Step by Step Guide on Installing WordPress Child Theme on Your Website
WordPress child themes are the best options for customizing your website. They enable you to take advantage of the many powerful features that come with parent framework or themes. In this post, we will be taking a look at the steps you need to take when planning to install child themes on your WordPress website.
What are child themes?
The WordPress child themes depend on the parent framework or parent theme. They borrow the features as well as appearance from the parent theme. The best thing is that you can make alterations to these themes without affect the parent theme. There are both free and premium themes available. Although they have innumerable customization options, they also allow for you to add code manually. The problem with adding the code manually is that the code you add will be overwritten when you update the child theme.
How to install the child theme
The process of installing the WordPress child theme is the same as that of installing normal WordPress themes. You do this on the admin area. Go to Appearance >> Themes then click on ‘Add New Button’. There are two methods that you can use to install the themes from here.
- Search the WordPress.org themes
This works if the theme you are looking for is available in the theme directory. You just search for it using its name. Once you find it, click on install. WordPress will download and install the theme for you. The child theme will also automatically search for the parent theme and install for you.
- Upload the theme
This is an option for those who have the theme in a zip file on their computer. Here, you need to click on ‘Upload Theme’. Select the theme zip on your computer and then click ‘Install Now’. WordPress will then upload and install the file. It will also check to see if the parent theme is also available. If it is not available, you will be alerted.
Installing parent theme
WordPress will install the parent them automatically if it is in the theme directory. However, if it fails, you will be alerted. You can only activate the child theme after the parent theme has been installed. To install the patent theme, you need to download the theme in a zip file. You then need to install it by uploading it and clicking on ‘Install Now’. It is only after installing the WordPress child theme and the parent theme that you will be able to activate them.
An important point you need to understand is that you don’t necessarily have to activate the parent theme in order for you to use the child theme. However, the parent theme has to be installed for you to be able to activate the child theme.