How to Create WordPress Child Themes - The Complete Guide

[@Luxxen101]

Finally! Somebody explains what goes on behind the scene with child themes. Thank you so much. 👏👏👏

[@yomammo]

i used to code back in the old days. early web dev products and some C stuff. so picking up php once again is great. I just realized how far everything has advanced. so many tools out there. I only just begun. its like a new story opened for me. cool stuff. keep it coming.

[@TheWebMonkey]

Glad you are enjoying the journey!

[@yomammo]

@@TheWebMonkey thanks for your videos sir. The job I picked up is a new company and things are slow going but there are soooo many technologies out there that I spend time reading, trial and error and hopefully we will reach the point to decide which way to go on stuff. i have another question. is it possible to make a child of plugins?

[@Kiralovesstitch]

What an amazing explanation that was so easy to follow! Thank goodness I came across you! Question- when you are editing a child theme using element pro will that work? Will it know which code to read ie from the parent and child theme

[@yomammo]

cool. ya i have plenty of question. thanks bro. can we edit plugins in the same manner? as in, a child plugin? i'd like to modify some code relating to learnpress. thanks.

[@slicklick008]

Awesome video! I am a TOTAL NEWBIE and have been seriously lost. I am creating my very first Wordpress website right now and your video took a ton of the confusion away about child themes. Being a newb I am going to use the plugin and the only thing that bums me out about this video is that you didn't show an example of how to add the changes to make sure its connected to the child theme and not the parent theme. Maybe its just me, like I said I am kind of lost BUT I do have a great understanding of how it works in general now thanks to you! Liked and subscribed!

[@nightwish_haj8668]

Thanks your video are amazing, you explain it a million times better than my teachers at school :)

[@nightwish_haj8668]

Is it possible to only pick up the css styles for the menu / header and footer? And customize the rest? or is it easier just to create new divs, sections with ID/Classes in the page.php and so on, and design the site that way? Because I don't won't any other styles that the themes header and footer :D

[@dmw18045]

Excellent video! Took the mystery out of child themes for me. I've actually modified a theme (not a child theme) a while ago. Can I create a child them from this modified theme so that going forward any changes are handled in the child theme? Should the main theme be updated (e.g. security updates, etc.), I wouldn't want to lose updates I've made thus far. I assume I'll need to copy my php files (e.g. header.php, etc.) to my child theme to protect those changes from being overwritten in the main theme should the they be updated. Correct? Many Thanks!

[@sampalumbo8599]

I love this information, sir. Thank you for your explanations!

[@owethuweek6283]

Super stuff. Clearly explained, keep it up.

[@phillipmaser132]

Very informative.... Can you make a video showing different ways for store front ecommerce. Can adjust the CSS. Problems I am having. I would like to move woo commerce to HTML no wordpress. I need the cart, and checkout shortcodes. Product load I am not sure.

[@rickhoebee]

Hi Web Monkey, I love you movie it was really helpful. I do have one problem do. 1. When I edit the child theme css and upload it. It seems not to work. Not even after a hard refresh or clearing my cache. When I apply the same code in the additional CSS of the child theme it directly works. To me it looks like the parement theme is loaded last but I'm not sure. Any advise how I can resolve this? Regards

[@bhaweshthapa4672]

Great video! My doubt is: you told that for template files like the header.php, the parent and the child theme should not contain the same codes or they will clash. But you copied the entire code from the parent header.php file to the child theme's header.php file and just deleted the sidebar function. I am confused. Will they not clash and break your website?

[@nmodel]

Thanks! very structured, very useful!

[@osogrizz2841]

This. Saved. My. Arse.

