to the site belonging to its author. If you want to display data related to another theme, just click on the arrow located in the upper left corner and WordPress will make sure that they become available to you immediately. The best thing is that you can immediately check if any of these themes suit your needs. This can be done by selecting the Live Preview button, by starting the Theme Customizer function, which you will learn more about in the next lesson. For now, it’s enough to remember that there is a function in WordPress that allows you to use existing data and check how it fits into the chosen theme. In doing so, you can freely use existing links and thus display any page. If it turns out that this theme meets your needs, it is enough to click on the Save & Activate button and the entire site will instantly get a new look. Otherwise, you can click on the Cancel button and continue with the selection. I will use the opportunity to try the third theme as well, because it seems to me that it best suits my data. Even if it turns out that it is necessary to make some minor changes, it will not be difficult for me because all the necessary functions are already displayed on the screen. I will leave them for one of the following lessons, and now I will simply click on the Save & Activate button and display the final version of my site. Now it is very nice to see how it differs from the previous one, and I must admit that I like the new organization much more.

As you have seen, changing the theme is a very simple process, and the most important thing is that the existing data is not lost.