About Child Themes

use ftp, or a file manager. From either, you should be able to create a directory on your server. Your host may have a file manager you can sign on to. If not google for how to use ftp. I use filezilla, it’s free and works fine.

-OR-

Make a new folder on your desktop. That is a directory.

I usually make the folder, make the style.css file inside it, zip that, and install it as a theme.

Thanks – Do I do that on my dashboard? I no longer use an ftp client. My site is created live on GoDaddy as I go along. I have Filezilla installed but don’t know how to use it in this way.

Oh, godaddy has a file manager. It’s what I use.

You can creat files and directories from within their manager

You would logon to godaddy, get to your hosting, head to the file manager and navigate to

wp-content->themes

in the themes folder create your child theme directory

OK – I have created the child theme in GoDaddy file manager. How do I put my website into that theme? By the way – thanks very much for the help; you’re a lifesaver!

Put your website in the theme??

Sorry… I’m confused by your wording….

Once you have the theme, if it’s created properly, and in the right location, from your WP admin dashboard you should be able to go to appearance -> themes and find and activate your theme

I created the theme by calling GoDaddy and talking to a tech. He walked me through creating the chld theme itself and then told me that he couldn’t go any further than that. I still have GoDaddy’s ftp client active because I don’t know how to save it to where I can use it and I’m afraid I’ll lose it if I leave there. So… how do I save it in the right place? Thanks again!

once you created the directory on server it will be saved as you are working directly on server.

@govpatel is exactly correct

Whether you create files yourself, and upload through ftp

create files and upload through godaddy’s file manager

or create the folders and files directly on the file manager

The files are saved, they physically exist on your server

So… As I understand it, when I go to Dashboard-> Appearance-> Themes, my child theme should be there… It isn’t; so what did I do wrong? Please have patience–I just haven’t ever done this before.

Esmi has a Twenty Eleven child theme for download.

I have a twenty eleven child theme for the dark theme option.

These are both starter child themes that you can upload from WordPress admin!

But to practice it might be better to work on a local install, test and then deploy to the server by zipping or with FTP transfer.

Activating a child theme and making a code mistake can cause login problems on a live test or production server, working local is easy to change and test things first.

HTH

David

@tarotmeister

The minimum you should have to do for a child theme to show up is:

1: navigate to the themes folder in the wp-content folder on your godaddy file manager

2: inside that folder, twentyeleven and twentyten I believe should already be there. You would make a new folder/directory in the themes folder, alongside the other themes named whatever you want

3: inside your new folder you would make a new file named style.css with the very basic header elements, and possibly the @import rule if needed

If you have done those steps, you should have a theme to activate from within the WP dashboard

as @digital Raindrops said you could upload one of their basic child themes to get started. And also, activating a broken theme could cause problems, as could messing with a live theme. However now that you are familiar with godaddy’s file manager, fixing the problem is as simple as deleting the broken theme.

I went to check out both of these child themes. This stuff is so far over my head I can’t reach it even on tiptoes. All I want to do is delete the top menu on my site (and disable the comments after that). I’d even settle for single line spacing if I can’t do that. Isn’t there an easier way to do that?

Ok, you say top menu, 2011 only has one a main menu so we might not be talking about the same theme like this one ‘check here’.

Posts a link to your website with the theme activated so we can help you sort out the menu.

Regards

David

Thanks David. Here’s the link: https://tarotmeister.com/

First thing is do you want a menu that you can manage with no code?

If you do then:

1. Go to Admin > Appearance > Menus
2. Add a new menu and add only the items you want to the menu
3. Drag the ones you want indented to the right
4. Save the new menu
5. You will see a new box Theme Locations
6. Set the theme location to your new menu and save
7. View your theme

Child Theme
If you then really want the menu gone let us know, as it is the Twenty Eleven theme you will use a child theme, I have to pop out for an hour, I will detail how to do this when I get back.

Download one of the child themes, install it, activate it and set the background and other settings if required.

HTH

David