customize wordpress themes

March 29, 2022

How to Customize Your WordPress Theme (Beginner’s Guide)

Are you looking to learn how to customize your WordPress theme design?

Many WordPress themes come with built-in options to easily customize the design and layout. You can also add more customization options using plugins.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily customize your WordPress theme and make it your own.

Customizing a WordPress theme for beginners

Following is a list of topics we’ll cover in this guide:

Why Customize Your WordPress Theme
Using the Default Theme Customizer
Customize WordPress Theme with Full Site Editor
Using Legacy Theme Customizer in WordPress
Customize Your WordPress Theme with Full Control
Customize Individual Pages with SeedProd Page Builder
Create a Custom WordPress Theme

Ready? Let’s get started.

Why Customize Your WordPress Theme

WordPress themes are designed for generic website niches. For instance, there are themes for different types of small business websites, photographers, bloggers, and more.

After picking a theme, you’ll need to customize it to your own requirements.

For instance, you may want to use your own custom logo, brand colors, tweak the layout a little bit, change font sizes, use your own images, and more.

Some of these customizations are necessary to make a website that truly represents your business and brand, and doesn’t just look like everyone else’s.

Depending on which WordPress theme you choose, these options may vary a lot from one theme to another.

For instance, some themes may give you an option to move the sidebar from right to left while others may not even have a sidebar in their layout.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily customize your WordPress theme without writing any code, and take it to the next level without breaking your website.

Using the Default Theme Customizer

WordPress came out with a full-site editing experience in WordPress 5.9.

There are currently not very many themes on the market with full support for the new full-site editing feature.

However, we’ll show you how to use it to customize your WordPress theme. We’ll also show you how to use the legacy theme customizer as well as the complete WordPress site builder tool that we recommend for beginners.

Using the Full Site Editor in WordPress to Customize a Theme

If your WordPress theme supports full site editor, then you’ll see the Editor menu under the Appearance option in the WordPress admin sidebar.

Launch new full site editor in WordPress

Clicking on it will launch the full site editor.

This editor is just like the block editor you use to write WordPress posts and pages.

You can add new elements to your templates by adding blocks. Apart from regular blocks, you can also use site-wide blocks like navigation, logo, post query loops, and more.

Each block comes with its own settings, where you can style it differently and change colors, typography, and other options.

Your WordPress theme may also provide additional patterns that you can use to quickly create different sections.

You can find these under the Patterns tab.

You can edit different areas of your website by clicking on the template name at the top and choosing a different template to edit.

To view more templates, you can click on ‘Browse all templates’ at the bottom.

This will show you a list of templates available in your theme that you can edit.

Simply click on a template name to open it in the editor.

The template will open in the same block editor.

From here, you can edit it any way you want.

Once you are satisfied with the changes you made to your theme, simply click on the Save button at the top to apply your changes.

The full site editor is a powerful and flexible way to customize your WordPress theme.

However, it is a brand new feature and many WordPress themes don’t support it at the moment.

Using Legacy Theme Customizer in WordPress

If your WordPress theme doesn’t support the full site editor yet, then it will use the legacy theme customizer feature in WordPress.

In that case, you can customize your theme by going to the Appearance » Customize page.

Clicking on it will launch the Theme Customizer.

You’ll see customization settings on the left side of your screen, and the live preview of your website to the right.

The editable areas of your website will be highlighted with a pencil icon on the live preview.

You can also expand each option on the left panel to change its settings.

The number of options in the left panel will vary from one theme to another.

However, most themes will support the basics like your site’s tagline, widgets, homepage settings, menus, and Additional CSS settings.

For more details, view our guide on how to use the WordPress theme customizer to edit your theme.

Customize Your WordPress Theme with Full Control

The default WordPress theme customization options depend on which WordPress theme you are using.

If your theme supports a feature, you may be able to customize it using customizer or full site editor. This limits your ability to customize a WordPress theme.

What if you want to further customize or even create a custom WordPress theme for your website?

This is where SeedProd comes in.

It is the best WordPress website builder on the market. You can use it to create beautiful website layouts and even create a custom theme without writing any code.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

After that, you need to choose whether you want to create a custom WordPress theme or create individual pages for your website.

