Perhaps the best reason to use WordPress…

WordPress Themes allow you to instantly obtain the perfect look and feel for your site. By installing a Theme your site can take on a completely different design and functionality. You can even install several Themes at once to see how each one measures up.

What makes WordPress unique is the fact that you can simply copy the Themes’ files to your site and activate them from your administrator pages. Installing a theme doesn’t alter the underlining structure of WorldPress rather WordPress is designed to interact with the Theme.

To better understand the concept let’s use a bad example. An automobile’s underlining structure would be its frame, engine, drivetrain and basically everything you normally don’t see. Everything you see such as the body, wheels, seats and so forth are defined by the Theme.

To bring it back to WordPress the underlining code drives the car down the road and the theme decides whether it’s a sedan or sports car, has hubcaps or chrome wheels, vinyl or leather seats. The underlining code determines what functions WordPress performs and Themes determine how these functions behave and are viewed.

There are many advantages to this sophisticated structure including the following.

• Being modular has enabled thousands of developers to create thousands of free Themes.
• There is no complex coding require to use Themes.
• You can easily install and use Themes.
• You can upgrade or switch Themes at any time.
• Since there is no altering of the underlining structure you can upgrade WordPress without having to recode your blog.
• In most cases you can continue to use your Theme after upgrading WordPress.

Since WordPress is written in PHP you can modify the underlining code however in most cases this isn’t the best solution. Typically you will have to hire a firm to design and code what you are looking for and altering the underlining code will lock you into one version of WordPress.

One of those not so good cases would be when WordPress introduces a new version to address security issues. In order to address these concerns you would have to have the firm that modified your blog make all of the changes again using the new version’s templates.

Now if the new version of WordPress alters the underlining structure your theme might not be 100% compatible but even in these cases Themes will still offer benefits. Without ever changing the underlining structure you can be sure that upgrading WordPress will be straight forward and your blog will continue to work. Once upgraded you can often find an updated version of the Theme that is compatible.

For additional information you might find these links useful.

• Using Themes
• Theme Viewer