editing the english.php files

Hi guys,
I have the Zen Cart book and I'm finding it an invaluable resource. Should I be creating duplicated english.php files before editing the defaults? I can't find anything in the book about needing to do that.

Thanks,
Steven

THat is always a good thing to do. Creating your own template folders with override copies of any edited files will save you headaches later when you upgrade to the next version.
See the FAQs and forum stickies here for help, if the book doesn't give you enough about that. My recollection is that it is reasonably complete.

so do I just copy the english.php file into my template folder then and when an upgrade is required, I over-write the new english.php with my own?

You copy /includes/languages/english.php into /includes/languages/your_template/english.php, or /includes/languages/english/contact_us.php to /includes/languages/english/your_template/contact_us.php, and make your changes there.

When you upgrade, the new /includes/languages/english.php stays as is.

Keep a record of all files you have made override copies of.

Look at the changelog for the upgrade and see if any of your overridden files are mentioned; if they are you need to compare the new with the original to see what was changed (make notes including line numbers), and then compare your copy with the new and replace the changed lines into your copy.

If a changed line was also customized by you, you will have to reconcile them. You are unlikely to run into that until you have made fairly advanced mods. You need to do some work, but your override copies will never be automatically erased or replaced. I have found that two or three out of a dozen overridden files typically needed to be compared.