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WordPress How to Make a Website with WordPress Customizing WordPress Themes How to Make Child Themes

Khadija Head
Khadija Head
2,745 Points

Child Theme and FTP

I am trying to create a child theme for a premium wordpress theme I purchased. I have watched the How To Make Child Theme video but get confused when the FTP software screen comes up. I use Cyberduck and host on a shared Bluehost server. Help!!! Any help will be greatly appreciated

It's actually easier than you might think.

Install the parent theme and then create an adjacent directory for your child theme.

so in wp-content/themes/parentTheme is your parent theme in wp-content/themes/childTheme you'll start with a style.css file.

Put this in it but obviously alter it to suite your needs

/*
 Theme Name:   Twenty Fifteen Child
 Theme URI:    http://example.com/twenty-fifteen-child/
 Description:  Twenty Fifteen Child Theme
 Author:       John Doe
 Author URI:   http://example.com
 Template:     twentyfifteen
 Version:      1.0.0
 License:      GNU General Public License v2 or later
 License URI:  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
 Tags:         light, dark, two-columns, right-sidebar, responsive-layout, accessibility-ready
 Text Domain:  twenty-fifteen-child
*/

What is super important is the line that says Template. That has to be dead on the money.

Really the only lines you need ( I think ) are theses:

/*
 Theme Name:   Twenty Fifteen Child
 Template:     twentyfifteen
*/

Here's an article on it. I would bookmark the wordpress codex. It's lifeblood to you when working on wordpress.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

I just realized I didn't answer your question...

So you'll need to enter all the pertainant information into Cyberduck obviously in order to connect.

If you poke around on Bluehost you may be able to find what you need but I gotta be honest, I don't think Bluehost's console is really easy to use.

You'll need an ftp user with root access ( probably a primary ) You'll need the ftp address ( you should get this when you add a user ) Finally, you'll need the ftp password which you should be able to set up. I believe the default port is 80 and that should work if I remember correctly.

Let me know if you need any more help. ftp clients can be a pain.

Hi i am also using Cyberduck and Bluehost and encountered difficulties applying the steps in the video (01:39). I've created the style.css file on a child theme folder on bluehost but afterward, when i try to activate it on Wordpress, the layout and functionality dont work. Also i have no idea how to drag that style.css file from bluehost to the Cyberduck FTP. Help pls!

1 Answer

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

I'll add, if you are having trouble finding where to create an FTP user, you should be able to ask bluehost to help set that up. Once you do have cyberduck logged in, it's drag and drop easy.