Create a Child Theme: How to Step By Step Guide

WordPress is an incredibly flexible and customizable platform that can be tailored to meet your specific needs. One of the most effective ways to do this is by creating a child theme. Child themes allow you to modify the appearance and functionality of your website while maintaining the core functionality of the parent theme. we’ll show you how to create a child theme in WordPress step-by-step.

Step 1: Create a Child Theme Folder 

Once you’ve chosen your parent theme, create a new folder in your WordPress installation directory. This folder will house your child theme files. Name the folder anything you like, but make sure it’s descriptive so that you can identify it easily.

Step 2: Create a Stylesheet For Your Child Theme

In your new child theme folder, create a new file called “style.css”. This file will contain the styles for your child theme. Start with the following header code:

/*
 Theme Name:   My Child Theme
 Template:     parent-theme-folder-name
*/

Replace “My Child Theme” with the name of your child theme and “parent-theme-folder-name” with the name of the parent theme’s folder. This header code tells WordPress that this is a child theme and which parent theme it should use.

Step 3: Enqueue Stylesheet

To enqueue your child theme stylesheet, add the following code to your child theme’s “functions.php” file:

function my_child_theme_enqueue_styles() {
    wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
    wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',
        get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
        array('parent-style')
    );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_child_theme_enqueue_styles' );

Step 4: Activate the Child Theme