Can't get child theme to use parent theme style

Okay, Chip: all that’s in my child theme CSS style file, is this:

@import url (‘..shaan/style.css’);

/*
Theme Name: Child of Shaan
Theme URI: https://www.?.com
Description: My first child theme
Author: johnkimon
Template: shaan
*/

I’ve tried it with the first line after the comment code but it makes no difference. I’ve tried it with the shaan, twentyten and twentyeleven themes and on Firefox and in Safari. Still nothing. I will try in the morning ClaytonJames’ suggestion. Really grateful for everyone’s help. I’m determined to prevail.

John, it’s the import line. When I copied yours verbatim I got the same thing you’ve gotten.

You have this (assuming the formatting wasn’t munged in the paste)

@import url ('..shaan/style.css');

Which has a space after the url and is missing the / after the ..

After I corrected it the child theme works for me.

/*
Theme Name: Child of Shaan
Description: My first child theme
Author: johnkimon
Template: shaan
*/

@import url('../shaan/style.css');

You can download this from pastebin.com using the download link on top. Save the style.css.txt less the .txt extension.

Edit: Also with all the child theme’s I’ve seen, the @import and CSS customization comes after the comment header. Not sure if that matters but you may want to try it that way too.

Edit Edit: Doh! That’s what Clayton already said.

Thanks Jan and Clayton: you were right. It was the import line. I changed it by removing the space between the url and the bracket and added / after .. and, hey presto! Brilliant. Thanks again for all your help. I’m a novice on wordpress and was going to chuck it all in, but you saved the day. Much appreciated.

Must have just been a weird copy-paste issue. Glad you got it going!

Yes, I’m trying to build my custom theme now. Thanks again.

my child theme erased the content from the parent theme!! PLEASE HELP!

This should be in a new topic.

Please post a link to your site so we can see the child theme style sheet (amongst other things).

Does everything work OK when you return to your previous theme?

Apart from the style.css file, what other files do you have in your child theme’s directory?

Cheers

PAE

@myshkin1, Please post your own topic with your own details.

Hi,

My child theme (Blaskan)does not look like my parent theme. I think it may be because I made changes to the parent theme before making the child theme. I’ve tried to correct it by deleting my parent theme and reinstalling it so that I can make a child theme from the new, unaltered Blaskan parent theme. But it reinstalled the theme with my changes intact (even despite the message stating that I may lose any customization since Blaskan has been updated). How can I get my child theme to look like my parent theme; or at least how can I re-install it without it keeping my changes? Thanks anyone.

My strategy would be:

1. Change to a default theme like twentytwelve
2. Remove the Blaskan theme from the wp-contents/themes directory
3. Make a local copy of your child theme
4. Remove your child theme from the wp-content/themes directory
5. Go to Dashboard -> Themes -> Install and search for the blaskan theme
6. Install the theme from the search results
7. Activate the blaskan theme just to prove all is well
8. Upload your copy of your child theme
9. Activate your child theme

That should do it.

HTH

PAE

Sorry – posted twice in error

PAE

Thanks so much. The only thing is, is that when I installed the Blaskan theme again, it kept my changes. I want to get an unaltered version of Blaskan ’cause I’m assuming that I should then have little difficulty making my child theme look like the parent theme.

That’s why I’m saying to download a fresh copy via the “Install New” theme page.

Cheers

PAE

Hi all, I’ve had this same issue as well and I just can’t get my twentytwelve child theme to look like it’s default twentytwelve parent.

Here’s what I’ve got uploaded to my cyberduck child theme folder –

/*
Theme Name: Twenty Twelve Child
Description: Child theme for the Twenty Twevle
Author: Ian
Template: twentytwelve
Version: 0.1.0
*/

@import url(“../twentytwelve/style.css”);

It has the menu but nothing else (see below)-

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Any advice would help, I’ve done everything in the comments above already.

Thanks

Isn’t the default theme called ‘twentyeleven’?

Cheers

PAE