[nerd luv]

I've just begun my template changes and they do not seem to be working at all. The two files that I have changed are the head.tpl (I put in some different images) and the admin/main/welcome.tpl (I changed the text).

For the head.tpl I have saved the file and when I go back to it I can see the changes have been saved in the editing section. When I preview this page or refresh any other page (since they all contain head.tpl) I see no changes.

For the welcome.tpl I can also see that the changes have been saved, it DOES show correctly in the preview, but I don't see the changes when I log into the admin section. It still says:
"Welcome to the Administrative zone
After logging in you will be able to control every aspect of your e-store." rather than the not-so-obvious text that I put in it's place.

Is there some sort of default safe mode or setting that prevents template changes from taking effect? Has anyone had this problem?