SeedProd can do both and we’ll show you both approaches.

Customize Individual WordPress Pages with SeedProd

This approach is quite flexible and allows you to easily create on-demand page layouts.

For instance, you can design a custom landing page for a product or marketing campaign, or create a thank you page to send visitors after they sign up for your email list.

Simply head over to SeedProd » Landing Pages page and then click on the Add New Landing Page button.

Next, you need to choose template for your page.

This template is used as an starting point, so you can change everything inside it later on. Alternatively, you can start with a blank canvas.

Simply click on a template to continue.

SeedProd will then ask you to provide a title for your page and choose a URL.

After entering the required information,. click on the Save and Start Editing the Page button.

This will launch the SeedProd page builder interface. This is a drag and drop design tool.

To your left, you’ll see blocks and sections that you can add to your page layout with a live editable preview of the page to the right.

You can simply point and click on any element of your page to edit it.

You can also add new blocks and even complete sections to your layout from the left column.

SeedProd comes with all the popular web design elements that you’ll need to make your website. It includes contact forms, optin forms, login forms, testimonials, progress bars, accordions, navigation menus, icon box, and a ton more.

It also includes complete support for WooCommerce. You can use WooCommerce blocks to display products anywhere on your website, create a custom check out page, or design a cart page for your online store.

Once you are satisfied with your page design and layout, you can click on the Save button at the top right.

From here, you can also choose to publish the page or save it as a template.

That’s it! You can repeat this process to create more custom pages on your website.

Creating a Custom Theme in WordPress with SeedProd

This approach is highly recommended if you want to create a truly unique design for your blog, business website, or eCommerce store.

With this method, you’ll be designing your own custom WordPress theme from scratch using the same drag and drop page builder.

The best part is that your SeedProd custom theme will work no matter what theme you have installed on your site. That means you don’t need to worry about customizing a standard WordPress theme, but will have total freedom in creating your design.

To get started, simply head over to SeedProd » Theme Bulder page and click on the Themes button.

SeedProd will now now show you a bunch of starter themes to choose from.

You can completely modify every aspect of these themes.

Once you have chosen a theme, SeedProd will generate all the theme templates.

Simply click on the Edit Design link below a template file to edit it.

You’ll see a live preview of the template in the right column with an editing panel in the left column.

Simply point and click to edit any item or drop elements from the left column.

SeedProd also comes with blocks specific to site-wide editing.

These are dynamic blocks that you can use to display content loop (for blog posts), post title, featured image, and more.

Once you are done making changes to a theme, don’t forget to Save your changes.

Repeat the process to edit other templates to your own liking.

Once you are finished, go to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page and toggle the switch next to the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ option to ‘Yes’.

SeedProd will now replace your WordPress theme with the custom theme you just created.

To learn more about SeedProd WordPress theme builder, see our tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme without writing code.

We hope this article helped you learn how to customize your WordPress theme to your own liking.

You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or see our WordPress SEO guide to optimize your website for more search traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Customize Your WordPress Theme (Beginner’s Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

June 4, 2019

How to Use WordPress Theme Customizer Like a Pro (Ultimate Guide)

Did you know that WordPress comes with a built-in theme customizer that allows you to easily make changes to your website design in real time.

While every theme has some level of support for the default customizer options, many themes include additional tabs and options to the WordPress theme customizer, so you can easily customize your theme without any coding knowledge.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the default panels and show you how to use the WordPress theme customizer like a pro.

How to Access the WordPress Theme Customizer

Theme customizer is a default WordPress feature, and it is part of every WordPress website.

You can access it by logging into your WordPress admin area, and then going to Appearance » Customize from the left sidebar of your WordPress admin panel. This will open the Customizer interface with your current theme.

You can also use the WordPress theme customizer page for any of the installed themes on your website even when they are not active.

This allows you to see a live preview of that theme and make changes before you activate it.

To do that, you need to head over to Appearance » Themes page.

Next, hover your mouse cursor over on any installed theme and click on the Live Preview button to open the WordPress theme customizer page.

