I love WordPress because you can change your theme (template) with a single click. In less than one second, you can give your blog an entirely new look.
Unfortunately, the very ease with which you can change your themes leads to some challenges and even outright disasters. When I first started using WordPress for my blogs I changed the theme on my primary blog at angelabooth.com/wp at least once a day.
At the time, I hadn’t customized the themes of any of my blogs much, and I was blissfully unaware that changing the theme meant that I’d lose my header, footer and sidebar customizations, until I did it for the first time and lost my links, advertisements and widgets. After that, I saved the files I’d customized, and then edited the new theme to replace the material.
Tip: when you’re saving your files, name them so that you know what they are. I managed to have the incorrect Technorati code on one blog for three months, because I hadn’t named a footer file and had pasted in the code from another blog.
The biggest danger with a new theme is that some of the pages may not work as they should. Check out the categories, archives, and search feature. I’ve installed themes which I rapidly uninstalled because although the front page of the blog looked great, the other pages looked horrible.
Beware of newly released themes
When you’re considering a new theme, read the comments on the theme to see whether other people are having problems with it. I like to use themes which are in their second or third version. By that time many of the bugs have been worked out.
Don’t forget to back up your blog before you change the theme. Better safe than sorry.
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