Theme Editor Gone

[Boris_yo]

Have installed WordPress 2.3.3 and when wanted to edit the theme Andreas 08 3 columns ver 0.5 - which 90 Day Challenge installer comes with, i didn't see "Theme Editor" button in sub-menu.



Do i need to activate theme editor somehow in WordPress 2.3.3? Or to download theme editor plugin?

[bjsmooths]

Originally Posted by Boris_yo

Have installed WordPress 2.3.3 and when wanted to edit the theme Andreas 08 3 columns ver 0.5 - which 90 Day Challenge installer comes with, i didn't see "Theme Editor" button in sub-menu.



Do i need to activate theme editor somehow in WordPress 2.3.3? Or to download theme editor plugin?

Don't know if that theme is customize that way or not. Most themes have it under the presentation tab.

Nevertheless, you can edit the theme files by going into that particular theme and editing the files there.

In my opinion, this is much safer. Make sure if you start to edit these files, make a copy of the original file just in case you make a mistake.

For instance: if you go edit the "sidebar.php" file, copy the file to your desktop by right-clicking that file and select copy.

Then paste onto your desktop and rename it "sidebar-copy.php and drag in back into the theme folder.

If you are using FTP, go into the theme directory located within the wordpress directory called "wp-content" and then themes.

Inside there you would find your theme name. By default there should be to folders in there named "classic" and "default". The other folder that is in there, should be the folder should be the theme that you uploaded either manually or using the installer.

Back to FTP: click inside your theme, which in the case should be labeld " Andreas 08" or something to that nature.

Select the whole folder and FTP the file down to your desktop. Now you have the original still showing, with the backup on your desktop.

With the theme now on your desktop, edit the files that you wish. Make sure though before you upload it, that you rename it the file to a different name until you've had a chance to backup the original that is live on your server.

Again, using "sidebar.php" as an example, rename the file "sidebar-copy.php" than edit the original file named sidebar.

If you should jack it up (I've done this many times before), rename the "sidebar-copy.php" back to just "sidebar.php"

If that sounds too confusing to you, than I would find out more on how to do this before editing. Remember, if you do not save a copy of the files inside the theme editor, you run the risk of messing the code up and the theme not looking right when you view it. There is no "save" feature on the theme editor, unless you copy and paste the original code onto a notepad doc.

For this reason, I believe it safer to do it the way that I explained above.

hope this helps,

[Boris_yo]

I don't like the regular way of editing the files, because their code looks messed up when i open them in notepad. However in Theme Editor i can see each code line by line with space between them so i will not get confused.

This also speeds up editing process and makes it less painful when switching between Windows tabs. Because hosting has regular backups of your account, you shouldn't be affraid of screwing up files as you can always download backup from hosting, find appropriate files in compressed backup and reupload them to overwrite the screwed up files.

I have my hosting make me weekly backups.

[bjsmooths]

The code in notepad looks messed up because you need to activate "word wrap" in notepad.

Simply go to "format" than select "word wrap".

Now when you look at the code, you'll see everything within the screen like you do the editor.

If you did mess up the code, than you'll have to call technical support and wait for them. This removes the control of your site out of your hands and it is dependant on something else.

There are no right or wrong answers, but if I were new, I would be careful editing the code in the theme editor if you don't know which lines of code need to be adjusted and if you aren't sure on how to backup those files that you adjusted in the theme editor.

Now, if it's a new blog, than that's ok. But if it's mature, I would do it the way I explained.

If you do know, it's much safer with more control by simply ftping the new file to your server if a mistake happens, rather than waiting for technical support to fix your mistake.

As a general practice it's always better to do your own backups whether your hosting does them or not. Bottom line is your hosting company isn't responsible for your files.

[Kangaroo Jack]

A word of advice from a former Software Engineer.

Before editing make a backup. For example if you are going to edit a page called home.html back it up (Save As) and call it home.html-bak or home.bak then edit or change the home.html file.

Another idea is keep all the original files in a separate directory. In essence you will have two directories. One is the original and the other is the copy.


EDIT: Never mind. This happens when you don't read the whole tread.