Support » Themes and Templates » how to preview w/o messing the current theme 4 my visitors?

  • I want to design my own theme for my wordpress powered site, but I don’t want to screw up my current theme because it will look bad for my visitors. How can I preview the theme in progress on my computer as I work on it?

    Thanks, Laurie K

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  • Duplicate all the theme files (if you are modifying an existing theme) or make a new theme directory on your server. This way, the theme you already have stays the same, and you won’t risk messing it up. (You might have already done this step if you are already working on the theme.

    Edit your duplicate theme’s style.css file header to show WordPress that it is a different theme, including any relevant information you want to add.
    Now, you can edit your duplicate to your heart’s content!

    If, during the whole process, you want to check on how your theme looks, log into your Dashboard, go to the Themes area, and find your duplicate theme in the list of themes currently in your directory. Click on the “preview” link, and a smaller window will pop up. This window will show your website as it will look with that theme applied!

    I hope this helps you in the modification process,
    MindBender 3D

    (Note: if you are modifying the theme files on your computer rather than using the built-in WP theme editor, you will need to add an additional step. When you reach a point at which you would like to preview the theme, FTP to your server and upload the theme files on your computer into the duplicate directory, overwriting the old files. You only need to upload files that have changed.)

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