How To Install A Magento Theme

Here are the simple steps to install a new theme in your Magento installation:

Create a New Store and Store View

After you’ve installed Magento, create a new Store and Store View. To do so navigate to System > Manage Stores:

1. Click Create Store in the upper right corner
2. Select the Website to which this Store will be associated
3. Select the Root Category which will be associated to this store. In your categories setup, you can create multiple Root Categories, each associated to different Stores. The sub-categories and products associated to those categories will only display in the Store to which the Root Category is associated. If you do not want to create different Root Categories to display in different Stores, you can select the same Root Category for all Stores.
4. Click Create Store View in the upper right corner.
5. Select the Store to which this Store View will be associated.
6. For a Store View to be visible on the front-end, it must be Enabled. You can remove it from the front-end without deleting it by selecting Disabled.

Upload Your Theme

Upload your theme files using any FTP program to the appropriate folders, following the folder structure in which the theme is provided. In most cases, you’ll upload the folders app/frontend/default/themename/ and skin/frontend/default/themename/.

Activate Your Theme

Access the Admin Panel and navigate to System > Configuration. Select your Store View from the Current Configuration Scope drop-down menu in the upper left corner. Click on “Design” under the “General” section of the left side navigation. Under the “Themes” section, uncheck all of the check boxes titled “Use website.” In each text field, enter the name of the folders containing the theme you wish to use.

Setup Your Homepage

From the top navigation, navigate to CMS > Manage Pages. Click on the “+ Add New Page” button. Enter your desired page title. For the home page, be sure to set your SEF URL Identifier as “home” and select your store view. Select “Custom Design” from the left side navigation and set your Layout and other information (this depends on the theme). Return to General Information and enter the content for your homepage in the text area labeled “Content”. Set the Status to “Enabled” and click on the “Save Page” button in the upper right corner to save and activate your homepage.

That’s it!

Congratulations! Just set up your categories and products.