Using "local" cloned themes

gribblej

I'm seeking clarification about customization using the T3 system. Your documentation indicates that there are only two recommended methods: LESS and custom.css. On this completed project I worked from two clones of the blue theme to create Local themes for our frontpage and inside pages. I also created a corresponding custom.css file for each and made my edits there. But based on further reading at different forums I am questioning whether that is really necessary.
If I work from a local theme, cannot I simply edit the template.css?
When a template update becomes available, will it only override the default themes and leave the Local themes alone?
Because the template will not include the Local themes which webmaster created?
So, are there actually not three ways to customize instead of two?
Thanks to anyone who can shed light on this.
-Jim G.

teitbite

gribblej Hi. Yes, You are right. Not sure why this third method were not included. I believe it was because it's easier to keep all the css changes in one file like custom.css and use /local in case some code changes to php/js are needed. This is actually how I would suggest that, since from my experience I can tell that most of the changes is being done to styles and way less to code.

gribblej

Thank you for confirming. You might want to add this to documentation. While LESS is very powerful and efficient, working at the CSS style level gives very fine, detailed control, and I just find it so much more convenient. Also we use SiteGround with their super-fast SSD servers. Things like CSS pre-processing and minification become much less critical on the high-performance server.
-Jim G.