How to Install and Activate a WordPress Theme

Installing a WordPress theme is extremely straightforward. WordPress themes available for download from various places on the web are typically packaged in .zip files (i.e. theme-name.zip). Installing a WordPress theme involves nothing quite unzipping the .zip file into the acceptable directory of your WordPress installation, and activating the theme from your WordPress administration console.

Structure of a WordPress Theme

In order for you to put in your new WordPress theme correctly, you would like to know the fundamentals of how the WordPress system interacts with themes. A WordPress theme needs three essential files so as to figure correctly with the WordPress administration:

o An index.php file: This file is the controller of a WordPress blog. Most WordPress themes even have other PHP files that represent various sections of a WordPress page, but index.php is that the only truly necessary PHP file.

o A style.css file: This file controls the design and layout of the WordPress-based website using style definitions. It also contains the knowledge that's utilized in the Manage Themes section of WordPress to display the theme name, version, author, and outline

o A "screenshot" image: This image is employed to make a preview of the corresponding theme within the Manage Themes section of the WordPress administration. It is often any of the common web graphics files (png, jpg, gif), but it must be named screenshot. as an example, screenshot.png, screenshot.jpg, or screenshot.gif.

If you've got your theme from a designer who knows what he's doing, you do not actually need to stress about ensuring the theme is about up correctly. If you are not sure, you would possibly just want to double-check that you've got got the essential files needed to put in your theme.

WordPress Directory Structure

The WordPress divi website directory structure contains three folders within the root directory:

o wp-admin
o wp-content
o wp-includes

Under the wp-content folder, there's a folder called themes. Inside this folder is where you would like to deposit the folder that contains your theme. Here's an example. Say I'm installing a topic for a recipe blog. The theme is named Recipe, and its folder structure seems like this:

recipe-blog/
index.php
style.css
screenshot.png

This theme would normally be packaged during a .zip file. To use the theme, I might get to unpackage the file, then upload it (probably using FTP) into my WordPress themes folder. If I even have WordPress installed on my webserver under a directory called blog, my directory structure would appear as if this:

/WordPress/wp-content/themes/recipe-blog/

index.php

style.css

screenshot.png

Activating a WordPress Theme

After I upload the theme to the right directory, I can now attend my WordPress administration to activate it. After logging in to the WordPress admin section, I'm going to Appearances->Themes. I can see that my new theme is installed correctly and prepared to be activated because I can see it under Available Themes on the Manage Themes page.