trouble renaming admin folder

Hello,
So, I have installed ZC, now I need to change the admin name right?
OK So I did what the instructions said, but this did not work.
Only after I did the first steps did it say in red - "you'll need to make it Writable before you'll be able to upload/save your changes to the file."

Oh so....I needed to do this before I did the previous instructions?
I am not even sure what the stuff in red means...I have tried searching for a different wording of it but have not found anything.
ALso...what is search and replace mean?

I am very confused.
I did the changes in the configure.php file...changed the relevant bits. Then uploaded the file back into FileZilla. What do I do with the old one?? Do I do anything?
I then changed the admin folder to my desired name. OK. Guess what...it did not work.
So..I changed them back to what it was. Hopefully it is back to normal but who knows....i did not back it up before but I can do that before i do anything else. Do you think it will be okay?

If someone could please explain what I should do that would be great!! The instructions are really not clear for me no matter how plain you might think they are.

Would appreciate some help!! Argh!

Thanks!
Henry

I am using Blue Host, FileZilla on a Mac 10.6.6 snow leopard.

Ok...I found there is another configure file to change...So not just one now??
I think I have messed the whole thing up. Its still not working.

shutdown your browser to clear the cookies and cache. leave the admin folder as 'admin' for now
make sure your config files are correct. then restart browser and try to login to admin area and open a second tab to the store address.

thanks for reply.
No, still not working...i cleared the cache and cookies

Ok review this for starters https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=33

Yes, thats the directions I started from

and this for file permissions https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=9

"What do I do with the old one??"

rename it configure.php.old and save it locally (to your computer) remember 'admin/includes/' and 'store_name/includes/'

• FYI-->they are identified in the comments at the beginning of each respective file when viewing file contents in a txt editor

I might just reinstall the whole thing again...I feel like I have totally messed everything up. the whole backing up thing....I am scared of where to put the files...overwriting stuff, moving it around. I feel its all too messed up.
I want to say that the tutorial on the admin thing is REALLY NOT CLEAR! Are there any other ones that state things properly??
Do i have to change admin features in BOTH configure.php files????

Urgh, I'm sorry but I'm pretty pissed with this thing.

Also, while doing all this, my normal web address is not working the same as when i first installed ZC. It goes to one of those pages with the ads. Is this normal at this stage?

Ok, so I was not able all along to change file permissions due to settings on my Bluehost account. Have changed those settings so I will now give it a go and see what happens....

Ok, I did that - did it all again. changing all the admin stuff and it still does not work.
Was it because I have changed everything back again so many times, maybe something has been lost in the process. Should I do a clean reinstall of Zen Cart?

what pages? describe page

no need to reinstall