When it comes to WordPress websites, you have to know how to adjust your theme. To do so, you would use the custom admin page known as theme options. It allows for simple changes in your current theme’s settings without the need to modify any of the code or core files of the theme. Depending on the theme you are working with, this admin page can be a simplified version that has only a small handful of changeable options, to an extremely detailed experience that features multiple pages.
WordPress themes are not currently required to provide an options page for users. Case in point, one of the main default WordPress themes, Twenty Twelve, doesn’t provide an options page. However, it does give users access to a theme customizer that lets users make changes to their theme and review these changes with a live preview.
While the typical WordPress user loves the concept of theme options, they tend to make things much more complicated on the developmental side of the ball. This is the primary reason why so many of the top developers would rather use theme frameworks that provide a simple theme options approach, like the popular Genesis Framework.
← Back to Glossary