A Search Page is a WordPress Page with a custom Page template to give users more information for searching your site.

Things You Need to Know

Different WordPress Themes feature different template files. Some include a search.php template file. This is not a Search Page, it is merely a template that displays the search results. There is also a template file called searchform.php. This is a template file that is often included in the sidebar of many themes and generates the search box form. If there isn’t one in your theme, you can easily copy it from the Default theme.

To create your own custom Search Page, you will need to create a Page template to include your search form and the information you want your users to see before they search your site.

Check your WordPress Theme to see if it includes a page.php template file. The Default WordPress Theme does include this template, but many do not. If it does, then follow these instructions. If it does not, we have the information you need to create your own.

Creating a Search Page Template

1. Using a text editor, open the page.php and save as searchpage.php. If you do not have a page.php, you can create one based upon your Theme’s index.php template file.

Note: The filename search.php is reserved as a special template name, so avoid its usage; the suggested searchpage.php just makes it easy to recognize in the list of files.

2. After saving it, edit the file:

• Delete The Loop (i.e. basically everything within your content div), leaving the div tags intact.
• Add a heading such as “Search Posts” or something similar. You can use an existing class from your CSS stylesheet, or create a new one.
• Copy the following into the content div or any other div that contains the content of your Page:

 <?php get_search_form(); ?> 

• At the top of your searchpage.php, before anything else, add this to give your Search Page a heading WordPress will recognize in the Administration Screens:

<?php 
/**
 * Template Name: Search Page
 */
?> 

3. Save the file.

4. Upload the file to your theme directory (if you made changes to your style.css style sheet file, upload that, too).

If you create searchpage.php from page.php in Twenty Seventeen, it would be as like as followings:

<?php
/**
 * Template Name: Search Page
 */

?>
<?php get_header(); ?>

<div class="wrap">
    <div id="primary" class="content-area">
        <main id="main" class="site-main" role="main">
        <?php get_search_form(); ?>
        </main><!-- #main -->
    </div><!-- #primary -->
</div><!-- .wrap -->

<?php get_footer(); 

Creating a Search Page

Based on the Search Page Template, we will create the search page.

1. In the Administration Screen go to Pages > Add New.
2. In the title field enter Search.
   Do not write anything in the content area.
3. While still on the same page, look for Page Attributes on right side menu.
4. Select the drop-down menu in Template, and select Search Page.
5. Click the Publish button.

It will show simple search form such as

Linking to Your Search Page

You can now make a link to your custom Search Page in several ways.

Using the Page ID

Whether or not you use permalinks, you can link to your new Search Page by using Page ID number of the Page. Insert the next line into your any posts, pages or templates

<a href="index.php?page_id=17" title="Search Page">Search Page</a>

OR you may insert the next line into templates

<a href="<?php echo home_url(); ?>/?page_id=17">Search Page</a>

Using the Page Slug

The Page slug is set in the Edit Page screen. It is the name of the page if you are using Permalinks. You can manually change this. An example of a Page slug link would be:

<a href="/wordpress/search-page/" title="Search Page">Search Page</a>

for any posts, pages or templates when slug is ‘search-page’. OR you may insert the next line into templates

<a href="<?php echo home_url(); ?>/wordpress/search-page/" title="Search Page">Search Page</a>

Using wp_list_pages()

If you are using the wp_list_pages() template tag, the page name would be automatically generated in your Pages list.

Customizing Your Search Page

Now that you have created your custom Search Page, you can customize the display. Open your searchpage.php in a text editor and edit it there.

Above the get_search_form() function for your searchform.php within the content div, you can add text to help visitors search your site.

<p>My Site features articles about 
<a title="WordPress Articles" href="/category/wordpress/">WordPress</a>, 
<a title="Web Design Articles" href="/category/web-design/">web page design</a>, 
<a title="Development Articles" href="/category/website-development/">website development</a> 
and <a title="CSS Articles" href="/category/css/">CSS</a>.</p>
<p>To search my website, please use the form below.</p>

You might want to include a list of keywords or other information, images, or details to customize your custom Search Page.

