Have you finished part 1yet?

Bored already with the standard theme for your blog? Not surprising! There are so many blogs out there with the standard theme… So how do you change your theme?

Many installs of WordPress on hosting companies already include a selection of themes that you can choose from. So, if you host with Dreamhost, your install of Wordpess will already include some great themes. WordPress.com also includes some great themes, I’ve chosen a colorful variety of themes for you to look at. You may not like any of them! So don’t worry!

So how do you find out if you have any new themes you can install?

Ok. Login to your WordPress install, using your new password. Then you will see the Dashboard. Look along the top row of nine links for ‘Presentation’ and click on that!

You will see three options: Themes, Themes Editor and Widgets (some themes add extra options here, others don’t).

The one you need to click on is ‘Themes’ to get to Current Theme. At the top you will see your current theme, most likely similar to the one at the top of this post! If there are any additional themes installed, you will see them listed in ‘Available Themes’. (Later on, I will tell you how to install your own favorite theme so be patient!).

To change your theme, click on the picture of the theme you would like, and the page will reload. Let’s show you. I’m going to click on Abstrakt3c 2.0. See that theme has now become the blog theme.

You know this in two ways. One: it tells you that the theme is activated; and two: the thumbnail has changed! So let’s take a look at the front page, just briefly. Go to the front page of your blog by clicking on the “View Site” link. And …

Voila! You did a great job! Now if you don’t like the theme you chose… just repeat the steps for another theme. If you want to return to the old theme (as I do!), then similarly, just look for the theme you originally had. It’s that easy!

Having any problems finding your way around? Drop me a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

If you’re too busy, why don’t you sign up for my feed via RSS or Email, so you don’t have to keep checking the blog for the next part!

This series is intended to help WordPress beginners get to grips with some things that are not ‘intuitive’. In other words, it could be called “Things I wish I knew when I started blogging with WordPress in 2004!” (ed. to make more sense).

For the purposes of this series, I’m going to make some assumptions: that you’re using WordPress on your own hosted service, that you just have a plain vanilla setup, and that you’re just starting out with your first bloggings.

This is the blog I’m talking about, though. It is largely plain vanilla, but I’ve made some cosmetic changes. When you get yours, it will look more like the Kubrik theme like this.

So let’s get started. What do you do first?

First, you should log into your account and set your own password properly. This can be achieved quite simply.

Step 1: Locate the login area on the right hand sidebar towards the bottom. Click login.

Step 2: Use the original details you were emailed to log in. Your initial user id is ‘admin’ and your password is a mixture of six numbers/letters.

Step 3: Once logged in, you will see the Dashboard. This is the starting page for your navigation around WordPress. Along the top you will see nine tabs. Today we’re working with ‘Users’ only. So, locate ‘Users’ and click on it.

Step 4: Then you’ll see ‘Authors and Users’ and ‘Your Profile’. Click on ‘Your Profile’.

Step 5: Read the page that shows up and enter as many details as you need.

You will not be able to change the Username for this profile (but we’ll come back later and create additional users for you to do this!). On the bottom right, you can see your ‘Update your password’ area. You’ll need to create a good password and enter it twice. Once typed, hit ‘update profile’ and you’re set. Next time you login you will need to use the new password.

If you’re too busy, why don’t you sign up for my feed via RSS or Email, so you don’t have to keep checking the blog for the next part!

Is there anything you would like to see in this series? Do let me know. I’m aiming at WordPress beginners, but others may find topics later in the series helpful, too.

If you are a user of any of Sadish’s themes, WP-MistyLook being one of them, you’ll be excited to know that he is offering a special summer sale right now but I think you have to be a member of his mailing lists! So join up today!

This is Sadish Bala, wordpress theme creator.

You subscribe to this list as you are interested in getting my NigaRila theme http://nigarila.com

As a few of you might have noticed, I opened up a new shop at http://wpthemeshop.com where I sell NigaRila along with other themes.

I am here to give you a special offer.

Just buy and download NigaRila from http://wpthemeshop.com and I would give one other theme from that website for free. Just send an email mentioning the name of the other theme you want for free.

Hope you will make use of this offer.

Thanks
Sadish

Whether or not you buy anything today, do visit his website and blog about his great themes, both commercial and free! This is my way to say thank you to him!

Best Wishes