2. What’s A Theme?
Themes control what people see on the front end
of your website.
If WordPress is the engine powering your site,
themes are the body of the car it drives.

3. More Than Just Looks
Themes are responsible for:
• Hiding or showing content & metadata
• Creating containers to insert widgets & menus
• Enabling adding functionality (often powered by
plugins)

4. Controlled By Your Theme
• Number of columns
• Styles & CSS
• Typography
• Thumbnail image placement & size
• Meta information display & size

5. Twenty Sixteen (Default Theme)
• Pre-loaded when you install WordPress
• Used to showcase the features of WordPress
• New default theme released each year
• Super useful when things go wrong

6. https://wordpress.org/themes

7. Appearance > Themes

8. Commercial Themes

11. Child Themes
• If you modify a theme directly and it is updated, then your
modifications may be lost. By using a child theme you will ensure
that your modifications are preserved.
• Using a child theme can speed up development time.
• Using a child theme is a great way to learn about WordPress
theme development.
Source: WordPress Codex

12. Theme Considerations
• What are you using it for?
• Key functionality
• Translations/multilingual considerations
• Plugin compatibility
• Ease of use
• Responsive is not optional

13. Evaluating Themes
Who’s the author?
Popularity/downloads
Ratings & reviews
Support

14. • Last Updated
• Popularity
• Rating

16. What do users
have to say
about features
and support?

17. Installing a Theme

21. Exercise:
Play Around With Live Previews

23. Exercise:
Install a New Theme

24. Activating a Theme

26. Customizer Lab