Title: Appearance Theme File Editor Screen
Author: pixelateddwarf
Published: January 26, 2019
Last modified: January 11, 2023

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# Appearance Theme File Editor Screen

## In this article

 * [Edit Themes](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/appearance-theme-file-editor-screen/?output_format=md#edit-themes)
 * [Update File](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/appearance-theme-file-editor-screen/?output_format=md#update-file)

[ Back to top](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/appearance-theme-file-editor-screen/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Among the many user editable files in a standard WordPress installation are a Theme’s
Template and Stylesheet files. The **Appearance Theme File Editor Screen** allows
you to edit those Theme files.

[⌊appearance-editor⌉⌊appearance-editor⌉[

Appearance Editor

### 󠀁[Edit Themes](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/appearance-theme-file-editor-screen/?output_format=md#edit-themes)󠁿

The built-in Theme File Editor allows you to view or change (see next paragraph)
any code kept in a Theme Template or Stylesheet files. The particular file contents
are displayed in the large text (or edit) box that dominates this Screen.

If a specific file is writable, changes can be made, and saved. If a file is not
writable, the message **You need to make this file writable before you can save 
your changes. **You need to change the File Permissions before changes can be saved.

The name of the Theme file being edited is displayed at the top of the text box.
If the full text of the file cannot be viewed, a scroll bar to the right of the 
text box is provided. Since Theme files are pure text, no images or pictures can
be inserted into the text box.

**Select theme to edit** 

From this pull-down box, select the Theme that needs to be edited and click the 
Select button on the right. Once the Select button is clicked that Themes Template
and Styles files will be listed on the right side of the text box and the Stylesheet(
style.css) file for that Theme will be placed in the text box.

**Theme Files** 

Listed to the right of the large text box is a list of the Theme Template or Stylesheet
files that can be edited. Click on any of the file links to place the text of that
file in the edit box.

Be very careful editing PHP files of your current theme. The editor does not make
backup copies. If you introduce an error that crashes your site, you cannot use 
the editor to fix the problem. In such a case, use FTP to either upload a functional
backup of the problem file or change the folder name of the current theme so WordPress
is forced to use a different theme.

### 󠀁[Update File](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/appearance-theme-file-editor-screen/?output_format=md#update-file)󠁿

Remember to click this button to save the changes you have made to the file. After
clicking this button you should see a splash message at the top of the screen saying
File Edited Successfully. If you don’t see that message, then your changes are not
saved! Note that if a file is not writeable the Update File button will not be available.

**Note:** Changing files in this manner is not recommended. If you update the theme
all of your changes will be lost. The best way to avoid this is through the use 
of a [child theme](https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/).

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First published

January 26, 2019

Last updated

January 11, 2023