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Adding a New Wordpress Theme Tutorial

How to upload a WordPress theme is a useful tutorial on how easy it is to install a theme.

Adding New Themes in cPanel

If your host offers the cPanel control panel, and the theme files are in a .zip or .gz archive follow these instructions. Note: This assumes the theme you download is a compressed (zip) file and the files in the zip file are in their ‘named’ folder.

1. Download the theme zip file to your local machine.
2. In cPanel File Manager, navigate to your themes folder. If you have WordPress installed in it’s own folder called wordpress, you would navigate to “public_html/wordpress/wp-content/themes” and if WordPress is installed in your web-root folder you would navigate to “public_html/wp-content/themes”.
3. Once you’ve navigated to the themes folder in cPanel File Manager, click on Upload file(s) and upload that zip file you saved in Step 1.
4. Once the zip file is uploaded, click on the zip file name in cPanel, then in the panel to the right, click on Extract File Contents, and that zip file will be uncompressed.
5. Follow the instructions below for selecting the new theme.

Selecting the Active Theme

To select the active theme for your site:

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels.
2. Click the Design panel menu tab. By default you will be in the Themes subpanel.
3. From the Available Themes section, click on theme title (or theme screenshot) for the theme you wish to activate.
4. To view the new look, click View Site at the top of the Panel’s screen.

Your selection should immediately become active.

Editing a Theme

To edit an uploaded theme’s files:

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels.
2. Click the Design panel menu tab.
3. Click the Theme Editor subpanel menu tab.
4. By default, the Theme Editor subpanel loads the files for the currently active theme. If you would like to edit a different theme, select it from the “Select theme to edit” dropdown and click “Select.”
5. Click the name of the file you would like to edit from the list on the right.
6. Make desired changes in the text box and click “Update File.”

If you don’t already have a backup copy of your theme handy, it may be a good idea to back up your theme before you proceed with editing it.