4 Steps in Creating a WordPress Child Theme
WordPress themes are what makes blogging and website-making cool and trendy. These themes are carefully crafted by programmers so you can have an interface for your website. Each theme is uniquely designed to cater to the needs of every business entity as well as the preferences of individuals. They can be customized easily using many functions.
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The good thing about WordPress is it makes use of what they call “child” themes. Child themes are themes that have similar qualities as other WordPress themes, or the “parent themes”. These child themes are used when you want to change some features of an existing theme without sacrificing the ability of that theme to upgrade to another level. Most WordPress themes can have child themes.
Creating the Child Theme
Creating a genesis child theme out of an existing WordPress theme is an easy task once you know what to do. So, here are some steps that will help you create one.
1. Make a child folder theme
First, log in to your website and go to “/wp-content/themes/”. It will contain more than one folder. From your parent theme, make a child theme folder where you can store the files before you install them (see photo below).
2. Make the child theme’s style.css file
The file style.css is what you need to create a child theme. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. Place important information in the text editor and change the template part to show that your child theme is related to your parent theme (see image below).
One thing to keep in mind is if the child theme is rendered without the CSS styling of the parent theme, it will fail. So, make sure to match both the style.css file of the parent and child themes (look at the second photo below).
3. Launch the theme
When everything else is done, it is time to activate your child theme. Just go to Appearance then to Themes in your WordPress menu. The parent theme is activated already. Now, it is time to activate the child theme. Once it is activated, it will be shown as an active theme. Only slight changes are made and you need not worry (see photos below). You may also see business website themes.
4. Add some finishing touches
Having your child theme activated is not yet the end of the story. You have to check it and iron out some details and imperfections. Some features might not be right and some adjustments may have to be made as well. After all of that, your child theme is good to go. You may also see WordPress themes for web developers.
Why do you need to use a WordPress child theme?
1. No-hassle updating. Having your own child theme from an existing parent theme will help update your site smoothly. A child theme gets the style, templates, and features from the parent theme so you can only make small changes to your site. You may also see directory listing WordPress themes.
2. Flexibility. Child themes are capable of being flexible if they are built on a strong parent theme. New functions can be added and template files can be modified without having to go through another set of template files.
3. Original files remain intact. Child themes are another set of files to be tweaked. They do not ruin the parent theme. Another thing you can do is to disable your child theme and use the parent theme again. You may also see app showcase WordPress themes.
4. Backup. What is good about child themes is that if some code is forgotten, that certain function is still available in the parent theme. So, there is always something to go back to.
We hope these steps are helpful in creating your own child theme. Making one is a trial and error phase. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and be creative in finding a new twist to an existing theme. You may also see fastest WordPress themes
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