It’s best practice to give a child theme the same name as the parent, but with -child appended to the end. This needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis.įirst, create a new folder in your themes directory, located at wp-content/themes. Creating a parent theme allows you to avoid issues with deprecated code in the future. Note: If you are making extensive customizations – beyond styles and a few theme files – creating a parent theme might be a better option than a child theme. are a great way to start learning about theme development.save on development time since you are not recreating the wheel and.allow you to take advantage of the effort and testing put into parent theme.allow parent themes to be updated without destroying your modifications.keep customization separate from parent theme functions.make your modifications portable and replicable.Using a child theme lets you upgrade the parent theme without affecting the customizations you’ve made to your site. In this way, customizations are kept separate from the parent theme’s files. All themes – excluding child themes – are considered parent themes.Īs indicated in the overview, a child theme inherits the look and feel of the parent theme and all of its functions, but can be used to make modifications to any part of the theme.
What is a Parent Theme?Ī parent theme is a complete theme which includes all of the required WordPress template files and assets for the theme to work. To understand how child themes work it is first important to understand the relationship between parent and child themes. A child theme allows you to change small aspects of your site’s appearance yet still preserve your theme’s look and functionality.