This tutorial will help you clarify the differences between installing, setting up and upgrading.

If you have followed our tutorials you will have already a fully functioning site with content. If you are familiar with HTML/CSS you have propably added your own custom styles.
But what happens when a new version of the template comes out? Do you need to backup up your work, upload the new template and start patching or FTP'ing files?

Fortunately, you don't need to do any of these tasks. When a template upgrade is published (eg. v1.0 to v1.1) you will have a quickstart package for new installations, the standalone template files and the upgrade pack.
The upgrade contains all the template files apart from index.php (to preserve changes if you have new module areas), custom.css and custom.js files.

Just download the quickstart package and you can safely upgrade to the newest version without the fear of losing any changes.

All files or folders that have changed or added in the newer versions are mentioned in detail to each template's download page under Changelog to help you keep track of the changes in case you have modified some other file besides the three mentioned above.

Note: For more information on installing Joomla templates read this tutorial.
Note: For more information on installing the Quickstart package read this tutorial.
Note: For more information on customizing your stylesheets read this tutorial.