You may have noticed a new look to Picture Retirement recently. While it may seem a subtle departure from the old theme, it does serve a purpose. For months, I have been noticing that links on other blogs did not appear as they do on my blog. For example, if I linked to information and labeled the link with a word or phrase, that word or phrase would be underlined and look like THIS . Try as I might, I could not delete the underline, or change the color, so after many failed attempts, I contacted Hugh at Hugh’s Views and News who is a great resource for all things blogging. Hugh had two suggestions – (1) try coding, or (2) change my theme. Yikes to both! The code he directed me to worked for the color change, but it still would not allow me to delete the underline. Buggers!!!
After a few days of brooding, I decided to change the theme. For those of you who have done this, I’m sure you understand the angst I went through – will I delete my blog, what if I don’t like it, will it maintain all my posts, widgets, etc.
Seriously!….all that angst was much ado about nothing.
Changing a Theme on WordPress
From the Administrative tab, click Appearance, then Theme.
My suggestion is to sort all available themes by the category of your choice. I selected FREE, and TRENDING. There are all sorts of layout options, depending on the type of blog you might want to create, or in my case, change.
Pay attention to these two very important tabs under each theme – Activate and Preview. The neat thing about changing your theme on WordPress is that you can Preview as many as you like before making a selection. The Preview tab will allow you to see exactly what your blog content will look like when it is transferred to the new theme. I previewed about a half dozen before I selected this one.
Some of the themes I previewed did not delete the underline, and therefore were not an option for me. I know this because the preview allowed me to see my old posts and the underlined links were still visible. When I got to this theme, the underline disappeared and there you have it; decision made!
Hitting the Activate tab was the hardest part, but I held my breath and went for it. Hmmm….. All of the Widgets on my sidebar were missing. No Follow Me button, no Blogs I Follow, no Instagram, nothing! They had shown in the Preview, so I assumed they would transfer as well. Not so, but not a big deal.
I went back to the Dashboard, selected Appearance, then Widgets and reinstalled each of the items I wanted to appear on the side bar. It took less than fifteen minutes.
I am so excited about the cleaner look and I love the lime green accent color with NO UNDERLINE on my links. Thanks Hugh for the encouragement!
Weekly Smile
What made me smile this week was a small success and a reminder to challenge myself and take chances. Visit Trent’s World to share your Weekly Smile.
Picture Retirement 
I haven’t replaced my theme in years, and the one I last picked was an old one even then. Might be time… Your new theme isn’t a huge difference (at least from what I remember). Looks good.
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Trent, it looks like a new and improved version of the one I had previously which is why I chose it as soon as I realized it displayed links properly. I really did not want to have to do a complete overhaul. A clean, easy fix was a welcome surprise.
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I love it! You did a great job! I’ve changed my theme a couple of times and hitting that Activate button is scary. Our trip to Jekyll was wonderful! Will post about it this week.
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Beth, I saw a couple of your Instagram photos. So glad you had a good time. I can’t wait to read about it. We just booked a few nights in Sarasota for next week and are keeping our fingers crossed that things stay stable over there.
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I think it’s a nice look. It looks good on my iPhone, in case you were wondering. Hugh is a great source of information. I’ve changed themes twice, and I know about wanting specific features. I’m glad you were able to get the ones you wanted.
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Hi Dan, I checked it out on my phone since I know a lot of people don’t read from their laptop, as I do. I thought it looked fine there too. That underline thing really bugged me and I am grateful to Hugh for his suggestions. He is a great resource.
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I’m impressed! Doing anything on the back end of the blog is always challenging. You did a great job.
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It really wasn’t so scary once I made up my mind to go for it. Thanks for stopping by.
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I keep thinking about changing my theme and every once in a while I will play around with the previews. But there’s always something I don’t like or that is missing and I end up leaving it alone. I’m so used to what I have, I’m afraid to make a big change. Guess I could always change it back?
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Sometimes change is not the right thing and if you like what you have, stay with it. Why settle for something that doesn’t check all your boxes? You will know when the time is right.