[@markquittner3507]

Hi Alex, Thanks for the Child Theme explanation. Please be kind for these newby questions to help clarify a few things. We have a website on Wordpress set up by a web designer we no longer use. The main theme is not active, but the child theme is active and additional CSS contains code. The Themes were paid for by us, but the designer purchased the themes in their name, and we have only recently regained ownership. Both the child theme and main theme need to be updated, especially the main theme. The website is stable and operative at present. Our questions: 1. Should the Child Theme or the main theme be active in the Wordpress dashboard? We want the existing CSS code to be showing on our site. (We have the latest Wordpress version update 5.1.1) 2. Will our site break if we update the Child Theme version? 3. Is it safe to update the main theme from version 4 to version 6 (a big jump)? If yes to the update, could this break our Child theme? 4. Should we update the Child theme version first or the parent theme first? 5. Where do we look to find the changed CSS code that was placed into the existing child theme? (We do not wish to change the code at this stage, just have it work with the version updates). 6. Should we update all the plugins before we update the theme versions? Once we solve the above, we will have taken back control of our site. Thanks for answering the above questions. Mark

[@TheWebMonkey]

Hey Mark, 1 - The child theme should be active as its the one that has your customizations 2 - You do not need to update the child theme only the parent theme 3 - Please update the main theme and no it shouldn't break the child theme 4 - Please see above 5 - I am not sure about this as there are several places for the code to be in. My best bet is that you check the CSS files contained in the folder of your child theme 6 - Doesn't matter which you update first. Just make sure they are all updated.

[@dylanhaleyyou]

nice video! The only thing i dont understand is how do you then actually edit the css? Do i edit the style.css file in the parent theme? If the answer is "yes".. then won't that get erased when a Wordpress update is made? None of these videos explain this. Please help, thank yoU!

[@TheWebMonkey]

Hi Dylan, so in order to edit the parent CSS file you will need to add the new CSS code to the style.css file of the child theme. The CSS code in the child theme will overwrite the one of the parent theme.

[@TheNailsmart]

I'm still a tad bit confused....My theme came with a child theme and plugin, which I didn't use prior to making changes. I made changes directly to the plugin itself. How do I retain those changes without losing them during an update? Do I make the plugin changes in the child theme? Thanks!

[@yomammo]

did you ever get an answer? I am looking at child themes now and have an lms plugin i'd like to modify.

[@SonnyBurnett2012]

hello, but...explain me a thing...if you create a child-theme to avoid getting updates, so wouldnt get your site vulnerable if you dont update your theme anymore? This is what im thinking..thinking...and i dont find a reasonable purpose...Another question....do you need to keep your parent-theme on your wordpress?...And, lets supose, you have a one year old theme, and then you create a child-theme. So, the site wouldnt get changes since its a chi ld-theme, but security abound heh? So child themes shoudl be thought for styles sake, right:? Thx

[@TheWebMonkey]

Hi Sonny, I think you did not understand the concept of child themes. A child theme is created specifically so you can update your main theme without losing any of the custom changes you made to the theme. Please watch the video carefully :-)

[@anudeepsyamprasad6586]

Thanks Alex for this video

[@junaidmughal3806]

i have taken ur udemy course, nice guy

[@TheWebMonkey]

Thank you Junaid :-)

[@dmw18045]

I've taken courses on Udemy. Based on the content & quality of this video, what Udemy courses do you have. I'd like to check them out.This video was was clear, concise and well structured so I assume your courses will be the same. Much Thanks!

[@TheWebMonkey]

Hi @dmw18045 feel free to check out my instructor profile page below. You will see all the courses that I currently teach. www.udemy.com/user/alexanderoni/

[@biljanapolovina3749]

Thanks

[@MuhammadAdnan-gx6rd]

I also like to create things on WordPress without shity plugins. .....

[@franciscanayon3215]

Not working on mine, such a waste of time.

[@MuhammadAdnan-gx6rd]

Javascript ? File custom

[@MuhammadAdnan-gx6rd]

U forgot js file the main file Bro wtf ?

[@yomammo]

nah. don't use a plugin. who is running Ubuntu 22?

[@ssinitynetwork9804]

u are funny man =)