Installing best free wordpress themes is quite simple. WordPress themes accessible for download from many places on the Net are usually packaged in.zip files (i.e. theme-name.zip). Installing a WordPress theme includes nothing more than unzipping the.zip file into the suitable directory of your WordPress installation, and activating the theme from your WordPress administration console.
Structure of a WordPress Theme
In order for you to set up your new WordPress theme properly, you have to have to understand the fundamentals of how the WordPress technique interacts with themes. A WordPress theme requirements 3 necessary files in order to operate appropriately with the WordPress administration:
o An index.php file: This file is the controller of a WordPress blog. Most WordPress themes also have other PHP files that represent different sections of a WordPress page, but index.php is the only definitely essential PHP file.
o A style.css file: This file controls the look and layout of the WordPress-based web page working with style definitions. It also contains the data that is utilised in the Handle Themes section of WordPress to show the theme name, version, author, and description
o A “screenshot” image: This image is utilized to build preview of the corresponding theme in the Manage Themes section of the WordPress administration. It can be any of the widespread web graphics files (png, jpg, gif), but it requires to be named screenshot. For instance, screenshot.png, screenshot.jpg, or screenshot.gif.
If you have gotten your theme from a designer who knows what he’s carrying out, you don’t definitely need to have to worry about making sure the theme is set up properly. If you’re not certain, you could just want to double-verify that you’ve got the basic files necessary to install your theme.
WordPress Directory Structure
The WordPress directory structure contains three folders in the root directory:
o wp-admin
o wp-content
o wp-incorporates
Under the wp-content material folder there is a folder referred to as themes. Inside this folder is exactly where you will need to deposit the folder that consists of your theme. Here’s an instance. Say I am installing a theme for a recipe blog. The theme is named Recipe, and its folder structure looks like this:
recipe-weblog/
index.php
style.css
screenshot.png
This theme would generally be packaged in a.zip file. To use the theme, I would will need to unpackage the file, then upload it (in all probability making use of FTP) into my WordPress themes folder. If I have WordPress installed on my web server below a directory known as weblog, my directory structure would appear like this:
/WordPress/wp-content/themes/recipe-weblog/
index.php
style.css
screenshot.png
Activating a WordPress Theme
Right after I upload the theme to the right directory, I can now go to my WordPress administration to activate it. Soon after logging in to the WordPress admin section, I go to Appearances->Themes. I can see that my new theme is installed appropriately and prepared to be activated, simply because I can see it in under Out there Themes on the Manage Themes page.