Downloaded a theme, where do I start to edit?

[tokyoice]

Hello,

Downloaded a free theme from Wordpress, there is a lot I want to edit and remove, because it's all standard, but I am finding it extremely difficult starting to edit? I am currently in the 'Theme Customization' section of Wordpress and I don't even know where to start and edit this.

Is there a Plugin available which makes this a little bit easier to do? lol..

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/qlPX9Th.jpg

Thanks in advance.

 

[we_are_borg]

I know PoetJC does wordpress themes maybe she knows something.

 

[Digital Phoenix]

Hello,

Downloaded a free theme from Wordpress, there is a lot I want to edit and remove, because it's all standard, but I am finding it extremely difficult starting to edit? I am currently in the 'Theme Customization' section of Wordpress and I don't even know where to start and edit this.

Is there a Plugin available which makes this a little bit easier to do? lol..

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/qlPX9Th.jpg

Thanks in advance.

Start by reading the docs on WordPress.org, Lear the functions and the template code. WP'S templating isn't so scary.
Or use a theme like vantage with it's built page editor. It's a great theme to work with.

 

[Jim McClain]

Downloaded a free theme from Wordpress, there is a lot I want to edit and remove, because it's all standard, but I am finding it extremely difficult starting to edit?

When you want help with your car, you tell people what car it is. When you need help with your computer, you tell people what computer you have. So, it seems obvious to me, if you want help with a WP theme, you tell people what theme it is. Or maybe that's just not how the kids do it these days.

If your WP-admin menu has the word Appearance in it, hovering over that should reveal another word, Customize. Click that and it gives you a bunch (hopefully) of options. Click each option/sub-menu item and that may reveal even more options. Read. Follow the guidance provided. Don't understand one part? Move on to another part. Ask questions like we don't see what you see (like, you see the name of the theme, but we don't) - be descriptive.

I've been working with themes a lot of years. I'm not a theme designer, I just like to customize the themes I use. For instance, I have worked on the themes of 3 different sites, all using the very same theme. They look like this:

https://featherrivercountry.com/
https://mogramission.org/
http://plumascountydemocrats.org/

Another example is a different theme I have on these 2 sites - both the same theme, just customized a little differently:

https://jonnycorners.com/
https://thefloorpro.com/

You can make subtle changes, like in the colors of different elements, font styles and families, column widths, sidebar location. Bigger changes might be adding a logo, background images, the effects of your menus, use of footer widgets. You might even want to get into changing the colors of headings (H1, H2, etc.), the look of lists, blockquotes and an assortment of other details that puts your site apart from the average site.

I just started working on a site the other day - a conversion from static pages to dynamic, WordPress CMS. The owners said they liked the look of the original site, but wanted more functionality, better security and more interaction from their visitors. So, I tried to honor their desire to maintain the look while modernizing it some - but not too much because these people are old school. They still ride horses more than they drive cars.

This is what the original site looks like: https://nontypicaloutfitters.com/home.php
This is what it looks like today: https://nontypicaloutfitters.com/
And this is the theme straight outa the box: http://publishable-demo.admirablethemes.com/

Is there a Plugin available which makes this a little bit easier to do?

No. At least not based on the lack of information you provided. There are a lot of very good plugins, but there are some pretty crappy ones too. And even some of the decent ones will conflict with other plugins and you will go nuts trying to figure out which is what. I don't know of any plugins that transform your theme though. They will add functionality and some interesting features, but most will inherit your theme or theme customizations.

 

[Lisa]

First thing you should do is make a child theme of the one you have installed and modify that version, not the original. This way you can ensure any changes you make won't get lost if a style is updated - https://optimizerwp.com/wordpress-child-theme/

 

[Echo]

First thing you should do is make a child theme of the one you have installed and modify that version, not the original. This way you can ensure any changes you make won't get lost if a style is updated - https://optimizerwp.com/wordpress-child-theme/

I did this this with all my vB themes....saves a ton of headache, and I never have aspirin.

 

[Kyrie]

Hello,

Downloaded a free theme from Wordpress, there is a lot I want to edit and remove, because it's all standard, but I am finding it extremely difficult starting to edit? I am currently in the 'Theme Customization' section of Wordpress and I don't even know where to start and edit this.

Is there a Plugin available which makes this a little bit easier to do? lol..

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/qlPX9Th.jpg

Thanks in advance.

I see you play second life.... me too...

 

[tokyoice]

I see you play second life.... me too...

Did you see that from my YT video link in my signature?

 

[tokyoice]

First thing you should do is make a child theme of the one you have installed and modify that version, not the original. This way you can ensure any changes you make won't get lost if a style is updated - https://optimizerwp.com/wordpress-child-theme/

So essentially, a child theme is a 'tester' to make sure all the changes are 100% before you take that over to the 'live' version, right?

 

[Lisa]

So essentially, a child theme is a 'tester' to make sure all the changes are 100% before you take that over to the 'live' version, right?

No. A child theme is the one you use as your style. If you use the original installed theme and make changes to anything other than the custom CSS section every time the style updates you would lose all your changes. So, you make a child style and put all your changes into that. Then when the original style updates, none of your additions/changes are overwritten, while the child style will still pull through all the updates.

 

[Kyrie]

Did you see that from my YT video link in my signature?

In your screenshot saw SL Universe.