Customising Templates without being over-written by updates

[setd]

Hi all,
I've had a search of the forum and can't see any topic covering this in detail, so hopefully you guys can help...

I've got a site designed and pretty much ready to go, but this has been done on the original templates, within which changes have been made. I'm concerned that I'll lose this as soon as I update VM/Joomla - can you advise the steps needed to make a copy which won't be affected ongoing.  I know this isn't the right way around to do it...

I guess it's not just templates that may be affected, so which files are 'safe' and which need action taken on (e.g. Language files, plug in/module files, etc).

Many thanks in advance.

[jenkinhill]

Language files - use language overrides - http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=92944.0

Template (view) changes - use template overrides - http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=90935.0

css edits - add the revised style to your Joomla template css file.

Core/plugin/module edits/hacks are not usually required with VM2 so if you make any there is no way to preserve them during an update. If you make any hacks be sure to record what it is you do.

[setd]

thanks @jenkinhill

On the template overrides, the link you posted mentions to only copy across default.php - I've made changes to other files within the Views folder (e.g. changing layout of VM emails, category pages, etc). How do I protect these?

On a similar line, some folders within the Views directory, such as "invoice", "orders" and "user" don't actually contain a default.php file.  In this instance, should any modified file just be copied across to the new directory within the Joomla template folder?

Thanks