I have an financial/economic site where I am using a free word press theme that I hate with the exception of the appearance. Is there some way I can impose the "skin" onto Atahualpa?

Will I probably need an experienced WordPress expert to do this for me?

To be honest, the answer is probably not unless it happens to be mimicable by Atahualpa - the best way to find out is to start exploring the atahualpa display options and see if you can get the layout and arrangement approximately right - if you can then it might well be possible - would need to see the current site to know though....

Thanks Owen,
If you want to see the original theme, the url is www.investingmind.com if you know how to do this, let me know and we can discuss when and the costs. Otherwise I will post it in the section for services.

Toodles
Laura

ldsmedia
While it wouldn't be too hard to duplicate the feel of that theme, it is copyrighted and you would need permission from the authors.

Taken from the style.css
--------------------------------
Theme Name: Cashflow101
Theme URI: http://topwpthemes.com/Cashflow101/
Description: Designed by <a href="http://designed.nu">Design Blog</a> and available FREE at <a href="http://www.zinruss.com/themes/">WordPress Themes Gallery</a>
Author: Design Blog
Author URI: http://designed.nu
© 2008, Design Blog. All rights reserved.
--------------------------------

Really, cause what's the difference because I just want to use a more useful backend and it is for my personal use. I can tell you for a certainty that I will not be able to get in touch with the creators. I have tried. It is a group that has a web site and the people who participate as part of this group changes continuously and they have no contact us info anywhere. So I don't get it.

If I could use the theme for my own personal use for free why can't I just attached a different and more useful back end to it. Wouldn't it be more about using/showing the footer credit link than anything else?

No answers, just thoughts...

First of all:
You CAN do anything want with copyrighted material... just like you CAN steal things from Wal-Mart. Two reasons not to do either are:
-You believe it is wrong to steal.
-You are afraid of being caught and punished.

If neither one of those affects you, then do whatever.

Point B:
Dude... the site looks like an off the shelf template. I don't even know why you would want to copy it. You can do much better.

Three:
The images that make the current them work on in your theme folder. If you are planning to copy the look, that's where you should start. To get exact color matches of non-photo elements, you can look in the source code. You should then be able to use the Theme Options to get it close.

Finally:
What exactly do you mean by back-end. Other than a customizable theme like this one, mostly the theme doesn't affect much of your author experience.