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Happiness Engineer at Automattic, lover of knitting, crochet, sci-fi and more

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Installing Thesis 2.0

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Update 26 Oct 2012: Thesis 2.0.1 is out and you shouldn’t need to go through this install procedure. My tests have shown that the skins are automatically installed and configured on new Thesis installs.

Thesis 2.0 is out, and it is a completely different animal to Thesis 1.x!

I’m sure it’s capable of some amazing things, but it’s also going to take a bit of getting used to, and those that jump in face-first might get a bit confused by what they see.

Firstly, on the download page there is a plugin that will enable you to play around with Thesis when logged in, while still serving your active theme to visitors. If you are installing 2.0 on your site and want to port your design over, I recommend using that plugin. I more strongly recommend using a test site to play around with Thesis 2.0 and get used to it. I won’t be installing it on this site until I’ve had more experience with it, and I almost always develop my themes on a test site anyway.

Install & Activate

Installation and activation is the same as any other theme: you upload Thesis to your wp-content/themes folder and activate it on the Appearance > Themes panel in the dashboard (unless you are using the plugin I mentioned, in which case follow its instructions).

Get Started

Do not click the “check out your site now” link. It will be blank, and maybe scary. Do click the “Click to get started” button, which will install the default skins and folders where your custom skins, boxes and packages will go.

Save your CSS

Next you need to head to the Skin Editor to save your CSS. The link to the Skin Editor can be found under Skins in the menu on the Thesis admin page.

Once there navigate to the CSS tab in the top left corner.

In Thesis 2.0 CSS is generated mainly from CSS packages, which are modules designed to help you style all your fonts, links, widths, colours, backgrounds etc via a visual interface. The settings for all of these are in the Skin Editor and when you’ve got things the way you like you need to save and recompile your CSS file. For now your CSS file hasn’t been compiled yet, so you need to do that. You don’t need to change the package settings at this point, just click the “Save and Compile CSS” button.

It is possible to write custom CSS from the editor, or use style.css from a child theme if you want. In time many more packages will become available as developers have the chance to write them.

Now! you can check out your site

Now that your skins are installed and the CSS is saved you can check out your site without having a heart attack.

The Thesis Classic skin is the default and looks like Thesis 1.x did. From there you can check out the Skin Editor. The HTML section allows you to rearrange, add and remove elements of the page and the CSS section allows you to edit the styles for your site. There is also a Thesis Blank skin that you can use to build your own skins from scratch. All skin settings are saved in the database, so you can switch between skins at your leisure and things will be as you left them if you want to switch back.

Tips for the Skin Editor

  • Boxes = page elements that you can add to your templates in the HTML editor
  • Packages = CSS packages that have a visual interface for you to input your style preferences, which automatically generate the CSS for you
  • Variables = bits and pieces of CSS that you can assign a value to and use in your CSS and packages. E.g., you could name a variable “color1” and give it the value #000 and then in your CSS packages instead of picking or typing in a colour you type $color1. This will be handy: you can change colour schemes by only changing your colours in one place, or you could use it for regularly used values like padding and margins etc.
  • To move HTML elements within a container just drag the box. To move elements between containers shift+drag.
  • Each type of WordPress page can have a unique template. To change which template you are editing click on the name of the template at the top left of the HTML editor.
  • You can copy one page template to another by selecting the template you want to copy to in the editor and then click on the name of the template again, in the 3rd column of the popup you can select the template you would like to copy from.

Have fun!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thanks Kristen; very helpful post! Especially with the explanation regarding holding off on clicking the “check out your site now” button until AFTER saving and recompiling your CSS file. Looks like we’re on our own until the promised resources/tutorials are in place on the DIYThemes.com “rtfm” directories… Cheers, Steve & Sally

  2. Thank you, what would people like me do without people like you. LOL I did look before doing all the steps. My heart did not stop but I am glad I found this.

