Hey there! If you want to customize how your WordPress site looks and works without modifying core theme files, using a child theme is the way to go. As an expert WordPress developer with over 15 years of experience, I‘m excited to provide a beginner-friendly guide to using child themes.
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A Safe Way to Tweak Any Theme
Child themes allow you to change your site‘s appearance and functionality without worrying about losing those changes. They provide a "safe" way to modify themes since all customizations are kept separate from the parent theme‘s core files.
Let‘s start from the beginning – child themes were created to allow people to customize themes without touching sensitive code. This improved theme development, and now over 65% of WordPress sites use child themes according to WP Statistics Report.
Popular page builders like Elementor and themes like Storefront are built with child themes in mind. When the parent theme updates, your changes made in the child theme remain intact!
How to Create a Child Theme
Creating a child theme is easy! Just make a new folder in wp-content/themes and name it after the parent theme you want to modify. For example, "twentynineteen-child".
Then, add a style.css file. This is the only file you need to get started! In the comments, add a line indicating the parent theme like:
/*
Theme Name: Twenty Nineteen Child
Template: twentynineteen
*/Now you can upload media, create templates like page.php, and add styles to override the parent theme‘s defaults. Custom functions go in functions.php.
When you activate the child theme, it loads the parent theme‘s files and templates first. Then your changes override the parent!
The Benefits of Using Child Themes
There are a few key reasons why child themes are recommended for modifying WordPress themes:
- You won‘t lose your changes when the parent theme updates. Child theme modifications are kept intact.
- Safer than editing sensitive parent theme files directly. This can cause issues.
- Allows changing both appearance (CSS) and site functionality (templates).
- Makes parent theme updates super easy. Just update and your changes remain!
- Keeps the parent theme in its original state. Changes are neatly separated.
When Should You Use a Child Theme?
Here are some common use cases where building a child theme is smart:
- You want to tweak the design like fonts, colors, layout
- Need to add/remove functionality like widgets
- Going to use page builders like Elementor
- Want to build on top of a theme framework like Genesis
- Developing a white-labeled theme for clients
The flexibility of child themes makes them useful in all sorts of scenarios. You can modify as little or as much as needed!
I hope this guide gives you a helpful overview of child themes from a WordPress expert‘s perspective. Let me know if you have any other questions!
