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Whether you’re just starting out with a new site, or you’ve had a site for a while, understanding how to switch themes is an important aspect of managing your site.
If you have a brand new site, and you’ve now spent some time adding some pages, you may decide that the theme you chose originally really isn’t the best fit for you.
If you haven’t done any customizations in the Site Editor with templates or styles, you don’t need to go through this entire lesson, go ahead and activate a new theme and carry on. If you think something is missing, switch back to the previous theme and take a closer look at the changes you made.
If you have spent time customizing templates or styles, or if you’ve had your site for a while and it’s time to give it a fresh look (something that we recommend considering every now and then), then keep reading to learn what you need to know before switching themes.
There’s no right or wrong decision when it comes to switching themes, either for which theme you switch to or how often you switch themes. Some sites are content to keep the same theme for years, others like to make sure that their site is visually keeping up with the latest trends in website design.
Our recommendation is to schedule some time once a year to review your site through the eyes of a visitor and compare your site to others in the same niche. If you’re happy with what you see, there is no reason to do a site overhaul.
But let’s assume that for whatever reason, you’ve decided that you do want to change themes. For many site owners, the idea of switching themes on their site is stressful. It’s hard to know what to expect, and many site owners are most concerned with the possibility of losing content.
In this lesson, we cover the details of what you need to know about the theme switching process.
First and foremost, set yourself up for success. Even a simple theme switch that goes smoother than you imagined it would, is still going to take some time and you’re likely still going to be worried every step of the way until it’s done. So, let’s look at some best practice pointers to get you started.
We want to clarify that creating a duplicate of your site is not a requirement. But it does often provide site owners with some peace of mind. If this is something you want to do, there are a few options. Your active plan will determine which of these options are available for you.
- Create a staging site
- Create a duplicate copy of the site
- Export your content and import it into a new site
Note:
If you have the Creator or Entrepreneur plan then you also have real-time backups for your site, and you can restore your site to a previous state with just a few clicks. So, even if you go through a theme switching process and it doesn’t work out the way you expect, it’s a simple process to restore a backup and revert your site back to the way it was. Be sure to confirm that your backups are activated and available before you begin.
This one can be tricky, because the amount of time needed to complete a theme switch could range from an hour to several days of work. It will depend on the complexity of your site, your current active theme, what theme you’re switching to, what additional tools you’re using, how much of a change you’re making, and your own skill level.
The best advice we can offer is to always assume it’s going to take longer than you think. Start by setting aside a few hours to review and plan the change. Use this lesson as a guide for what information you need to consider and write out a plan of what will be involved for your particular situation.
From there you can plan accordingly to schedule additional time to complete the work.
As part of your review process, make sure you thoroughly investigate all aspects of your site and the tools you’re using. We’ll provide a detailed list below to help guide you, but make sure that you’re taking notes so as to avoid any surprises later.
WordPress has been around for a couple of decades now. It has gone through many changes, and there are thousands of themes, both new and old, that all work differently. Don’t assume that the new theme you want to switch to will function the same as your current theme. To gain a deeper understanding of the differences between themes and how to identify the types of themes you’re working with, we recommend reviewing our Understanding Themes lesson.
As part of your site review when deciding if you want to change themes, make notes of what you see in other sites that you do and don’t like. Make notes of the aspects of your current site that you’re not happy with and what you want to keep. Then spend some time browsing through the available themes to make a list of the ones you like best.
A smooth and successful theme switch will be influenced by how much of a vision you have to start with. Wanting a change, and knowing what to change are two different things. So, take the time to figure out at least a rough idea of what your goal is, while also keeping in mind that you may run into some technical challenges or knowledge gaps along the way.
For example, your current WordPress.com hosting plan may not offer the advanced capabilities that you need for a new feature you want to add, or learning about the Site Editor and working with templates may prove to be a bigger learning curve than you expected.
Switching themes isn’t always just about the visual look of your site. Themes don’t often control certain functionalities that you may need a plugin for. Understanding what your end goal is will help to determine what tools, besides a new theme, you may need to consider.
Most themes offer an option to Preview & Customize before activating them. This is a great way to explore what your specific content will look like when a new theme is applied to it, without affecting your current live site.
