Took a free theme, renamed it, and got a fully custom development. Sounds simple, but when you open the Shapely directory in an editor, your eyes scatter: dozens of files, each mentioning the old name. Functions with the shapely_ prefix, text domains, asset paths, descriptions in the style.css header. Miss just one and the theme will break.

Shapely by Colorlib is one of the best free foundations for custom development: 10,000+ active installations, 4.6 rating on WordPress.org, last updated April 2025. A one-pager with parallax sections and WooCommerce support that turns into a unique product for a specific client after half an hour of edits.

Below is the complete sequence for replacing the Shapely theme name with your own. From mass file renaming to the final screenshot, with no skips and proven tools.

💡 Quick overview:

• Download Shapely from the official page and copy the theme directory with a new name.
• Mass-rename files and folders: replace the old shapely prefix with your own in lowercase.
• Find and replace all occurrences of shapely and Shapely inside PHP, CSS, and JS files with case sensitivity.
• Fix function.php, documentation, and the customizer, rewrite style.css with the new theme name.
• Prepare a custom screenshot.png and check theme activation in the admin panel.

Why rename Shapely instead of writing from scratch

Writing a theme from a clean slate for an ordinary project is a waste of budget. Shapely provides a ready framework: Bootstrap layout, widgets for the homepage, support for popular plugins out of the box. You get a working product and change only what the client needs: colors, fonts, section structure and, of course, the name.

Renaming is not cosmetic. Changing the name in all files and functions makes the theme yours: it displays in the admin panel under your brand, doesn't conflict with the original Shapely (you can keep both on the same site), and the client sees custom development, not a "free theme from the internet."

In practice, the full cycle takes 30-40 minutes. Let's break down each step.

Step 1: download and copy the directory

Download Shapely from colorlib.com or from the WordPress.org repository. Unpack the archive.

Create a copy of the shapely directory and name it your theme name. Rule: only lowercase Latin letters and hyphens. No spaces, underscores, or capitals. Examples of correct names: trolleybus, mediadoma-theme, or custom-start.

Why lowercase: WordPress normalizes theme and plugin names to lowercase when checking for updates and working with text domains. A capital letter in the folder name is a sure path to the "white screen of death" during activation.

Step 2: mass file renaming

First pass, file and folder names. Shapely has several dozen, and many contain shapely right in the name: shapely-documentation.php, class-shapely-customize.php, and so on.

In Total Commander: open the theme directory, Ctrl+B (flat list), Ctrl+A (select all), Ctrl+M (batch rename). In the "Find" field enter shapely, in the "Replace" field, the new name (lowercase). Run it, all files and folders are renamed in a second.

Alternative without Total Commander, PowerShell. Open a terminal in the theme directory and execute:

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Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*shapely*' } | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace 'shapely', 'newname' }

Replace newname with your version. This method is free and works on any Windows without installing additional programs.

Step 3: find and replace in file contents

Now the most important thing, clean up mentions of shapely inside PHP, CSS, and JS files. There are dozens of them, and manual search is not an option here.

In Notepad++: Ctrl+Shift+F (find in files), directory, your new theme folder. First pass, replace shapely (lowercase) with newname. Second pass, replace Shapely (capitalized) with Newname. Enable the "Match case" option for each pass.

Specific places where the theme name is guaranteed to appear:

• function.php, after_setup_theme hook, wp_enqueue_style and wp_enqueue_script calls with the shapely_ prefix;
• wp-content/themes/yourtheme/inc/trolleybus-documentation.php, help text in the admin panel;
• wp-content/themes/yourtheme/inc/class-customize.php, customizer settings.

Note: change not only text strings, but also function names. shapely_get_option() should become yourtheme_get_option(). Otherwise, when installing two themes on the same site, PHP will throw a fatal error "Cannot redeclare function."

Step 4: fix style.css, theme metadata

The style.css file in the theme root is the "passport": WordPress reads its header and displays information in the "Appearance → Themes" section. Sample:

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/*
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Theme Name: Trolleybus
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Theme URI: https://your-site.com/
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Author: Your Name / Studio
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Author URI: https://your-site.com/
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Description: Custom theme based on Shapely — a one-pager with parallax sections, WooCommerce support, and responsive layout. Optimized for a specific project.
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Version: 1.0
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License: GNU General Public License v2 or later
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License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
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Text Domain: themename
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*/

Three fields are mandatory: Theme Name (theme name in the admin panel), Text Domain (must match the folder name, WordPress uses it for translation), and Version. The rest is optional, but Author and Description create a professional impression.

