Change the name on the existing theme folder. But you’d probably have an easier time comparing files by doing the comparison on your local computer — as you will not be able to have more than one theme active on your site at the same time. So download the new version to your local machine?
(This IS why you should always make changes in a child theme:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes.)
It would be interesting to see the top of your style sheet to possibly learn a bit here, but it seems to me like you are essentially running a child that has no parent (since it sounds like you are not dependent upon a regular WordPress Theme). So if I were you, I would keep your present them running just as it is and begin sitting/placing the files for the two themes side-by-side while slowly-and-methodically bringing your current one up to date and leaving the updated one alone.
There is no such thing as a child theme without a parent – it’s not a child theme in that case.
couldnt i just rename my current theme to “theme-child” and upload the new one? the only features im interested in in the latter one is the responsive parts.
Renaming your theme will prevent it from being overwritten (and losing your changes), but it won’t turn it in to a child theme. See the link to the page about child themes to understand how they work. Depending on how much modification you’ve done, you may have a big job trying to incorporate new CSS and/or other responsive features/code.
What theme is this?
I was reading up on the link. I have done all my modifications in the editor and I have not that much normal html css code experience.
To me it seem the smartest way is to rename my current theme, upload the recent update and create a child theme in which I can put all of the parts that im certain I will keep from the current theme. Then i will just have to modify or translate each part piece by piece.
Would this work?
aggregate from elegant themes.
Yep, that sounds like a logical approach, but I would recommend that you check with Elegant Themes just in case there is something they know about the theme that would be a problem. These forums don’t support commercial themes — partly because we do not have access to them for testing or use — so to be safe, double check with them.
Oh, one more thing — make sure you make frequent/duplicate archives (don’t copy over previous back-ups) and back-ups during the process :)!