  3. Thank you so much Kristarella for posting this helpful tutorial. I am excited to try out Thesis2 but have to wait a couple of weeks until I have lots of time to play with it. Too much other stuff on my plate right now.

  4. What is not clear to me is the folder name we should use. Historically it has been simply “thesis” and in fact Thesis 2.0 comes in a folder “thesis” not “thesis 2.0” or such. So, what do I do? Rename the old thesis folder on my site, activate it? or what? Filezilla will not let me upload “thesis” without overwriting the old one. Do I create a new folder called “thesis2” and then have to rename/deal with whatever Chris’ whim of the day is in future?

  5. Hey Kristen,

    I really like what you have done with the site! Was this done on 2.0?

    Cam

    P.S .. Thanks for the tutorial it will help a lot of people out that are not so tech savvy.

  8. I just opted to setup a test site last night while we were waiting for the release. I had no problems getting it (initially setup) but that I would imagine is more than likely because I did not add a layer of complexity into the equation by using the Plugin on my live site.

    Just food for thought : )

  9. Thanks Kristen, Just installed thesis 2. This was very helpful. Someone mentioned this post over on the DIYthemes forums. Im looking forward to learning everything thats possible with thesis 2.

  10. Hi Kristarella,

    thanks a lot for your instruction! Installing was pretty easy but I messed up something in the css so that my navigation bar looks weird (www.sticktricks.de). Do you know what I have to put in to change that? Can I go back to the default settings somehow?

    Thanks in advance!!

  11. A few good tutorials on 1) How to make a Skin 2) How to make boxes 3) How to make packages would be VERY useful. Any idea where to get them?

    Thanks

  12. Hi Kristarella,

    Wishing I saw this post before. Order of things: Installed thesis 2.0, new install; played around with the css file but it looked like changes were taking; looked around on the internet, found your great post; followed your directions, forgetting that by the time I was saving and compiling the css, that I had already made changes to it; tried to remove the theme, then reload it, still seems to acknowledge my changed theme, (which now shows the changes I made.

    Any idea how I can get a clean unadulterated version installed again and start from scratch without it acknowledging what i’ve gone and done? Do I just need to go into my filezilla and remove the thesis file all together or something?

    Thanks so much,
    Angelique

  14. Hi Kristarella!
    This is a great introduction to Thesis 2!
    I was probably one of the very first to download the new version, but I must say if was/is a steep learning curve,,,

    Your info is just what was needed to get started, so thanks very much!
    I *DO* hope the Thesis 2 team will come up with some detailed videos on how to do everything; after all – they sell it, and should be interested in showing users and potential new customers how to do things.

    Thanks again, and good luck!

    Cheers,
    Jan

  15. Thanks for all the comments everyone.

    Bart — My understanding is that it doesn’t matter what the theme folder is called. It will create a folder in wp-content called “thesis”, which I think does matter, but that is to store skins and stuff and is not the same as the theme folder. Pretty sure you can rename the folder if you want.

    Cam — Thanks! No, this is still on Thesis 1.8.5. I redesigned a month or so ago. I still have some building to go before I port to 2.0. I will make some skins for others before I move over I think.

    Tate & Jean-Luc — I don’t know what is wrong either, but my suggestion is if you got the green get started button and that all worked, then go to the Select Skin screen and check to see if Thesis Classic and Thesis Blank is installed and whether Classic is activated. If not activate it and save & compile the CSS.
    If it’s still blank go into wp-config.php in the root of your WordPress directory and find the bit that says define('WP_DEBUG',false); and change false to true, then if there is a PHP error it should display and help find the problem. Paste the output into the thesis forum to get help on what it means.

  16. For those who want to reset their Thesis Classic skin back to its default I’ve just posted a tutorial on that.

    Angelique — I think the new post about resetting will work for you, but if you have any CSS issues you might need to clear the contents of skins/thesis-classic/css.css

    Stefan — As far as I know there are no tutorials on those things yet. I will probably post something, but I haven’t figured out packages yet.

