change child themes

[maryannepstein]

I want to change my site from Crystal to Magazine theme. What is involved? Will my site break? or do I just apply the new child theme?

[Doak Heggeness]

To keep your existing site live....

1) Create a sub directory and create a new database
2) Install WordPress into new database
3) Export your database from your live site
4) Import the database (from live site) to your your new database
5) Install and activate new theme
6) Go wild and customize your new theme

[maryannepstein]

What if I don't want to make another site, I just want to apply a new theme to my existing site to change the look. I install the new theme, go to themes, activate the new theme. Will that work?

[JohnEniste]

If you have custom post types in the theme you are using but not on the new theme you could lose things - but generally speaking you should be able to just switch child themes.

The best thing to do is make a backup first to be safe. On my hosting i can click a button to make a snapshot of everything, but before i had this feature i used to save my Genesis settings, do a WP export and save the content of my widgets. If i was particularly scared i would export my database in phpmyadmin.

[maryannepstein]

Thank you very much. I am ready to tackle the site now.