How To Make Genesis Sample Theme Look Like Genesis Framework Demo

[Alex Taylor]

Hi everyone.

I love the look of the basic Genesis Framework for one of my sites, but I'm not sure you're supposed to use the framework as a long term theme. Can you do that?

When I instal the Genesis Sample child theme on top of it, it looks totally different and not what what I want (the nNews box is different, the margins are different, etc).

So can I use the basic Genesis framework as my main theme? If not, how can I make the Genesis Sample Theme look like it?

Thanks for your time!

EDIT: Actually, now I've looked into it more, it seems like it's ok to use this as my main theme. I was just worried because there's a warning at the top of the stylesheet file saying not to edit it. But what if I want to tweak the design?

[David Chu]

Alex,
Good questions. I would strongly advise against trying to use the Genesis Framework by itself as your theme. The framework is designed to use child themes, and that's where any changes should go. You can make your changes to anything in the framework via the child theme.

Just for a quick test (I'd never do this in production!), I enabled the framework as the operative theme. I saw no difference at all between that and the Sample child, not margins, not much of anything. I don't have the same plugins installed as the demo, it's true, but I don't think there's any significant difference when using the Sample.

I wonder if you have a version of the Sample theme that's not in synch with the framework version you have.

Another way you can try to make your own demo look more like the Studiopress demo: look in the Sample child theme folder. You'll see a folder in there called /xml. In there is a file, genesis.xml, that you can import into a "blank" site via Tools.... Import. But maybe you already knew that. 🙂

In any case, even if there are differences, I'd still tell you to stick with using a child theme. Eventually you will run into trouble doing it your way, because if you change anything in the framework, you'd be editing core files, not child theme files. The great majority of frameworks out there, Genesis or not, work this way.

Good luck,
Dave

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Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers

[Alex Taylor]

Dave, thanks a lot for your reply. You were absolutely right. I must have had an out of date version of the sample child theme, because when I downloaded and installed the latest version everything worked perfectly!

[David Chu]

That's cool! Glad that worked out.

The Sample is a really nice base, lots of clever stuff, and was particularly nice after Genesis 2 came out.

I began with that, and added tons of my favorite functions and tricks to make my own base.

Have fun with it!
Dave

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Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers

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