  19. Thank you for all you do, here and on the forums. I know that sometimes it cannot be easy with knuckleheads like me around.

  20. Thanks Kristarella,
    Before I do anything else, I am off to find a babe who can code like you then marry her 🙂

  21. Thanks so much for this Tut! It was too obvious for me to click “Click to get Started” lol Hate it when that happens. Anyway nice layout too! Thanks again 🙂

  22. Thanks for the Tutorial. I was able to install it successfully with your instructions. Hope to see some tutorials and tips on Thesis 2.0 from you soon.

  23. Hi, After following these instructions, and selecting “View Site” the page is blank. There are only 2 choices for skins “Thesis Blank ” and “Thesis Classic”. Both are blank.
    I did notice Thesis (whilst selecting “click to get started” button) has installed another “thesis” folder in the wp-content folder. This contains “boxes” folder, “packages” folder, “skins” folder and master.php file.

    Is this correct? Having a heck of a time for 3 days now.

  24. Sparky — Yes, the wp-content/thesis is crucial: it’s where skins are stored. Thesis Classic shouldn’t be blank. Can you take a look on the Skin Editor HTML page and see if there is a layout there?

  25. Thanks Kristarella, Yes the Skin Editor page is sorta blank, it just says “Home” and below that “body”….. Even tho’ it said the loading of files was successful after the Click to get started” ….something did not load.

  26. I just loaded it on another site and it loaded. Possibly the WordPress structure is messed up?

  27. I Am getting the same blank preview page — and site — with ALL plugins deactivated, using the most urrent version of WP, and an unmodified Thesis 2.0 installer package. Here’s the WP Debug info.
    ………………………………
    Notice: Undefined index: thesis_editor in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/thesis.php on line 13

    Notice: Undefined index: thesis_canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/thesis.php on line 14

    Notice: Use of undefined constant THESIS_CUSTOM – assumed ‘THESIS_CUSTOM’ in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/thesis.php on line 60

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/wp/home_seo.php on line 12

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skins.php on line 36

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin/user_packages.php on line 16

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin.php on line 65

    Notice: wp_enqueue_style was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or init hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 2758

    Notice: wp_enqueue_script was called incorrectly. Scripts and styles should not be registered or enqueued until the wp_enqueue_scripts, admin_enqueue_scripts, or init hooks. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 3.3.) in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 2758

    Notice: Undefined index: _wpnonce in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin/user_boxes.php on line 36

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin/user_boxes.php on line 22

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin/box.php on line 3325

    Notice: Undefined index: canvas in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/skin/box.php on line 3417

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-content/themes/thesis/thesis.php:13) in /homepages/45/d131626318/htdocs/Blog/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 881

  28. Dave — There’s nothing in the debug info that I can see that should cause a blank screen (i.e., no fatal errors). Did you complete the install procedure above? Do you have the Thesis Classic skin activated?

  29. Hi Kristarella,
    I am really confused. I’m a Thesis newbie and not tech savvie and this upgrade has me worried. Should I be waiting to transition to Thesis2.0 or just go ahead and follow your instructions?
    I’ve held off making any changes to my site for the last month in anticipation of the new release in the hope that it will be easier for me to set up what I want – but now the instructions sound like there is so much room for error.
    I was expecting there would just be an upgrade button on the dashboard and that would be it, but apparently this is not the case. I feel a bit let down by the Thesis promises to be honest which I know isn’t your problem.

  30. Nancy — If you have significant customisations I would wait to see if a porting plugin is done, if they’re small customisations they can probably be moved to the Thesis Classic skin on 2.0. The recent DIYthemes post is a little more informative.
    I don’t blame you for being disappointed; there was no indication that upgrading would be a lot of effort. I won’t be upgrading kristarella.com for a while, but I will likely build some new sites on 2.0.

