OK, assume I know nothing because I do.......lol I have downloaded a new theme and ftp'd the files to the "theme" folder on my server. I may have screwed up when I made a folder on my sever under theme with the new theme name, anyways when I try to install that new theme via the admin it asks me for a file and lets me brouser my computer for a file. I brouse to the new theme folder on my computer and select the .xml file, in the admin it says theme install successful.
when I go to my main page it still has the default theme, besides not knowing what I am doing what did I do wrong?????
It is perfectly fine to install by uploading over FTP. That is actually a more reliable way to install themes. The theme goes under the themes folder in a folder with its name. The extracted files should be directly in that folder. When you choose to install a theme, use the box that has you specify server directory.
When uploading themes through the admin, you want to choose the .zip of the theme, not just the xml file.
Also, new themes are not set to default automatically. You can do that in the admin area. You might also want to check that the theme works by using preview.