Building a WordPress Child Theme

Over the weekend, I got a call from a friend having difficult times working with a theme she was using. Actually, she needed to add some code to the theme in order for a plugin to get some additional functionality.

She had the code that needed to be added but was only using a theme without a Child Theme. If you are already lost with this, let me back up and explain…

If you modify or add code to your WordPress theme and then in the next week or month there is an upgrade on the theme, as soon as you apply that change, you will lose all the modifications you made. At that point, you probably won’t be very happy.

In comes the Child Theme. This is a scaled down, ‘simpler’ theme that usually only has a few files. The point here is that the parent theme does all the work and has all the code you need, AND, any changes you want to make to the theme would get applied to the Child Theme. By changing the Child Theme, any time the theme is updated, you will not lose your changes. Code that is in the Child Theme will override the code in the regular theme.

I was going to write the instructions on how to create a Child Theme, but rather than do that, I am going share a post that does an excellent job of providing this information. Check out: How To Create a WordPress Child Theme by the good folks over at OptimizerWP.com! They do a great job of explaining how it all works.

Of course, if you have any questions as you create your WordPress Child Theme, feel free to ask me here!

Have fun!