Often when I advise people on how to customize their themes, I have to warn them about not making changes to the default theme. If you bought a theme, or are using one of WordPress’ themes like Twenty Fourteen, if you make changes to the CSS in the style.css file, they will be overwritten next time there is an update and all your hard work will be lost. There’s a super simple way around this – the Simple Custom CSS Plugin.
The plugin is very easy to install – just download and activate – and a new link under the Appearance menu will show up for your custom CSS.
picture credit: John Regan of Simple Custom CSS
When you click on it you will start with a blank screen and you can just write you own CSS here, which will override any theme CSS files.
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jonathonhanten says
Instead of a plugin wouldn’t it be better just to make a child theme and use that so you could do a whole lot more than just changing css?
Laura Hartwig says
Yes, for those advanced enough to either create or use a child theme, absolutely do that. For those who are newer to WordPress, this plugin is a great option.
lifechangingpsychological says
When they change the 2014 theme, which I have, will it be January 2015?
Laura Hartwig says
First, you will always be able to keep the 2014 theme, just as you still have access to 2011, 2012 & 2013. It’s not going anywhere. If you’re talking about when will they update the 2014 theme, it could be anytime they find an issue with it or a bug, or it could be never. As far as when the next default theme (possibly 2015) will come out, it’s hard to tell. It usually coincides with a big update release for WordPress, but there is no set date for it to come out. They are constantly updating. In fact, the new release of WP 3.9 has a really nice image editing feature. Hope this helps!