How to create a WordPress Child Theme and what it is used for

Creating a WordPress Child Theme is an excellent strategy for customising the main theme of your website without directly modifying the original theme file. In this article, we will guide you step by step on how to create a WordPress Child Theme and customise it for your website.

Step 1: Create the Child Theme folder

To create a Child Theme, a new folder must be created within the directory wp-content/themes of your website. Open the FTP editor or File Explorer and create a new folder with a unique name (e.g. 'my-child-theme').

Step 2: Create the style.css file

The style.css is the main file of your Child Theme, where you can customise the style of your website. Open the file style.css within the Child Theme folder and add your CSS changes.

Step 3: Create the functions.php file

The functions.php is the file that contains the custom functions you wish to execute in your Child Theme. Open the file functions.php inside the Child Theme folder and add your custom functions.

Step 4: Specify the name and version of the Child Theme

Open the file style.css and add the following lines of code to the beginning of the file:

/*
Theme Name: My Child Theme
Theme URI: https://example.com/my-child-theme
Version: 1.0
Author: Your Name
Author URI: https://example.com
*/

Save the file.

These lines of code specify the name, URI, version, author and author URI of your Child Theme.

Step 5: Activate the Child Theme

To activate your Child Theme, go to the 'Appearance' section of the WordPress administration panel and select 'Child Themes' in the 'Themes' section. Find your Child Theme in the list and click the 'Activate' button to activate it.

Step 6: Customise the Child Theme Style

Once you have activated your Child Theme, you can customise the style using CSS changes in the style.css. You can also use the custom functions defined in the functions.php to customise your user experience.

Step 7: Update the Main Theme

If you wish to update the main theme, you can simply replace the main theme folder with the new version. Your Child Theme will remain unchanged and continue to function correctly.

Tips and tricks

• Make sure you save your files style.css e functions.php in both the Main Theme and Child Theme folders.
• Use a unique name for your Child Theme folder to avoid conflicts with other themes.
• If you wish to use a custom function defined in the functions.php of the main theme, be sure to declare it as local within your Child Theme.
• To maintain the changes to your administration panel pages, create a copy of the original management files (e.g, header.php, footer.phpetc.) within the Child Theme folder.

In this way, you have created a customised Child Theme for your WordPress website!

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