Customizing downloaded Themes

  • I am a new born with WordPress. I had someone build my website through wordpress and placed the site on their server. I did not have access to the server and I wanted the designer to add some new features for the site. The designer was unresponsive and after 5+ months I finally had the site moved to Hostgator. However, they only moved content. Not themes, colors, etc. So now I am left with a fairly raw site that apparently was created on the Twenty Eleven Theme. However, the colors were a greem style. I copied and pasted I beleive all the design format the was used to create the website. I am trying to re-create the site as it originally was designed and and am having major difficulty changing the color schemes of the theme. I cannot find the custom areas to fill in the boxes I copied to my computer in Word. I have looked at some of the discussions and it think I need to open a CSS area? Cn’t figure out how to get to that in my Dashboard. My site is https://www.flite-tours.com

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

  • Do not edit the Twenty Eleven theme. First create a child theme for your changes or use a custom CSS plugin. The Jetpack plugin has custom CSS module that you could use.

    That’s certainly an unfortunate situation. So do you know if the version of twentyeleven you are using is unchanged – i.e. it was a new copy of the theme? If so, the first thing you’ll want to do is create a child theme:

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

    that way your changes won’t be lost when WP is updated. Then we can help you get started on CSS modifications.

    Hi, not to discourage you but it’s not going to be that easy copying over a design especially for someone new to WordPress and probably new to web development in general.

    With that said though, to edit the CSS file, you need to go to Appearance -> Editor. The first screen you see should show the CSS file that you can edit.

    @sdlep – as noted above twice, please do not edit theme files directly (as suggested in the post above).

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    Going against @wpthemesnz, you really should not edit any of the theme’s files and instead work through a Child Theme environment or Custom CSS plugin.

    Thread Starter sdlep

    (@sdlep)

    I used Jetpack and brought in their CSS. From here I am lost.

    If you cannot manage this yourself, perhaps you need to consider hiring someone to carry out the work for you.

    Thread Starter sdlep

    (@sdlep)

    Before the site was moved by Hostgator, I copied what appears to be CSS information but it was set up more as boxes where you input color codes into the box, where you want text or pictures positiioned, etc. Then it looks like when that is done it creates the code for for me. Does this sound fimiliar to any of you?

    What you are describing is not part of WordPress core functionality, so I can only guess that this functionality was added via your old theme or a plugin.

    Thread Starter sdlep

    (@sdlep)

    Agreed, However – no money. I am looking in Hostgator to move the text and images to a web design more user freindly. This site is designed to have eCommerce capabilites. This is what I wanted the person who created the site to download plugins so I could begin creating an eCommerce part of FLITE Tours.

    The other thing that I want developed and a layed gallery of insects that I have photographed over the years. Look at https://www.bugguide.net
    for an example of what I want. Mine will be different in that I want range maps and natural history information for each speacies.

    I am not saying WordPress cannot creat this for me but I am absolutely convinced I would need lots of plugins just to make it happen.

    hi @sdlep,

    Andrew and WPYogi is right about making your modifications via a child theme especially if the theme you are modifying is one that gets an update every now and then. Sorry I forgot to warn you about that.

    But anyhow, the functions you are describing will definitely need more plugins and technical know how to pull off.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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