my overrides never work -?

[guybr]

Hi, I'm using VM 2.6.6 with the Atomic template and have been designing my site for the last 10 months(!)

Now that I'm almost ready to launch I'm trying to implement the overrides (which have never worked for me) - and sure enough they still don't:

a) I put the altered .php files in mytemplate/html/com_virtuemart/the-relevant-view-file/, and the vmsite-ltr.css file in the /css file of "my template"
b) I activated the "default" file names in the dropdown menus of the "template" configuration in the backoffice configuration screen (I also tried things without doing that)

AND... the site uploads super slow and the rendering is messed up - elements lack css design and things get displayed vertically...

What am I doing wrong?