One of the big problems with customising themes is that the theme’s core files have to be modified.
So you spend a happy few hours modifying style.css and you get the site looking just as you wish. Then along comes an update to the theme which nicely overwrites your customised style.css and you are back to where you started.
Of course you should have a backup of your customised file, but suppose the update included the theme author’s updates to style.css?
As I have already pointed out, Weaver has the facility to insert your own code (CSS or HTML) into the header or footer of the site without any file editing.
An example of this is in the layout of the nested comments on the theme. I felt that the reply to a comment wasn’t indented enough, and could lead to some confusion, as it wasn’t immediately obvious whether a comment was a new comment in its own right, or a reply to a previous comment.
The obvious way was to modify the style.css file but I went the route of adding an insert of some CSS into the Header in the (Advanced) Admin area –
.commentlist li.comment, #respond {
margin-left: 15px !important;
}
This had the desired effect. The effect is small but significant enough to improve readability –
Since I made that modification, there has been an update to the Weaver theme. I applied the update and all my modifications remained intact.
Another hugely significant feature is that in the event of catastrophic failure I only need three things –
- A database dump (mailed to me daily via a plug in)
- A copy of the images I have created
- A tiny XML file which Weaver creates and which contains all the modifications I have applied to the theme, including code inserts.
Every other item I need can be downloaded from the Internet.
Not many themes can do that?!