Our themes come with a ready-made child theme that you can use from the start. A child theme lets you change the theme without losing your changes when you update it. Here’s where to find the child theme, how to install it, and what to do after you activate it.
Where to find the child theme
If you bought the theme on ProteusThemes.com
- Go to My Account.
- You will find an installable child theme zip file next to the theme you bought.
If you bought the theme on ThemeForest
- Go to themeforest.net/downloads, click the Download button and select All files & documentation.
- Extract the downloaded zip file. In the extras folder you will find the <theme_name>-child folder with two files: functions.php and style.css. Compress this folder into a zip file before you install it.
Install the child theme
Go to Appearance › Themes › Add Theme › Upload Theme, choose the child theme zip file, click Install Now, and then activate the child theme.
What to do after you activate the child theme
WordPress treats a child theme as a separate theme. When you activate it, your widgets can move around and your Customizer settings from the parent theme don’t carry over. Two quick steps fix this.
Widgets
Widgets can end up in other widget areas, for example page sidebar widgets in the header. Go to Appearance › Widgets and move them back to the right widget areas.
Customizer settings
If you changed Customizer settings in the parent theme before you activated the child theme, copy them over with the free Customizer Export/Import plugin:
- Install and activate the Customizer Export/Import plugin.
- Activate the parent theme.
- Go to Appearance › Customize › Export/Import and click Export. This downloads a .dat file to your computer.
- Activate the child theme.
- Go to Appearance › Customize › Export/Import, choose the file you just exported in the Import section, and click Import.
Your parent theme’s settings are not lost. If you switch back to the parent theme, they are still there.
That’s it, you are now using a child theme!
Why use a child theme?
Safe updates: you can update the parent theme without losing the changes you made in the child theme. So you can always keep the parent theme up to date.
Easy customization: the child theme holds your improvements, additions and changes to the parent theme. Custom CSS goes in the child theme’s style.css file and PHP code in its functions.php file. This keeps your code clearly separated from the parent theme, so you always know what you changed.
On our blog, you will find the most complete and detailed article on child themes.
