Hi workndawg,

What themes did you switch between?

If you switch to a theme that doesn't use the same area names, content in those areas won't display.

The content should not be gone, just not displayed.

It is generally best not to create a full site and then switch themes. Switching themes is better done earlier in the process.

Someone else might be able to comment about the best approach to renaming areas on an active site to match another theme.

Just changing between Elemental and Fruitful

Also seems like Fruitful is not customizable like Elemental with the customize button that gives you access to all the colors of the sections etc.

I think I need to learn a little CSS and then I should be able to do anything?

I have only used Dreamweaver for the last 10 yrs then spent about 2 months trying to learn Joomla and Rockettheme/Gantry. That was a waste of time. I am not a developer and I am just now breaking into Concrete5 but I am loving what I see.

Saw another mention rolling back to 5.6, is that something I should consider or just learn the latest and greatest?

For someone new to concrete5, who doesn't need a very specific feature, I recommend starting with 5.7.

I would read the documentation on theme making.
https://www.concrete5.org/documentation/developers/5.7/designing-for...

Ok thank you, I'll hang with 5.7

The cause is likely that the editable areas are named differently in the source code. If you locate your theme within the file manager on your web hosting account. You will need to locate your various page types and edit each. The editable area php looks like this:

<?php
$a= new Area('Area Name');
$a->display($c);
?>

You will have to go through and make these consistant. Take notice of where it says 'Area Name' look at the code on the theme you used when you inserted your content. Then, change the area names on your new theme to be consistent. Once you do that, your content will populate.

If your area name is 'main', a table cell named "main" will be created in your database. If you change your theme and the area name is 'body' instead of 'main', the CMS will look in the database for the table cell named 'main' and it will not return any content because there will be nothing there. Naming the editable areas consistanly will ensure your data populates properly.

Okay that is helpful. I guess I will have to start getting into the php and css a little more. Not hoping to become a developer but even all the years in Dreamweaver I would have to get into the html to fix stuff once in a while.

Thank you

For some more background discussion on the whole issue of area names, have a look at:
http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/5-7-discussion/page-type-...
https://github.com/concrete5/concrete5/issues/195...