Text Domain is a critical field. If it doesn't match the folder name, the load_theme_textdomain() function won't pick up translations, and all strings in the admin panel will remain in English.

Step 5: prepare a custom screenshot.png

screenshot.png is in the theme root and is shown in the "Appearance → Themes" gallery. Size: according to WordPress.org theme presentation requirements. Format: PNG.

What to place on the screenshot: studio logo, theme name, and a screenshot of the homepage after customization. Don't leave the original Shapely screenshot, the client will see someone else's product and ask a question.

Tools: Photoshop, Figma, or free GIMP. Draw a background, add the theme name text, insert a homepage screenshot. Save as screenshot.png and replace the file in the theme root.

Step 6: final check

Before handing over to the client, check three things:

• Activation without errors. Go to "Appearance → Themes" and activate the new theme. White screen, go back to step 3, most likely a function with the shapely_ prefix was missed.
• Name in the admin panel. The theme list displays the Theme Name value from style.css, exactly what you specified.
• Customizer functionality. Open "Appearance → Customize" and go through the sections. If any option doesn't save, check inc/class-customize.php (step 3), perhaps an old option identifier remains there.

That's it. The theme is ready to work and bears your name. Shapely served as the foundation, but the product is now fully yours.

Why do it this way and not through a child theme

Common question: why not create a child theme and change the name in it? The answer depends on the scenario.

A child theme is suitable when you're refining a site for yourself: changing CSS, adding functions to functions.php, but the original Shapely remains the base and receives updates. This is the right path for a site owner.

For an agency or freelancer who delivers a project to a client, a child theme is a compromise. The client sees "Shapely" in the admin panel, and when updating the parent theme your edits can break (developers changed the section HTML markup, your CSS fix stopped working). Full renaming gives control over every file and eliminates dependence on Colorlib updates.

Conclusion: doing it for yourself, child theme. Doing it for a client, fork with renaming.

⁉️🤔 Common questions

Can I rename a theme without Total Commander?

Yes. On Windows 10/11 use PowerShell (command from step 2), on macOS, Finder with batch renaming or the rename utility in the terminal. On Linux, rename 's/shapely/newname/' *. The main thing is not to miss nested folders: PowerShell with the -Recurse flag goes through the entire tree, while Finder only highlights files in the current folder.

What happens if I leave old shapely mentions in the code?

Depends on the location. If the old prefix remains in a function name, when installing two themes with the same function names PHP will throw a fatal error, the site will crash. If in an asset path, the image or script won't load (404). If in the text domain, translation strings won't be picked up. Worst scenario: the site works, you deliver the project, and a month later the client installs the original Shapely out of curiosity and gets a white screen. Two themes with shapely_setup() functions in one WordPress don't coexist.

Does Shapely update after renaming?

No. You forked the theme, updates from Colorlib don't reach you. This is a conscious decision: you sacrifice auto-updates for full control. If a critical security patch comes out in the original Shapely, you apply it manually, surgically. In practice, stability is more important for themes than updates: a theme is not a plugin, vulnerabilities in it are rare. Alternative for those who want both control and updates, a child theme, but when delivering a project to a client, a fork is more reliable.

Is Shapely a theme only for one-pagers?

By design, yes. But the Bootstrap layout and modular structure allow using it for multi-page sites too: just create additional pages in WordPress and set up a menu. Homepage widgets (parallax, portfolio) only work on the page assigned as "Homepage" in settings. In practice, we've built blogs and product catalogs on Shapely, the framework is initially flexible.

What to do with the screenshot if there's no designer?

Take a screenshot of the finished homepage (Snipping Tool in Windows or Cmd+Shift+4 on macOS), open it in Canva (free, online), overlay the theme name and studio logo, download as PNG of the required size. In 10 minutes you get a professional result without Photoshop. The main thing is don't leave the Shapely screenshot: the client sees exactly this when choosing a theme in the admin panel, and someone else's brand in that spot undermines trust in your work.

What to do after renaming: next step

The theme is renamed and activated. Next, customization for a specific project: replacing the color scheme in the customizer, setting up homepage widgets, connecting WooCommerce if a store is needed, SEO optimization through Yoast SEO or Rank Math.

Start with the customizer: "Appearance → Customize," and go from top to bottom. Shapely outputs dozens of options there: from logo to footer. In an hour of customization you get a unique appearance without writing a line of code. And if the project requires deeper customization, you already have your own fork where you can add any functions without looking back at the original.

If the site is planned to be multi-page, first create templates for internal pages in the theme folder. And remember: renaming freed you from conflicts with the original, now Shapely and your theme can live on the same site independently.