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In this step we’re going to find a theme for your Wordpress blog.

A theme determines how the blog is displayed within a browser, and the main point at this stage is to ensure that it looks different from the default theme that comes with Wordpress. Which is typically very boring!The default theme is also often considered  to be  a spam blog or ” Splog .”

Initially I would suggest that you select a theme at: http://themes.wordpress.net.    Once you get to the theme catalog for Wordpress, you have an option to select the type of themes that you are looking for (search).  In the left column; you’ll  see a selection that  says “sorting opt ions”.

You have several different options to choose from.  One column, two columns, three columns, red, green, blue … etc. There are three things that I recommend that you definitely choose.

The first thing is you want to choose two or three columns.  You can choose what ever color you want.  I personally recommend staying away from black color blogs; that is blogs that have a black background and white text .  It’s just a little bit  difficult  to see for most people .

Another suggestion is to choose a blog that has a fixed width.  Again, it’s not  critically important, but it is highly recommended. So, once you select  those options, you’re going to click  on show, and it’s going to show you a list of themes that fit the criteria that you searched for.

Here, you can just look through each one of these themes to find whichever one suits your needs.   The good thing about these themes is that  if  you  decide you  don’t  like it  one day, you can always come back and change your theme at a later time.

For right now, just pick a theme that you  like, and something that may either go with your subject matter or domain name.  Just choose a theme, download the theme to your local hard drive, and in the next step we’re going to show  you how to install the theme.

HERE IS A FREE THEME (MANDIGO) THAT I HAVE USED ON MULTIPLE SITES, THAT MEETS ALL THE CRITERIA ABOVE AND CAN BE CONFIGURED AS A 1COLUMN, 2 COLUMN OR 3 COLUMN FORMAT, WITH MULTIPLE OTHER OPTIONS.

http://www.onehertz.com/portfolio/wordpress/mandigo/

PLEASE NOTE: The theme will  be in what  is known as a “Zip File. ” It  will  have the file exten ion “.zip”    You  will  learn how  to “Unzip” it  in the next step.

A zip file is a file that has been compressed so it takes up less space and can be uploaded and downloaded a lot faster than if it was left unzipped.

Unzipping Your New Wordpress Theme

You will need  software to unzip the theme, because when you download the theme, it will be downloaded in a compressed file format that ended in “. zip” So, you are going to use t he  “Zip” tool to unzip all the files in the theme.

When you do that, it should create a new folder on your computer.  Typically, the folder will be something similar to the name of the theme.  That folder should have a lot of files inside of it.     You can access the unzipping tool by using the link below:

http://www.thefreesite.com/easyzip111.htm

Installing Your Theme On Your Wordpress Site

In this step, we’re going to install  the  MANDIGO theme (or other theme) that you have downloaded from the Wordpress theme catalog, or theme viewer as Wordpress likes to call it.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE UNZIPPED THE FOLDER!

You now have to upload the unzipped file folder containing the theme  So the next step in installing your theme is the FTP-ing all of the files that you have unzipped to your host server.

So, what you are going to do is to FTP the entire folder that was created on your computer at the time of download, to your server.  You are going to upload that to the themes folder in your Wordpress blog.

So, once you connect to t he FTP server of  your web site, you  will  find that  there is a folder that  says “public_html” Open that folder and look for the folder named “Wp-content “.  You are going to open that folder, (wp-content), and you will see a  sub-folder in there that  says (Themes).  And in that themes folder, there should already be at least two themes.  One says “classic”, and one says “Default”.    You are going to upload that  entire folder that  you  unzipped to this directory.

YOU HAVE TO UNZIP THE FILE BEFORE YOU UPLOAD IT ONTO YOUR SERVER!!

Make sure that you don’t just upload  the files to this directory, but the entire folder! The folder including the files and it is important that the folder is within the (Themes) directory as well . Once you finish uploading the folder and all the files to the theme directory on your server, you should be able to go back over to your Wordpress Dashboard, click  on the “design” tab, and in the “Design” tab, you  should automatically come to the “themes” sub tab.

When you scroll down a little,  you will  see a section that  says “available themes”. And in the “Available themes” area, you should now see the new theme (MANDIGO) that you uploaded.

If for whatever reason the theme does not show up in that area, it means that you probably uploaded all the files to the theme directory, and not the folder and the files.  Make sure that you do that.

The final  step  is very simple.  You need  to select  the theme that  you want,(MANDIGO) and a screen will appear that allows you to ACTIVATE the theme. The Theme is now installed and we can begin to configure it to our particular requirements.