---
title: "WordPress Themes Crash Course: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Themes"
date: 2007-04-15
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/04/15/wordpress-themes-best-themes/
---
# WordPress Themes Crash Course: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Themes
### What Are WordPress Themes?

Themes refer to the skin or visual framework around your blog's posts. In WordPress, content is separate from format. Posts are stored in a MySQL database, and are transformed by your themes files. Theme files are separate from your database content.

You can switch your theme with just a couple of clicks, and the new theme will wrap around your same posts. This is one of the best things about WordPress — you aren't stuck with one web design for life. And there are more than a thousand themes to choose from, with new themes developed daily. When you get tired of looking at your theme, just upload a new one, select it, and voila, you've got a fresh looking site.

### 39 WordPress Themes I Like

I put together 39 WordPress themes I like in a [theme viewer.](https://idratherbewriting.com/themes) Click the sidebar's theme links to see various themes applied to the same content. Note that these are not 39 different sites, but rather thirty five different themes applied to the same site.

### One, Two, Three, and Four Columns

Themes can contain one, two, three, or four columns. One column themes are simple and don't feature any sidebars. Two themes are the most common, and feature either a left or right sidebar. Three column themes often have both a left and right sidebar (or two sidebars together). Four column themes cram four columns in there.

For a more thorough introduction to themes, see this Codex page on [Using Themes](http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes).