The Menu Screen enables the user to create a custom menu (also known as a navigation bar, navigation menu, or main menu). It is a section of the site that helps visitors to navigate the site. Depending on the theme used, typically a site will have one navigation menu, while some themes may enable secondary or footer menus. It is essential to have a simplified navigation menu, so as not to confuse your visitors.

In your menu, you can add different items such as links to pages, articles, categories, or custom links to the url of your choice, such as another site, and then choose the order of the items and their hierarchy (possibility of creating submenus). In short, your menu is fully customizable.

The Appearance Menu Screen is accessible from the Dashboard via Appearance > Menus.

Screen options

The Screen Options allow you to choose which modules are displayed, or not displayed, in the underlying Screen. Clicking on the Screen Options tab shows a list of the possible modules and options with a check-box next to each. Check the box for each module or option you want displayed, or uncheck the box to not display that module. Click the Screen Options tab again to close the Screen Options.

Certain modules, like Posts are hidden by default.

Creating menus

1. Go to the WordPress Dashboard.
2. From the ‘Appearance’ menu on the left-hand side of the Dashboard, select the ‘Menus’ option to bring up the Menu Editor.
3. Click the link Create a new menu at the top of the page.
4. Enter a name for your new menu in the Menu Name box
5. Click the Create Menu button.

Adding items to a menu

You can add different item types into your menu, such as Pages, Categories, or even Custom Links. These are split between panes left of the menu you’re currently editing. An example on how to add link to a page:

1. Locate the pane entitled Pages.
2. Within this pane, select the View All link to bring up a list of all the currently published Pages on your site.
3. Select the Pages that you want to add by clicking the checkbox next to each Page’s title.
4. Click the Add to Menu button located at the bottom of this pane to add your selection(s) to the menu that you created in the previous step.
5. Click the Save Menu button once you’ve added all the menu items you want.

Your custom menu has now been saved.

Note: The Screen Options allow you to choose which items you can use to add to a menu. Certain items, like Tags are hidden by default.

Deleting a menu item

1. Locate the menu item that you want to remove in the menu editor window
2. Click on the arrow icon in the top right-hand corner of the menu item to expand it.
3. Click on the Remove item. The menu item will be immediately removed.
4. Click the Save Menu button to save your changes.

Deleting menu items in bulk

1. To delete multiple menu items at once, click on the checkbox Bulk Select.
2. Select the checkbox next to each of the menu items you wish to delete.
3. Click Remove Selected Items. This will delete the selected menu items from the menu in bulk.

Creating Multi-level Menus

When planning the structure of your menu, it helps to think of each menu item as a heading in a formal report document. In a formal report, main section headings (Level 1 headings) are the nearest to the left of the page; sub-section headings (Level 2 headings) are indented slightly further to the right; any other subordinate headings (Level 3, 4, etc) within the same section are indented even further to the right.

The WordPress menu editor allows you to create multi-level menus using a simple ‘drag and drop’ interface. Drag menu items up or down to change their order of appearance in the menu. Drag menu items left or right in order to create sub-levels within your menu.

To make one menu item a subordinate of another, you need to position the ‘child’ underneath its ‘parent’ and then drag it slightly to the right.

1. Position the mouse over the ‘child’ menu item.
2. Whilst holding the left mouse button, drag it to the right.
3. Release the mouse button.
4. Repeat these steps for each sub-menu item.
5. Click the Save Menu button in the Menu Editor to save your changes.

Adding your menu to your site

If your current theme supports custom menus, you will be able to add your new menu to one of the Theme Locations.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the menu editor window.
2. Under Menu Settings -> Display location, click the check box for the location where you want your menu to appear.
3. Click Save Menu once you’ve made your selection.

If your current theme does not support custom menus, you will need to add your new menu via the Custom Menu widget in the Appearance Widgets Screen.

Rearranging, configuring menu items

Once an item is added to a menu, those menu items can be rearranged. Placing the mouse cursor over the menu item title, when the mouse cursor changes to cross-arrow, hold the left mouse button down, drag the module to where you want to place it, then release the mouse button (this is called drag-and-drop). Remember you can drag a menu item slightly to the right of the menu item above it to create a hierarchy (parent/child) relationship in the menu.

Each Menu Item has a configuration arrow on the right side of the Menu Item title, that when clicked opens the configuration box. Click the arrow a second time to close the configuration box. If you don’t see Link Target, Title Attribute, CSS Classes, Link Relationship (XFN), and Description, then under Screen Options make sure those boxes are checked to expose them here.

Then configuration choices are:

Navigation Label

The label for this particular menu item

Title Attribute

The attribute used when displaying the label

Open link in new tab

Click the checkbox to open the menu item in a new tab

CSS Classes

Optional CSS Classes for this menu item

Link Relationship (XFN)

Allows for the generation of XFN attributes automatically so you can show how you are related to the authors/owners of site to which you are linking. See Link Relationship for details.

Description

Description for this link. The description will be displayed in the menu if the current theme supports it.

Original

A link to the original source of the menu item (e.g. a link to view the post or page).

Move

Links to move the menu item Up one level, Down one level, Under the previous menu item as its child, To the top

Remove

Remove this menu item from the menu

Cancel

Cancel the configuration of the menu item

WordPress Plugins are PHP scripts that extend the functionality of WordPress. They enhance the features of WordPress or add entirely new features to your site. Plugins are often developed by volunteers and are usually free to the public.

Plugins are available via the WordPress Plugin Directory. Although plugins you find here are thoroughly tested and considered safe to use, they are of varying quality and are often works in progress.

