Customizer and editor basics

To be confirmed

This page describes the WordPress tools our themes use. Where a theme does something its own way (its settings panels, its page builder support), its documentation in the sidebar says so and takes precedence.

WordPress has two ways to change how a site looks. Classic themes use the Customizer for settings and menus, and the block editor (or a page builder) for the content of pages and posts. Block themes use the Site Editor (Appearance > Editor) instead; if your admin shows Editor and no Customize, the active theme is a block theme.

The Customizer

Open it from Appearance > Customize, or from Customize in the toolbar while you view your site. It shows a live preview of your site on the right and the settings on the left.

• Theme settings: the theme adds its own panels here (for example colors, typography, header, blog and footer). The theme’s documentation has one article per panel, with the labels the Customizer shows.
• Site Identity: the site title, tagline, logo and site icon (the favicon).
• Menus and Widgets: the same as on their own admin pages, with a live preview.
• Homepage Settings: what the home page shows (see Getting started).
• Additional CSS: small style changes that stay when you update the theme.

Changes show in the preview only. Select Publish to make them live, or use the gear next to it to save a draft or schedule them. Switch between desktop, tablet and phone previews with the icons at the bottom.

Menus

Go to Appearance > Menus (or Menus in the Customizer). Create a menu, add pages, posts, categories or custom links, drag them into order (drag an item to the right to make it a submenu), then assign the menu to one of the theme’s Menu locations and save.

Widgets

Go to Appearance > Widgets. Each widget area of the theme (a sidebar, the footer columns) is a group of blocks: add a block with +, drag to reorder, and select Update to save.

Pages and posts

Edit content in Pages or Posts: open one and edit it in the block editor. A theme may add its own blocks or patterns; find them under + (Block inserter) by the theme’s name.

If you use a page builder that the theme supports, open the page with that builder’s button instead. The theme’s documentation lists the builders it supports and its own widgets for them.

Before larger changes

Back up your site before you change many settings at once, edit theme files or import a demo. Never edit the theme’s own files: an update replaces them. Use Additional CSS for small style changes and a child theme for anything more (see Updating a theme).