How to Use the WordPress Theme Customizer

After opening the WordPress theme customizer, you’ll see all customization settings on the left side of your screen, and the live preview of your website on the right side.

WordPress theme customizer comes with a set of default panels regardless of the theme you’re using.

You need to click on the individual panels to make changes to it. You can also click on any of the blue pencil icons on the right side of your screen to open the settings for that particular item.

Note: advanced WordPress themes will add additional setting panels for extra customization options (more on this later).

Let’s take a look at the default options available in the WordPress theme customizer.

Site Identity Panel: Add Title, Logo, and Favicon

The Site Identity panel in the WordPress theme customizer allows you to add or change the title and tagline of your website.

By default, WordPress adds “Just Another WordPress Site” as the site tagline.

It’s recommended to change it after installing WordPress on your site. You can also keep it as blank if you want.

Site Identity panel in the WordPress theme customizer also allows you to add your site logo. Simply, click on the Select logo option to upload the logo of your website.

Want to add a favicon to your site? You can do that by clicking on the Select site icon option. For detailed instructions, you can follow our guide on how to create and add a favicon to your site.

WordPress Theme Customizer: Change Colors on Your Website

The controls on the Colors panel will mostly vary depending on the WordPress theme you’re using.

For example, the Twenty Seventeen theme allows you to choose the header text color and select a color scheme for your entire website.

Other WordPress themes may offer different color options for site elements like: headings, links, body text, background of your website, etc.

Adding Navigation Menus in Theme Customizer

The Menus panel allows you to create navigation menus and control their location on your website.

On this tabl, you’ll find all existing WordPress menus that you’ve created previously. You can click on the “View All Locations” button to check the available menu locations that your theme supports.

To create a new menu, you need to click on the Create New Menu button.

After that, you will need to give a name to your menu, so you can easily manage it later. You can also select the menu location and then click on Next to proceed.

To add items to this menu, you need to click on the Add Items button to open a new panel. You can now add custom links, pages, posts, categories, and tags as menu items.

To reorder the items, you can click on the Reorder link and then use the arrow icons to adjust the menu items.

Control Widgets on Your Website in Theme Customizer

The Widgets panel allows you to add and manage the widgets on your site.

Clicking on it will show you the different locations where you can add widgets. This will vary depending on the theme you’re using.

For example, the Twenty Seventeen theme offers 3 widget locations, whereas the Twenty Nineteen theme comes with just one location.

When you click on any one of them, you’ll see the widgets that you’ve previously added to that location.

To add a new widget, you need to click on the “Add a Widget” button. This will open a new panel where you’ll see a list of all available widgets.

You need to click on the one that want to add. You can also make changes to the newly added widgets and adjust its position by dragging them up or down.

Homepage Settings Panel in Theme Customizer

By default, WordPress displays the latest blog posts on your homepage.

However for business websites users prefer to use a custom homepage. It allows you to have a proper landing page that displays your products and services.

To use a custom home page, you need to select “A static page” radio button on the Homepage Settings panel.

This will open up two new dropdown menus that you can use to select a page for your homepage and another for displaying your blog posts.

In case you don’t have the pages on your site, you can create a new one by clicking on the “+ Add New Page” link present below the dropdown menu. This will create a blank page with the name of your choice.

Additional CSS Panel for Adding Custom CSS

Do you want to add custom CSS code to style your website? You can do that in the Additional CSS panel.

Intermediate and advanced WordPress users often customize their site by adding CSS code directly to the style.css file of their theme. This adds additional steps like having FTP access to your WordPress hosting, modifying theme files, etc.

An easier solution for beginners is to add your custom CSS code to the Additional CSS panel in the WordPress theme customizer. This will allow you to make changes to your site and see them live on the right side of your screen.

When you start writing some CSS code, WordPress will automatically suggest attributes to you based on the letters you type. It will also display error messages if you have not written a proper CSS statement.

Note: If you want to customize your website without writing any code, keep reading. We will share two beginner friendly options that will allow you to easily customize your theme and even create a custom WordPress theme.

Other Theme Customizer Options

Some free and premium themes offer more theme customizer options.

