Up until recently, I had no clue that free WordPress hosted blogs differ from WordPress blogs that are hosted on other servers. It does appear though as if we (people hosting our blogs on external servers) have more options when it comes to expanding or making our blogs more visually appealing.
On the other hand, blogs hosted on the WordPress platform get more Dashboard options, some of them highly usable too. For example, externally hosted WordPress blogs do not have the “Stats” option, displaying hits, referrers, search engine terms used to reach to the blog, etc.
In any case, back into topic, the following is an inclusive explanation of WordPress themes and a step-by-step how-to, explaining how we can use themes to change the look and feel of our website.
First of all, what is a WordPress theme? A theme is the collection of options that alter the look of our blog. Notice that all that a theme can do is to alter the way a blog is displayed. Some themes look as if they actually change the structure of the blog. That is not possible on the free hosted blogs and neither is it possible on the externally hosted blogs.
The following are changeable by a theme:
1. Fonts (calligraphy of webpage name, slogan and text).
2. Colours (colouring of links, text, backgrounds, menus, etc).
3. Images (used in menus, as backgrounds, etc)
4. Links (used for rss, twitter follow me, etc)
5. Structure related (one, two, three column display, horizontal area, etc).
6. Lesser important options
Users of WordPress hosted blogs only have one way to change their theme.
1. Log onto the administration console by typing in the appropriate URL (http://username.wordpress.com/wp-admin).
2. Enter the username and password.
3. On the left hand column, click on Appearance and then on Themes.
4. Now you’re looking at the screen displaying the theme you’re currently using (on top), and the available ones that you can install and use (underneath).
5. You can search the available themes by typing a word in the search box (on the right) or
6. You can browse the entire selection of themes by clicking on the “A-Z” link right under “Browse Themes”.
7. What you’re looking at are little thumbnails of the available themes. You can better examine a theme by clicking on the “Preview” link under the thumbnail of the theme you like (or, just click on the thumbnail itself). Notice that doing so will create a large preview window that will display your own blog using the theme you just clicked on. This window takes up almost your entire viewing screen so make sure you click outside that window to return to your previous browser tab (or, locate and click on the tiny X on the top left hand corner of the preview window to close it).
8. If you find a theme that you’d like to use instead of the one you’re already using, you will need to click on the “Activate” link. The “Activate” links are located under the thumbnails (in the browsing tab) or on the upper right hand corner of the preview window.
9. As soon as you click on “Activate”, your browser will return to the “Themes” screen. The message “New theme activated. Visit site” will appear under the “Manage Themes” title. You can click on the “Visit site” link to view what your blog looks like with the new theme.
10. Notice that although externally hosted blogs get about a few thousands of free themes, WordPress hosted blogs only get a tad short of one hundred free themes.
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