Ticket #13467: Appearance section.2.txt

themes.php

Aside from the default theme included with your WordPress installation, themes are designed and developed by third parties.

You can see your active theme at the top of the screen. Below are the other themes you've installed that are not currently in use. 
You can see what your site would look like with one of these themes by clicking the Preview link. To change themes, click the Activate link.

If you would like to more themes to choose from, click on the "Install Themes" tab and you will be able to browse or search for additional themes from the WordPress.org theme repository. Themes in the WordPress.org theme repository are designed and developed by third parties, and are licensed under the GNU Public License, version 2, just like WordPress. Oh, and they're free!


For more information:
Documentation on Using Themes http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
Support Forums http://wordpress.org/support/

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theme-install.php

You can find additional themes for your site by using the Theme Browser/Installer on this screen, which will display themes from the WordPress.org theme repository. These themes are designed and developed by third parties, are available free of charge, and are licensed under the GNU Public License, version 2, just like WordPress. 

You can Search for themes by keyword, author, or tag, or can get more specific and search by criteria listed in the feature filter. Alternately, you can browse the themes that are Featured, Newest, or Recently Updated. When you find a theme you like, you can preview it or install it. 

You can Upload a theme manually if you have already downloaded its ZIP archive onto your computer (make sure it is from a trusted and original source). You can also do it the old-fashioned way and copy a downloaded theme's folder via FTP into your wp-content/themes directory.

For more information:
Documentation on Adding Themes http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes#Adding_New_Themes
Support Forums http://wordpress.org/support/

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widgets.php

Widgets are independent sections of content that can be placed into any widgetized area provided by your theme (commonly called sidebars). To populate your sidebars/widget areas with individual widgets, drag and drop the title bars into the desired area. By default, only the first widget area is expanded. To populate additional widget areas, click on their title bars to expand them.

Available Widgets section contains all the widgets you can choose from. Once you drag a widget into a sidebar, it will open to allow you to configure its settings. When you are happy with the widget settings, click the Save button and the widget will go live on your site. If you click Delete, it will remove the widget. 

If you want to remove the widget but save its setting for possible future use, just drag it into the Inactive Widgets area. You can add them back anytime from there. This is especially helpful when you switch to a theme with less or different widget areas.

Widgets may be used multiple times. You can give each widget a title, to display on your site, but it's not required.

Enabling Accessibility Mode, via Screen Options, allows you to use Add and Edit buttons instead of using drag and drop. 

For more information:
Widgets Documentation http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Widgets_SubPanel
Support Forums http://wordpress.org/support/

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nav-menus.php

This feature is new in version 3.0; to use a custom menu in place of your theme's default menus, support for this feature must be registered in the theme's functions.php file. If your theme does not support the custom menus feature yet (the new default theme Twenty Ten, does), you can learn about adding support yourself by following the below link.

You can create custom menus for your site. These menus may contain links to pages, categories, custom links or other content types (use the Screen Options tab to decide which ones to show on the screen). You can specify a different navigation label for a menu item as well as other attributes. You can create multiple menus. If your theme includes more than one menu, you can choose which custom menu to associate with each. You can also use custom menus in conjunction with the Custom Menus widget.

To create a new custom menu, click on the + tab, give the menu a name, and click Save Menu. Next, add menu items from the appropriate boxes. You'll be able to edit the information for each menu item, and can drag and drop to put them in order. You can also drag a menu item a little to the right to make it a submenu, to create menus with hierarchy. You'll see when the position of the drop target shifts over to create the nested placement. Don't forget to click Save when you're finished. 

For more information:
Menus Documentation http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Menus_SubPanel
Support Forums http://wordpress.org/support/

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theme-editor.php

You can use the Theme Editor to edit the individual CSS and PHP files which make up your theme.

Begin by choosing a theme to edit from the dropdown menu and clicking Select. A list then appears of all the template files. Clicking once on any file name causes the file to appear in the large Editor box.

For PHP files, you can use the Documentation dropdown to select from functions recognized in that file. Lookup takes you to a web page with reference material about that particular function. 

After typing in your edits, click Update File.

Advice: think very carefully about your site crashing if you are live-editing the theme currently in use.

Upgrading to a newer version of the same theme will override changes made here. To avoid this, consider creating a child theme [http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes] instead.

For more information:
Theme Development Documentation http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development  
Documentation on Using Themes http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes 
Documentation on Editing Files http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_Files  
Template Tags Documentation  http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags  

Support Forums http://wordpress.org/support/

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themes.php?page=custom-background

You can customize the look of your site without touching any of your theme's code by using a custom background. Your background can be an image or a color. 

To use a background image, simply upload it, then choose your display options below. You can display a single instance of your image, or tile it to fill the screen. You can have your background fixed in place, so your site content moves on top of it, or you can have it scroll with your site. 

You can also choose a background color. If you know the hexadecimal code for the color you want, enter it in the Color field. If not, click on the Select a Color link, and a color picker will allow you to choose the exact shade you want. 

Don't forget to click on the Save Changes button when you are finished. 


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themes.php?page=custom-header

You can set a custom image header for your site. Simply upload the image and crop it, and the new header will go live immediately. 

If you want to discard your custom header and go back to the default included in your theme, click on the buttons to remove the custom image and restore the original header image. 

Some themes comes with additional header images bundled. If you see multiple images displayed, select the one you'd like and click the Save Changes button.