I'm very much a newbie. I don't understand much about websites, HTML, PHP, etc. All I want to do is to upgrade my existing Atahualpa 3.3.3 theme to the latest 3.4.6, keeping the existing settings. It's ages since I did anything with themes, and I've forgotten how to do this.

I can't find any simple instructions anywhere -- Wordpress or BytesForAll. I can't be sure from the general Wordpress instructions that my settings will be preserved.

Can anyone help??

Thanks!

This may be helpful
http://forum.bytesforall.com/showpos...47&postcount=3

Thanks for this link. It describes how to get custom images into the upgraded theme.

But I'm afraid my question is even more basic!

At the top of his post, Juggledad talks about doing "an automatic upgrade". HOW DO I DO THAT?? The link it gave under Atahualpa theme options was only to download the zip file! There was no option for an automatic upgrade.

And if I upgrade automatically, does that mean it preserves all my other settings?

Thanks for your help!

If you expand on what juggledad says, do the following
- download the theme zip-file to your computer
- unzip the folder and make sure it is unpacked in a folder that has the name of the version, e.g. "atahualpa346"
- FTP the full folder as is to the wp-themes folder, snow wp-themes/atahualpa346
- In your WP dashboard, go to Themes > Add themes and you will see the new version of your theme
- Preview, then Activate

All settings are preserved, except for any edits you have made to the .php files. These will have to be copied over. The same goes for header images that you have added, which is what the post was referring to.

Thanks! I substituted my customised header image and stylesheet in the downloaded "Atahualpa346" folder (as per Juggledad's instructions). Then I uploaded the folder to the online wp-themes folder. So far so good.

But when it came to your 4th point -- "In your WP dashboard, go to Themes > Add themes and you will see the new version of your theme" -- I hit a brick wall. First, there's no "Add Themes", just "Add NEW Themes": is that what you meant? Second, when I clicked on that, Atahualpa346 did not appear. Only a Search parameters page. I searched for "Atahualpa346" and found nothing. I then searched for "Atahualpa", and found something that said it was ver. 3.4.6 -- but the preview looked nothing like what I have now! I didn't want to install that, in case it was the default version without my customised settings.

**Sigh!** What am I doing wrong or not understanding?

Go to dashboard->appearances->themes and pick the 3.4.6 version of atahualpa

Many thanks for your help. It installed 3.4.6 as new, so I dunno how uploading the atahualpa346 folder beforehand helped. Some settings were not carried across, but I managed to edit css.php (which didn't exist before), and I've got it almost the way it was.

Seems like upgrading a theme is not something to be done casually!

1) If you downloaded the theme to your computer and unzipped it, it would have unzipped to a folder called 'atahualpa346' so when you FTP'd it to the host, you would have two atahualpa folders, one called 'atahualpa' and one called 'atahualpa346'

2) try not to change css.php - put your updates in the CSS Inserts options - then they will be stored in the database. If you change css.php, next time you upgrade you will lose them again since you are change CODE not theme options.

Thanks for your comments. Re point 1), does having the 'atahualpa346' folder already on the host enable an automatic installation to read the settings?

About 2), my problem is I know so little about HTML and CSS that I need to find out by trial and error which bits of code in css.php control the settings I want to change. I suppose once I get something that works I could copy & paste my changes into the Theme Options HTML/CSS inserts. It certainly would be good not to have to redo it all next time I upgrade.

1) not sure if it will enable the automatin install, if it did, I would asusme that it would put a new copy into a foilder called 'atahualpa'

2) for a lot of the changes, you make them in the options. For example, if you want the background of the entire page to be red, you could edit the css.php and find the 'body {...}' and put 'background: #CC0000;' there and then save the file and upload it to the host

or

you could go to the theme options, 'Body, Text & Links' and in the 'Body Style' you could add 'background: #CC0000;' and press SAVE and you would be all done. This way, the option is stored in the database and for the next upgrade you don't have to do anything. If you edit css.php, make sure you keep notes because after the next upgrade, you will have to add all your changes back in.

Right. I understand what you mean about saving stuff in the options wherever possible. My main problem was the size, colour and line-spacing of the headings (h1, h2, etc.), which don't seem to be configurable in the options. But if I can add them under HTML/CSS Inserts, that should work, I hope?

Page and post headings can be styled in the options or as you note, you can put things in the CSS Inserts to override any other options. Sometimes you may have to add a '!important' to an option.

How do I do that? Just type 'important' at the beginning of the line? Or as a comment between /* ... */?

You add it to the end. Let's say you wanted to make sure the background color is set, you would use

background-color: #CC0000 !important;

And that should over ride the color for the CSS element you are using

OK, thanks. I appreciate your help.