1. Backup your current WordPress website files. To do that, go to Tools > Export. Save the file to your hard drive.

2. Backup your current WordPress database.

To do that, get the free plugin, WP-DB-Backup. You’ll get that by going to Plugins > Add New and enter the plugin name in the Search form. Or, you can go to the WP-DB-Backup homepage, download the zip file, and upload it to your website in Plugins > Add New > Upload.

Then, create your backup file with that plugin (see directions at the homepage linked above) and save it to your hard drive.

3. Backup your theme files. Open your FTP program and download everything in wp-content > themes > Branford Magazine (or whatever your theme is called). Save that on your hard drive. (You probably won’t use this. It’s just a “worst case” backup. I like to take every measure possible to be sure everything turns out okay.)

I generally recommend backing up your image files, too. They’re in wp-content > uploads You’ll copy every file (and subfile) in the folders with a year name (2008, 2009, etc.).

4. Remove WordPress from your website. Some hosting services will do that automatically. (At HostGator, you’ll go into Fantastico > WordPress and click “Delete” next to the domain name where that WordPress site was hosted.)

If your hosting service doesn’t have a delete option, use your FTP program to delete everything in your WordPress files.

5. Download a copy of WordPress 2.9.2. You’ll find that at http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.9.2.zip

Unzip it on your hard drive using any free unzipping software. (Your computer probably has a program to do this, already.)

6. Install WordPress 2.9.2 manually.

(At the time of this writing, HostGator is still auto-installing WP 2.9.2., so a manual installation isn’t necessary. Check your hosting service’s WordPress options before going to the trouble of a manual installation.)

You can follow the directions in any of my books, or follow the “Famous 5-Minute Installation” instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

(That may seem a little scary the first time. Don’t worry. Any mistakes can be fixed, easily. After that, if you ever have to install WordPress again, it’ll be simple.)

7. Upload your copy of Branford Magazine. (If you’re starting from scratch, you can still get the free files at my Branford Magazine Archives.) You’ll do this via FTP, placing your Branford files in your new wp-content > themes folder.

8. Import your old articles, images, comments, etc.

9. Check your site to be sure it looks okay, and take a break. You’ve accomplished your goal!

If your site doesn’t look right, some of your files may have been lost or changed in the process. Follow the Troubleshooting steps, below.

Troubleshooting

If the whole site looks weird, delete your Branford Magazine files (via FTP) and reinstall them.

If it still looks weird, repeat the entire process starting with Step 4, above. (Yes, download a new copy of WP 2.9.2, just in case the first download was interrupted at the server.)

The problem probably started when you were FTP-ing your new WordPress installation.

If your entire site still looks hinky**, contact your hosting service in case they know what’s going on. They’ll have the best advice.

If your homepage categories aren’t right, the numbers probably changed. That’s normal. Follow the steps in my book: Find the Category numbers (for additional help see my video, Branford Magazine Homepage Categories), and enter them in Appearances > Editor > Main Index Template (index.php), in the appropriate locations.

If the problem includes your Lead Article (the big article at the top of the page), you’ll correct that category number in two spots in Appearances > Editor > ui.tabs.php. That’s illustrated in my book.

If your links or images are broken, you may need to manually locate the broken links and fix them.

For broken graphics, you’ll upload the missing files from your hard drive. (This is why I generally recommend saving all those wp-content > uploads files.)

To find broken links and images quickly, you can use a free WP plugin, Broken Link Checker. (Generally, to reduce site load time, I deactivate that plugin after I’ve used it during the installation.)

If something else is broken, the problem was probably in the installation. I’d go back to square one and start over. A second full installation usually fixes whatever-it-is. If it doesn’t, contact your hosting service for help.

Note: After doing this, ignore the “Update to WordPress 3.0 now” messages. Unless WordPress comes out with a patch for the problem affecting Branford and several other themes, updating means breaking your theme.

As long as you keep programs like Secure WordPress running, you’ll be relatively okay. However, if your site is a target for hackers, sooner or later you’ll need to switch to a more current theme.