- Switching themes is the process of applying a new theme to your existing site and content — you’re not moving your content anywhere
- Regular Pages, Posts, and Media WILL be safe during any theme switch (this can even result in your site not looking any different at all after a theme switch)
- Custom CSS is theme specific and will not transfer to a new theme
- Classic themes are often the “most” different
- Widgets (a feature of Classic themes) will likely move or disappear (Block themes don’t support widgets)
- Templates and template parts used in Block themes do not auto-transfer between themes (but we’ll teach how to handle this)
- Removing third-party themes and plugins may impact site content
At this stage of the game, we don’t recommend switching to a Classic theme. Block themes and the Site Editor are the future of WordPress and if you’re switching themes now or in the future, it’s a good idea to work with a Block theme moving forward.
If you do decide to switch to a Classic theme, you may want to set the privacy on the site to Coming Soon while you work on it, as all of the changes you make will be taking place on the live site.
If you want to switch to a third-party theme, you’ll need to activate the theme before you can edit it, in which case, again, you may want to set the site to Coming Soon until you’re finished.
The Preview & Customize feature of WordPress.com Block themes will allow you to complete most of your template and style customizations before activating your new theme, without affecting your live site — though it has to be done in one session. Currently, you can’t start the process and save it to finish later. But you may still need to make additional tweaks after the theme is activated. If you’re concerned about the public seeing your site before you’re completely finished with the theme switch changes, you can set the privacy on the site to Coming Soon while you finish it up.
Unless you have a very high-traffic site (meaning a constant stream of visitors on your site at all times), there is rarely anything wrong with performing theme switches live. Very few, if any, visitors are likely to see the changes you’re making in real time, especially if you review the stats of your traffic and perform the changes during low traffic times.
If you do have a steady stream of traffic, then creating a duplicate site might be your best option so that everything is set up and in place before you set it to be your live site. In this scenario, the easiest option is to build out the new, duplicate site and then move your custom domain over to the new site when it’s ready. Remember, a custom domain is just a label, so it’s easy to move it around as needed.
The first step is to know what you’re using. It’s a type of taking inventory before you start making changes.
For this process we recommend using a digital notebook so that you can copy/paste information as needed, take descriptive notes of any points you want to remember, and to also take screenshots of settings when appropriate.
- Go to Appearance > Themes
- Write down the name of your current theme
- Identify if it’s a Classic theme or a Block theme (see Understanding Themes)
- Go to Settings > Reading
- Note what your Homepage and Posts Page settings are assigned to
- Go to Appearance > Customize (Classic themes only)
- Work your way through every section of the Customizer to make note of what settings and options you have in place, of particular importance are:
- Theme Options
- Colors & Background
- Header Image
- Work your way through every section of the Customizer to make note of what settings and options you have in place, of particular importance are:
- Additional CSS
- If you’ve added any CSS to your current theme, copy/paste it to your notebook. While CSS is theme specific, it is possible to have some CSS specific to plugins, or more general CSS that will work across multiple themes. You may find that this CSS isn’t needed with your new theme, but you won’t have easy access to it after you activate the new theme. So, having a copy of it in a separate document will make it easier to grab from if needed.
- Appearance > Widgets (Classic themes only)
- If you’re using widgets with your current theme you’ll want to take screenshots, or make detailed notes of what content these widgets are displaying. If you switch to a Classic theme, it might not have the same widget areas and your widgets will get moved to an “Inactive widgets” section. If you switch to a Block theme you won’t have access to these widgets at all and you’ll need to recreate this content in different ways. It might be as simple as placing the Category List block in your Footer template part, but you still want to remember what you had in place, as you won’t be able to reference it after activating the new theme.
- Appearance > Menus (Classic themes only)
- All of your menus will transfer between themes, regardless of the type of themes you’re working with. That said, it’s worth making a note of the different menus you have created and what’s in them in case you need a refresher later of how you were using them in your previous theme.
- Plugins
- If you’re using plugins, they will remain active when you switch themes. However, some plugins are theme specific. While you don’t really need to make a list of your plugins (since they’ll all still be there after a theme switch), it’s a good idea to review what you have in place so that you know what to investigate if something functions differently after switching themes.
