A child theme is something that everyone who uses WordPress should, in my opinion, at least be aware of and know that it exists from the start before creating a website or blog with this platform.
More than anything, because a child theme can have some very interesting advantages. If you know what it is, you will be able to decide whether or not to use it in your project.
However, for many people it is a great unknown (not to say denmark telegram data it sounds like Mandarin Chinese to them).
In fact, you may be wondering right now…
«Child Themes? What the hell is this child themes thing? Jose, please speak to me in Christian.»
Ok. Let’s talk in plain English then…
Table of Contents [ Hide ]
What is a child theme?
Why install a child theme on your WordPress?
1# Protection against parent theme updates
2# Develop a custom theme much faster
Disadvantages of using child themes
1# It negatively affects the performance of your website
2# To create a good child theme and maintain it, you will need a professional
How to install a child theme in WordPress step by step
1# Create your child theme folder
2# Create the child theme stylesheet
3# Editing parent theme .php files (optional)
What do you think about all this child themes stuff?
What is a child theme?
As I told you before, a child theme is also known as a child theme. In fact, that is its literal translation into Spanish.
What does it mean to be a child theme?
Well, just like a child descends from its parent and has physical features or DNA in common with it, a child theme in WordPress comes from another parent theme and inherits its structure.
Buuuut it has the caveat (and this is the beauty of using a child theme) that you can configure and customize this child theme in a different way without altering the parent's code.
Because children may resemble their parents… but they are not usually the same. Right?
In other words: you can modify only the parts of the structure that interest you in a new theme without having to touch the code of the original template .
In case it is still not clear to you, I am going to explain it to you in a more didactic way…
Imagine you are in high school (those were the days...)
In one of your textbooks, you need to make a series of notes on things explained in class by your teacher. In other words, you want to make some changes to this book.
You make these notes in the original book with your normal-writing Bic Cristal pen (you're welcome for the free advertising).
So far, so good. But…
Example of a book with a WordPress child theme
The next day your teacher tells you that he made a mistake in his explanation and that what he explained to you one way yesterday is actually another way.
Horror! If you have written the note in your original book and now you can't change it.
But… now imagine that you have been cautious and have made the notes on a photocopy.
Any problems?
Not at all! All you need to do is make another photocopy of the original and copy the new notes onto the new photocopy.
Do you see where I'm going with this and why it can be useful to implement a child theme in your WordPress in which to make modifications or customizations to your web design?
Why install a child theme on your WordPress?
There are several reasons why it is interesting to create a child theme in your WordPress. I will tell you one by one what they can be…