How do they relate to WordPress core?

The WordPress content management system software, or WordPress core, provides the primary functionality for publishing content and managing users. Each WordPress plugin is an additional piece of software that can be easily installed to extend the functionality of WordPress core.

This allows you to customize your WordPress site with your desired functionality. Since so much functionality is provided through plugins, WordPress core is full-featured and customizable, without having to include everything for everyone.

What are some examples?

Some of the more popular plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory fall into these categories:

• Spam control
• SEO
• Data import and export
• E-commerce
• Security
• Caching

This is just a small sample. There are thousands of plugins available in the directory, so there’s a good chance you’ll find some that are useful to you.

Finding and Installing Plugins

Finding Plugins

You can browse and search for plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Each plugin listed there is available for download as a zip file you can upload to your WordPress site.

An alternative way to find and install plugins is from within the WordPress admin screens. Navigate to Plugins > Add New, and you can browse and search for plugins from within your dashboard. 

Each plugin listed there has an “Install Now” button so you can easily add it to your site.

Plugin Compatibility

If a plugin hasn’t been updated since the most recent update to WordPress core, it may be incompatible, or its compatibility may be unknown. You can view compatibility information about plugins from the Add Plugins page, or from the Installed Plugins list.

Compatibility of New Plugins

To learn about the compatibility of a plugin before you install it, navigate to Plugins > Add New. Each plugin description on this page includes a note that reads “Compatible with your version of WordPress” or “Untested with your version of WordPress.” You can click the “More Details” link to see information about this plugin’s compatibility.

Compatibility of Installed Plugins

To learn about the compatibility of plugins you’ve already installed, click the “Plugins” link in the left nav of your site’s dashboard. Each item on this list should contain a “View details” link. Click this to see information about this plugin’s compatibility with different versions of WordPress.

Installing Plugins

There are 3 ways to install WordPress plugins.

Automatic Plugin Installation. Any plugin available in the WordPress Plugins Directory can be installed via the built-in plugin installer.

Upload via WordPress Admin. You can easily add a new plugin by uploading a zip archive of the plugin from your local computer.

Manual Plugin Installation. In some cases, you may need to manually upload a plugin directly using an SFTP client.

Automatic Plugin Installation

This is the simplest method of installing a plugin. To add a plugin using the built-in plugin installer:

1. Navigate to Plugins > Add New.

2. Use the search form in the top-right to search by keyword, author, or tag.

3. On the search results that appear, click a plugin’s title or the link ‘More Details’ to read more about it, including installation notes, plugin documentation, or other useful information.
4. Click the Install Now button to install the plugin.
5. Once the plugin installation is complete, click Activate to activate the plugin.

Upload via WordPress Admin

If you have a copy of the plugin as a zip file, you can manually upload it and install it through the Plugins admin screen.

1. Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
2. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top of the screen.

3. Select the zip file from your local filesystem.

4. Click the Install Now button.

5. When the installation is complete, you’ll see “Plugin installed successfully.” Click the Activate Plugin button.

Manual Plugin Installation

In rare cases, you may need to install a plugin by manually transferring the files onto the server. This is recommended only when absolutely necessary, for example when your server is not configured to allow automatic installations.

This procedure requires you to be familiar with the process of transferring files using an SFTP client. It is recommended for advanced users and developers.

Here are the detailed instructions to manually install a WordPress plugin by transferring the files onto the webserver. 

Plugin Favorites

You can add a plugin to your list of favorites, and you can view and easily install another WordPress.org user’s favorite plugins.

Favorite a Plugin

1. Log in to the WordPress Plugins Directory using your WordPress.org ID.
2. Find the plugin you want to like and go to the plugin’s page.
3. Click the heart icon next to the Download button.

4. Once you have favorited a plugin, it will show up in your WordPress.org public profile. If you have published a review of the plugin, your rating of the plugin will also appear here.

View a User’s Favorite Plugins

To see a WordPress.org user’s favorite plugins (including your own):

1. Browse to the Add Plugins admin screen (Plugins > Add New).
2. Click the Favorites tab.

3. Type the user’s name in the “Your WordPress.org username” field.

4. Click Get Favorites.
5. Each of the plugins listed here has an ‘Install Now’ button that you can use to add the plugin to your site.

Updating Plugins

Plugin developers update their plugins occasionally by adding new features, improving code quality, and keeping them secure. To ensure that these changes are applied on your site immediately, you should keep your WordPress plugins up to date. This helps to improve your site’s WordPress security and performance.

Manual Plugin Update From The Dashboard

Your WordPress Dashboard automatically notifies you when a plugin needs to be updated — you can view this notification under the Dashboard->Updates tab. 

1. Scroll down to the Plugins section.

2. Select the checkbox for the plugins you want to update and then click  ‘Update Plugins’ button.

NOTE: Always make sure you have a current backup of your site before updating your plugins. Sometimes problems can happen during the update process.

Manual Plugin Update From The Plugins Page

You can find the plugins that need to be updated on your site’s Plugins page. 

To find any plugins installed on your site that need to be updated:

1. Click the “Plugins” link in the left nav of your site’s dashboard.
2. Look down the list of installed plugins for any that include a line reading “There is a new version…”
3. Click the “View version…” link in that note to view details about the plugin’s update.
4. Click the “update now” link to update the plugin.

NOTE: Always make sure you have a current backup of your site before updating your plugins. Sometimes problems can happen during the update process.

