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Switching themes: Can you change horses in the middle of a stream?

  1. samadams1773
    Member

    I'm about to the point where I know I want to use a different theme. I've done a bit of work on the present theme, but not a lot. Does it make sense to simply activate a new theme and have it "load" on top of the original (thus replacing the original)? Or does it make more sense to kill the first theme (blog) and build up another from scratch w/ the new theme? I think I've read that one can simply activate a new theme at will in WP but it seems to me there could be compatibility issues w/ the content developed for the first theme.

    I could go either way ...

  2. timethief
    Member

    If and only if you have a custom design upgrade and you have CSS edited the theme then CSS is theme specific. If you have custom CSS and later change themes, you need to delete whatever CSS you have in the Editor, otherwise, you’ll get undesired results.

    You cannot "kill" any theme you have previously used. I chnage themes so many time every day answering questions that I could never keep count. It takes minutes ot do this > Appearnce > Themes
    select theme > preview > activate if you like it

    No data is ever lost. You may have to locate some widgets here > Appearance > Widgets > Inactive widgets box and replace them as desired in sidebar and footer areas. You may have to create a bew header image of the correct size for the theme you use.

    If you do not choose a theme that has a drastically smaller maximum displayed image width in posts and pages or a dramatic change to sidebar width, there will be no resizing to do and this is all over in a few minutes time.

    To ‘reset’ a theme, you need to delete the CSS in the Editor, make sure the “add to existing CSS” radio button is checked, then save. Things should go back to normal.

  3. timethief
    Member

    P.S. I'm sorry about the typos. I'm visually challenged and trying to cope with a new keypad.

  4. samadams1773
    Member

    Hmmm - very interesting. I'll give it a shot.
    Thanks so much.

  5. timethief
    Member

    It's easy and you're welcome. :)

  6. samadams1773
    Member

    I thought of a related question. Suppose you have a them that you've developed/configured for hours to the extent where you like it. So then you want to create another website/blog and you'd like to "transfer" the original theme (w/ its custom configurations, etc) to the new one. Is there any way to do that, or must one simply create the new site, activate the theme desired, and configure it from scratch.

    I hope my question is clear.

  7. timethief
    Member

    you'd like to "transfer" the original theme (w/ its custom configurations, etc) to the new one. Is there any way to do that, or must one simply create the new site, activate the theme desired, and configure it from scratch.

    Yes, your question is clear. No, there is no way to "transfer" the customizations of a theme from one WordPress.com blog to another WordPress.com blog. As each theme is unique and each one theme has different features which can be customized this simply isn't possible.

    P.S. As I said above I switch themes on my test blogs so many times every day that I don't consider switching themes to be a big deal at all. No data is ever lost when we chnage themes. It's only a big deal if one has used the customizable features on one theme that do not exist on the theme they switch to, and/or if there is a dramaitc difference in maximum displayed image width and/or sidebar width.

  8. samadams1773
    Member

    10-4. Gracias.

  9. timethief
    Member

    You're welcome.

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