---
title: "Themes"
description: "Keep your themes in one list, publish the one shoppers see and go back to an earlier version when you need to."
url: "https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/themes/"
lang: en
alternates:
  en: "https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/themes/"
  hu: "https://docs.poltura.com/hu/online-store/themes/"
---

# Themes

Keep your themes in one list, publish the one shoppers see and go back to an earlier version when you need to.

- Where: Online store → Themes

A theme is how your online store looks and reads: its pages, sections, menus, wording and emails. You can keep several themes side by side, but customers only see one: the theme marked **Live**. Each theme has a draft, which holds your edits, and a published version, so work in progress never reaches customers by accident.

![The Themes list with four themes, one marked Live and the others Draft, and the Add from the Theme Store and Create theme buttons](https://docs.poltura.com/screenshots/en/online-store/themes.webp)

_The theme marked Live is the one your customers see._

## Find your way around the list

Open **Online store** and choose **Themes**. Each row shows the theme's **Name**, **Handle**, **Status** and when it was last **Updated**.

- **Live** is the theme your customers see. The other themes show **draft** or **published**.
- **Customize** opens the theme in the [customizer](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/customizer/).
- The actions menu at the end of the row holds **Emails**, **Edit in code editor**, **Use published version**, **Publish** and **Delete**.
- A theme you are only trying out shows **Preview expires** with a date. See [Theme store](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-store/).

## Add a theme

There are two ways to get another theme:

- **Add from the Theme Store** opens the catalog of ready-made themes. This is the usual choice. See [Theme store](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-store/).
- **Create theme** makes a new theme from the starter theme. Give it a **Name**, and if you like a **Handle** and a **Description**, then choose **Create**. Choose this when you or a developer will build the theme in the [code editor](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/code-editor/).

Neither one changes the theme your customers see.

## Open a theme

Click a theme's name to open its page. The tabs under the header lead to the parts of the theme:

- **Overview**: the page you are on.
- **Menus**: [menus](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/menus/).
- **Copy**: the [storefront wording](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-copy/).
- **Pages**: [theme pages](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/pages/).
- **Emails**: the emails your store sends, see [Emails](https://docs.poltura.com/en/settings/emails/).

Colors, fonts, the logo and the other [theme settings](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-settings/) are edited in the customizer.

The overview itself tells you where the theme stands:

- **Theme** shows **Unpublished changes** or **All changes published**, and a **Preview** link that opens the draft on your real store.
- **Activity** shows the number of **Saved versions**, **Last edited**, **Last published** and the **Build** state (**Up to date**, **Building** or **Failed**).
- **Contents** counts the pages, menu items, customized emails and languages of the theme.
- **About** shows the handle, the status and, for a theme from the Theme Store, which version it was installed from.

## Publish a theme

Publishing puts a draft in front of your customers. How you do it depends on which theme you are working on.

### Publish changes to the live theme

1. Open **Online store** and choose **Themes**.
2. Choose **Customize** on the row of the theme marked **Live**.
3. Make your changes. They are saved to the draft as you work.
4. Choose **Publish** in the top bar of the customizer.
5. The button reads **Published** and a notice tells you the theme is live now.

### Make another theme the live one

1. Open **Online store** and choose **Themes**.
2. Open the actions menu on the row of the theme you want to go live with.
3. Choose **Publish**.
4. Confirm with **Publish**.
5. The row shows **Preparing to go live…** while the new version is built. Customers keep seeing the current live theme until it is ready. Then the theme shows **Live**.

Was the theme published before? To switch back to it without its newer draft edits, choose **Use published version** instead. The draft edits stay saved separately.

> **Good to know**
>
> A theme with custom code may want to load data from new websites that the published version could not reach. Publishing then lists them under **New web addresses**. Choose **Approve addresses and publish** only if you trust them.

## Restore an earlier version

Every edit and every publish saves a point you can come back to. The **History** block on the theme page lists them with a **Version** number, what changed and when. Versions that were live at some point are marked **Published**.

1. Open **Online store**, choose **Themes** and click the theme's name.
2. Scroll to **History** and find the version you want.
3. Choose **Restore** on that row.
4. Confirm with **Restore**.
5. The draft now holds that version. Check it in the customizer, then publish it when you are happy with it.

Restoring replaces the draft only. Your live store does not change until you publish.

## Reset or delete a theme

Both actions are in the actions menu in the header of the theme page.

> **Warning**
>
> **Reset to starter theme** replaces every file in the theme with the starter theme. The current state is saved first, so you can restore it from **History**. **Delete** removes the theme and cannot be undone.

## Good to know

- Nothing is live until you publish. Autosave in the customizer only writes to the draft.
- The live theme cannot be deleted. Make another theme live first.
- **Push draft to storefront**, in the actions menu of the theme page, shows your unpublished changes to customers straight away. It does not create a version you can go back to. Use **Publish** when you want that safety.
- All eight themes Poltura ships come with the same page templates, wording in six languages and a full set of emails, so switching themes leaves no gaps.

## If something goes wrong

- **The row says the theme could not be prepared.** The new version failed to build. Your current live theme is unchanged. Open the theme, look at **Build** under **Activity** and publish again. If the theme has custom code, the error is usually there. Open the [code editor](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/code-editor/).
- **Publish is grayed out on the theme page.** The theme is already live. Publish its changes from the customizer instead.
- **Delete is grayed out.** It is the live theme.

## Related

- [Theme store](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-store/)
- [Customizer](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/customizer/)
- [Theme settings](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/theme-settings/)
- [Theme code editor](https://docs.poltura.com/en/online-store/code-editor/)
- [Store status](https://docs.poltura.com/en/settings/store-status/)
- [Go live](https://docs.poltura.com/en/start/go-live/)