Themes preview

  • Unknown's avatar
    joniew · Member ·

    I’m not happy with the way new themes are introduced.

    We used to be able to preview our blogs with a new theme and then activate it if happy with it, or discard it and our blogs would automatically revert back to the old theme.

    Now we only get the option of the demo (which doesn’t really give me an idea what my blog will look like) or we have to activate the new theme without preview.
    If we don’t like it, we have to find the old theme and activate that again.
    I find it too much of a hazzle and don’t bother with looking at new themes anymore.

    Could WordPress please go back to the old, easy, enjoyable way of trying out new themes without having to activate them.
    Thanks.

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

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    As I have no intention of every purchasin a custom design upgrade like you I find the theme customizer to be an annoying feature. However, when I do activate a new theme and then revert to my old one I don’t have any trouble with discarding it.

    If you have not purchased the Premium upgrade bundle which includes the custom design upgrade, then note that no changes you try out aside from those such as Custom Background, Custom Header, etc. which are stated on the theme description pages in the features column (right hand side) will be visible to visitors.

    See here for details on purchasing the annually renewable Premium bundle http://store.wordpress.com/plans/premium/ that contains a custom design upgrade required for CSS editing. See:
    Custom design – Frequently Asked Questions
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/#frequently-asked-questions
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/editing-css/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/custom-fonts/

    You do not need to load the design tools unless you have the Custom Design upgrade. All of these functions can be accessed from your dashboard – without loading the custom design tools – no upgrade required.
    Appearance > Header
    Appearance > Background
    Appearance > Theme Options (applicable only to some themes)
    Settings > Reading (set a static front page)
    Site Title and Tagline > Settings > General

    If you are using the preview mode for the Custom Design upgrade some of the settings in that mode will save but they won’t show up on the front end unless you purchase the upgrade.

    To go back to the free options, go to Appearance → Themes → Customize → Colors and click the “exit the preview” link in yellow at the top of the panel on the right.

    See also: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/video-tutorial-customizing-your-theme/

    re: changing themes
    Themes are just “skins” on WordPress.COM hosted blogs. You can quickly and easily change themes on any WordPress.COM hosted blog to another one found here http://wordpress.com/themes/ and no data will be lost or negatively affected by the change. The only time you may have to do some work is if you are changing to a dramatically different theme and have done any CSS editing.

    Provided you are logged in as Admin under the same username account that registered the blog go to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes, Browse themes until you find one you like and click the “activate” or the “preview” link, or type in the name of the theme you want to use when it appears.

    After you change your theme all you need to do is go here Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets > Inactive Widgets and re-install them where you want them to appear. The widget contents and settings will be the same as they were prior to changing themes.

    Note that every theme will have a detailed theme description page with set up instructions and a live demo site page that you can consult. Here’s an example:
    https://wordpress.com/themes/twentyeleven
    https://twentyelevendemo.wordpress.com/

    I tagged this thread for Themes Staff to take notice of your issues, concerns and feedback. Please subscribe to it so you are notified when they respond. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.

  • Unknown's avatar
    rachelmcr · Member ·

    Hi there,

    Thanks for that feedback! For now, you can still preview themes by going to Appearance > Themes in your WP Admin dashboard and using the Preview button for each theme there.

    Our team is also working on ways to allow you to preview themes when you start from other places in the dashboard. That’s still being developed, but keep an eye out for it in the future. :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    joniew · Member ·

    Thanks for your help timethief and rachelmcr.

    “Our team is also working on ways to allow you to preview themes when you start from other places in the dashboard.”

    – Thanks, that would be very helpful. I obviously started off from elsewhere as I did not have the option of a preview.

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