This guide details how, when activating a new WordPress theme, the formatting and content of posts and pages can be altered if the new theme does not use the same shortcodes and/or the same page builder.

Layout issues

Here's an example of how your articles and pages might appear after changing your WordPress theme:

Unfortunately, there is no automatic solution to fix this problem: you will need to:

• either revert to the previous theme you were using
• or manually adapt the content of your site using the tools provided by your new WordPress theme.

Of course, you can also uninstall and reinstall WordPress; the site's content will be deleted, and you'll start fresh.

Reduce future issues

Here are some tips that will prevent you from having to reformat all the content on your site if you change themes:

• Use as few WordPress theme-specific shortcodes as possible.
• Use a universal page builder that is compatible with all WordPress themes (for example Visual Composer or Thrive Content Builder).
• Take the time to test and evaluate the quality of a theme by comparing it with 2-3 other similar themes before using it and adapting all of your site's content.

Useful resources

• Find and automatically remove all unused shortcodes (article in English)…