Support » Themes and Templates » Saving theme settings as a main theme?

  • Resolved VTDan

    (@vtdan)


    Hey there. First off, a warning.. I’m completely new to this. Newbie questions incoming!

    What I would like to know is whether it’s possible to take a modified theme (that I am not the author of) and save those design settings as a ‘starting point’ for that theme or a new theme? Just because I like the look, and I changed quite a few settings.

    For instance: I install a theme, play with the design of the theme and change quite a lot. I like the new look of the theme a lot. I would like the theme to look this way the moment it is activated, or even create a new theme that looks this way as a base design. Just for personal use and ease, and possibly so I can use it as a base to create a child theme from in the future.

    It’s just about the look and design. Is there any way to save the theme with these settings as automatic in this manner to my PC?

    I would appreciate pity and help!

    Edit: Changed my question completely after reading some FAQs. I think this covers more what I want to know.

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  • Provided the theme is open source and you wouldn’t be infringing on any copyright by doing so, yes indeed. (Any themes in the WordPress.org repository are open source, so if the original theme was downloaded here it should be good to go.)

    First, FTP to your server and download the original theme with your modifications from the /wp-content/themes/ directory.

    Rename the theme folder on your computer so it’s different from the original, then edit the header info in style.css to give your theme a new Theme Name. You should probably change the Author info, URIs, etc. as well, but the Theme Name is what will set your theme apart from the original.

    Use FTP to upload the renamed theme folder with the updated style.css to /wp-content/themes/. It is now a separate theme from the original, with your modifications by default, and you can activate it on your site(s).

    Just to clarify:

    It’s good to keep in mind that future updates to the original theme will not be automatically applied to your separate, modified version of the theme with my method. You’d have to go back through and apply any updates manually.

    For this reason, it may be better to create your modified version as a child theme containing ONLY your changed files, rather than an altered copy of the parent theme.

    But it sounds like you’re asking how to create a modified parent theme from an existing parent theme, so that’s what my instructions would do. 🙂

    Thread Starter VTDan

    (@vtdan)

    You are an absolute star. With your insight I have managed to get my current theme with the design changes, and create it into a proper child theme that I can fully customise without worries of it resetting itself (which was happening before with a supplied ‘child theme’). I can work on it now. Thank you!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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