Preserving Search Page Results and Pagination

Search results and Pagination may stop working when applying customization to the search template. To avoid these issues the first thing any developer needs to do is add the following code to the start of their Search template to ensure that the original WordPress query is preserved. To customize the query append additional arguments to (array) $search_query. Execute the $search_query through a new $wp_query object, more information on the WP_Query object can be found at WP_Query.

<?php
global $query_string;

$query_args = explode("&", $query_string);
$search_query = array();

foreach($query_args as $key => $string) {
	$query_split = explode("=", $string);
	$search_query[$query_split[0]] = $query_split[1];
} // foreach

$search = new WP_Query($search_query);
?>

Additional customization arguments can be found at WP_Query.

Display Total Results

To access the total number of search results from search.php, a search result page, you should retrieve the total number of posts found using the wp_query object.

<?php
global $wp_query;
$total_results = $wp_query->found_posts;
?>

More information on WP_Query can be found at WP_Query.

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.

Smileys, also known as “emoticons”, are glyphs used to convey emotions in your writing. They are a great way to brighten up posts.

Text smileys are created by typing two or more punctuation marks. Some examples are:

;-) is equivalent to

:-) is equivalent to

:-( is equivalent to

:-? is equivalent to

To learn more about emoticons and their history, see the Wikipedia entry on Emoticons.

Smileys are not Emoji

Although smileys and emoji can both display smiley faces and such, emoji are a newer development and have a much wider range of images that can be displayed. (They are also created differently.) For more information on emoji and how to use them, see the Emoji page.

How Does WordPress Handle Smileys?

By default, WordPress automatically converts text smileys to graphic images. When you type ;-) in your post you see when you preview or publish your post.

To Turn off Graphic Smileys

As of WordPress 4.3, the option to disable graphic smileys was removed from new installs. There is a plugin if you want to retain the option.

What Text Do I Type to Make Smileys?

Smiley images and the text used to produce them*:

icon	text	text	full text	icon	full text
	:)	:-)	:smile:		:lol:
	:D	:-D	:grin:		:oops:
	:(	:-(	:sad:		:cry:
	:o	:-o	:eek:		:evil:
	8O	8-O	:shock:		:twisted:
	:?	:-?	:???:		:roll:
	8)	8-)	:cool:		:!:
	:x	:-x	:mad:		:?:
	:P	:-P	:razz:		:idea:
	:|	:-|	:neutral:		:arrow:
	;)	;-)	:wink:		:mrgreen:

* In some instances, multiple text options are available to display the same smiley.

Category:Getting Started

Troubleshooting Smileys

Why Doesn’t it Work?

Smileys may have been disabled by your WordPress admin. Another possibility is the smiley image files have been deleted from /wp-includes/images/smilies.

Why Doesn’t it Work for Me?

If smileys work for others at your site but not for you:

Type a space before and after your smiley text. That prevents the smiley being accidentally included in the text around it.

Make sure not to use quotes or other punctuation marks before and after the smiley text.

Where Are My Smiley Images Kept?

The smiley or emoticon image graphics are found in the /wp-includes/images/smilies directory.

Note that smileys is spelled ‘eys’ in this documentation and the directory name for the smiley images is ‘smilies, spelled ‘ies’.

How Can I Have Different Smiley Images Appear?

The easiest way is to filter the smilies.

Upload the images you want with the same name to your server (say in wp-content/images/smilies) and put this in your theme’s function.php:

add_filter( 'smilies_src', 'my_custom_smilies_src', 10, 3 );
function my_custom_smilies_src( $img_src, $img, $siteurl )
{
        return $siteurl.'/wp-content/images/smilies/'.$img;
}

That will replace http://example.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_question.gif with http://example.com/wp-content/images/smilies/icon_question.gif

Why are my Smiley Images Blank?

If you recently uploaded the images, it could be that the images have been uploaded in ASCII format by your FTP program. Re-upload the smileys ensuring that they are transferred in BINARY format.

