Changing themes

Can I download a theme, start building it, then change to the new site?

Yes you can. But if you want to work on it locally, you will also need to install WordPress locally.

I have wordpress installed. can i work on numerous sites with the one installation of wordpress. and how.

You can only work on one standalone site, or theme, at a time but you can have as many themes installed as you want. If you want to work on more than 1 site, you’ll need to install a second copy of WordPress.

or you can use multisite feature where one wordpress install and have multiple sites on same install using a domain mapping plugin for diffrent domain names.

Thanks for the info. This is becoming clear.
@esmi The link had information from 2005 and talks about WP 1.5.X. IS there any new info out there regarding local install of WordPress?

@govpatel Is the domain mapping plugin the one that is $12 a year?

I don’t think anything significant has changed in terms of local installs.

You can only work on one standalone site, or theme, at a time but you can have as many themes installed as you want. If you want to work on more than 1 site, you’ll need to install a second copy of WordPress.

not understanding. I can have as many themes to a wordpress site installed as I want? with content? URL1 can have six themes?
Not following.

But, I digress.
URL1
URL2
URL3

How do I use WordPress 3.0.1 to build URL 2 and URL 3 while maintaining URL1.

Do I need to download WordPress 3.0.1 for both URL2 and URL 3 separately?

IF not, now do I use the existing online software to build URL 2 and URL 3.

If I only need to download once for URL 2 and URL 3 so I can work locally then upload FTP, how do I do that?

Those are the specific questions. Are there specific answers? Thanks for all your help/

I see from the www.ads-software.com site that “3.0 allows for the management of multisites from one wordpress installation” but I have spent 30 minutes looking for the answer to “how.” Can you enlighten me? And, do I still need to download another copy in order to build the three sites locally or can I use the online copy that I am using for my site now to build the three offline sites?

A theme merely controls the display of your content. It does not store the content (your content is stored in your database).

I currently have 2 local installs with a total of about thirty themes between them. Each local “site” is a separate install of WordPress (in my case, one is 3.0.1 whilst the other is the bleeding nightly alpha version).

How do I use WordPress 3.0.1 to build URL 2 and URL 3 while maintaining URL1.

If you want to simply develop themes or plugins, you only need a single install. You can then swap themes and plugins in & out as needed. If you want to build complete sites, you will need a separate install & database per site/url.

Do I need to download WordPress 3.0.1 for both URL2 and URL 3 separately?

See above.

IF not, now do I use the existing online software to build URL 2 and URL 3.

Develop the theme locally in your single install and then upload the theme to your live site.

@jamesgangcreative You can find information on how to setup a multisite here

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Create_A_Network