Enable Automatic Plugin Update

WordPress introduced automatic updates for WordPress plugins in WordPress 5.5. This allows you to enable automatic updates for individual WordPress plugins directly from the Plugins Page in the WordPress dashboard.

1. Go to Plugins -> Installed Plugins page inside WordPres Admin area. Here you’ll see the list of all your installed plugins.  Each plugin in the list has a link ‘Enable auto-updates’ in the right-most column (under Automatic Updates).
2. Select the checkbox for the plugins you want to enable auto-update and click the link  ‘Enable auto-updates’ for the selected plugin. This will enable automatic updates for the selected plugin.

 Disable Automatic Plugin Update

  To stop your plugins from updating automatically, do the following:

1. Go to Plugins -> Installed Plugins page inside WordPres Admin area. Here you’ll see the list of all your installed plugins.  
2. Each plugin in the list that has auto-update enabled will have a link ‘Disable auto-updates’ in the right-most column (under Automatic Updates).
3. Select the checkbox for the plugin you want to disable auto-update and click the link  Disable auto-updates’ for the selected plugin. This will disable automatic updates for the selected plugin.

Bulk Update WordPress Plugins

If you have several plugins on your website that need an update, then you can bulk update those plugins.  It is always recommended to do a quick review of all the plugins before updating.

1. Go to the Plugins page and click on the ‘Update Available’ link. This will show you the list of all plugins that have updates available.

2. Click the checkbox to select all the plugins you want to update.

3. From the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop down, select ‘Update’ and click ‘Apply’.

If all goes well with the updates, you will see a message saying that the updates were completed successfully.

Uninstalling Plugins

Plugins have a safe and easy-to-use uninstaller. If that is not available, you can also manually uninstall the plugins.

Automatic Uninstallation

The safe and easy way to uninstall a plugin is via the WordPress admin screen.

1. Navigate to your Plugins admin screen and locate the plugin to be uninstalled.
2. Select the checkbox next to the plugin name and click the “Deactivate” link.

3. Once the plugin is successfully deactivated, click the plugin’s “Delete” link.

Troubleshooting

Occasionally, a WordPress Plugin may not work as expected. This section provides helpful resources and steps you can take for troubleshooting plugin issues.

Resources To Help Diagnose The Issue

• Review the plugin’s documentation to confirm that you’ve followed the instructions. You can find this information in the Plugins page under the name of each Plugin > View details.

NOTE: If you have access to the plugin files, you can also find this information in the Plugin’s folder inside readme.txt.

• Search the WordPress Support Forums for the name of the Plugin and keywords associated with the problem you are experiencing or the specific error message that is displayed.
• Search the WordPress Plugins Directory for the name of the Plugin. On the Plugins page, select the Support tab to read about issues reported in the Support Forums for that plugin.

• Go to the website of the plugin author and check their blog and Plugin page for known issues or advice.

• Search the web with the name of the Plugin and keywords associated with the problem you are experiencing or the specific error message that is displayed.
• Post a question in the WordPress Support Forums with the name of the Plugin and keywords associated with the problem you are experiencing or the specific error message that is displayed. Make sure to include the problem in the title of the question. For advice on how to improve your chances of getting help, see Finding WordPress Help.

Possible Resolutions

Make sure that the plugin is activated after it is installed. 

1. Go to the Plugins > Installed Plugins from the WordPress admin screen.
2. Find the Plugin and click ‘Activate’.

If you know which plugin is causing the issue: 

1. Deactivate that plugin and activate it again to see if this helps.

2. In some cases, the plugin may be buggy or incompatible. Deactivate the plugin. Search for other similar plugins, install and activate it and see it this revolves the issue.

If you don’t know which plugin is causing the issue: 

Sometimes problems may be caused by a conflict with different WordPress plugins. There are a few different ways you can tell which plugin is causing the issue.

• You installed a single plugin and experienced issues with your site soon after that.
• You updated a single plugin and experienced issues with your site soon after that.
• There’s an error message telling you exactly which plugin file is causing the issue. 
• Try deactivating plugins one at a time until you find the one that’s causing the issue. 
• Once you find the plugin that is causing the issue, you can either deactivate and activate it again to see if this helps. Or you can find other similar plugins from the WordPress Plugins Directory, install and activate it and see if this resolves the issue. 

Plugin Management

Plugins are managed from the Plugins admin screen of your WordPress site. 

Here you will find a list of all installed plugins, whether they are active or inactive. From this screen, you can activate, deactivate and delete plugins. 

Plugins listed in bold are currently active.

Each plugin on the list also contains links to further information about the plugin. 

Must-Use Plugins

Must-use plugins (a.k.a. mu-plugins) are plugins installed in a special directory inside the content folder and which are automatically enabled. 

Must-use plugins do not show in the default list of plugins on the Plugins page and cannot be disabled except by removing the plugin file from the must-use directory, which is found in wp-content/mu-plugins by default.

For more details, please refer Must Use Plugins.

Developing Plugins

The WordPress community relies on plugin developers to maintain a healthy and growing collection of plugins. A large part of what makes WordPress valuable is the extensive and freely available plugins. 

You can help WordPress users by creating your own plugins for distribution through the WordPress plugin directory.

You can get started with the WordPress plugin development using the resources in the WordPress Plugin Developer Handbook.

Widgets were originally designed to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress Theme to the user, which is now available on properly “widgetized” WordPress Themes to include the header, footer, and elsewhere in the WordPress design and structure.

Widgets require no code experience or expertise. They can be added, removed, and rearranged on the Theme Customizer or Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress Administration Screens.