Depending on the theme you’re using, you may be able to change the font style, add a background image, change the layout, modify colors, add random header images, and much more.

You can also add specific features to your theme customizer with the help of plugins. For example, you can add custom fonts in WordPress using the Easy Google Fonts plugin.

Preview Your Website on Different Screen Resolutions

It’s important for every website owner to make sure that their website is mobile responsive and looks good on all screen sizes.

Thanks to the WordPress theme customizer, you can easily check how your website looks on different screen sizes.

At the bottom of the Theme Customizer panel, you’ll find three icons and the “Hide Controls” link.

These icons allow you to test your site on different screen resolutions like desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

The Hide Controls link is useful for hiding the WordPress Customizer panel so that you can view your site properly on the desktop mode.

Publish, Save, or Schedule Your Customizer Settings

Once you have made the necessary changes, you need to apply them to your site. Otherwise, all your hard work will be lost.

Go ahead and click on the Publish button to apply the changes. Once done, you can click on the close button, present at the top-left corner of your screen, to exit the theme customizer.

What if you need more time to finalize your new design? In that case, you can save it as a draft and even share your new design with someone without giving them access to your admin area.

To do that, you need to click on the gear icon right next to the Publish button. This will open up the Action panel.

Here you’ll find three options: Publish, Save Draft, and Schedule.

You need to select the Save Draft radio button on the Action panel and then click on the Save Draft button to store your changes.

You can now copy the preview link and share it with others to get feedback.

On the other hand, the Schedule option allows you to publish your changes on a specific date and time. You can use this option for scheduling your theme changes to go live at the time when you receive the least traffic.

Lastly, if you want to reset the unpublished changes, then you can click on the Discard changes link on the Action panel.

Preview Different Themes Without Going Live

There are times when you want to check how a new theme would look on your site. However, you don’t want to activate them on your live website.

In that case, you can open the WordPress Customizer to test new themes without going live.

On the Customizer panel, you’ll find the name of your active theme and the Change button.

If you click on that button, then WordPress will display all your installed themes on the right side of the page.

To check a particular theme, you need to click on the Live Preview button.

You can also preview themes from the WordPress Themes Repository. To do that, you need to select “WordPress.org themes” checkbox on the left panel.

This will show themes from the WordPress.org directory. You can click on the “Install & Preview” button to check the theme you like.

You can also filter the themes by clicking on the Filter Themes button present at the top-right corner of your screen.

Note: we recommend using a WordPress staging website to test out new themes instead of using the customizer on a live site.

Import or Export Theme Customizer Settings

Did you know that you can import and export your theme customizer settings?

This is extremely helpful when you are making changes to your theme on your local server or a staging site. Instead of copying the settings manually to your live website, you can simply export the theme customizer settings to save your time.

For detailed instructions, you can follow our guide on how to import and export theme customizer settings in WordPress.

WordPress Theme Customizer Alternatives

Although WordPress Customizer allows you to make changes to your site, the number of controls will vary depending on the theme you’re using.

What if you like your theme, but wish that it had extra customization options?

In that case, the best solution is to use one of the two customization plugins that works alongside the WordPress theme customizer.

CSS Hero

CSS Hero is a WordPress plugin that allows you to customize your site without writing a single line of code. You have the freedom to style every element of your site without any hassle.

Do you want to customize the login page of your WordPress site? CSS Hero allows you to do that within a few minutes.

You can also edit and preview the changes in the frontend to make sure that your design looks perfect on every device.

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is one of the best WordPress page builder plugins in the market. It allows you to build stunning pages for your site using a drag and drop interface.

The best part is that Beaver Builder works with almost every WordPress theme. This allows you to use it with your current theme.

Beaver Builder supports the use of shortcodes and widgets. It also offers different types of modules that you can use to easily style your website. See our guide on how to create custom layouts in WordPress for detailed instructions.

You can also use Beaver Builder to create a completely custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

We hope this guide helped you to learn how to use the WordPress Theme Customizer like a pro. You may also want to see our guide on the best WordPress plugins and tools for your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more WordPress video tutorials. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Use WordPress Theme Customizer Like a Pro (Ultimate Guide) appeared first on WPBeginner.