Some FTP programs have an auto-detect setting which will upload files in the correct format without user intervention. If you have such a setting, turn it on.

Smiley CSS

The smiley images in WordPress are automatically given a CSS class of wp-smiley when they are displayed in a post. You can use this class to style your smileys differently from other post images.

For example, it’s not uncommon to set up images in a post to appear on the left-hand side of the content with text flowing around the image. The CSS for that might look like this:

.post img {
        float: left;
}

This would typically affect all images in a post, including your smiley images. To override this so that smileys stay inline, you could add this to your CSS:

img.wp-smiley {
        float: none;
}

For more on CSS in WordPress, you might want to start here.

More Information on Smileys

• Wikipedia – Emoticon

Discussion Settings

Default article Setting

These settings may be overridden for individual articles.

• Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article – If you check this box, WordPress will send out a ping to a site or article you have linked to in your post. Your mention of their site or article will show up in the comment section of their site, if that site allows pingbacks. The notification occurs during the process of publishing your article to the internet. An article with many hyperlinks will slow the posting process as WordPress contacts all of the sites before the post is published.
  
• Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) – Check this box so WordPress to accepts or declines the pings from other sites which may reference your site or an article on your site. If this box is checked, pingbacks and trackbacks will appear in the comments section of your posts.
  
• Allow people to post comments on new articles – Check this box if you wish to allow comments to your posts. Remember that this can be overridden for individual articles. Comments can also be controlled by making an article PRIVATE, which requires the appropriate password before a comment is allowed. If you don’t wish to allow comments uncheck this setting.

Other comment settings

• Comment author must fill out name and e-mail – Check this box as a way to force spammers to do a bit of extra work. In reality, the name and e-mail address are not verified in any way prior to the comment being submitted. Most legitimate commenters are more than willing to fill out a name and e-mail address.
• Users must be registered and logged in to comment – If this checkbox is checked, only logged in registered users will be able to write comments on your site.
• Automatically close comments on articles older than [X] days – Check the box and enter the number of days (e.g. 14 days) after which WordPress will automatically flag eligible posts so that no more comments are accepted.
  
• Enable threaded (nested) comments [X] levels deep – Check this box to enable threaded comments, then from the drop-down box, select the number of levels deep (maximum of 10 levels) you will allow for nested comments. Note that themes need to be specially coded to properly display threaded comments.
  
• Break comments into pages with [X] top level comments per page and the [last/first] page displayed by default. Comments should be displayed with the [older/newer] comments at the top of each page – Check this box to cause comments to display in a paginated format with the specified number of comments per page. In addition, specify if the pages should be ordered “first to last” or “last to first”, and within each page, whether the oldest, or newest, comment is to be displayed first.

Email me whenever

These two settings give you control of when authors and administrators receive notification that comments have been made, or that comments are held for moderation. Please note that the use of “me” refers to either a post author or the administrator (person whose email address is used for admin purposes).

• Anyone posts a comment – Check this box so that every single comment posted will generate an email to the author of that post. Be warned that if your posts receive a large number of comments, post authors may find a very full email Inbox. If you wish to micromanage comments, then by all means, activate this setting by checking the box.
• A comment is held for moderation – Check this box if you want WordPress to send notification that a comment is being held for moderation. The email notification is sent to the E-mail address listed in the Administration > Settings > General Screen. This is useful if your blog has multiple authors and each author is authorized to allow or decline comments. That way, you, the owner of the site, can review what comments are being allowed or denied.

Before a comment appears

These settings provide you even more control over the instances of when and how comments are posted.

• An administrator must always approve the comment – Select this option to force comments to be approved by a blog user or owner having the proper Role to approve comments, even if the comments appear to be spam . See the Comment Moderation options below regarding spam.
• Comment author must have a previously approved comment – Check the box to insure comments are only posted if the comment author’s email address matches the address of a previously approved comment, otherwise, the comment is held for moderation. Comments from blocked email addresses (those listed in the Local Spam Words Text Box) are held for moderation regardless of whitelist status.

Comment Moderation

In the Comment Moderation section you specify these options to help you deal with Comment Spam.