Some WordPress Widgets offer customization and options such as forms to fill out, includes or excludes of data and information, optional images, and other customization features.

The Block-based Widgets Editor explains how to use the updated Widgets experience with blocks.

The Appearance Widgets Screen explains how to use the various Widgets that come with WordPress in the Classic experience.

Plugins that come bundled with widgets can be found in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Installing Widgets

WordPress comes pre-packaged with a variety of Widgets. If those are insufficient for your needs you can install new ones by searching the WordPress Plugin Directory which is accessible from the WordPress Administration Plugins > Add New Screen.

Displaying Widgets

Existing Widgets in Existing Widget Areas

Before you can add a Widget you must verify that the Theme you’re using supports Widgets (more specifically: Widget Area). You can do so by simply navigating to the Appearance menu and looking for a sub menu titled “Widgets”.

If your Theme supports Theme Customizer then you can use the following Steps. In Theme Customizer, the live preview of changes is available.

1. Go to Appearance > Customize in the WordPress Administration Screens.
2. Click the Widget menu in the Theme Customizer to access to the Widget Customize Screen.
3. Click the down arrow of Widget Area to list the already registered Widgets.
4. Click Add a Widget button at the bottom of sidebar. It shows the list of available widgets.
5. Click a widget you want to add. The widgets should be added in the sidebar.
6. Preview your site and you should see the content from your new Widget.
7. To arrange the Widgets within the Sidebar, drag and drop the widgets in the order you want or click Reorder link and click up arrow and down allow of each widget and click Done after the arrange operation.
8. To customize the Widget features, click the down arrow in the right to expand the Widget’s interface.
9. To remove the widget, click Remove from Widget’s interface in above step.

If your Theme does not support Theme Customizer then you can use the following conventional steps:

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress Administration Screens.
2. Choose a Widget and either drag it to the sidebar where you wish it to appear, or click the widget, (select a destination sidebar if your theme has more than one) and click the Add Widget button. There might be more than one sidebar option, so begin with the first one. Once in place, WordPress automatically updates the Theme.
3. Preview the site. You should find that the “default” sidebar elements are now gone and only the new addition is visible.
4. Return to the Widgets Screen to continue adding Widgets.
5. To arrange the Widgets within the sidebar or Widget area, click and drag it into place.
6. To customize the Widget features, click the down arrow in the upper right corner to expand the Widget’s interface.
7. To save the Widget’s customization, click Save.
8. To remove the Widget, click Delete.

If you want to remove the widget but save its setting for possible future use, just drag it into the Inactive Widgets area. You can add them back anytime from there. This is especially helpful when you switch to a theme with fewer or different widget areas.

When changing themes, there is often some variation in the number and setup of widget areas/sidebars and sometimes these conflicts make the transition a bit less smooth. If you changed themes and seem to be missing widgets, scroll down on the screen to the Inactive Widgets area, where all of your widgets and their settings will have been saved.

Enabling Accessibility Mode, via Screen Options, allows you to use Add and Edit buttons instead of using drag and drop.

Widget Areas

While widget areas typically occur in webpage sidebars, a theme can place widget areas anywhere on a page. For example, besides the usual sidebar locations, the Twenty Seventeen theme has a widget area in the footer of every page.

Using Text Widgets

The Text Widget is one of the most commonly used WordPress Widgets that comes with every WordPress installation. It allows users to add text, video, images, custom lists, and more to their WordPress sites.

To use the WordPress Text Widget:

1. Go to Appearance > Customize in the WordPress Administration Screens and click the Widget menu in the Theme Customizer. Or Go to Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress Administration Screens.
2. Open the sidebar to which you wish to add the Text Widget.
3. Find the Text Widget in the list of Widgets.
4. Click and drag the Widget to the spot you wish it to appear.

To open and edit the Text Widget:

1. Click the down arrow to the right of the Text Widget title.
2. Set the Text Widget Title (optional).
3. Add the text or HTML code to the box or edit what is currently there.
4. Choose the option to Automatically add paragraphs to wrap each block of text in an HTML paragraph tag (recommended for text).
5. Click Save to save the Text Widget.
6. Click Close to close the Text Widget.
7. Switch tabs in your browser and preview the results and make changes if necessary.

The Text Widget can hold a variety of HTML, XHTML, and multimedia links and players such as video and object embeds.

Adding Code to the Text Widget

Basic HTML, embeds, and JavaScript are added easily to the WordPress Text Widget. Most embed codes from social sharing sites for multimedia will work in a WordPress Text Widget. However, active code and programming languages such as PHP will not work as the Widget will strip out code it cannot display.

To add active code to the Text Widget, use one of the many WordPress Plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory that override WordPress restrictions on using PHP in posts. Check that they will work on Widgets as some will not.

Using RSS Widgets

The RSS Widget allows you to integrate an external feed source for content into a Widget area of your site, such as your Twitter account, Facebook posts, Google+ posts, or other blogs.

The RSS Widget displays the most recently published content from any source with an active feed. This is an ideal way of integrating outside content into your site.

By default, WordPress RSS Widget displays the post title or the first 100 or so characters of a Tweet or long untitled post. These are either in the form of a link or features a link to the original source depending upon the feed’s design and structure.

1. Enter the RSS feed URL in the first box, copied from the source page for the content you wish to include in your sidebar or other widgetized space.
2. Give the feed a title: This is optional and gives you the chance to showcase the source of the content.
3. How many items would you like to display?: By default, 10 are show, but you can choose from 1-20 posts.
4. Display item content?: This allows you to show an excerpt of the content not just the title.
5. Display item author if available?: If you wish to give credit to the original author of the content, check this to display the author.
6. Display item date?: If available, the date of the original content will be shown.

You may add multiple RSS Widgets for incoming feeds to your WordPress sidebar and other widgetized areas of your site.

Resources

• WordPress Widgets Announcement (historical reference)

Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is a way to “skin” your WordPress site. Yet, it is more than just a “skin”. Skinning your site implies that only the design is changed. WordPress Themes can provide much more control over the visual presentation of your content and other data on your WordPress site, as well as behavior of certain site’s elements while interacting with visitors.

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a website. These files are called template files. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Themes may include customized template files, image files (*.jpg, *.png, *.gif), style sheets (*.css), custom Pages, as well as any necessary code files (*.php). For an introduction to template files, see Template Files.

Let’s say you write a lot about cheese and gadgets. Through the use of the WordPress Loop and template files, you can customize your Cheese category posts to look different from your Gadgets category posts. With this powerful control over what different pages and categories look like on your site, you are limited only by your imagination. For information on how to create custom look for various templates in your theme, take a look at Template Hierarchy.

To better understand this diagram, you can interact with it.

Default Themes

WordPress currently comes with twelve themes: the default Twenty Twenty Two theme (demo), and the previous defaults Twenty Twenty One theme (demo) Twenty Twenty (demo) Twenty Nineteen (demo) Twenty Seventeen (demo) Twenty Sixteen (demo) Twenty Fifteen (demo) Twenty Fourteen (demo) Twenty Thirteen (demo) Twenty Twelve (demo) Twenty Eleven (demo) Twenty Ten (demo).

The Twenty Twenty Two theme is the first ever default block theme. It currently only works if you are using WordPress 5.9 and above or if you install the Gutenberg plugin alongside prior WordPress versions.

NOTE: All default themes now come bundled with block patterns, which allow you to easily create beautiful layouts. Find out which patterns are added to themes on the Make WordPress Blog.

You can switch between Themes from the Appearance menu in the Administration Screen. Themes you add to the theme directory will appear in the Administration Screen > Appearance > Themes as additional selections.

Get New Themes

The WordPress Theme Directory is the official site for WordPress Themes. Every theme in this directory is reviewed by a dedicated team and tested against wide range of rules, all of which are ensuring secure and pleasant experience for theme user.

With over 9,000 themes in the directory, you can easily find the right one for your site with advanced search feature using filters for layout, subject and specific theme’s features. This includes finding Block themes which support full site editing features.

If you need more than a screenshot and features list to decide whether the theme fits your needs, you can see the demo for the theme with Preview feature on theme’s info page.

Adding New Themes

Most of themes in WordPress Theme Directory come with installation instructions, especially the ones that may require more steps than the usual theme installation. Be sure to read through and follow those instructions for the successful installation of the Theme. If your Theme does not work after following any provided instructions, please contact the Theme author for help.

Adding Block themes

A block theme is a theme that uses blocks for all parts of a site, including navigation menus, header, content, and site footer. These themes are built for the newest features coming to WordPress that allow you to edit and customize all parts of your site.

Currently, you can add block themes in the same way you would any other theme. However, the Live Preview option is removed which means you will need to set up a test site first to explore the theme before activating if you wish to preview it. You also will not have the option to use the Customizer since block themes rely on the Site Editor to edit all parts of your site. In order to customize a block theme, you’ll need to activate it first.

You can read more about this current experience here.

Adding New Themes using the Administration Screens

You can download any theme from WordPress Theme Directory directly to your site by using the Add New option in the Appearance sub-menu.

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Screens.
2. Select the Appearance screen, then Themes.
3. Select Add New.
4. Either use the Search or Filter options to locate a Theme you would like to use.
5. Click on the Preview link to preview the Theme or the Install link to upload the Theme to your site. Note that
6. Or use the Upload Theme button at the top of page to upload a zipped copy of a Theme that you have previously downloaded to your machine.

When the Theme is already downloaded but not activated Live Preview option will give you a preview of your site with your own, existing content.

Adding New Themes by using cPanel

If your host offers the cPanel control panel, you can use its Upload option to upload the Theme files to your site. For this you will need Theme files in an compressed archive (.zip or .gz).

1. Download the Theme .zip file to your machine.
2. In cPanel File Manager, navigate to your Themes folder. Depending on your hosting, path to Themes folder can differ a bit but essentially you are looking for public_html inside which you’ll find /wp-content/themes/.
3. Once you’re inside the Themes folder in cPanel File Manager, click on Upload and upload that .zip file you saved in Step 1.
4. Once the .zip file is uploaded, right click on the name of that file in cPanel and select Extract from the context menu.
5. When Theme files are successfully extracted, follow the instructions below for activating the new Theme.

Adding New Themes Manually (FTP)

To add a new Theme to your WordPress installation via FTP protocol, you’ll need FTP client and extracted Theme files.

1. Download the Theme archive (.zip) and extract the files it contains. You should have a folder named as theme itself, containing theme files.
2. Using an FTP client to access your host web server and navigate to /wp-content/themes/ directory.
3. Upload the Theme folder to this directory on your host server.
4. Follow the instructions below for activating the new Theme.

Activating the Theme

Now that new Theme is in /wp-content/themes/ directory (whether you used Administration Screens, cPanel or FTP method), this new Theme is ready to be activated. All themes in /wp-content/themes/ directory are available for Activation and Update (when update is provided by theme author), but only one theme from this directory can be Active.

