Guide To Customize Your WordPress Theme with Child Theme

Are you using WordPress theme on your website? No matter whether it is a free or a commercial one, if you want to customize it as per your requirements, then it is easily possible for you. Finally, you have decided to custom your WordPress theme as per your business requirements, you can make use of Child Theme that allows to keep your changes, so you don't make changes to the original theme.

Before you opt for Child Theme, it is very much important for you to get complete information about it or how it works. There are lots of different reasons that WordPress developers have started using child themes.

It gives an opportunity to developers to customize a unique layout on top of another existing theme. Being a perfect solution for beginners, it enables people to play around with building their own themes that best meet with their business requirements.

What is Child Theme Exactly?

A WordPress child theme is a theme, which takes over the functionality of another theme that is also known as parent theme. Through this child theme, you are allowed to modify and add the functionality of that parent theme.

Being one of the safest ways to modify an existing them, child theme is also easy-to-use no matter whether you are looking to some minor changes or want to customize an entire theme. You can also develop a child theme instead of changing the theme files directly.

Generally, a child theme is a WordPress theme, which runs along with original WordPress theme and it overrule the parts of it as per your specified. Without changing the original one, you can easily modify with your required features.

Get Started with Child Themes

For your information, child themes are not as difficult as it sounds. One of the key benefits of using parent theme is that you do not have to write all the HTML/CSS from scratch. This theme automatically uses any template files that you have included like footer.php or sidebar.php. In any case, if you are missing, child theme will put all the same files from its parent.

However, this functionality also provides a complete range of features to customize already obtainable templates. This functionality is also excellent for touching up areas that are around your website for special events like adding designs for any special seasons like Christmas, Thanksgiving Day, New Years or more.

How to Do It?

Firstly, your original theme that is also known as parent theme, lives in your /wp-content/themes/directory. For an example: develop a child theme for WordPress default Twenty Twelve theme. After that, create a new directory along with the Twenty Twelve themes in order to develop a child theme.

All the directories require inside to be a valid child theme that is a style.css files with the following content:

Mainly, there are two important parts there:

Template: twentytwelve - that tells WordPress that this theme is a child theme of the twenty twelve theme.

@import url "/twentytwelve/style.css" that loads the parent theme style.css as a starting point.

Now, you can easily log into your WordPress dashboard and can see your Twenty Twelve Child Theme there and get it. Finally, you will get your very own Child Theme that has some cool features of your desire.

Got Your Own Child Theme & Thinking Now What to do?

Now, whenever you look forward to customize your own theme, you can do it in your child theme. In the parent theme, files in your child theme overrides files of the same name. So, if you want to change any file from your parent theme, you need to copy your child theme and then make your modifications there. The same goes for any template that may not be included in your parent theme. Now save them in your child theme and WordPress can use it.

So, this is the complete guide to customize Your WordPress theme using child theme that allows you to modify your theme with your desired features.