Okay, you already know how to install the latest version of WordPress and want to switch away from the default WordPress theme look, but have no idea how to do it? Here’s the tutorial for you, complete with screenshots so even a beginner can easily follow along. With this three-step tutorial you’ll have a new blog theme ready in no time.
There are a few automated ways to do this, but like our previous tutorial, we will be focusing on manual WordPress theme installation only. This tutorial assumes you already have WordPress installed on your host. It also assumes you are installing a “normal” theme, i.e. no advanced functionality that would require additional plugins or configuration.
Step 1: Download your theme of choice
Unfortunately WordPress can’t read minds, so you’ll have to pick out the theme you want to use. Call me biased, but some of the templates on our free WordPress themes page are quite nice. For this tutorial we’ll choose the Blue Green theme. Click the download link, and save the .zip file to your hard drive.
Extract the /blue-green/ folder only. All you have to do with Readme.txt is read it (which is why it’s called a readme file) and isn’t needed for the next step - uploading the theme to WordPress.
Step 2: Upload the theme directory to WordPress
Seems simple enough, right? It really is, if you know where to upload it. Use an FTP client such as FileZilla to connect to your hosting account. Navigate to where WordPress is installed and locate the /wp-content/themes/ directory. Upload the /blue-green/ directory it. After you’re done, it should look something like this.
The hard part is now out of the way. The next and final step is to activate the theme within your WordPress admin panel.
Step 3: Activate the theme within your WordPress admin panel
Login to your WordPress admin panel, and navigate to the Presentation tab. You should now be at a screen that looks like this.
Wow, look, you can already see the Blue Green screenshot below! WordPress reads the directory and searches for the screenshot image and stylesheet within it. Simply click on it, and your theme is activated.
That wasn’t so bad was it? WordPress makes it simple like that. If you still need help, feel free to ask in our general support forum for assistance. Feel free to leave a comment or subscribe to our feed if you liked this tutorial.
Anyways, how can one contact you to do...
hi.. i juz want to ask.. wat do u mean by hosting account and “Navigate to where WordPress is installed and locate the /wp-content/themes/ directory”?? Please explain elaborately.. I was planning to open a blog on wordpress and searched for some reviews about it and ended up here.. If u wouldn’t mind please explain step 2 in a more comprehensive way.. [**dumbfound sori**]
This seems to be strictly a WordPress.ORG tutorial rather than WordPress.COM (and the author may want to specify as such to avoid further confusion)
I’m pretty sure wordpress.COM doesn’t allow you to upload custom themes, anyway.
When you install WordPress, you’ll find these directories in your FTP client while connected to the server. I’m not sure how else to explain it. You may want to consult with your web hosting provider.
HELP im like first user….
where do i access the ftp
i tried ftp://wordpress.com or ftp://username.wordpress.com
both dont work.
what do u mean installed wordpress?
i signed up to wordpress site i didnt install anything
Okay, I’m talking about self-hosted WordPress. Not WordPress.com blogs.
and on wordpress.com? how do i change the theme????
i have a theme i d/l from a site i want to upload it and use it (not the theme they offer)
I don’t think you can do that on WordPress.com …
do you know how I can upload a theme to a WordPress.com blogs
Thank You
i get something like this
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_header() in /homepages/37/d237123450/htdocs/wordpress/index.php on line 1
@Shah: Have you installed WordPress first? Are you uploading the theme to the proper directory?
Hi Leland,
This is a great post and have kept it in my bookmarks. Will continue to read it as i’m very new to a lot of the points you mention!
Thanks though, i’m glad some people share good stuff like this!
@shah can you provide us the url on where you encounter the error?
My admin panel does not have a presentation tab. What should I do?
@Joan: Try the “Design” tab if you’re using WordPress 2.5 and above. This tutorial was written when 2.3 came out.
