New Child Theme created – where do I edit code now?

  • cjacob

    (@cjacob)


    11 years, 1 month ago

    Now, that I’ve got my Child Theme created, I needed to change some of the font colors. Now that I’m using my Child theme, what’s the appropriate way I’m supposed to make changes now?

    I’m PRETTY sure I just made some changes, the wrong way.

    I just changed my Posting Title colors, by going back into my Parent theme and changing it THERE, since I knew where to go in my parent code, to do that. Then I went back to my child theme and the changes were there.

    What is the CORRECT way I’m supposed to be making changes? I’ve read that I’m supposed to make my changes, NOW, to the child theme. But since there is basically no code in there, I’d have to be a coding EXPERT to know what to put in there.

    I’m better at editing what’s already in there, so should I just copy the “style.css” file from my parent theme….into the “style.css” file in my child theme? That way I can just “edit” code, instead of creating it?

    Thanks!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    I just copy the “style.css” file from my parent theme….into the “style.css” file in my child theme? That way I can just “edit” code, instead of creating it?

    Yep, that’s exactly right :). But you only copy the pieces you are changing – do NOT copy the entire stylesheet. Are you using Firebug – that’s the “secret” to CSS work.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    11 years, 1 month ago

    I wouldn’t say you need to be an expert, just have some basic knowledge of CSS.
    You ought to be creating new styles in your Child Theme stylesheet. If you have the option, you can copy the original style and paste it into your Child Theme style.css file. Then modify the style in your style.css file. That may be easier than rewriting a new rule.

    Thread Starter cjacob

    (@cjacob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    No, I don’t’ use Firebug…what is that?

    So, here’s all that is in my child theme CSS:

    /*
    Theme Name: scrappy Child
    Description: Child theme for the scrappy theme
    Author: Your name here
    Author URI: http://example.com/about/
    Template: scrappy
    Version: 0.1.0
    */
    @import url(‘../scrappy/style.css’);

    SO, now do I just copy and paste all the text from the parent CSS, right underneath this last line?
    @import url(‘../scrappy/style.css’);

    Thanks!

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Yes, underneath.

    Thread Starter cjacob

    (@cjacob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks!

    WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Just to be clear on this – you only copy the bits of CSS you want to change – don’t copy the entire parent style.css.

    Thread Starter cjacob

    (@cjacob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Really? Why is that?

    I don’t know enough about the code to know what to pull out….and what to keep in there.

    For example, originally I DID copy a small piece of code from the parent theme that I THOUGHT was the font color. I copied those 4 lines of code into my child theme. But nothing changed because I had pulled the wrong stuff.

    How do I do this if I don’t know enough code, to know what to specifically pull out?

    WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Copying the entire thing makes it much harder to keep track of what you have changed and it created duplicate code.

    The way to find the relevant code for an element or area on a page is by using a browser tool such as Firebug. Download and install it and read the “how-to” on the Firebug site. Believe me, that’s by far the best (actually only decent) way to work with CSS.

    Thread Starter cjacob

    (@cjacob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    ok. I’ll do that!

    Thanks again for the help! 🙂

    Thread Starter cjacob

    (@cjacob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    OMG, I downloaded that Firebug and it looks major complicated! I’m going to have to tackle that tomorrow!

    I have one more question as to where to find font colors, so I’m going to start a new post and try to tackle THAT tonight 🙂

    Thanks!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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