In the previous lesson you have learned about Multiple Themes plugin that allows you to activate different themes on various posts, pages, post types, search queries, archive pages, etc on your WordPress site.
Plugin works same as advertised but one common problem any user experiences is changing theme options of specific themes activated on various sections of your WordPress site.
In this lesson, you will learn how to change theme options like theme customization, widgets and menus etc when using Multiple Themes plugin in your WordPress site.
The plugin has no built-in functionality for updating theme options but there are some tricks as suggested by the plugin developer on Appearance -> Manage Themes -> Theme Options (Tab).
There are two methods:
- Using live preview method
- Using theme test drive method.
Method #1
- Visit your admin area dashboard Appearance -> Themes screen.
- Live preview the theme you wish to change.
- Using left sidebar you can customize theme options.
- Navigation appears when a menu is set from Appearance -> Menus page.
- Click Save & Activate button.
- Visit immediately to Appearance -> Themes and reactivate previously active theme by clicking ‘Activate’ button.
Method #2
- First deactivate the Multiple Themes plugin.
- Now install and activate the Theme Test Drive plugin.
- Visit your admin area dashboard Appearance -> Theme Test Drive.
- From usage section, select the theme you want to customize options for.
- Use ‘Enable Theme Drive’ button present at the bottom of admin panel.
- Make changes to the theme options. You can change Widgets, Sidebars, Menus, Background, Header and other Customizations.
- You can do same for changing theme options for other WordPress themes
- Deactivate ‘Theme Test Drive’ plugin.
- Now activate Multiple Themes plugin.
That’s it. Now both the alternate and active theme should now display all configured theme options.