When theme is Activated it means that this theme’s style and functionality (look and behavior) will be applied on your site. You will be informed by Administration notification about successful activation of the Theme.

To activate a Theme for your site:

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Screens.
2. Select the Appearance screen, then Themes.
3. You should see here all themes from your /wp-content/themes/ directory and from here you can see details for each of them by clicking on Theme Details (rollover the Theme thumbnail).
4. Live Preview option will give you preview of your site with your site’s content.
5. To activate the Theme click the Activate button.

Your selection will immediately become active.

Note: If the Theme preview is blank, do NOT activate the new Theme without investigating further. Your site may not be displayed correctly, otherwise. If you do not see Theme’s thumbnail at all, your new Theme might be corrupted or broken. Take a look below installed theme’s thumbnails if there is any info about broken themes. In this case contact the Theme author for help.

Creating Themes

If you are interested in creating your own Theme for distribution, or learning more about the architecture of Themes, please review the documentation regarding Theme Development.

If you simply want to customize your current Theme for your own use, consider creating a Child Theme.

Whichever the case, you are welcome to join the Themes Team and their dedicated #themereview Slack channel. In that channel, you can ask for help on developing themes for WordPress Theme Directory or even start reviewing themes yourself.

phpMyAdmin is a program used to manipulate databases remotely through a web interface. A good hosting package will have this included. For information on backing up your WordPress database, see Backing Up Your Database.

Information here has been tested using phpMyAdmin 4.0.5 running on Unix.

The following instructions will replace your current database with the backup, reverting your database to the state it was in when you backed up.

Restore Process

Using phpMyAdmin, follow the steps below to restore a MySQL/MariaDB database.

1. Login to phpMyAdmin.
2. Click “Databases” and select the database that you will be importing your data into.
3. You will then see either a list of tables already inside that database or a screen that says no tables exist. This depends on your setup.
4. Across the top of the screen will be a row of tabs. Click the Import tab.
5. On the next screen will be a location of text file box, and next to that a button named Browse.
6. Click Browse. Locate the backup file stored on your computer.
7. Make sure SQL is selected in the Format drop-down menu.
8. Click the Go button.

Now grab a coffee. This bit takes a while. Eventually you will see a success screen.

If you get an error message, your best bet is to post to the WordPress support forums to get help.

Using MySQL/MariaDB Commands

The restore process consists of unarchiving your archived database dump, and importing it into your MySQL/MariaDB database.

Assuming your backup is a .bz2 file, created using instructions similar to those given for Backing up your database using MySQL/MariaDB commands, the following steps will guide you through restoring your database:

1. Unzip your .bz2 file:

user@linux:~/files/blog> bzip2 -d blog.bak.sql.bz2

Note: If your database backup was a .tar.gz file called blog.bak.sql.tar.gz, then

tar -zxvf blog.bak.sql.tar.gz

is the command that should be used instead of the above.

1. Put the backed-up SQL back into MySQL/MariaDB:

user@linux:~/files/blog> mysql -h mysqlhostserver -u mysqlusername -p databasename < blog.bak.sql

Enter password: (enter your mysql password) 
user@linux:~/files/blog>

Moving to a New Server

If you are moving WordPress from one server to another, begin by backing up your WordPress directory, images, plugins, and other files on your site as well as the database. See WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database.

Keeping Your Domain Name and URLs

Moving your domain without changing the Home and Site URLs of your WordPress site is very simple, and in most cases can be done by moving the files.

• If database and URL remain the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.
• If database name or user changes, edit wp-config.php to have the correct values.
• If you want to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options” (through phpMyAdmin or similar).
• If you had any kind of rewrites (permalinks) setup you must disable .htaccess and reconfigure permalinks when it goes live.

Changing Your Domain Name and URLs

Moving a website and changing your domain name or URLs (i.e. from http://example.com/site to http://example.com, or http://example.com to http://example.net) requires the following steps – in sequence.

1. Download your existing site files.
2. Export your database – go in to MySQL and export the database.
3. Move the backed up files and database into a new folder – somewhere safe – this is your site backup.
4. Log in to the site you want to move and go to Settings > General, then change the URLs. (ie from http://example.com/ to http://example.net ) – save the settings and expect to see a 404 page.
5. Download your site files again.
6. Export the database again.
7. Edit wp-config.php with the new server’s MySQL database name, user and password.
8. Upload the files.
9. Import the database on the new server.

When your domain name or URLs change there are additional concerns. The files and database can be moved, however references to the old domain name or location will remain in the database, and that can cause issues with links or theme display.

If you do a search and replace on your entire database to change the URLs, you can cause issues with data serialization, due to the fact that some themes and widgets store values with the length of your URL marked. When this changes, things break. To avoid that serialization issue, you have three options:

1. Use the Velvet Blues Update URLs or Better Search Replace plugins if you can access your Dashboard.
2. Use WP-CLI’s search-replace if your hosting provider (or you) have installed WP-CLI.
3. Use the Search and Replace for WordPress Databases Script to safely change all instances on your old domain or path to your new one. (** only use this option if you are comfortable with database administration ** )

Note: Only perform a search and replace on the wp_posts table.
Note: Search and Replace from Interconnectit is a 3rd party script

Moving Directories On Your Existing Server

Moving the WordPress files from one location on your server to another – i.e. changing its URL – requires some special care. If you want to move WordPress to its own folder, but have it run from the root of your domain, please read Giving WordPress Its Own Directory for detailed instructions.

