1. Home
  2. Make Wordpress Work
  3. Add a Child Theme

Add a Child Theme

Do I Need a Child Theme?

A WordPress Child-Theme is a valuable tool in your website arsenal. WordPress frequently update their core files, mostly to improve the battle against ongoing security issues.

In response to WordPress Core Updates, plugin developers have to update their plugins too to ensure that they continue to work with the latest version of WP.

In tandem with those updates, Theme developers sometimes have to update their core Theme files so that their Themes continue to work seamlessly for you.

This in tuen means that every once in a while you will need to doenload the latest version of your Theme from wherever you bought it & overwrite the existing files with the new ones.

All well and good….. but if you have made any tweaks or changes to templates or any files within the Theme, you will lose them when you update the new files.

Even if you only make a few changes, they will all be reversed when updating, so you need a method of retaining your customisations.

Tutorials – How To’s

Enter the Child-Theme

A Child-Theme is the best place to keep your customised Theme files.

A child-theme is connected to your main theme, so that when loading a page, the Theme checks the Child first for files and then fills in all the gaps using the remaining files in the main template.

A standard Child-Theme only contains a style.css and functions.php file. You can add any additional files that you adapt, customise or butcher, and you don't have to remove or delete from the main Theme, just copy all the files to want to change into your Child-Theme and edit away to your hearts content.

When it is then time to update your Theme, you can copy all the files into your main them and the Child-Theme will remain just as you built it.

Just click on "Add Plugin" and search for "Child Theme". Child Theme Configurator is one of the first to come up and works well. Download and install and it will create a new child theme for you, based on the theme you have selected.

Once you have created a Child-Theme, just go to "Appearance / Themes" and select your child theme.

Make sure you check that your site appears correctly when viewed.... and that's it, Child-Theme added.

NEXT STEP:

Which WP Plugins Do You Need?