I recently was asked this question: “I have the TwentyTen theme that is not responsive. Is it difficult to convert to a responsive theme or do I need to start from scratch?”
Here’s my answer:
It depends how much you have customized the theme. If you are using a default WordPress theme pretty much “out of the box”, it should be simple to switch to a new theme. The new Customizer in the backend will let you switch themes and see how it is going to look before you commit to a new theme and click that save button. Just keep in mind that you will probably have to make sure that your custom menu is set up where it should be and that any widgets that you are using are put back in the place you want them. If you are only using the Primary Sidebar widget area, this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you are using custom widget areas, you many find your widgets down below in your Inactive Widgets area and have to drag and drop them to your new widget area. Otherwise, most of your settings should stay the same. All your pages, posts, and media library will be there as before. And any functionality you had through plugins should remain, as long as the plugin is compatible with your new theme. If you are using another theme that is using Custom Post Types enabled through the theme, those special pages and items will be lost. (Of course, you can always get them back by re-enabling the old theme.)
Please post any further questions you have below. Good luck!
DaveG says
Concerning your article on “Converting to a Responsive Theme”
I have a word press 2010 theme with custom banner images and features images.
My client loves the simplicity and look and feel of this site. I tried seeing how it would look with newer themes using the customizer in the back end but it looked like I would have to re-do the whole site to get it to look the same. After searching the web and breaking out a couple of books on HTML5, CSS3, and smashing wordpress, I stumbled across the jetpack plugin that has a mobile theme that worked very nicely for me. Although I would rather not use a plugin, for the time being this is my best solution. The image map on the home page did not work with plug in so I made a note where it usually says “Proudly powered by WordPress” Check the site out if you like at http://www.firnweb.com. Any other suggestion are welcome. Thank You
Laura Hartwig says
Hi Dave, I’ll admit to using JetPack’s mobile plugin until recently when I heard Brian Gardner from StudioPress recently says he hates it because it takes away much of the branding from sites. I have also used WP Touch plugin on sites like figandolive.com to create a completely different experience on the mobile site. Overall, you site looks fairly easy to convert with a little CSS (and maybe some javascript for the menu). You would need to convert that image map into divs for it to work. But JetPack Mobile is certainly an easier option. I’m glad you found something that worked for you.
DaveG says
I forgot to mention the feature images also do not work with jetpack plugin.
The most important is the site now passes the Google mobile friendly test “https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/?url=firnweb.com”