* If you didn’t upgrade to WordPress 3.0 and you’d like to continue using Branford Magazine… go for it! Just be sure you’re using (and keep updated) the Secure WordPress plugin, to patch the most likely security issues, as they emerge.

** Hinky=weird, funky, or strange. It’s an NCIS (TV show) reference.

I tried the new Branford Magazine theme on one of my lesser-used websites, and the results were awful.

The good news is, you can revert to the earlier, fun versions of Branford Magazine.  I provide them here as free downloads.

If you don’t like that solution… Well, Michael Oeser (the man who assembled Branford Magazine theme) has a free tutorial online and — as of early 2009 — he has a forum where he answers questions, free of charge.

In addition, here are my suggestions if you want to keep Branford Magazine 2.6 or a newer edition:

HOMEPAGE IMAGES

When you “upgraded” to Branford Magazine 2.6, did your homepage images vanish?

Here’s how to get them back, if you’re not willing or able to revert to an earlier version of Branford Magazine.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Posts > Edit.  Select the post that’s missing its homepage image.

Scroll down to your Custom Fields section.  If you followed my tutorial instructions, your image URL looks like this:

2008/12/yourimage.jpg

You’ll need to replace it with the full URL, including the http:// part of the URL.  So, it’ll look like this:

http://yourdomainname.com/2008/12/yourimage.jpg

OR

http://www.yourdomainname.com/yourWPfolder/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/yourimage.jpg

You’ll need to do that for every post that appears on your homepage, including your lead article, your right column articles, and your featured articles.

(In addition, some database changes may be necessary.  If you’re not confident about that, and MySQL is confusing, ask your hosting service for help.)

In addition, if you decide to move an older post to your homepage, you’ll need to fix its image code as well.

If you feature certain articles over and over again, seasonally, it may be easier to go back to your earlier version of Branford Magazine.  That’s what I’m doing on most of my websites.

THE BIGGER LEAD ARTICLE AREA

When I switched to the new version of Branford Magazine, I suddenly had a huge area for my lead article text… but the same text excerpt as before.  It looked weird.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out how to increase the amount of text to fill the new, empty space, or reduce the size of the text area.

THE EXTRA TAB

Mr. Oeser has added a fourth tab near the top of the homepage.  This fourth tab is called “Important!”

Frankly, I threw in the towel on this Branford Magazine update before I tried changing that tab.

However, you should be able to delete that extra tab (and its text) in ui.tabs.php, the same as you removed (or changed) the “About this theme” tab.  (Those instructions are in my Sites that Soar! book.)

THE SIDEBAR AD SPACE

I didn’t want a big ad area in my sidebar.  I manually add a few discreet ads, and — on some of my websites — I use the AdSense plugin for my sidebar.

I don’t like huge, “buy this!” ads on my homepage.

So, I also deleted the advertisement part of the code from sidebar.php.

As far as I’m concerned, that’s a lot of work for minimal improvements.  However, you may think it’s worthwhile.  And, to be fair, Mr. Oeser may add better features with Branford Magazine 4.0+.

I intend to keep using the earlier editions.  I like them.  They still work fine (I’m using WordPress 2.8+ as I’m writing this.)

IF IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME…

Have you decided to use the new version of Branford Magazine,  anyway?  If this is your first installation of Branford Magazine, go for it.  My book will talk you through most of the installation and customizing.

Ask Michael Oeser for help with anything that’s not covered by the book.  He’s at DER-PRiNZ.com and has his own forum.  I’m sure he’ll answer all of your questions.

However…

IF you’ve been using an earlier version and want to try the new Branford Magazine,  here’s what I recommend:

Download Branford Magazine 2.6 from the DER-PRiNZ.com site.

Then, after unzipping it, rename it to anything that doesn’t end in “_latest”. (That way, it won’t overwrite your existing version of Branford Magazine, when you upload it to your wp_contents > themes folder.)

Install it as if it’s a brand new theme. In your Appearance (or Design) tab in WordPress, select Themes and then select the new Branford Magazine theme.