I’ve upload (FTP) a theme to the correct folder but it does not show up. What could be wrong? I’ve checked and it is not a nested folder situation. I’ve checked permissions (755). I’m stuck.
@Kerri: On the themes page in your admin panel, if you scroll to the bottom - do you see any errors?
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand these directions at all, and I am usually pretty good at these things. The only thing I understood was downloading Filezilla, which I did.
But some of the terminology used here is beyond my knowledge. Would it be possible to explain certain things please?
Step 2 needs a lot more explanation…
Thank you.
THANK YOU!!! This was so easy, I would have never figured it out without your TUT help!
I am trying to use the controls in cPanel but it does not have the tool “unlimited FTP” so it is more complicated also every thing you say above is a complete mystery to me.
Please have an other go but in full this time
thank you
Man, this was great!! I wish I had a tutorial like this when I first tried to install a theme.
thanks a for your tutorial,i learned a lot from this !!!!
Thank you very much for this post! I had tried to do this before and was unsuccessful and even paid someone to do it for me…but then I needed to add things and they wanted to keep charging me.
I found your post…followed your instructions to a T and it worked great! Thanks!!
Hi,
how do i upload a theme if I do not have a hosting provider but using wordpress.com hosting?
i uploaded the themes into my admin folder and i cant select them. i’m sorry for this “stupid” question but i’m very new to this stuff.
I uploaded the theme to my themes section of my wordpress file and now how or where do I Activate the theme within your WordPress admin panel…. Where do I log in at??
I am very new here so please someone email me and tell me what to do …. Thank you!!!
Hi everybody,
Please help me. I could not get my directory listing on Filezilla. I don’t know what to put in the field Remote Site. When I tried to do it like the example above, it didn’t work.
Please help with this step.
Thank you.
Ian
I can’t activate some themes anymore, its stuck and see no activation button..is there another way..
OMG! thank you! Everyone else made it so confusing. I saw your tutorial and Zing, success. Thank you so much. I am so full of gratitude!!!!!!!
Lisa
how do you DOWNLOAD any part of Wordpress onto your computer? We are using a wordpress blog…and have never downloaded anything onto the computer. Once I get it downloaded, I will understand how to do the other steps. What is there to download? Can someone provide a link to this download. Thanks.
you can download wordpress at http://www.wordpress.org
there you’ll have all the needed files and instructions, in addition to themes, plugins, etc…
Hi!
Everything perfect except that I do not find “the Presentation tab”
Could you tell me where it is?
Nice blog I will follow u from now on!
First of all thanks for being here. Trying to load a theme and everything appears to be okay except I get a functions.php on line 61 error. Any ideas what I can do about this. John
Okay, this tutorial is a little out of date, since it was written for WP 2.3. There is no “Presentation” tab anymore, but you can still change themes under the “Appearance” menu.
Also another note, THIS IS FOR SELF HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOGS ONLY and not WordPress.com users, sorry.
@John: Well, that would be an issue with your theme, and it doesn’t really have to do anything with the information contained in this tutorial. May I ask what theme you’re using? E-mail me through my contact form.
Have hosting w/ Go Daddy who although Word Press recommends them as a host will not help with the very confusing uploading of themes or anything else WordPress! When I download the desired theme to my computer it is UNZIPPED. So when I tried to use the FTP Client folder and move the file from the local to the remote in my Go Daddy Hosting folder, it did not download. Then Go Daddy refused to tell me how to unzip file or do it properly! Word Press is very difficult to use and I hope that future versions will be more user friendly. There are currently so many side steps and constant refrencing to one’s hosting site. This makes things unnecessarily difficult. Themes and templates should simply upload to the site directly and everything should be able to be done from one’s Word Press dashboard!
@Courtney: With WordPress 2.8 you will be able to automatically download themes from the respository, kind of like how you can install plugins with WordPress 2.7.
And just a note, the hosts WordPress “recommends” at http://wordpress.org/hosting/ are mostly affiliate links, including the one to Go Daddy.