WordPress Web Design For Dummies, 2nd Edition

13

Understanding Parent and Child Themes

In This Chapter

Customizing a theme with child themes

Tweaking theme structure with a child theme

Working with template files

Understanding the terminology of stylesheets and templates

Using a theme exactly as a theme author released it is great. If a new version is released that fixes a browser compatibility issue or adds features offered by a new version of WordPress, a quick theme upgrade is very easy to do.

However, there’s a good chance you’ll want to tinker with the design, add new features, or modify the theme structure. If you modify the theme, you can’t upgrade to a newly released version without modifying the theme again.

If only you could upgrade customized versions of themes with new features when they’re released. Fortunately, child themes give you this best-of-both-worlds theme solution. This chapter explores what child themes are, how to create a child theme–ready parent theme, and how to get the most out of using child themes.

Customizing Theme Style with Child Themes

A WordPress theme consists of a collection of template ...