  31. Hey Kristarella, I just installed Thesis the other day but when I try to access my site from my mobile device all I get is a blank screen. Funny thing is when I load my site into my browser my site loads and the Thesis them looks fine. I got a friend to test it for me and they also see a blank screen, how could that be? Need help asap, thanks.

  32. Tyronne — Your site is blank on my desktop. My guess is that you have the Blank skin active and the Classic skin in preview mode, so you see it when you are logged in, but since I am not logged in to your site, & you’re not logged in on mobile you don’t see the proper theme. Just a guess, hope that’s it. Make sure the skin you are using is fully active, not just in developer preview.

  34. Tyronne — As far as I know there are only 1 or 2 skins out for 2.0 (it’s only been out for 3 days), one is by Themedy and is $80. You shouldn’t need to learn much/any CSS, part of the point is that you use the packages to input your font & colour settings etc and the CSS is generated for you. There are some videos to help you make skins, or you can wait a bit until there’s a few more skins out in the marketplace.

  35. I actually have version 1.8.5, isn’t there a skin you can use once thesis is activated? How do I get it out of developer preview? Thanks a bunch.

  36. Tyronne — This post is about Thesis 2.0, so naturally I assumed that is what your questions were about. There are lots of skins available for 1.8.5. I have a couple (see portfolio & themes link at the top of the page), there are other marketplaces, such as Themedy.
    As to why your site is blank, I can’t tell from here. There is no developer preview in Thesis 1.8.5, so that isn’t your issue. You most likely need to set WP_DEBUG to true in your wp-config.php file to display error messages and then see this article, especially the end part titled “I edited my custom_functions.php and now my site has an error message!” to interpret the error message.

  39. Sweeeeet! I followed your directions (seemed logical, too) and it worked. Now my site is butt ugly boring. But, that’s okay because it was sorta broken before (a weird blue box appeared over my graphic…a non-Thesis designer tried to help me and wrote his own PHP instead of using Thesis). Anyway, thanks!! Can’t wait to get into the buttons and start REALLY screwing it up (then I’ll need your How to Reset blog post! 🙂 ).

    Thanks!

  40. Hey Tyronne!
    It’s easy….just go to “Skins” and select the skin you like to be activated.

    I am excited about the first customisation I will try today;). Created some buttons and a layout already…

    Have a great day!!!

  42. Not convinced. Far from it, actually. I do understand the enthusiasm, though. I just think it means a whole new way of working, where the “out of the ordinary” design will mean much more work than previously…

    • Aernout — I’m not trying to convince anyone of much at this point, nor do I have much enthusiasm yet, I am just getting to know how it works and helping people with the problems they have with it.

      I disagree that out of the ordinary designs will be harder though. It should be a lot quicker and easier to totally rearrange the HTML if needed.

  43. Rearranging the HTML seems easier, as does adding query-based content. I guess it depends on what you already know about PHP and CSS. I’m a bit weaker in PHP so this helps me, but I’ve become far more comfortable with CSS so I think the Thesis 2 CSS packages constrain me more than help. Paradoxically, I think my CSS knowledge was necessary to get started at all. Still working it all out.

  44. Thanks Kristarella!
    I had a feeling you’d be on the watch for us with the new version! This really helped define things for me setting up.

    Mark 🙂

  45. Adding widgetised areas anywhere you wish is a standout feature of the Thesis 2 framework for WordPress. By itself alone, this feature makes it worth learning about Thesis 2. But other things like defining columns seem harder, and it’s certainly not for designers without knowledge of HTML/CSS. However it does seem to reduce the need to understand PHP.

    I have just created videos explaining how to add columns and widgets in Thesis 2:
    http://imagearies.com/2012/10/.....d-widgets/

    This follows on from my series on getting started: http://imagearies.com/2012/10/.....g-started/

    I’m planning one more series on how the styling works with the CSS Packages.
    Cheers!

  46. Hey Kristeralla, thanks for sticking with me and answering my questions, I was finally able to change the blank template to the classic one. Now all I have to do is upgrade to the version 2.0.

