Title: Beta Theme
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Beta Theme

 *  [cstephen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cstephen/)
 * (@cstephen)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/beta-theme/)
 * I have a theme that I’m happy with at the moment but I want to change things 
   up a little. I want more of a news/magazine feel to the site instead of the standard
   blog. I found a few templates so far that I’m interested in configuring to see
   if I like them. My question is, is there a way I can keep my current theme up
   and running while I upload and customize the new theme? Like when companies change
   their layout but work on it in the background and when it’s done they present
   it and it replace the old site.
 * If I’m not able to do this with WordPress and I have to make the new theme active
   in order to make the changes I want is there a way to go back to my old theme
   without losing any of the information/changes that I made to it? Or would i have
   to start from scratch again with that theme?
 * I’m not good with coding. Thanks in advance.
 * [http://www.mymontage.net](http://www.mymontage.net)

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Caroline Moore](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sixhours/)
 * (@sixhours)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/beta-theme/#post-2201979)
 * Go to Appearance -> Themes, find the new theme you want to test and click on 
   the Preview link underneath. This will pop up an overlaid frame that will give
   you an idea of how the theme will look when applied to your current content but
   won’t activate the theme for your viewers.
 * You can open the preview frame in a new window or tab and just refresh it each
   time you make changes. I find that’s easier than trying to work within the pop-
   up.
 *  Thread Starter [cstephen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cstephen/)
 * (@cstephen)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/beta-theme/#post-2201990)
 * Thanks you for the reply. I did this but for some reason it doesn’t allow me 
   to make any changes to the template. And when I click on anything on the page
   it takes me to the page but in my current template. It looks like if I want to
   play around with the new template I’ll have to activate it and then customize
   it.
 * I’m just going to copy all text/code that I have in my widgets and code that 
   I put in footer/header like google analytics etc. and make the switch, just incase
   it gets deleted during the transition.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Beta Theme’ is closed to new replies.

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [cstephen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cstephen/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/beta-theme/#post-2201990)
 * Status: not resolved

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