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If you’d like to use the Design your own feature to switch themes on an existing site, it’s perfectly safe to do so. There are some considerations to keep in mind though.
If your current active theme is a Block theme (an easy telltale is if you see the Editor link under Appearance), any customizations you’ve made to templates or template parts in the Site Editor will not transfer to the new theme. If you’ve created customizations that you want to transfer to the new theme, see the Creating patterns section below.
If you don’t see a link for Editor under Appearance and instead have links for: Customize, Menus, and Widgets, then your current theme is a Classic theme and it’s not using templates, template parts, or the Site Editor the way a Block theme does, so you don’t need to take any extra steps before using the Design your own feature. Though you might want to make a note of any widgets that you’re using, because Block themes don’t use widgets so these won’t be accessible after you switch to a Block theme.
No matter what type of theme you currently have active, all of your Pages, Posts, and Media will remain the same with the new theme. The overall look and feel of them may change depending on what theme you’re changing from. But the actual content within them will be safe.
Before switching themes, always make a note of the name of your current active theme, in case you need to re-activate it for any reason. For a more in-depth look at the theme switching process, you can review the Switching Themes lesson in our Create Your Site course.
The theme you create by using the Design your own feature is a Block theme called Assembler (prior to February 2024 it used the Creatio 2).
If you use the Design your own theme feature to create your site, then later decide that you want to switch to a different theme, the same thing applies as above when switching away from any Block theme. The content and customizations within the templates and template parts will not transfer to the new theme.
If you’ve decided that you don’t want the homepage design and customizations that you’ve created and want to instead use what another theme provides, there’s no problem and you don’t need to take any extra steps. But if you want to switch to a different theme while keeping the homepage you’ve designed you’ll want to create a pattern for your content.
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.
For templates where you have built content directly in the template, such as the Home template from the Design your own feature, the steps are:
- Go to Appearance > Editor
- Open the Home 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)
- Click the 3 dots in the toolbar for the group of blocks you have 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. Simply select the template part in the List View, click the 3 dots in the toolbar, and click Detach. You can now save the 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 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, then switch themes again.
If you need to switch back to what you created with the Design your own feature, find the Assembler (or the Creatio 2) theme in the theme showcase under Appearance > Themes↗︎ and activate it. Do not go through the Design your own feature process again before saving patterns, it will overwrite what you previously created.
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.
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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