Occasionally, one of our (potential) clients calls us and tells that he’s not able to edit the CSS file on his Joomla website. Usually, the client just wants to change a color or a font. Sometimes the client is not able to see the Template Manager section so he’s not even able to see the CSS file. In other cases, the client is able to see the Template Manager section, and is able to view the CSS file of a particular template, but he’s not able to save the CSS.
Usually in the first case, when the person is not even able to see the Template Manager menu, the problem is because the person is not given a super administrator access to the website. This is because only super administrators are allowed to edit the templates and the CSS files of the templates. This problem can be remedied by granting super administrative access to that person, or by creating another super administrator user on the website and giving that person the username and password of the newly created user.
In the second situation (where the user is attempting to save his edits to the CSS file of the Joomla website and he’s getting an error message) it’s more likely a permission issue on the CSS file. For example the CSS file could be assigned the 444 permissions, which means that any user on the system can read the file, but no one can write to it. Changing the permissions briefly to 644 will solve the problem (if not, then try changing the permissions to 666). Here’s how permissions can be changed on the CSS file: 1) FTP to your website using your favorite clients, 2) locate the CSS file (the CSS file of your Joomla website should be located under /yourjoomlawebsite.com/templates/yourtemplatename/css/template.css, 3) right click on the file and change the permissions by setting them to -rw-r--r-- (644) or, if this doesn’t work, then change the permissions to -rw-rw-rw-.
Now you should be able to edit and save your CSS file. But, what if you change your CSS file and nothing happens (the changes aren’t reflected on your website)? Then, you might have one of the following problems:
- Your browser is caching the previous CSS. Clear your browser cache and see if that solves the problem.
- You are trying to change the wrong CSS file for the wrong template.
- You are trying to change the right CSS file for the right template, but you’re changing the wrong CSS class.
- You’re changing the right CSS class, but there is another CSS class in another supporting CSS file (such as red.css) that overrides the CSS class you’re trying to change.
If you’re still having problems with your CSS file on your Joomla template, then feel free to contact us – we’ll definitely help you. Oh and don’t worry about our fees, they are very cheap!