If you are a Free Starter Member you will have access to only 12 themes. Kyle and Carson have handpicked 12 visually simple themes for you to get started with. If you are a Premium Member you will have access to all 2,798 free WordPress themes.
When you enter the Site Builder here on WA and go to select a theme, you will see something similar to what is shown in the image above. This is where you will begin your search for a WordPress theme you like.
Along the top of the theme listing it will show you how many free themes are available, how many themes you have saved in your Favorites List, and how many themes you have used. If you are first starting out, both the Favorites and Used numbers will be 0.
There is also a search box where you can easily find themes without having to scroll through all 2,500+ themes. This is great should you happen to know the name of a theme you have seen before and liked.
When doing my theme research I will often come across several themes that I may consider using, based on what the Demo and Details show. More about these two on the next page.
When I find one I like I click the heart icon to save it to my Favorites List. As seen in the image above of themes from my Used List, you will notice several themes with a gray heart. This represents themes I have saved to my Favorites List.
NEXT UP = How I use the Demo and Details features to help decide on a theme
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But the customization of a website theme is one of the many reasons why WordPress is the most used website platform in the world. They allow you to personalize your website through their many custom settings.
It is a learning curve, but one that is highly worth it because you can find new ways to get things to happen on your website that you may have thought you needed a plugin for.
Ken
The one thing I would add is checking the compatibility of the theme with the current Wordpress version. If someone isn't updating their theme to keep pace with Wordpress changes you may have glitches or problems with WP operations and possible plug-in conflicts.
Thanks for the info!
JeanLouis87
Hi Robert: Very interesting. I bow to your themes expertise.
I just changed my website theme to one that looked good, then discovered (as I had with the one I just dumped) that the large mountain scene I thought was an integral part of it, was not included! So all I got was a band of one colour across the top!!
Decided I would later add images. I then found that they shoved all
my menu scattered across the top...looks ghastly! I cannot find in
the menu customization how to get it all out of there and do it down the right hand side. Any ideas you could give me, please?
One other question...Since every one of my 16 posts will be listed in my menu, do I need to spread them across 3 or 4 pages? Makes no difference to the reader as far as I can see, right?
John aka JeanLouis87
This is the main reason why I highly recommend members create a test website, so they can see how making theme changes will look before they make them to their live websites.
As I stated in this tutorial, it is important to remember that the themes you see on the selection screen are what they could look like with images that you will add.
To see an example of what your website will look like when first starting out, make sure to click the Demo link under the theme. The majority of themes do not come with the images you see.
To add your own images you will have to go into the theme's customization section and look for how to add/edit the Header Image. Most themes are different so you will have to experiment with changes.
Again, themes are different in how they display pages and posts. Personally I am not sure by what you mean by having your posts in your menu. There is no right or wrong. It's all personal choice.