Here are the step-by-step instructions to move your WordPress site to a new location on the same server:

1. Create the new location using one of these two options:
   1. If you will be moving your WordPress core files to a new directory, create the new directory.If you want to move WordPress to your root directory, make sure all index.php, .htaccess, and other files that might be copied over are backed up and/or moved, and that the root directory is ready for the new WordPress files.
2. Log in to your site.
3. Go to the Administration > Settings > General screen.
4. In the box for WordPress Address (URL): change the address to the new location of your main WordPress core files.
5. In the box for Site Address (URL): change the address to the new location, which should match the WordPress (your public site) address.
6. Click Save Changes.
7. (Do not try to open/view your site now!)
8. Move your WordPress core files to the new location. This includes the files found within the original directory, such as http://example.com/wordpress, and all the sub-directories, to the new location.
9. Now, try to open your site by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Note, you may need to go to yourdomain.com/wp-login.php
10. If you are using Permalinks, go to the Administration > Settings > Permalinks panel and update your Permalink structure to your .htaccess, file, which should be in the same directory as the main index.php file.
11. Existing image/media links uploaded media will refer to the old folder and must be updated with the new location. You can do this with the Better Search Replace or Velvet Blues Update URLs plugins, WP-CLI’s search-replace if your hosting provider (or you) have installed WP-CLI, manually in your SQL database, or by using the 3rd party database updating tool Search and Replace Databases Script * Note: this script is best used by experienced developers.
12. In some cases your permissions may have changed, depending on your ISP. Watch for any files with “0000” permissions and change them back to “0644”.
13. If your theme supports menus, links to your home page may still have the old subdirectory embedded in them. Go to Appearance > Menus and update them.
14. Sometimes you would need to restart your server, otherwise your server may give out an error. (happens in MAMP software (Mac)).

It is important that you set the URI locations BEFORE you move the files.

If You Forget to Change the Locations

If you accidentally moved the files before you changed the URIs: you have two options.

1. Suppose the files were originally in /path/to/old/ and you moved them to /path/to/new before changing the URIs. The way to fix this would be to make /path/to/old/ a symlink (for Windows users, “symlink” is equivalent to “shortcut”) to /path/to/new/, i.e.
   ln -s /path/to/new /path/to/old
   and then follow the steps above as normal. Afterwards, delete the symlink if you want.
2. If you forget to change the WordPress Address and Blog Address, you will be unable to change it using the wordpress interface. However, you can fix it if you have access to the database. Go to the database of your site and find the wp_options table. This table stores all the options that you can set in the interface. The WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored as siteurl and home (the option_name field). All you have to do is change the option_value field to the correct URL for the records with option_name=’siteurl‘ or option_name=’home‘.

Note: Sometimes, the WordPress Address and Blog Address are stored in WordPress Transients. Search and replace scripts can have trouble modifying those to the new address and some plugins might therefore refer to the old address because of them. Transients are temporary (cached) values stored in the wp_options database table that can be recreated on-demand when removed. It’s therefore safe to delete them from the migrated database copy and let them be recreated. This database query (again, have a backup!) clears all transients:

DELETE FROM `wp_options` WHERE option_name LIKE '%\_transient\_%' 

If You Have Accidentally Changed your WordPress Site URL

Suppose you accidentally changed the URIs where you cannot move the files (but can still access the login page, through a redirection or something).

wp-login.php can be used to (re-)set the URIs. Find this line:

require( dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-load.php' );

and insert the following lines below:

//FIXME: do comment/remove these hack lines. (once the database is updated)
update_option('siteurl', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );
update_option('home', 'http://your.domain.name/the/path' );

You’re done. Test your site to make sure that it works right. If the change involves a new address for your site, make sure you let people know the new address, and consider adding some redirection instructions in your .htaccess file to guide visitors to the new location.

Changing The Site URL also provides the details of this process.

Managing Your Old Site

Shutting It Down

1. Download a copy of the main wordpress files from your OLD site to your hard drive and edit wp-config.php to suit the new server.
2. Go back to your OLD site and go to Administration > Settings > General screen and change the URL (both of them) to that of your new site.
3. Login on your server, go to phpMyAdmin, export as file, and save your database (but keep the old one just in case). Now, upload this new database and the copy of the wordpress core files with the edited wp-config.php to your new server. That’s it!

Keeping it Running

Caution: Make sure you have a backup of your old site’s WordPress database before proceeding!

Part A – Activating Your New Site

1. Download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your OLD site’s installation.
2. Download your database.
3. Go back to your OLD site and go to options and change the url (both of them) to that of your new site.
4. Again, download your entire WordPress installation to your hard drive. Name the folder appropriately to indicate that this is your NEW site’s installation.
5. Download your database once again (but keep the old one). Upload this database to your new server. It will be easiest if you use the same database name and you create a user with the same login credentials on your new server as on your old server.
6. If you used a different database name and/or user (see previous step), edit wp-config.php in your NEW site’s installation folder appropriately.
7. Upload the NEW site’s installation folder to your new site. Presto, your NEW site should be working!

Part B – Restoring Your Old Site

1. On the original server, delete your OLD site’s database (remember, you should have a copy on your local computer that you made at the very beginning).
2. Upload your OLD site’s installation folder to your original server, overwriting the files that are currently there (you may also delete the installation folder on the server and simply re-upload the OLD site’s files).
3. Upload your OLD site’s database from your local computer to the server. That should do it!

