What Is a WordPress Child Theme?

A child theme is a separate theme that inherits the functionality and styling of a parent theme. It lets you modify or add to the parent theme’s features without altering the original files. This way, when the parent theme gets updated, your customizations remain intact.

• Safe updates: Preserve customizations when the parent theme updates.
• Easy maintenance: Separate your changes from the core theme files.
• Extend functionality: Add custom CSS, PHP, templates, or scripts.

When Should You Use a Child Theme?

If you plan to:

• Customize your theme’s design or layout.
• Add new features or modify existing ones.
• Ensure your changes don’t get overwritten by theme updates.

How to Create a WordPress Child Theme Using cPanel

Follow these simple steps to create your child theme manually:

Step 1: Log in to Your cPanel Account

Visit https://yourdomain.com/cpanel and enter your login credentials.

Step 2: Open File Manager

In cPanel dashboard, click on File Manager under the Files section.

Step 3: Navigate to the Themes Directory

Go to your WordPress installation directory, then open public_html/wp-content/themes/.

Step 4: Create a New Folder for the Child Theme

Click + Folder and name it something like parenttheme-child (replace parenttheme with the actual parent theme name).

Step 5: Create the style.css File

1. Inside your new child theme folder, click + File and name it style.css.
2. Edit the style.css file and add the following header (replace with your parent theme details):

/*
 Theme Name:   ParentTheme Child
 Theme URI:    http://example.com/parenttheme-child
 Description:  Child theme for the ParentTheme
 Author:       Your Name
 Author URI:   http://example.com
 Template:     parenttheme
 Version:      1.0.0
*/

/* Import parent theme styles */
@import url("../parenttheme/style.css");

Step 6: Create the functions.php File

1. Create another file named functions.php in the child theme folder.
2. Edit it and add this code to enqueue the parent theme stylesheet properly:

<?php
function child_theme_enqueue_styles() {
    wp_enqueue_style('parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css');
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'child_theme_enqueue_styles');
?>

Step 7: Activate Your Child Theme

Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard at https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin:

• Go to Appearance > Themes.
• You should see your new child theme listed.
• Click Activate to enable the child theme.

Step 8: Customize Your Child Theme

Now you can safely add custom CSS, templates, or PHP functions in your child theme folder without affecting the parent theme.

Benefits of Using a Child Theme

• Keep your customizations safe during updates.
• Easy to revert changes by switching themes.
• Organized and clean approach to theme customization.