Modifying Wordpress Theme for the Non Tech Savvy
As you can see, I have change the colors and fonts of this theme from the original version. For a non tech savvy noob like me, I can’t say it was plain smooth sailing. It was a trial and error. The most important thing I think is we must not be afraid if we mess up. No matter how badly you screw up, you will only screw up the theme. You will never screw up Wordpress. That is the reason why lots of newbies gets so scared of changing the looks in their themes. They have the wrong perception that the themes that they are using is the platform they are blogging on.
Keep the Original Copy of your Wordpress Theme handy.
After uploading the theme, I never delete the original copy that I have downloaded from the source. I keep them in a folder that I created call “themes” folder. Then I tear away at the theme’s stylesheet to my satisfaction. So many a times I messed up big time until the whole blog wouldn’t load. That’s the time the keeping of the original copy comes in real handy. All I have top do is to upload again the style sheet file and everything will be back to the original form. Then I can start again.
Do Not Modify everything at once.
Changing lots of things all at once will only confuse you unless you know by heart how the original codes looks like. For non geeks like us, we do it the non geek way. Change one or two or maybe even three if you have a good memory. I can only remember 2, so I change only 2 codes at any one time and update the file to see if the changes works. If it doesn’t I change it back to the original and try other places.
Open 2 tabs for easy modification.
I always do modding of themes with 2 windows or tabs. One window for the Theme Editor and another for the Blog itself. Once I have modified the codes and updated the file, I switch over to the other tab and hit Ctrl + F5 to force reload the page. This way I can see the changed effects without going back and forth in the same page.
Modifying Themes offline.
There are programs that you can use so that you can load Wordpress locally in you PC and mod it to your satisfaction before uploading it to your Server. A program that is quite easy to use even for a noob like me is Xammp. It’s a nice tool to have if you are the kind like me who gets a kick out of changing what people have designed. A very easy follow tutorial on how to use the program is available here.
