How to Change a WordPress Theme Without Hosting Right Away
If you’re looking to change the look of your WordPress website without having to build from scratch, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’re going to walk you through step-by-step how to change the theme of a WordPress website without hosting right away. So let’s get started.
The Difference Between Themes and Adjusting The Look Of A WordPress Website
Before we begin, it’s important to understand the difference between a theme and adjusting the look of a WordPress website. A theme is what gives your website its visual style, while adjusting the look of a WordPress website changes some of the small things, like the fonts and colors used, that don’t change the overall feel and tone of your site.
With a theme, you can completely switch out the look and feel of your website through one simple click of a button. You don’t have to worry about changing hundreds of files and having to rebuild everything from scratch.
The Steps To Changing The Theme Of A WordPress Website Without Hosting
Now that you understand the difference between a theme and adjusting the look of a WordPress website, let’s get into the steps to changing the theme of a WordPress website without hosting.
The first step is to sign in to your WordPress dashboard and click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. Next, click on Settings in the menu that appears and choose the Theme option from the menu that appears.
This will take you to the Theme Settings area of WordPress where you can change the details about your theme, including its name and the colors used for the site’s design. You can download and install additional themes from within WordPress by navigating to Appearance > Themes in your dashboard. Now that you’ve set the theme for your WordPress site, let’s move on to the next step.
Activate The New Theme
Once you’ve set the theme for your WordPress site and downloaded and installed the theme files, it’s time to activate them. To do this, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the WordPress dashboard and choose Install Theme from the menu that appears. Alternatively, you can click on the Activate button located under the selected theme’s details in the dashboard.
Installing a theme is as easy as clicking on the Install button and following the instructions. You don’t have to do anything more than that. WordPress will walk you through the process step-by-step and will install the theme properly for you.
Once the theme has been activated, navigate to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard and you’ll see the new theme listed there along with the other themes you have installed. To change the theme, simply click on it and click on the Activate button located at the top right corner of the screen.
Make The Adjustments You Need To
Now that the theme is installed and activated on your WordPress site, it’s time to make the small changes needed to make your site look the way you want it to. Navigation bars at the top of the page, for example, can be changed through CSS. Headers and footers can be edited to suit your needs. And the amount of space between the individual blog posts can be controlled through the use of widgets.
Editing the HTML or the WordPress code of your site is another great way to make changes to your website’s design without having to download and install a different theme. If you’re feeling creative, you can take this route instead. And if you’re looking to create a child theme to better serve your needs, you can follow the instructions within this WordPress support article to get started.
Make Sure Everything Is Where You Expect It To Be
Last but not least, take the time to make sure everything on your WordPress site is where you expect it to be. To do this, simply log in to your dashboard and click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. This will bring up a menu with several options, including Plugins, Theme, and Backup & Restore.
Click on the Plugins option and you’ll see all the plugins that are installed on your site. From here, you can deactivate any plugins that you don’t need or want. Just remember, disabling a plugin can break your site, so be careful when making this choice.
The Theme option lets you switch out the entire look of your site, while the Backup & Restore option lets you create a backup of your site before making changes and then restoring the backup after the changes have been made. This option is great if you’ve been creating significant changes to your site’s design and you want to make sure everything goes back to the way it was before.
With all the different options available to you in the WordPress dashboard, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So take a deep breath and click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen to bring up the menu. From here, you can disable any plugins that you don’t need or want, activate the WordPress theme you just installed, or create a new theme using the instructions below.