- Live site screenshots
- This is optional, but it’s not a bad idea to take some screenshots of how your site looks before switching themes. This can act as a visual reminder later when you’re making changes. It can also help if you need to switch back to your previous theme and you want to make sure everything returns to the way it was.
Pro-tip:
If you’re quite confident and savvy at working with computers and multiple browser windows and tabs, you can open the front end of the main pages of your current site in different tabs in one window. Then in a separate window, open your site admin dashboard and work on the theme change. This allows you to refer to your original site as you work (provided you don’t refresh any of the tabs).
Now that you know what you currently have, you’re ready to move forward with switching themes. The act of switching themes is as simple as clicking the Activate button on the new theme, just like we covered in the first module under Choose a Theme.
- Go to Appearance > Themes
- Note the name of your current theme
- Browse for a theme you like and make a note of the name
- Activate the theme (it’s a two step process)
- Preview the site to see how it changed
- Make adjustments as necessary
Even when you switch themes, you are able to style individual pages using ready-to-use patterns, from our Public Pattern Library. We will take a look at that below, but first let’s start by taking a closer look at some nuances with Block to Block and Classic to Block theme switches.
Block themes are the newest type of theme offered for WordPress. Technically speaking, if you’re already using a Block theme you don’t need to ever change your theme, because you have complete control over every aspect of your theme from top to bottom.
However, realistically, not everyone wants to take the time to rebuild an existing theme to make it look like something entirely different, which could be an extremely time consuming process. Especially if there’s an existing theme that will better meet your needs.
Once you’ve decided on a theme you want to switch to, if possible, use the Preview & Customize option. This is available on all WordPress.com themes that are available for your active plan. You can also choose to upgrade your plan, if necessary, before switching themes, to open up access to more themes.
The Preview & Customize feature will take you into the Site Editor where you can explore Templates, Patterns, Styles, and even your published pages with the new theme. The Site Editor will be fully functional and you can apply whatever edits you like to your Templates, Patterns, and Styles before saving and activating the new theme.
Ideally, it’s best not to make content changes to your pages at this stage, since page content changes do transfer between themes. For the most part though, you shouldn’t need to make many, if any, changes to your content when switching themes.
If the Preview & Customize option isn’t available for the theme you want to switch to, you’ll have to activate the theme before you can explore it with your content and make changes. In this situation, you may want to set the privacy on the site to Coming Soon while you work on it, but it’s not required. Just remember that your changes will be applied to your live site.
As previously mentioned, Templates and Template Parts don’t transfer between themes. So you can make whatever changes you like to the templates and template parts while previewing a theme, then close the Site Editor without saving and activating, and your previous theme will remain untouched (though you won’t be saving these changes on the new theme either).
If you’ve created any custom templates or template parts, or customized the theme defaults, in your current theme, you won’t have access to them in a new theme. So let’s take a look at how to handle this.
While templates and template parts don’t transfer between Block themes, the ability to create patterns makes saving this content, in a way that you can access it after switching themes, pretty simple. You’ll want to complete these steps before activating a new theme.
For templates where you have built content directly in the template, such as the Default Homepage template, the steps are:
- Go to Appearance > Editor
- Open the desired template in the editor
- Open the List View from the top left corner
- Select all of the blocks that are between the Header and Footer template parts (do not select the Header and Footer template parts, or any Groups that include them)
- Click the 3 dots in the toolbar for the group of blocks you’ve selected
- Click: Create pattern
- In the window that opens:
- give your pattern a name
- add it to a category if desired (optional)
- toggle off the Sync option
- Click the Create button
This new pattern will then be accessible in the Site Editor Design panel, under Patterns > My Patterns. This new, custom pattern will be available in any theme you activate. You can insert the pattern just like any other pattern on a template, page, or post.
Since template parts don’t transfer between themes either, it’s not possible to create a custom pattern that includes a template part. If you’ve customized a Header or Footer template part that you want access to after switching themes, you’ll need to detach it first.
- Select the template part in the List View (it has a purple icon)
- Click the 3 dots in the toolbar
- Click Detach
You can now save this group of blocks as a pattern following steps 5 through 8 above, except this time keep the Sync option toggled on.
