From: "Pia Oliver" <pia@piasworld.com>
To: support@drupal.org
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 10:02:07 AM
Subject: Re: [support] Sub-theme

Re: [support] Sub-theme
Have you tried:

1.  Make a copy of the "Bartik" folder from the core>themes file.
2. Put this folder in your sites>all>themes folder
3. rename this folder "bartik-cjm
4. open the "bartik.info file and add "stylesheets[all][] = css/local.css"
5. Rename bartik.info file to "bartik-cjm"
5a. Create a file in the css folder called "local.css" since it's here you will be over riding the Bartik original css files
6. check all the other files in the "bartik-cjm" folder for "Bartik" and replace this with "bartik-cjm"
7. Go to Admin/appearance and you will now see your subtheme "bartik-cjm"

Pia
Hi Pia,

No. I haven't done that for a very specific reason and that reason is that your recommended procedure does not give me a sub-theme; it gives me a custom theme which is a modified copy of Bartik rather than a sub-classed descendant.  In this case, I am no longer inheriting from the Bartik base theme; I will have a copy which means that any changes to the base theme will be ignored and I don't really have a sub-theme; I have a modified new base-theme. I am lead to believe that what I have done is sufficient. (https://drupal.org/node/225125), but clearly there is something that I don't understand, because my understanding is at variance with practice.

Thanks for the help,

Chris.