Modifying a pre-existing theme – problems

  • I’ve been searching through the forums and the codex trying to sort this issue out, but I keep having problems and so far haven’t found a thread that adequately addressed my issue.

    My approach is relatively simple. I find a theme I like but want to modify slightly.
    1) I download it
    2) I copy the theme folder and rename it
    3) I open the stylesheet in the new folder change the details at the top of the page ala: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Theme_Development#Theme_Style_Sheet
    3) I upload the folder to my wp-content/themes folder on my server.
    4) I go to the theme manager page in the WP dashboard and invariably get some version of: “The following themes are installed but incomplete. Themes must have a stylesheet and a template.”

    Somehow in the past, various versions of the details at the top of my style.css page actually worked, I was able to upload the theme, change the style sheet and preview it sucessfully. Overnight something changed and I can’t preview my old theme, nor the new theme I’m trying to work on.

    The error message that implies that there is no stylesheet or template in the folder is confusing. The theme that I’m modifying is one that is fully functional and presumably has all the necessary parts. Presumably also the theme should be able to stand alone rather than be based on a template in another folder… so why am I having this problem.

    Rather than try to create a new theme from scratch, it makes sense to me to try to learn about it by tinkering with different parts of a theme to see how my changes work.

    Three major questions I need answered:
    1) Other than changing the details at the top of the style-sheet, is there some other thing that I’m neglecting to change to make the theme act as a new separate theme?
    2) Can someone point me in the direction of a clear directive as to how best to write the details in the stylesheet so as not to break the theme. (I’ve already read the codex page postd above, which is kinda vague on details)
    3) Am I actually missing the templates if they are templates that work for a pre-existing theme?

    Thanks for your help. I’m new to this… so detailed responses would really be appreciated. I am spending a lot of time in the codex trying to sort this out.

Viewing 9 replies - 16 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Thread Starter meganano

    (@meganano)

    Hrm… removed any possible blank space before the */ closing operator… but that’s the code that indicates that’s what’s inside is a comment- right? Why should it matter if there’s blank space in there?

    Now I’m remembering… someone else posted on the forums something about dreamweaver being a problem for stylesheets… unless you change the settings. Of course they didn’t specify what settings needed to be changed in order for the file to save in the correct format. Can anyone explain what settings might screw up a textfile that gets saved as a .css?

    Thanks.
    Mega

    No clue, won’t allow DW house room…. but take my word for it, blank space inside the comment operators does sometimes seem to matter. I myself had that happen on several themes, and until I took out a couple of lines before the closing */, it didn’t get fixed.

    A couple of other things to look at:
    1) Make sure *all* of the settings terminate in a ; …. see your styling for #content to see what I mean
    2) You’ve got a couple of cases where there is a ; …. but on a blank line (see .quotation & .footnote at the tend)

    -tg

    Thread Starter meganano

    (@meganano)

    On the surface, this last comment makes sense to me, but then I remember that this theme is of course borrowed from someone else. Thus the stylesheet is adapted- I did not write all the code and those errors are from the original code. I know because I have notes about all the code I changed. So why doesn’t the theme that this stylesheet came from do the same wacky shit mine did?

    vkaryl: “won’t allow DW house room”
    huh? People. Please watch out how much slang/jargon you use on the support forums. Lots of newbies like myself are posting here looking for help and sometimes a helpful explanation that is riddled with unfamiliar jargon ceases to be of any use. Can you explain what you mean by this?

    I’ll go and check for code inconsistencies, and typos just to see if that’s the problem… I’ll post my results shortly.

    Thread Starter meganano

    (@meganano)

    Ummm yeah, so there were some definite typos in my code. No doubt about that. I can’t attest to the fact that my code is perfect. It’s not. There are a number of different style conventions used in it- probably from being adopted by so many people. But fixing those typos didn’t fix the “all the style.css code displays in the dashboard problem.” Any other bright ideas?

    Thread Starter meganano

    (@meganano)

    Ok… I’m researching the effect of using Dreamweaver on the stylesheet… not making any changes, just opening and saving a functioning stylesheet with dreamweaver to see what happens… notes forthcoming.

    Dreamweaver is my favorite.

    —–
    https://jesse.blogs-china.com/

    Thread Starter meganano

    (@meganano)

    I’ve found a solution to this problem. It’s posted in this thread:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/25490

    I got the same problem in my blog: https://www.oneandhalf.com

    meganano, I found your solution worked very well.

    cheers!

Viewing 9 replies - 16 through 24 (of 24 total)
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