Creating the template_info.php file

Activating your template so that you can use your overrides files requires two final steps (the first is one time only, of course).

a. Create includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/template_info.php

In order for the system to “see” your template, the template_info.php file must exist inside the includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE folder.

Create it as follows:

<?php 
$template_name = 'Your Template Name'

b. Login to your Admin panel and go to Tools > Template Selection. You should see your new custom template(s) in the dropdown list. Select your template.

You are now using your new template.

Full specification for template_info file

If you are going to distribute your template, you should build out the template_info.php file more completely. Use this

<?php  
$template_name = 'YOURTEMPLATE';  
$template_version = 'Version 1.0';  
$template_author = '<enter your name>';  
$template_description = 'describe your template'; 
$template_screenshot = 'screenshot.jpg';  

Notice there is no closing PHP tag.

Create a screenshot of your template, and save it as includes/templates/YOURTEMPLATE/images/screenshot.jpg. This way people will be able to “preview” your template.