Child Theme Help

Hello!

Here is a video I have made a while ago related to this, so please check this out, but if You have any specific questions, feel free to ask them here and I am happy to guide You through the process, even it is step-by-step ??

Also, if You could share a link to Your website so I could follow Your progress, that would be awesome.

Cheers,
Balint

EDITED – sorry, cross-posted – but info written out here –

You will need to create two new files using a plain text editor (not Word) on your local computer – one called style.css – and put this code in that file:

/*
 Theme Name:   Twenty Twelve Child
 Theme URI:
 Description:  Twenty Twelve Child Theme
 Author:
 Author URI:
 Template:     twentytwelve
 Version:      1.0.0
 License:      GNU General Public License v2 or later
 License URI:  https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
 Tags:
 Text Domain:  twenty-twelve-child
*/

You can fill in the blanks if you wish.

The second one will be called functions.php and put this code in it – make sure there are NO empty spaces at the top of the file –

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

}

Then create a folder on your computer – named twentytwelvechild and put those two new files inside the folder.

Then you will need to use FTP (ask your hosts) to upload that new folder to your themes folder on the server here:

wp-content
    themes
        twentytwelvechild
        OTHER THEMES WILL BE IN HERE AS WELL

Then go to your Dashboard and find the new theme and activate it.

Website is My Mama Adventure

Thank you so much for the video and other suggestions! I’ll take a look and let you know if I have any more questions.

Okay, so I’ve followed all the steps, have gotten in touch with my host about the FTP. If I were to change to a different theme, would I just need to follow the same steps again? Are all WP themes able to be put into a child-theme? Example, I originally had the Pinboard theme and I loved it! But the codex had mentioned used the Twenty- themes for creating a child theme, so I switched. Can I do this same process with the Pinboard theme?

Thank you! You have both been VERY helpful! I knew this would be easier than I was making it out to be.

You are welcome ??

Almost all themes allow creating child themes, the exceptions are the themes created with the Genesis Framework, but that is not so common. So, generally, about 98 percent of the themes do allow child-theming.

Cheers,
Balint

Okay, my host is being useless in helping me. I use Bluehost. I asked in the live chat about uploading the folder, I even copy and pasted what WPyogi posted above as the final step, and all they did was send me to links that I’ve already read about creating a child-theme and then tried to get me to purchase a program to get my site up and running. As you can see, my site is up and running, just need the child-theme part figured out. I’m confused about the FTP part. I went into the FTP section of my account and it has a section to Add FTP Account, is that what I want? I know once I do it, I’ll be fine to do it again and again if I need to.

See:

https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/264

Alternatively, you can use Cpanel on your BH account.

Okay, so by using the Cpanel I’ve been able to upload the child-theme into WP. At least I think I have. I created a file called twentytwelvechild into the Cpanel and then added the 2 text files. I zipped the file on the computer and uploaded to WP. It showed up in my themes (YAY!) but then while looking at the live preview I’ve realized that it no longer has some of the preset features that the Twenty Twelve theme had. As in, the text is basic text, my menu (even after choosing my menu option) is just text going up and down and not the pretty drop down menu. I figured I’d have to re-add all my widgets and such and redo the formatting, but I have no idea how to fix the menu issue. Did I do something wrong? I have never felt so computer illiterate before! ??

Did you activate the child theme? Please do so.

It’s activated now.

Follow up, my widgets are all showing up on the bottom, how do I move those to a sidebar? Can you tell I’m used to Blogger? I know I’ll LOVE WP once I get used to, I already love all the plugin features of WP, it’s just getting used to how WP works.

Is this the structure you see in Cpanel?

wp-content
    themes
        twentytwelvechild
            style.css
            functions.php
        twentytwelve

No, all I see is the

style.css
functions.php

So, I definitely messed something up!

Yes, go back and read my first post – those files must be in a FOLDER.

It is in a folder. I saved the text files in a folder called twentytwelvechild. Through the Cpanel I could only upload specific files. I just uploaded the zipped twentytwelvechild folder into the Cpanel but it still doesn’t list everything. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be so dense about this. Maybe I’m trying to do it wrong within the Cpanel?