Themes: Changing the appearance of your site
Choosing a theme allows you to determine the visual aspects, or “look,” of your site. All sites come with a default theme, but you can change the theme, and customize that theme, once it is activated on your site. Each theme will have different customization options.
Changing your Site’s Theme
1. To change your current theme, going to your site Dashboard and clicking Appearance > Themes in the left-hand menu. You can browse through the available themes or search for themes using the search box on this same screen. If you hover over a theme, you can choose Details to get more information about a theme before previewing it or installing it, or Live Preview to view the theme with your site’s content without changing your current theme.
2. Once you have decided on a theme, you can either choose Live Preview or Activate to install your chosen theme.
3. If you choose to preview a theme, you will be taken to another screen where you can edit the site identity (title and the short description of your site), background color, header image, background image, and more. Click Activate & Publish in the left-hand menu to save any changes that you make on this screen and to install the theme on your site.
Customizing a Theme
Different themes will have different customizations options available to you. For example, some themes will allow you to change the header image or change the theme colors, and some themes will not.
If you choose to activate a theme, you can customize that theme (e.g., ad a custom header image, add custom menus, etc.) by clicking Customize underneath “Manage Themes.” You can also choose to customize your theme at a later time.
Themes and Custom Menus
If you have created a custom menu, you may need to reactivate it if you change your theme. At first glance, it will appear that your menu may have been erased. However, all that has happened is that your menu has been deactivated and removed from it’s primary location.
1. To reactivate your menu, simply go to Menus under Appearance and select Manage Location at the top of the page.
2. Depending on the theme you using, that page might have anywhere from one to three or four possible options. Identify where you’d like the menu to be (chances are it will be Primary Navigation) and choose your menu from the dropdown next to that location. Click Save Changes and you’re finished.
This article is adapted from City Tech OpenLab Help, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
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