Divi child theme download for free with no sign up required, available HERE.

Why use Divi Child Theme

A child theme is the safest way to update styles and templates on your website. It means that you can modify the templates and styles of the main Divi theme without changing its core files. The core files are overwritten every time you update the Divi theme, so any changes you make directly to the theme will be lost. That is why child themes exist, you are extending the files of the original theme in isolation.

You can of course use the themes admin options for editing css styles and adding snippets of Javascript but this will only get you so far in terms of customising a website. Once you outgrow these options then it is time to use a child theme.

How to install the Divi Child Theme

If you want to use a child theme you need to upload this zip file to the theme folder in the WordPress dashboard or unzip it and drop it in the themes folder using FTP, SFTP or SSH. Then it will appear in the themes dashboard and you can select your new child theme. If it works, you should see no difference. But you can check your child theme is running by right-clicking on the webpage and selecting ‘view source’ in this window just search Divi-Child, if it is running it will find results under that search term.

How do I change the name of the Divi child theme?

You may wish to change the name of the theme to something like the name of you company or brand. You can do this by changing the name of the folder the child theme sits inside. So change ‘Divi-Child’ to something like ‘My-Brand’ and then go to the styles.css file in the child theme and change the ’Theme Name’ to ‘My Brand’. Now in the themes dashboard your theme will be called ‘My Brand’. Always be sure to deactivate your child theme before changing the name or structure of it.

How do I use the child theme?

The child theme now allows you to copy files from the main Divi folder in to your child theme. So lets say for example you would like to add some javascript to the footer of the website, you can copy the footer.php and paste it in to your Divi child theme folder. Now when you edit that footer.php file you will see the changes on the website. Switching back to the main Divi theme will revert back to the original footer but your version is still there in the child theme when you re-activate it. If you get in to problems and have broken the theme then you can just rename or delete the file in the child theme and it will use the file from the main theme again. You already have the styles.css file in your child theme so you can play with that to start modifying your child theme.

How can I make my own child theme?

This is the official guide to creating a child theme for Divi but they don’t offer a pre-made version to download. All I have done is created it for you, so you don’t have to waste time setting it up and you can just get to working on your website.