Another procedure for making copies of posts, comments, pages, categories and custom field (post status, data, permalinks, ping status, etc.) easy to follow:

1. Install a new WordPress site
2. Go on old site Admin panel. Here, in Manage > Export select “all” in menu Restrict Author.
3. Click on Download Export File
4. In new site go on Manage > Import, choose WordPress item.
5. In the page that will be shown, select the file just exported. Click on Upload file and Import
6. It will appear a page. In Assign Authors, assign the author to users that already exist or create new ones.
7. Click on Submit
8. At the end, click on Have fun

Note: using this method, if there are some articles in the new site (like Hello World, Info Page, etc.), these will not be erased. Articles are only added. Using the former procedure, the articles in new site will be deleted.

Moving WordPress Multisite

Multisite is somewhat more complicated to move, as the database itself has multiple references to the server name as well as the folder locations. If you’re simply moving to a new server with the same domain name, you can copy the files and database over, exactly as you would a traditional install.

If, instead, you are changing domains, then the best way to move Multisite is to move the files, edit the .htaccess and wp-config.php (if the folder name containing Multisite changed), and then manually edit the database. Search for all instances of your domain name, and change them as needed. This step cannot yet be easily automated. It’s safe to search/replace any of the wp_x_posts tables, however do not attempt blanket search/replace without the Search and Replace for WordPress Databases script (aka the interconnectit script).

If you’re moving Multisite from one folder to another, you will need to make sure you edit the wp_blogs entries to change the folder name correctly. You should manually review both wp_site and wp_blogs regardless, to ensure all sites were changed correctly.

Also, manually review all the wp_x_options tables and look for three fields and edit them as needed:

• home
• siteurl
• fileupload_url

If you are moving from subdomains to subfolders, or vice-versa, remember to adjust the .htaccess file and the value for SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL in your wp-config.php file accordingly.

Related Links

• How to move WordPress site to another server with zero downtime
• Moving a blog from wordpress.com to self-hosted blog
• Moving WordPress to a new domain or server
• Italian version of this article – Versione italiana dell’articolo
• How to move a WordPress Blog or Website
• Search and Replace for WordPress Databases
• Online WordPress Serialized PHP Search and Replace
• Cloning a live WordPress site to a local Mac test environment
• PHP script to replace site url in WordPress database dump, even with WPML
• The Duplicator plugin helps administrators move a site from one location to another
• Technical tutorial on moving your WordPress blog to Bitnami’s AWS configuration

The dimension settings are available when you use the block editor. If you are new to the block editor, this guide will show you how to work with blocks. You can read more about the new block editor features and improvements in this article.

How to access dimension settings

The dimension settings can be found in the Block Settings sidebar of a block under the section Dimension.

If you don’t see the Block Settings sidebar, select the block you want to customize, then click the settings icon (a cog) that is to the right of the Publish or Update buttons in the WordPress Editor..

Below are a few examples from different blocks:

In the Dimension section, click on the three-dot menu (also known as an ellipsis) to explore all the dimension settings that are not visible by default.

Of note, the type of dimension settings you can see in your block depends on whether they have been supported by the block or not.

If you make customizations to these settings and want to revert back to the original settings quickly, you can do so by selecting the three-dot menu icon and clicking Reset All as shown in this article. This resets the settings and removes all of your changes. You can reset individual settings by clicking Reset on each setting. You can also reset all of them globally by clicking on the Reset All option.

Type of settings

Each block comes with different dimension settings.

Padding

This setting impacts the space between a block’s content and its border. You can either set padding for all sides or set different padding values for each side. To set different padding for each side, follow the steps in the Unlink sides section.

Margin

This setting impacts the space around a block. You can either set the margin for all sides or set different margin values for each side. To set different margins for each side, follow the steps in the Unlink sides section.

Preview margin and padding

When changing the margin or padding in a block, the editor will show the corresponding change, highlighted in a blue box around the block.

Block spacing

This setting impacts the space between nested blocks. This means that if you set block spacing for the entire block, you can change the spacing of the nested block within the parent block. You can find this setting in blocks like the Buttons block or Group block.

Within this setting, you can choose to set block spacing using different values: px, %, em, rem, vw, vh.

Minimum height

This setting enables you to set a minimum height for the block. You can find this option in the Cover block. Within this setting, you can choose to set the height using different values: px, %, em, rem, vw, vh.

Unlink sides

By default, the Padding and Margin settings will apply the same value to the four sides around the block. You can add a different value to each of the sides by clicking on the Link icon to the right. To return to adding the same value for all sides, just select the Link icon again.

Set custom size & change units

You can add custom values for a block’s margin, padding, or spacing, and also change the units to one of the following: px, %, em, rem, vw, vh.

Blocks that have dimension settings

Various combinations of these options are available in the following blocks: 

• Archives
• Audio
• Tag Cloud
• Table of contents – not available in 6.1
• Table
• Term Description
• Spacer
• Post Date
• Heading
• Paragraph
• Query Title
• Post Title
• Video
• List
• Media & Text
• Verse
• Categories
• Comment Edit Link
• Comment Date
• Comment Reply Link
• Avatar
• Site Logo
• Social Links
• Gallery
• Button/Buttons
• Code
• Column/Columns
• Comment Author Name
• Comment Content
• Comments Title
• Cover
• Group
• Heading
• Navigation
• Post Author
• Post Author Biography
• Post Author Name
• Post Excerpt
• Post Featured Image
• Read More
• Separator
• Site Tagline
• Site Title

Demonstration

The following is a demonstration of various settings in action with the Post Featured Image, unlink the sides of the block, and use different units.