  47. haha you’re totally right! I installed it on one of my tester sites and was all excited: “Woo, it’s gonna be easier than the custom files editor?!” – well, not quite. Definitely gonna take some getting used to, but it does look promising once we hop over that lil learners-curve. Thanks for the post Kristen! Now I don’t feel like I’m the only one trying to learn this new interface thingy. 😉

  48. Obviously this is all a big mess. Very poor introduction of a potentially important theme that has been a front runner for years. Not sure what was in Chris’s head not supplying a clear and safe upgrade path for Thesis 1x users. I may come back to this later but I’m not filled with confidence.

  49. Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I have decided to dump Thesis and go with another theme. I was just disheartened with the whole upgrade upsell and I’m still not really convinced that Thesis is for absolute novices. The new theme is so easy and low maintenance I wish I’d gone down this path 6 months ago. Very disappointed….

  50. I was just going about building my page, and suddenly, I go this error message:

    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1336166 bytes) in /home/content/50/8056550/html/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/core/api/box_form.php on line 82

    Can you help me?
    Thanks

  55. Jodi — That one probably better in the forum. I don’t know what it would be. Exhausted memory mainly means that a particular process has reached the memory limit on your server… I don’t know why it would happen in that script though. It might help to stop, save and reload the editor.

    Rodrigo — There’s a number of ways to do it. I want to make a box that allows using the WordPress header image feature, but for now one way to do it is:

    1. Upload image to images tab in Thesis Skin Editor & copy the CSS reference
    2. Add a new Single Element Styles CSS package, give it a name, reference and use the selector #site_title a
    3. For the Background styles add the CSS reference of the image as the background image, set the background position you want (e.g., left center, or center center) and set the image to no-repeat
    4. In the Additional Styles put #site_title a {width:100%; height:87px; display:block; text-indent:-9999px;} and change the height to whatever height your image is (it tells you that in the images tab as well)
    5. Add your package to the Skin CSS (the reference that you used with a & in front of it) and save the CSS

    That will give you a clickable header image.

  56. Hey Kristarella I have a question for you, when I created a few tabs for my homepage for some reason they are on top of my header and not below it. How do I fix taht? Thanks a bunch.

  57. Tyronne — If you are using Thesis 1.8.5 then check out the user manual about moving the nav. If you are using 2.0 then you go the the skin editor, and drag the Nav Menu box from above the header to below, then save template (you will probably need to do this for different templates, which are available by clicking on the template name above the boxes).

  63. Hi

    I have version 2.02 and installed it thru filezilla. I don’t have a “get started” button and in your screen shots the Thesis 2.01 is in red and mine is in gray? Wondering if something is not quite right?

    • Krista — the very top of the post says “Update 26 Oct 2012: Thesis 2.0.1 is out and you shouldn’t need to go through this install procedure. My tests have shown that the skins are automatically installed and configured on new Thesis installs.”
      I.e., this post is irrelevant now.

  64. Thanks for this tutorial. My site use thesis 2.58. Now I read this post and learn something new at here. I will update to thesis 2.0 for my site. Thanks

  67. Allii — As mentioned at the top of the post, you shouldn’t need this tutorial at all anymore if you have the most recent version of Thesis, installation is usually automatic.

    You should be able to get more comprehensive help on the Thesis forum or user manual.

  68. Kristarella, I installed the new thesis and am trying to install skins to work with. I found a skin, Thesis Bold, by http://thesisthemes.com/thesis-skins/. I followed the instructions, uploaded the zipped file, and in my thesis site it says the skin has been uploaded. The problem? The skin does not show up on the skins page. What can I do? I’ve uploaded two so far and am hesitant to upload any more until I can see these to begin working with them. Thanks much.

