Are you curious about what happens when you change a WordPress theme?

With so many fantastic WordPress themes available, it can be tempting to try something new. But, there are a few things to consider before leaping.

We'll explain what occurs when you alter your WordPress theme in this article so you know what to expect.

What Happens When You Alter WordPress Themes?

When considering changing the theme on your WordPress site, it can be difficult to understand what features and functions your theme is in charge of.

This is because some WordPress themes are minimalistic and minimalist, with few functionality beyond a basic design. Some WordPress themes are multifunctional, with a variety of templates, customization choices, and features to assist you in customizing your website.

You may be concerned that changing your theme will lead you to lose material or even delete everything on your site, depending on the features that come with it. Fortunately, this is not the case. If you change themes, you will not lose all of your site's content.

Yet, you may lose more than you anticipate. That's why it's critical to understand what happens when you change themes and how to transfer WordPress themes without losing content.

With that said, let's go over what happens when you change your WordPress theme.

• With a new WordPress theme, the theme menus will change.

WordPress includes a navigation menu system. Each WordPress theme will display and use these menus uniquely.

Example of a WordPress navigation menu.

When you change your WordPress theme, you will notice different menu placements.

If you already allocated a menu to a certain theme area, you will need to reassign it after changing themes.

 

 

To alter the placement of your menus,

go to Appearance » Menus and select your menu from the drop-down.

Choose the WordPress navigation menu.

Then, select the position where you want the menu to appear.

A single menu can have many locations.

• The WordPress Widget Settings May Change

You can add many components to the sidebars, footers, and other widget-ready areas of your WordPress theme using widgets.

These widget spaces will be replaced and your active widgets disabled when you switch WordPress themes.

 

 

By visiting Appearance » Widgets and selecting the "Inactive Widgets" option, you can re-add widgets to your website.

If the theme you're using has its widgets, when you switch themes, those widgets won't be available.

• WordPress Theme Options Will Be Gone

WordPress themes can be customized in several ways. Some themes will only use the WordPress theme customizer, while others will have a theme options panel for management.

Many parts of your website can be managed via a theme options panel, including:

• Website Favicon
• Website logo
• footers and headers
• Backdrop pictures
• The choosing of fonts

You can attempt to set up the identical settings with your new theme if you compiled a list of WordPress theme modifications before changing themes. Your new theme might have a unique set of characteristics, though.

But Losing design options should typically not affect the speed, functionality, or search engine rankings of your website.

• Snippets of Code in functions.PhP Will Not Function

By adding code to WordPress, many website owners alter the functionality of their themes. When you switch themes, any code you've put directly to your functions.php file or other theme files won't be used.

Any code snippets you've contributed to these theme files should be noted so you can include them in your new theme.

Using a code snippets plugin like WP Code is a better approach to adding snippets to your website.

1. Taxonomies and Post Types with a Particular Subject will vanish

Some WordPress themes have their unique custom post types and taxonomies in addition to modifying the look and feel of your website. Typically, this is done to display content such as resumes, books, recommendations, and more.

• Examples of custom post kinds

Switching themes may remove custom post types and taxonomies from the WordPress database, requiring additional adjustments. To maintain compatibility, use a WordPress plugin instead of a theme for these features. 

2. Sliders that are specific to a WordPress theme will vanish

 WordPress themes offer built-in slider settings for adding full-screen home page sliders, which can be removed by changing themes. A WordPress slider plugin is recommended for adding sliders to any page. 

3. Shortcodes Unique to a WordPress Theme Will Vanish

Shortcodes in popular WordPress themes allow for new functionality in articles, pages, and widget sections. However, these shortcodes become useless when changing themes. To future-proof theme shortcodes, use a site-specific plugin that won't change even when swapping themes.

4. What Remains After Changing WordPress Themes?

Changes to WordPress themes do not affect certain blog elements, such as pages and articles, media libraries, thumbnails, and display options. However, changes may appear slightly different depending on the previous theme's presentation of articles, photos, attachments, and pages. Professional assistance is available for theme changes.

Conclusion

Changing your WordPress theme can have a big impact on how your website looks, works, and performs. Selecting a new theme allows you to update your site's style, improve user experience, and increase overall engagement.

When selecting a new theme, consider design consistency, functionality, SEO performance, user experience, backup, and testing. Ensure that the new theme is consistent with your corporate identity, satisfies your specific requirements, and provides straightforward navigation, clear calls-to-action, and seamless cross-device engagement.

To summarize, changing your WordPress theme can be a great step toward improving the appearance and functioning of your website, but it involves careful preparation, testing, and consideration of a variety of aspects to ensure a smooth transition and the best outcomes.

FAQs

What happens when I change my WordPress theme?
When you change your WordPress theme, several aspects of your website may be affected. These include changes in menu placements, widget settings, theme options, snippets of code in functions.php, custom post types and taxonomies, sliders, and shortcodes specific to the previous theme. However, elements like pages, articles, media libraries, thumbnails, and display options usually remain unaffected.

How can I manage the changes in menus when I switch themes?
To manage menu changes after switching themes, you can go to Appearance » Menus in your WordPress dashboard. From there, you can select your menu from the drop-down, choose the position where you want the menu to appear, and assign it accordingly.

What should I do about widget settings when changing themes?
When changing themes, your active widgets may be disabled. You can re-add widgets to your website by visiting Appearance » Widgets and selecting the "Inactive Widgets" option. However, keep in mind that widgets specific to your previous theme may not be available in the new theme.

How do I handle theme options that are lost when changing themes?
If your previous theme had a theme options panel for managing settings like website favicon, logo, headers, footers, background images, and fonts, these options may be lost when you switch themes. You can try to replicate these settings in your new theme, but be aware that each theme may have its unique set of features.

What happens to custom code snippets in functions.php when I change themes?
Any custom code snippets added directly to your functions.php file or other theme files will not be used when you switch themes. It's recommended to use a code snippets plugin like WP Code for adding and managing code snippets, as these plugins are theme-independent.