Changing page width?

I’ve tried searching previous posts to find out how to change page width – which must have been asked many times before – but I never fully understand the context of those questions so I’m asking again. For example, one discussion I found talked about “pinnacle” but I’m not sure if that’s a plug-in, theme, or something else.

How do I change the width of my pages in WordPress? I’m guessing that page width depends a great deal on the theme being used and what the CSS for that theme says. I’ve looked in the code and there are *dozens* of CSS files there. I certainly don’t know which CSS file to change in order to change my page width. I also don’t know what my change will do to the rest of the things displayed on the page: they may mangle the appearance badly. Or not.

Or maybe I *should* simply find a theme that features wider pages. I’m new to the WordPress world but I’ve already checked and there really don’t see to be very many themes available, which I find surprising for such a widely-used system. Or would it be more correct to say that there are only a few *free* themes and the rest need to be paid for (or built yourself)?

As a start, I’d like to know how to change page width on my existing theme, twenty seventeen, but if someone can point me to a tutorial on creating my own theme, that would be great.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty technical and have hand-built several websites. I’m just exploring WordPress as a quick way to build a Member Area for my book club.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by rhinocan.