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WordPress Themes for Food & Lifestyle Bloggers

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    Home » How To Customize Your WordPress Themes » FAQ for All Themes

    How to Edit Child Theme Files

    • Note: Do not EVER edit the Genesis theme files!
    • Note: Do not EVER edit the child theme files!
    • If you have to make a coding change, use the Code Snippets Plugin
    • If you have to make a styling change, do it in the "Additional CSS" screen in the customizer

    Best Way: Code Snippets Plugin

    The code snippets plugin for WordPress adds an easy way to add code to customize your website, without touching your theme files.

    Anywhere you see "functions.php" in a tutorial, head over instead to the Code Snippets Plugin and put the changes in there.

    Then go to your Admin -> Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin and upload and install the plugin. You'll find it listed in the plugins section like this:

    Putting the customizations into a plugin provides a simple way to check if your customization is causing the problem: simply disable the plugin and clear all your caches to see if the problem resolves itself.

    Safety First: Backups

    You should be using a hosting provider that backs up your website daily, so that any changes (including plugin updates) can be rolled-back to yesterday's version.

    You can also do this manually each time you're making a change, but this becomes tedious, and you risk not having a recent backup if something goes wrong.

    If making changes, we recommend doing this first thing in the morning to avoid losing the days' work if a restore is needed.

    Use a Staging Site

    Your hosting provider should provide a way to clone your website so that you can make major changes to the non-live cloned site before pushing them to your live site.

    If your hosting provider doesn't provide a staging site, you need to change hosts immediately. We recommend BigScoots for hosting.

    Editing your Food Blog Child Theme Files

    Editing your child theme files is a bad idea. It makes updating extremely tedious and time consuming. Instead, use the Code Snippets Plugin for editing your child theme.

    You can access the theme files in the WordPress editor (Appearance -> Editor) or your hosting cpanel's file manager to make the changes.

    We recommend using the Code Snippets Plugin method above instead!

    If you are planning to make edits to your theme files (especially php) we strongly suggest you learn how to do so using FTP or via your hosting cpanel. This will ensure that if you commit a coding error you'll be able to easily and quickly restore your website from the backup you should have of any files you plan to edit.

    If you make a critical error (easy to do in your functions.php file) then you will get what's known as the white scree of death and you'll be locked out of your site so it's very important to keep a backup of files you plan to edit.

    If updating by FTP:

    1. Download the most recent file from your server via FTP
    2. Edit the file using a program like Notepad ++ on your computer
    3. Upload the file back up to your server

    Adobe Dreamweaver is an all-in-one FTP program and file editor, but comes at a steep price of about $30/month.

    Filezilla is a common free FTP program, and Notepad++ is a good basic text editor.

    Google is your friend if you need a more comprehensive guide than this, or FTP software recommendations.

    Customizations

    Any customizations you make to your child theme files will be lost during a theme update. Note that theme updates are full re-installations.

    Again: Back up your files

    No matter which method you choose, always make sure you have a backup of your files to fall back on, and that you know how to restore your site via FTP or your hosting cpanel in the event of a coding error.

    Ideally, your hosting company will have automatic daily backups, making reverting back to a working copy of yesterday a breeze.

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    How To Customize Your WordPress Themes

    • How to Create Multiple Recipe Index Pages
    • How to Set a Favicon
    • Plugins to Install
    • How to Change the Header Size
    • How to Change the Background Color of the Genesis eNews Widgets
    • Font Size for Food Blogs
    • Why is troubleshooting so complex?
    • How to Launch Your Food Blog
    • Add a Before Entry Widget Area
    • Recipe Index: Content Configuration (Cravings Pro + Seasoned Pro)
    • How Do I Set Up My Navigation Menu?
    • Can I Use Multiple Recipe Index Pages?
    • How Do I Update the Theme Version? (without the Feast Plugin)
    • Remove Search Box from Navigation Menu
    • How to Add the Visual Category Page Index
    • Customization Library
    • Setup a secondary navigation menu
    • How to clear your cache
    • Troubleshoot Plugin Conflicts
    • How to Add the Featured Posts Category Index
    • Food Blog Home Page Pagination
    • Cravings Pro Theme: Setup Your Navigation Menu
    • Why we're not supporting Gutenberg Oversized Images
    • Install Theme, and Import Demo Content and Widgets
    • How to change change your footer
    • Seasoned Pro Classic Tutorials
    • Manually Disable Google Fonts
    • Image Alt Tags
    • Why we don't support the read more tag
    • Pinterest for Food Bloggers
    • How to Create Multiple Recipe Index Pages
    • WordPress Settings
    • Foodie Pro Classic Tutorials
    • Brunch Pro Classic Tutorials
    • Cook'd Pro Classic Tutorials
    • Cravings Pro Classic Tutorials
    • All About Featured Images
    • FAQ for All Themes
      • LinkedIn Featured Image
      • Setup Genesis eNews Widget/Newsletter
      • Multiple Recipe Index Pages for Food Themes
      • How to Edit Child Theme Files
      • How to Add Pagination to the Home Page
      • How to Control Which Categories Show Up in the Categories Widget
      • Genesis User Profile Widget
      • How to Enable Comments on Your Site
      • Change the Number of Posts That Show on the Category / Search / Archive Pages
      • How to Ensure Your Posts Show on the Home Page
      • Why Do I See Duplicate Images?
      • Why Isn't the Category Description Appearing?
    • Add Google Analytics Tracking Code
    • Customization Referrals
    • Genesis Child Themes
    • Enable SSL for HTTPS on your Food Blog
    • How to Start a Food Blog
    • Set Up Your WooCommerce Shop
    • The parent theme could not be found. You will need to install the parent theme, genesis, before you can use this child theme
    • Food Blog Theme Features Comparison
    • Translation + Multi Language Support
    • Use Inspect Element to troubleshoot styles

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    Copyright © 2023 · Feast Design Co.

    Results not typical or guaranteed. Our themes and plugins are just a small part of the overall effort involved in running a food blog. Nothing on this website shall constitute legal or financial advice, always consult a local lawyer and accountant. Accessing this website and all transactions herein are under the laws and jurisdiction of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.