A question from Facebook

Lucy Qian March 21 at 11:12am

Hey Mr Technologist

I have a very techy question. Can you help me out?
How did you create the theme for your blog?
I'm trying to create a theme for my wordpress blog through Artisteer (a theme creating program for blogs) and anyway I created the perfect theme I want but I think I need an FTP client to upload it... I downloaded Filezilla and don't know the details to connect to the server (I've tried several combinations, and it's not working).
I think the other option is to download the actual wordpress software which can allow me to upload a customised theme... Well I downloaded it and it comes in a zip file (which I extracted) and I have no idea where to go from there!
Now I don't even know if it's true that you need a web host in order to download a customised theme. Some sources online say you do, some say you don't.
Can you tell me where to go from here? Help!!

Many thanks,

Lucy xx

Quentin Field March 21 at 1:38pm

Hey Lucy,

If you want the ability to completly customise themes and layout of your your blog you will need to go with a web host.
From there you can upload the word press files through FTP, a great free ftp program is CUTE FTP. You can then apply the themes you have designed or apply 1 of the thousands of free templates out in the internet world.To do it this way, although a little tricky to setup if alot more flexable in the long run.
The Technologist site is built using Drupal...which is an open source program with thousands of "modules" and "blocks" which can be fun and useful.
There is also Joomla which i am checking out at the moment. All are great and have loads off free support.

Hope this helps

Q