How to Install a Theme in Drupal

Drupal's system for themes is flexible and makes using and sharing themes particularly easy, allowing even beginner Drupal webmasters to present sophisticated user interfaces. Best of all, they are very easy to install and to activate. If you want a unique theme of your own, and you have a lot of time and persistence, you can alternatively make your own theme for Drupal 7 or for Drupal 8.

Steps

By Using the Theme's URL

1. Find and choose a theme. There are many Drupal theme sites which offer free themes (and sometimes paid-for premium themes) to choose from:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • Drupal.org Themes
   
   
   • Theme Garden
   
   
   • All Drupal Themes.com
   
   
   • and others: just search for "Drupal themes"


2. Copy the link to the right theme download. Near the bottom of most theme pages is a table with several rows and at least 4 columns. This is the downloads table, and has the columns: Version, Download, Date,and Links. Find the row where the version number matches the version of your Drupal installation (for example, 7.x is for any version of Drupal 7) and has a green background (which means it's safe to use), right-click one of the two links and copy the link - it doesn't matter which of the two types you choose.


3. Go to your themes page in Drupal. Log into your Drupal installation and go to the Appearance page.


4. Install the theme via the link. Click or tap on the link Install new theme. Right-click on the Install from a URL text box and paste your copied link into it. Press the Install button.


5. Activate the theme. Go to the Themes page in Drupal, and find your new theme in the Disabled Themes section. Click or tap on the Enable and set default link (in Drupal 7), or select the enabled check box if there is one, and then select the default radio button to make this theme your site's default theme. Disable all other enabled themes to require users to use the new theme.
   
   


6. Customise your theme. Most Drupal themes allow further customisation, and a configure link will show up next to your current default theme; click or tap on it.
   
   

By Downloading the Theme

1. Download your new theme.There are many Drupal theme sites which display themes to select from:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • Drupal.org
   
   
   • Theme Garden
   
   
   • All Drupal Themes.com
   
   
   • and others: just search for "Drupal themes"


2. Extract your new theme to your website's themes/ folder. Use your file browser (Explorer on Windows, Finder on Mac) to go to your download folder. Select the downloaded theme, which should be a zipped folder with a tar.gz or .zip file extension, and extract it.
   
   
   
   If your Drupal install is on a linux server and you have the necessary permissions, upload the archive to the server, then run this command in a shell - tar -zxvf /path/to/theme_archive_file /path/to/Drupal/themes/
   
   
   
   Uncompress the theme onto your local computer and then upload the folder to the themes/ folder on the server. You can use any FTP client (File Transfer Protocol) to upload files to the server, such as Filezilla or Core FTP
   
   
   
   
   


3. Activate the theme. Log into Drupal using your administrator account and go to the Appearance page, or navigate your browser to [1] (tld stands for Top Level Domain, such as .com or .org). Find your new theme in the table, and select the enabled box to allow your site's users to use this theme. Select the default radio button to make this theme your site's default theme.
   
   
   
   
   


4. Complete any further refinement and customization. Most Drupal themes allow further refinement and customization, and a configure link will show up next to your current default theme. Unselect all other enabled themes to require users to use this theme.
   
   
   
   
   

Tips

• Take your time and experiment. Don't get flustered or worried if things don't work right immediately; Drupal's themes are wonderfully flexible, and it may take you a bit to get the most out of them.


• Don't get confused by the theme folders. The theme directory is not '\themes' as it would seem but either '\sites\all\themes', '\sites\all\themes\contrib', or '\sites\all\themes\custom'. The '\theme' directory is for Drupal core themes (that are installed with Drupal) and may be overwritten when you update Drupal. Any directory under '\sites\all\themes' will work but it is common for the themes to be separated into themes written by others (contributed) and themes written by you (custom).


• The backslashes (\) that I use are for a Windows machine but they would be forward slashes (/) on a Linux machine.

Warnings

• Your content may move around or disappear if you change your theme. This is because each theme can have different names or different priorities for the different sections of the screen (such as the header, the navigation area, the sidebars, the main content areas and the footer). Often this means a new theme will have blocks rearranged and showing up where you didn't expect them to. This is not a problem! Navigate to the Blocks page, find the blocks you'd like to move, and then choose the regions that you want them to appear in.

from How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1qAbW5j