• Hold a comment in the queue if it contains [X] or more links (A common characteristic of comment spam is a large number of hyperlinks.) – Not too long ago, comment spammers would have five, ten, or more hyperlinks in their comment spam. This made it very easy for bloggers to quickly screen comments but spammers recognized that and commonly use only one or two hyperlinks. You can enter a number in this box to tell WordPress how many links you allow in a comment before holding it for moderation.
• When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, IP or browser’s user-agent string it will be held in the moderation queue. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress” – In this text box you can add your own spam words which will filter the comments when posted.

Comment Blocklist

Previous to WordPress version 5.4, this was named “Comment Blacklist”.

• When a comment contains any of these words in its content, author name, URL, e-mail, IP address or browser’s user-agent string, it will be marked as spam. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress”. This text box acts the same as “When a comment conatins any of these words…” except comments which match these words will be deleted without warning. You may want to use this as a last resort, as genuine comments can end up deleted

Avatars

An avatar is an image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on avatar enabled sites. Here you can enable the display of avatars for people who comment on your blog. By default WordPress uses Gravatars — short for Globally Recognized Avatars — for the pictures that show up next to comments. Plugins may override this.

Avatar display

• Don’t show Avatars – Check this radio button to suppress avatar display in comments.
• Show Avatars – Check this so comment author avatars are displayed along with the comments.

Maximum Rating

This setting controls (or limits) the ‘highest’ level or rating of gravatar you allow to be displayed.

• G — Suitable for all audiences
• PG — Possibly offensive, usually for audiences 13 and above
• R — Intended for adult audiences above 17
• X — Even more mature than above

Default Avatar

For users without a custom avatar of their own, you can either display a generic logo or a generated one based on their e-mail address.

• Mystery Man
• Blank
• Gravatar Logo
• Identicon (Generated)
• Wavatar (Generated)
• MonsterID (Generated)
• Retro (Generated)

Save Changes

Click the Save Changes button to ensure any changes you have made to your Settings are saved to your database. Once you click the button, a confirmation text box will appear at the top of the page telling you your settings have been saved.

WordPress started as a simple blogging system in 2003, but it has evolved into a full CMS with thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. It is licensed under the General Public License (GPLv2 or later).

To learn more about WordPress, please refer to the list of standard WordPress features.

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.

• Note: This page lists keyboard Shortcuts for the Classic editor.
• For the Block Editor, the list of Keyboard Shortcuts is here

In the WordPress visual editor you can use a combination of keys to do things that normally need a mouse, trackpad or other input device. Rather than reaching for your mouse to click on the toolbar, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Windows and Linux use “Ctrl + letter”, Mac uses “Command (⌘) + letter”.

Ctrl + key

Letter Action
c ... Copy
v ... Paste
a ... Select all
x ... Cut
z ... Undo
y ... Redo
b ... Bold
i ... Italic
u ... Underline
k ... Insert/edit link

Alt + Shift + key

The following shortcuts use a different key combination: Windows/Linux: “Alt + Shift (⇧) + letter”. Mac: “Ctrl + Option (alt ⌥) + letter”. (Macs running any WordPress version below 4.2 use “Alt + Shift (⇧) + letter”).

Letter Action
n ... Check Spelling (This requires a plugin.)
l ... Align Left
j ... Justify Text
c ... Align Center
d ... Strikethrough
r ... Align Right
u ... • List
a ... Insert link
o ... 1. List
s ... Remove link
q ... Quote
m ... Insert Image
w ... Distraction Free Writing mode
t ... Insert More Tag
p ... Insert Page Break tag
h ... Help
x ... Add/remove code tag
1 ... Heading 1
2 ... Heading 2
3 ... Heading 3
4 ... Heading 4
5 ... Heading 5
6 ... Heading 6
9 ... Address

Formatting Shortcuts

Formatting Shortcuts while using visual editor (Since Version 4.3)

Letter . Action
* ...... Start an unordered list
- ...... Start an unordered list
1. ..... Start an ordered list
1) ..... Start an ordered list
## ..... H2
### .... H3
#### ... H4
##### .. H5
###### . H6
> ...... transform text into blockquote
--- .... horizontal line
`..` ... transform text into code block

Keyboard Shortcuts for Comments

Beginning with WordPress Version 2.7, the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to browse and moderate comments was introduced. These keyboard shortcuts are designed to save time by allowing you to rapidly navigate and perform actions on comments. If your blog gets a large number of comments, you will find these shortcuts especially useful.

