Title: Getting themes from WordPress.com?
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Getting themes from WordPress.com?

 *  Resolved [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/)
 * Hi all, fairly new to WP and in love! 🙂 So much so I moved off my wordpress.
   com hosted (free) blog onto a new domain of my own, so I could have all the goody
   fun with managing/controlling my own install of WP. Here’s my problem: on wordpress.
   com, the Rubric theme is somehow 2.0-ready, widgets and all. But the “in-the-
   wild” Rubric theme is only 1.5-ready, and doesn’t support widgets. Can anyone
   point me in the right direction here?
 * Do I have to redo the work someone else did of getting Rubric widget-friendly?
   Is it hard (you can see on my blog at ransomedhome.com that I’m not an experienced
   coder)? Is there a way to get the updated theme from the wordpress.com guys?
 * I’ve searched everywhere, and am not even sure where to leave comments/requests,
   so if you have the time to help I’d really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the
   time to read my lengthy request. 🙂

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/page/2/?output_format=md)
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 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439660)
 * Here is a related thread I was told to cross-reference here:
    [http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=368&replies=4](http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=368&replies=4)
 * Here is the thread where I was told that:
    [http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=1175&replies=26](http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=1175&replies=26)
 * (hopefully I did that correctly…)
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439667)
 * All you need to know is there (or available by links)
    [http://wordpress.org/development/2006/03/widgets-plugin/](http://wordpress.org/development/2006/03/widgets-plugin/)
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439668)
 * Well, about the only thing I have for you is that at one point a couple of years
   back, rubric was a sitetemplate for wordpress multi-user. I haven’t had any need
   to look a MU any further, so I don’t know if an updated version might be availble
   there or not. [http://mu.wordpress.org](http://mu.wordpress.org) if you want 
   to dig around over there.
 * Also Tom Raftery has it updated to 1.5 here: [http://www.tomrafteryit.net/rubric.zip](http://www.tomrafteryit.net/rubric.zip)–
   most 1.5 themes work just fine with 2.0+, and widgetizing is pretty simple – 
   instructions here: [http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/](http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/)
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439683)
 * moshu, vkaryl, I tried editing it myself but was only partially successful. By
   which I mean the widgets don’t work, but I didn’t completely break my page. 🙂
 * vkaryl, I didn’t find anything on mu.wordpress.org, though admittedly I’m tired
   of searching. Instead I followed the instructions, though they are more than 
   a little confusing. I replaced the widget functions.php with my own, and replaced
   the theme’s default php with my own, both with the code added per the instructions.
   Now there aren’t any widget options in the administration panel, and no sidebar
   shows up. I quickly reverted until I figure out what went wrong. I haven’t defined
   any styles yet, could that be why?
    My method was to create a second widgets 
   plugin and a second theme, so I could switch back to the “safe” versions easily.
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439685)
 * Huh. The only theme I’ve “widgetized” was one for a client, and I didn’t IIRC
   do a thing with functions.php. In fact, that theme was a rework of a 1.5 theme
   I wrote myself, which I just redid the look of for him.
 * I literally just downloaded the widgets plugin and set up the “dynamic sidebar”
   php. That was it.
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439698)
 * vkaryl, did the theme have the `<div>` style sidebar, or was it an unordered 
   list? Rubric has the `<div>` style. It sounds like you didn’t even have to touch
   the CSS. I’ve put the php ‘if’ code in front and at the end of my menu div, which
   is what the sidebar consists of.
 * I obviously haven’t done it quite right, because the ‘sidebar widgets’ option
   doesn’t show up if I select my modified theme. If someone’s interested, I’d be
   glad to email them the index.php file with my changes…
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439702)
 * Well, maybe what you could do would be use the “kubrick-style” sidebar with the
   lists. Just because the original (“antique” 1.2) theme had a div styled sidebar
   doesn’t mean you have to use it….
 * And I’d be more than happy to try to take the theme apart and put it back together–
   but the next few days/into the 2nd week of Sept. are going to be hysterical for
   me, so it would be a while before I had time to really do that.
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439716)
 * vkaryl, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that – just rip out the code for the
   sidebar and replace it. I hope it will be that easy ;), if not, and you do have
   time in a few weeks…hopefully I’ll have figured it out by then!
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439717)
 * Well, I hope so too, not because I don’t want to help; just because if it were
   me I wouldn’t want to have to wait that long!
 * But seriously, if you get sideways with this and can’t get something going, email
   me at vkaryl * at * bytehaven * dot *com, and I’ll do what I can as soon as I
   clear the decks.
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439724)
 * Summary: it hasn’t gone well. I obviously don’t know what I’m doing, because 
   the sidebar ceases to exist. After going through the limited documentation, it’s
   obvious I don’t know enough yet about CSS, PHP, WP, and possibly html. 😛
 * I’ve tried several other themes again, but nothing else comes close to what I
   want (fluid width, separated but otherwise visually toned down separation between
   areas). Unfortunately Rubic looks to be lacking in the “page” area too – one 
   thing at a time. I’m going to try the “in-business” theme for the moment and 
   see if I can modify styles to look like Rubric.
 * Vkaryl, if you have the time in a week or two (or three) to help, I’d really 
   appreciate it. I’d be glad to learn from you as well. Thanks for the help so 
   far.
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439725)
 * Not a problem, I just wish I had the time in the next couple of days to work 
   it over. Email me; I’ll do what I can as soon as I can, okay?
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439799)
 * (sheepish) uh, I can’t find your email address. My email is random 4444 at gmail{
   dot] com. Thanks for your help. (I also discovered the in-business theme won’t
   work until I implement some stuff that I’ve just got working in the Rubric code–
   hopefully I can make it a plugin).
 *  [vkaryl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/vkaryl/)
 * (@vkaryl)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439826)
 * From the post 3rd above….
 * vkaryl *at * bytehaven * dot* com….
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439837)
 * Doh! How’d I miss that?! And I’m usually so detail-oriented ….
 *  Thread Starter [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * (@randomstep)
 * [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/#post-439929)
 * vkaryl solved my problem and updated the theme for WP 2.04. I owe my undying 
   gratitude… 🙂
 * A copy of the updated Rubric theme will be available on my blog sometime in the
   next day or two, if someone is looking for it: [http://ransomedhome.com/blog](http://ransomedhome.com/blog).
 * I don’t know yet if vkaryl will put it up also, or how to get it on the official
   list, et cetera et cetera, but I’ll get it figured out in due time. 😉

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

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## Tags

 * [conversion](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/conversion/)
 * [widgets](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/widgets/)

 * 23 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [randomstep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/randomstep/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-themes-from-wordpresscom/page/2/#post-440110)
 * Status: resolved

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