In the new theme, you can select this header or footer pattern from the My Patterns category to add it to each of your templates. Because it’s a Synced pattern, any changes you make to this pattern in one location will automatically update across all locations where the pattern is used.
If by chance you switch themes before creating the above patterns, then realize you wanted them, you can switch back to your previous theme under Appearance > Themes↗︎, create the patterns following the steps above, then switch themes again.
Which raises an interesting point. It is entirely possible to activate a new theme, customize templates, template parts, and styles (not content), save the changes, then switch back to your previous theme. Your live site will return to exactly the way it was. This is one way to spread out your theme switching process between Block themes over time. When you reactivate the new theme, the changes you made previously will be intact. If this gets your creative wheels turning, the answer is yes, you can technically set up multiple block themes for the same site and rotate through them as desired whenever you like with a simple click to activate. Just remember that content changes in pages and posts will apply across different themes.
Block themes are powerful and highly customizable. There might be a few extra steps and considerations to achieve specific outcomes, but the payoff in the end is worth it.
If you’re switching away from a Classic theme to a Block theme it’s important to understand that you will have a learning curve. The benefit of using Block themes is the power, control, and flexibility that they provide through the use of the Site Editor. But they do function very differently to how Classic themes function at the user level.
We don’t say this to be discouraging, but rather to set expectations. Using the Site Editor with Block themes, and understanding the relationship between templates, template parts, styles, and content won’t be immediately intuitive. It’s new. It’s different. But it’s also exhilarating and freeing.
Interestingly, the infrastructure behind Classic themes is actually the same as Block themes. The difference is that with Classic themes you need to be an advanced user with coding knowledge to tap into that infrastructure. Block themes open up that infrastructure for you to work with, without needing to understand anything at all about coding.
If you’re someone who is deeply concerned about “just wanting a simple website to publish your blog posts” fear not. Even with all the power of the Site Editor, it is absolutely possible to have a simple site where you focus on publishing your blog posts, with minimal effort. You don’t have to dig into all the potential and customization options that come with the Site Editor if you don’t want to.
In fact, to keep it simple, we recommend that you don’t. Instead, activate a Block theme, use the theme defaults as is, and focus on publishing your page and post content the way you always have from your main dashboard↗︎.
All Block themes come pre-styled to work out of the box as is, but your easiest path forward will be to use the Design your own feature as taught in our Quick Launch course. This is true whether you’re switching themes or starting a new site.
However, if you’re someone who has a more complex existing site, who requires more customization options, and wants more control, then switching from a Classic to a Block theme will require some time and patience to learn the lay of the land. But after that, you’ll be wondering how you ever got along with Classic themes in the first place.
For a Classic to Block theme switch on a robust or complex site, the Best practice pointers and What you’ve got sections of this lesson are critical to make the process as smooth as possible. We also highly recommend reviewing the Site Editor and Templates Explained lessons in the Getting Started course, as well as the Editing Templates lesson in this course — before, during, and after, switching to a Block theme.
If you follow these recommendations, you’ll cut your learning time down significantly, you’ll avoid many common mistakes, and you’ll dodge much of the frustration that inevitably comes with technology changes.
If you’re a visual learner, we recommend watching one of our Fearless Theme Switching webinar recordings to see all of the information provided in this lesson live-in-action.
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Fearless Theme Switching
Navigate theme transitions with ease and confidence. Learn the ins and outs of switching themes to rejuvenate your website’s look.
The Public Pattern Library is a new way to browse, search, and preview patterns at different screen widths. Think of it as being like a catalog that you can pick and choose from, and those patterns can be used with block themes that follow these technical guidelines.
The WordPress.com Pattern Library will become your companion for building websites, especially if you have some favorite patterns you find yourself using over and over again on websites for yourself or your clients.
You can copy and paste a pattern from the Pattern Library directly into your website to speed up your workflow. Even after you’ve added any of the patterns into your page or template, you can edit the copy, colors, or spacing. Best of all, theme styles set in the Site Editor will be automatically applied to the pasted pattern.
Visit WordPress.com Pattern Library today, and get access to a vast collection of professionally designed patterns to customize in any way you like; no additional plugins or coding required!
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