Changing my wordpress.com blog theme

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  nancysjacobson · Member · Dec 1, 2013 at 1:10 pm

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  Hi! I’d like to select a new theme for my blog. I know how to find the themes available, but wanted to know how to best move my existing content over to the new theme. Do you suggest I take my blog down and make all the changes or is there a way to work with the new theme while the existing blog stays up?

  I know I can click on the available themes and see how my current blog will look in that new theme, however my content generally doesn’t fit. I plan to cut down the number of tabs/menu items and delete some content (I want a new clean look with better stream-lined info), but am concerned I might end up messing up the whole thing.
  Any and all guidance is appreciated.
  Thanks!
  Nancy

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  bumblepuppies · Member · Dec 1, 2013 at 1:53 pm

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  Create a second blog for testing. If you check mine at blacklightcandelabra.wordpress.com, you’ll see that I published a gibberish post so I’m not messing with my real blog’s SEO. You can try out any changes on a test blog, record what you did, and then quickly replicate what works on your real blog.

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  nancysjacobson · Member · Dec 1, 2013 at 2:28 pm

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  When you created the second test blog, how did you move your current blog information over without harming the original blog. I know I can click on a new theme and it will show my blog in that new format and then click activate if I wanted to use it. Did you enter all new information into the test blog? I want to move my blog to an entirely new theme/appearance.
  Thanks for all the help!

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  sensuouscurmudgeon · Member · Dec 1, 2013 at 3:29 pm

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  You don’t “move your content” to the new theme. Your content will remain, and it will be unchanged. All that happens is that you will see it displayed by the new theme. The font may change, etc., but the content doesn’t move anywhere.

  After a theme change, some of your widgets may be moved to the inactive list, and they’ll need to be moved back to where you want them. To be on the safe side, you should back up the contents of your widgets in case a widget actually vanishes. Just copy and paste that material to a text file. Otherwise, after a theme change, all you’ll need to do is tweak things a bit.

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  bumblepuppies · Member · Dec 1, 2013 at 3:41 pm

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  I didn’t move my blog information over. I simply created a second blog using the prospective new theme. Then, I published a new post entirely in gibberish to imitate the old blog’s stuff (though I ought to add a picture). Then I added widgets as though it were a new blog, as well as custom headers and backgrounds I wanted to test. You can add your current header to the test blog if you like… again just to see how it looks.

  Timethief does something a little different. Her test blog is set to private and I think that lets her republish posts from her regular blog without negative consequence. It’s slightly more work but you can get a more exact replica that way.

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  nancysjacobson · Member · Dec 3, 2013 at 11:55 am

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  Thanks so much. I understand now. I think the problem is I’m using a lot widgets and tabs that aren’t available on many of the themes so it looks a little crazy. Once I reformat the information I think it will work smoothly. Thanks again for the help!
  Nancy