Hi there,

I'm new to wordpress, I've been reading over the documentation... there's lots. I have some html experience but never used this type of software before.

I am basically taking over a website for someone else who has left and am looking at changing the style and look of what is currently there.

Is there a way that I can work on making changes to the current website and view my changes without making it active until I have completed everything? I don't want to try something and find out it is active online to everyone.

Thank you

The best way to do this is to create a playgroud site - a copy of the current site - and make changes there to see their effect tehn finally make the changes on the real site.

and don't forget to BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP

Thanks for the info, is there an icon or something in the dashboard that I'm not seeing to create a backup playground that I can use? And how would I open it up in wordpress?

If you want a playground site you need to create it as a new site on your host. I use a paid plugin called BackupBuddy that does it all fairly automatically. You can also do it manually if you want. However this forum is not intended to guide you thru something like that. You need to do some homework or hire someone to create the site for you.