How To Apply A WordPress Theme

I was asked a question recently:

Of course, you can get a step by step guide! Here is my answer explaining How To Apply A WordPress Theme:

So you have a theme that you either downloaded or purchased and it is on your hard drive now. Great! Make sure you leave the file as a .zip file – do NOT uncompress it.

Installation of the theme is easily accomplished by performing the following steps:

1. Log into your back office Dashboard.
2. Click on the  Appearance Nav menu on the left hand side of the screen.
3. Once clicked, you will see the option underneath it for Themes. Click on Themes
4. At the top of the screen, you will see 2 tabs. Click on the tab that says, “Install Themes”.
5. At the top of the new screen, you will see a sub-menu with the list of:
* Search |    * Upload |    * Featured |    * Newest |    * Recently Updated
Click on the Upload tab.
6. Click on the Browse button to find the zipped theme on your hard drive.
7. Once you have selected that file, click on the ‘Install Now’ button.
8. You will see the messages:

Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
Theme installed successfully.

At this point you can click Preview to see how it will look, or Activate to start using the theme on your blog.