Activating Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are enabled on a per-user setting, and can be turned on by visiting the Profile panel in Administration Screens > Users > Your Profile. Check the Keyboard Shortcuts checkbox to enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.

Please note, the keyboard shortcuts are designed to use both hands, simultaneously, on a QWERTY style keyboard layout.

The Meaning of Selected

The keyboard shortcuts are used for navigation and for actions. For any action to affect a comment, that comment must be first selected. The comment that is considered selected is indicated with a light-blue background. By default, no comment is selected, so, you will need to press either the letter j key, or letter k key, to start navigating.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Navigate Comments

Navigating comments is accomplished with the j and k keys. When you first visit the Comments page, no comments is selected, so, first press the letter j, or the letter k, to select the first comment. After that, just press the letter j to move the select to the next comment.

• Pressing j moves the current selection (light-blue background) down.
• Pressing k moves the current selection (light-blue background) up.

Note that if you come to the bottom of a page of comments and press j again, you will be taken to the next page and the first comment of that next page will be selected. Likewise, pressing k at the top of a comment page will zoom you to the previous page, selecting the comment at the bottom of that previous page. This makes it very easy to navigate through a long list of comments to perform the necessary actions.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Perform Actions on Comments

For one of these actions to affect a comment, make sure the comment is first selected (see above).

• Pressing a approves the currently selected comment.
• Pressing s marks the current comment as spam.
• Pressing d moves the comment to the trash (WordPress 2.9) or deletes the current comment.
• Pressing z restores the current comment from the trash or activates the Undo when that row is selected.
• Pressing u unapproves the currently selected comment, placing it back into moderation.
• Pressing r initiates an inline reply to the current comment (you can press Esc to cancel the reply).
• Pressing q activates “Quick Edit” which allows for rapid inline editing of the current comment.
• Pressing e navigates to the edit screen for the current comment.

Bulk Actions

You can also perform an action on multiple comments at once. First, you’ll need to select the comments for the bulk action, using the x key to check the checkbox for the currently selected comment. Shift-x can be used to toggle the checkboxes, inverting their state. Once you have some comments checked:

• Pressing Shift-a approves the checked comments.
• Pressing Shift-s marks the checked comments as spam.
• Pressing Shift-d deletes the checked comments.
• Pressing Shift-u unapproves the checked comments.
• Pressing Shift-t moves the checked comments to the Trash.
• Pressing Shift-z restores the checked comments from the Trash.

You will need php-gd (GD graphics library) installed on your server to use this feature.

Media Settings

Image sizes

The sizes listed below determine the maximum dimensions in pixels to use when inserting an image into the body of a post.

• Thumbnail size – Enter the Width and Height
  • Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions (normally thumbnails are proportional) – checkbox
    
• Medium size – Enter the Max Width and Max Height
• Large size – Enter the Max Width and Max Height

Uploading Files

Default settings used for during the media upload process when writing a post.

• Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders – Check this box if you wish to organize your uploads into folders based on the year and the month of the upload. As of 3.5, wp-content/uploads is the default path setting for the uploads folder. Assuming this is your path setting, if you check this box, a file uploaded in June of 2018 would be placed into the wp-content/uploads/2018/06 folder. Note: At the time of the actual upload, WordPress will automatically create the folders, such as wp-content/uploads/2018 and wp-content/uploads/2018/06, as long as your wp-content folder is writeable.

Save Changes

Click the Save Changes button to ensure any changes you have made to your Settings are saved to your database. Once you click the button, a confirmation text box will appear at the top of the page telling you your settings have been saved.

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>