Installing and Upgrading Thesis Theme 1.6

If you’re installing Thesis for the first time… (via official installation instructions)

1. Upload the new Thesis 1.6 folder to your /wp-content/themes folder.
2. Locate the /custom-sample folder and change its name to /custom.
3. Locate the layout.css file inside your newly-renamed /custom folder, and change its permissions to 666.
4. [optional but highly recommended] If you’d like to give Thesis the ability to auto-crop thumbnail images for you, then you’ll want to change the permissions of your /custom/cache folder to 775.
5. Inside your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance ? Themes, and then activate Thesis 1.6.
6. You’re done, but make sure you check out both the Thesis Options and Design Options pages that now exist inside your WordPress Dashboard. You’ll be able to do things like set up your navigation menu, set fonts and font sizes, select your layout, and much, much more. To put it simply, this is the part of Thesis you don’t want to miss!

If you’re upgrading Thesis…

In version 1.6, the /custom folder contains more files than it did in previous versions. Follow the directions below very carefully to ensure that you have a seamless upgrade!

Your new /custom folder should contain the following files and folders:

• /custom [folder]
  • custom.css [file]
  • custom_functions.php [file]
  • layout.css [file]
  • /cache [folder]
  • /images [folder]
  • /rotator [folder]

The only critical change here is the addition of the /rotator folder. In the future, instead of copying both your /custom folder and your /rotator folder, you’ll only have to move your /custom folder, and that’ll take care of every possible customization you can make to Thesis.

In order to provide you with the best possible navigation solution, I had to make significant changes to the nav menu CSS classes for version 1.6. If you’ve customized your nav menu extensively, then these new changes will no doubt affect your existing styles. If you need assistance in adjusting your styles to this newer, better structure, please drop us a line in the forums.

1. Back up the /custom folder from your existing Thesis installation to your hard drive. Also, if you’ve uploaded your own images to the /rotator folder, then you’ll want to back that up, too. After you’ve done that, you should move the /rotator folder into the /custom folder on your hard drive.
2. Upload the new Thesis 1.6 folder to your /wp-content/themes folder.
3. Rename the /custom-sample folder to /custom, and do not overwrite this folder with your existing /custom folder!
4. Instead of overwriting the new /custom folder with the one you just backed up (as you are probably accustomed to doing with previous versions), copy the contents of the /custom folder you backed up in Step 1, and paste it all into your new /custom folder, which should also contain layout.css.
5. Set the permissions of your new layout.css file to 666.
6. Make sure your /cache folder’s permissions are set to 775.
7. Inside your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance ? Themes, and then activate Thesis 1.6.
8. Visit the Design Options page, ensure that Thesis is not giving you a warning about the file permissions on your layout.css file, and then hit the Big Ass Save Button.

Share on Tumblr

Tagged as: Cascading Style Sheets, hosts, Navigation, Style Sheets, Templates, thesis, WordPress, WordPress Dashboard