Under WordPress? Are you looking in the right place? Forum admin > Themes panel?

Yes, I believe so; under the Themes heading there are ‘available themes’, ‘mobile theme’, ‘theme editor’, and ‘theme uploader’. I am looking under ‘available themes’.

what did you call the directory its in? and does the directory name match the main theme css file name? ie default for directory and default php (or default.css) as the main style sheet file…

I copied the CSS-only theme: it did not let me copy the whole thing, so I created a new directory, transferred the images, styles and templates folders and the .php and .txt files; i changed the .php in the styles folder, in the .txt file and in the functions.php as per the directions…

my question remains though…  you should have changed css-only directory to some other name such as my-theme…  then inside the my-theme/styles folder you should have changed css-only.css to match and be my-theme.css… 

what does changed the php file mean?  its a css file for css only…

and inside spTheme.txt you should have changed

Stylesheet: css-only.css

to be

Stylehseet:  my-theme.css

and I would update the title (first line) too to keep from getting update notices, but it would work without that…

did you do that?

Yes, I did create a new folder for the new theme (as per step 2 of the directions). The PhP file was in reference to step 3 of the directions (below). I did also change the Stylesheet in the spTheme.txt (as per step 4): I have tried it both with a hyphen between the name and the word ‘theme’ and all one word. (NB: I did not name it ‘my-theme’, I named it after the blog; does that matter?)

I did all the steps I understood from the ‘creating a theme’ page http://codex.simple-press.com/codex/themes/theme-basics/creating-a-theme/:

1) Double Check Where your Themes are Located

2) Pick a Theme to Copy and Create your New Theme’s Folder

3) Rename your custom theme’s filename:

Within your newly copied folder there will be a ‘styles‘ sub-folder and in there is your main theme file. This must have the same name as the theme so – using the above example – rename ‘default.php’ to ‘mytheme.php’.

4) Edit the spTheme.txt to name your Theme

In your new theme folder is a file names ‘spTheme.txt‘.  You need to edit the header details of this text file and change the theme name to your new theme’s name.

Open up the spTheme.txt file and change the two lines pictured below to the name of your theme and the php file name. Note that if you are copying a CSS only theme then this must point to the CSS file.

For example change “Simple:Press Theme Title: Default”  to: “Simple:Press Theme Title: mytheme” and Stylesheet: default.php change to Stylesheet: mytheme.php

5) Edit the Functions Template to Change Localization

Open spFunctions.php with your editor and change the function names to match your new theme name. If you used the default theme as your starting point then replace all references to ‘spDefault’  in your theme’s name. Please note there may be several occurrences of the theme name in this file. They must ALL be changed to the new name.

Try your new Theme

Okay, just double checked: in styles it is still a ‘.css’ file.

no, the name does not matter…  as long as it used consistently through out…

guess we need to look at some server stuff… those steps have worked for tens of thousands of folks…

I assume when you go to forum – integration – storage locations, you get 2 green marks for the theme locations?

if you compare the permissions of say the default theme with your new theme, do they agree?  check for directories and files for consistency…  some servers may set them differently based on the user…  also check the uid/guid for directory and files between default and yours…

after visiting the available themes panel, can you go to forum – toolbox – error log and see if there are any errors reported?  might find it easiest to clear the error log, then go to available themes and then back to the error log for any new ones…

The integration -> storage locations has not changed: it has always been a green mark and a blue mark.

Where do I check permissions? I’ve been copying files via FTP and to my knowledge have only changed what is listed in the directions.

I checked the error log: nothing from today when I’ve tried to change the theme; (there are a couple that seem unrelated (re: plugins) from yesterday).

most ftp clients let you look at permissions and ownership (uid/guid)…  or from ssh…

if you want to send us via pm, a temp wp admin with sp admin capabilities account, we can take a look…  a temp ftp account might help see what is going on too…  understand if not doable… if it is, pm the details to both yellow swordfish and myself… be sure to link back to this topic so we know what its about…