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Isn’t it nice when you can find a new theme that achieves everything you are after. I recently changed mine as the original was no longer supported. Still have a couple of changes to be made but at least it transferred intact…glad yours did too. Perhaps your post will encourage others to update their theme as well…nice job.
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Hi Karen, it was fun previewing different looks. I decided not to shake things up too much for my first attempt at change. Maybe next time.
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Suzanne,
You’re a gutsy gal. My WP theme has problems and after many requests for a fix, the developer blocked our requests. I went to a previous version of the theme, but know a switch is coming. Thanks for sharing the tips as well as Hugh. I’ll reach out. Your site looks great! Joe
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Hi, Suzanne – I love your new theme. I agree that it gives a much cleaner look. I also agree that Hugh is an awesome resource!
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Thanks Donna. I’ve never asked a question he couldn’t answer.
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OMG, I have thought about changing my theme, but have been too scared, for all the reasons you said. I HATE technical stuff and have talked myself into not being able to figure things out. I actually had to get up in the middle of READING your post to walk around, it made me so anxious to even think about changing. Yet. I would like too. But the widgets….I don’t know if I could reinstall widgets. I remember it was hard getting them there to begin with. On the other hand…….maybe I should try. I like your new theme! At the very least it would be fun to preview some other options….hmmmm….
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Dawn, I’m glad you are inspired to try. It really wasn’t hard at all to reinstall the widgets. Good luck!
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I love changing themes & do it every so often…loving your new look – it’s streamlined and clean. Great choice.
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Thank you Jo, I think I will keep it for a while.
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Hugh is a great resource for bloggers. It can be frightening to change themes – I haven’t done it for years!
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Yes, he is! He writes great ‘how-to’ posts on just about everything you’d want to know about blogging.
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Suzanne, Great choice of theme and well done! Filter the themes by category is a good tip to narrow down the choices. Thanks for sharing this.
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Natalie, the choices are too overwhelming if you don’t filter. I knew I didn’t want to drift too far from what I already had, so it was easy.
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Isn’t it great when you take a risk and hit the button and it all works? The trouble with blogging for a decent amount of time is that there’s so much more to risk if it all goes pear shaped. I bought a theme off Etsy a couple of years ago and installation was included – I went to bed and woke up the next morning wondering if I’d still have a blog (and what it might look like!) I was beyond excited when it had changed to exactly what I’d hoped for and nothing was lost. I haven’t been brave enough to do it again since – I’m not sure if it’s good for my heart rate to speed up like that too often!
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I know what you mean Leanne, after nearly four years of blogging I have accumulated quite a lot of posts and I would not want to lose the stories they tell. Your blog looks very professional and ‘customized’ I wouldn’t change a thing.
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Suzanne, your new theme looks great. I use Blogger as my platform and when I changed my themes a couple of years ago, it wasn’t hard either.
Jude
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Thank you. The anticipation of change was much worse than the actual change!
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Your new look is very nice and clean. When I changed my theme a couple of years ago, I also went through angst, but it turned out to be no huge deal (a little deal, but not too bad). WordPress makes it pretty simple. I like the chartreuse link indicators.
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Thanks Janis, I was surprised at how easy it was to make the change. Very pleased with the outcome.
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This is my theme too! I have had it since the beginning. Made lots of changes to it in the past year, but I love the look of it! It has a nice nature look to it! 🙂
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Great minds…..and all that. I do like it. and I needed a change.
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Woop Woop! 😀
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A huge wow, Suzanne. It takes courage to change things and it looks great! I greatly appreciate learning from generous bloggers, like you, Suzanne. The word “Preview” is a huge deal when experimenting. It can actually put the fun factor into blogging. I am happy it worked out for you.
The Block Editor will be my next transition. One blogger edited one of her existing posts in the new Block Editor. She lost all of her existing comments in this process. Darn. Constantly learning. And it sounds like pros and cons with any decision.
You have a beautiful artistic flair to all you create, Suzanne. You are an inspiration to me. 💕
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You chose a lovely theme, looks great!!
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Thank you Janaline and welcome to Picture Retirement. I appreciate the visit and your comment!
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