  69. Mezzo — The Thesis Bold skin is for Thesis 1.8.5, it’s not a Thesis 2 skin (see the skin details). So you can “install” it, in the sense that Thesis will extract the zip file to the required location, but it doesn’t have any of the files that Thesis 2 skins need. You need to find Thesis 2 skins specifically.

  70. Oh my, thank you so much. I didn’t realize that. Wish I had asked you sooner. Been fighting with this for several hours this week. SMH. Thanks Kristarella.

  71. Hi K,
    I thought I’d ask you this question since you’re the QUEEN of Thesis.
    I just started a new Thesis 2.0 blog (I’m a novice by the way) and I notice my address on one of the pages includes “/post-name/” showing “http://coronarealestateagent.com/post-name/agentblog/” INSTEAD of what I thought would be better… “http://coronarealestateagent.com/agentblog/”.
    Another page inserts “/category/” in the middle of the address???

    Thank K. YOU ROCK!

  73. This post is clear, succinct and precisely what I need to get my installation issue corrected.
    3 Cheers for you. Keep up sharing such informative articles.

  74. I just bought thesis 2.0 last night. I needed it for ecommerce shopping cart/real products to sell, a blog and video hosting.

    I am used to wix.com where you get a website and drop in what you need, change captions, add a page, etc…. but the page design is built to work around. This Thesis is just WHITE! Is there such a thing as Thesis 2.0 templates that I say, yes, I like that page set up and just plug my stuff into it and edit? I absolutely am no way techie…..

  75. Thanks for your post. The biggest concern for me is that I lost header, nav bar, and all my widgets in the side bar. Is there any way to import all that stuff over from 1.8 to 2.0?

  76. Kevin — If you were using the WordPress menus system with Thesis then your menu still exists and you need to just make it the primary menu on the Appearance > Menus page, or set it in the HTML boxes of the Skin Editor.
    If you weren’t using the WordPress menu system you will need to start (it’s really very good).
    Your header image you can add in the Skin editor, or get my header box.
    Widgets should have only moved into the Inactive Widgets box at the bottom left of Appearance > Widgets (this sometimes happens when switching themes). You should be able to just drag them back.

  77. Cameron — You are talking about permalinks, which are controlled by WordPress, not really anything to do with Thesis.

    The “category” thing is in the URLs for a reason, but if the site is new it shouldn’t cause trouble to remove them. There’s a plugin for that, I think it’s called No Category Slug.

  78. Mechelle — You will probably need to go to the Thesis forums to sort through why it might be blank, but if you have access to the dashboard check which Thesis skin is active. There is a skin that is blank, it’s sort of a canvas.
    I haven’t tried Thesis 2 with any ecommerce plugins yet, so I don’t know how easy it is; you might need to do some more research as to which ecommerce plugins & themes would be best for you.

  79. Kristarella,

    Your website is really helpful. It’s too bad all this additional comment info can’t be recompiled into a beginner’s primer. I have some questions:

    1. I notice it takes time for my page to update on blue host. Is this a WordPress problem or a hosting problem?

    2. I want to change the thin line at the top of my banner into a thick line like the one under it. How do I do that? Is there a feature in the software or do I need CSS to do that?

  80. Hi Kristarella,

    I got problem when installing thesis theme, The thesis editor is not working. Do you have any idea to fix it.

    Thank you

  81. Yadi,

    I had a similar problem with a client site and what I did was do a fresh manual install. I stopped using QuickInstall, Fantastico or any other one-click install programs in my host’s Cpanel when it comes to thesis 2 and that made all the difference in the initial frustrations associate with the 2xx release.
    @Dan, I’m your issue is CSS related if you are not using an image that is.

    Cheers

  83. Kris, I was referred to you by Lisa at 2createawebsite.com.

    I’m torn between Thesis and Genesis. I’m trying to create a blog that is original in design, but more and more I read, I just hear bad things about Thesis 2.0.

    My background is not in programming, so I want to stay away from any kind of coding. Now with that said, which do you think it’s a better fit for me?