See what happens. If you don’t like it, click to resume using your previous version of Branford Magazine.  Everything will be fine again.

IF YOU NEED AN EARLIER VERSION OF BRANFORD MAGAZINE

If you already overwrote the previous Branford Magazine theme… I can’t find any at Mr. Oeser’s website.  (That was in mid-2009.  Since then, I think he’s restored the earlier editions to his website.)

So, here’s a zipped version of the previous (2.5.1) Branford Magazine: http://www.sitesthatsoar.com/PRiNZ_BranfordMagazine_2point51.zip

Frankly, I still like (and use) the 2.0 version with a few modifications, but even 2.5.1 is better than 2.6, if you’d set up your website before 2.6 came out.

WHAT’S NEXT… MAYBE

I’ve created a free, modified Branford Magazine theme, including the tweaks that I routinely make.  I’m calling it Branford Magazine – the Aisling edition.

(Since Branford Magazine theme is open source and borrows heavily from the Mimbo and Revolution themes, I can create my own modifications easily and legally.)

My modified Branford Magazine theme will work with my ebook, Sites that Soar! However, you won’t need to make all the changes listed in that book.  (You’ll see what I mean, as you follow the book’s directions.)

The early Branford Magazine themes are available, free of charge, at this website. Go to the homepage and click on the “Free Downloads” tab.  You’ll see my favorite versions of Branford Magazine, and you can download them all.

Keep checking this website (or sign up for the RSS feeds, in the right column) for additional news.

You can try a font color that looks dark enough on the Lead Article section, and light enough on the areas with dark backgrounds.

Or, you can change the Lead Article background to something that’s dark.  You can either change the background image or make the Lead Article background a solid color.

If you want to keep the graded background image, work with the graphic image that has this name:   branfordmagazine/images/backgrounds/bg_leadarticle.jpg

Or, here’s how to use your CSS file to change the background to any solid color:

Use your HTML editor or any text editor.  You’ll be changing a file that, online, is probably in:

wp-content > themes

With your HTML editor or any text editing program, open the file with this name:

branfordmagazine/styles/ui.tabs.css

Look for the section of code that says this at the top:

.ui-tabs-panel { /* the main content-section of the tabbed area NOT the tabs themselfes */

You’ll see the following at the bottom of that .ui-tabs-panel section:

background: url(../images/backgrounds/bg_leadarticle.jpg) repeat-x #E6E3D3; /* declare background color for container to avoid distorted fonts in IE while fading */
}

You’ll change that to read:

background:  #E6E3D3;
}

Next, replace #E6E3D3 with whatever color you want in the background. Upload it via FTP or your File Manager.

After you do that, your Lead Article box will have a solid color background.

If your headline color is now too dark, you can change the headline font color within the very next section.

You’re looking for color: #840000; in that section.  Change the color to whatever you want the headline text color to be.

For example, if you want white text for your headline, change the code to read color: #FFFFFF;

Continue tweaking the colors until you have a color scheme that you like.  Any colors are possible!

Here’s the solution that I’m using with WordPress 2.3, thanks to the WordPress Support forum:

I’ve added something like this to my style.css in my theme folder:

img {padding:5px;}

That puts five pixels of space around all four sides of the image. You can increase or decrease that, according to your tastes.

If you want to specify different padding on different sides, you’ll need to do something more like this:

img {padding:5px 10px 5px 10 px;}

(Tip:  I’m pretty sure that the border code goes clockwise around the image, starting at the top of the clock.  My CSS expertise isn’t red-hot, so I may be wrong about that, but… well, it’s worth a try, right?)

Also, if you’re seeing a border around your post illustrations in Firefox, edit the image in the post.  Be sure that WordPress didn’t add a border.  I’m not sure if it was my own typo or a WordPress auto-fix, but changing the image details (in the popup window at the Write Post panel), to border=0 , solved it.

Creating this website was part of my experiment for my book, Sites that Soar! I wanted to see how quickly I could build an attractive site with nothing to start with, not even a domain name or website hosting.

Using the same basic design, my next website–which already had a domain name and hosting–took a little over an hour.