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Ok then let me see. I create this child folder and then i copy everything from twenty ten (and when i say copy i mean it. i download the files an then i upload them in this new folder), i switch template and, by magic, it will work. Is that right?

(I’ve already made a lot of changes, i don’t want to lose them!)

The short answer is yes… hopefully you’re comfortable enough with file structure, etc., that this all makes sense. Basically you just want to take the folder with your theme, duplicate it, give it a new name, and then use that as your theme. I primarily use premium themes for my client work, those don’t get overwritten by upgrades to WordPress. Twenty Ten does, because it’s the default WP theme.

Here’s another tutorial in child theme development. I didn’t write this, I just Googled, and scanned it and it looks fairly decent. You could Google “creating WordPress child themes” for other help if you need step-by-step help, though the Codex instructions are sufficient as long as they make sense to you.

I don’t understand why WordPress is so user un-friendly. I am speaking in general, actually – also about other CMS. I mean, why doesn’t it create a child-theme by default? I’m comfortable with CSS HTML ecc, but I simply didn’t think about it. There should be an advice a “Be aware of this thing” somewhere.

Are we out of topic so far? Maybe, just a bit

In the grand scheme of WP things, Child Themes are rather new (older than 3.x, newer than sidebar widgets). I know what you mean about the ‘why doesn’t it do this automatically!?’

The devs are aware and it’s something that comes up a lot. Solutions that remain compatible with the past are being worked on, but it’s not as simple as it should be.

I primarily use premium themes for my client work, those don’t get overwritten by upgrades to WordPress. Twenty Ten does, because it’s the default WP theme.

The obvious thing to point out HERE is that if you upgrade your commercial theme (they’re not premium, they just cost money, I pay for ’em too), then you lose your changes.

I just hit my 2 year anniversary of WordPress development. I’ve been a web designer for almost 15 years now. When I started my own business 2 years ago it was with the intention of doing regular static sites. Overwhelmingly my clients wanted a CMS so I dove into WordPress. For the first couple of months I felt the way you do. Once it “clicks” it makes all the sense in the world… I just encourage you to hang in there.

To answer your question though – the reason it doesn’t create a child theme by default is that just about anyone who wants to use the Twenty Ten theme does NOT know anything about HTML and CSS, they want to use the theme off the shelf, and they’re not going to do much customization and certainly not going to touch the code, and wouldn’t know how to create a child theme. Those who do modify Twenty Ten have probably been through quite a bit of the Codex (including the starter articles) in which it does indeed recommend the child theme.

Again, if you purchased a theme (or even used any of the other, non-default WordPress themes) they would NOT be overwritten by an upgrade to WordPress. That’s the beauty of how the themes are structured – the core files are not intermingled with the theme files. Twenty Ten (and Kubrick, formerly) ARE updated with a WP upgrade, because they’re “beginner” themes and WP is doing a favor by upgrading them.

Hope that helps… if you stick with it and keep learning more I think you’ll find that WP is indeed very user-friendly — for me, far more so than the “other” major CMSes out there.

Let me also add – WP is phenominal about always working to make it more user friendly with the new features they add with upgrades. Particularly starting with 3.0 they’re implementing CMS-necessary features (as opposed to blogging functionality only). Another reason you’ll definitely want to upgrade.

Good luck… keep an open mind!

To Ipstenu – true… but typically the theme upgrades list in the changelog which files were changed, and for what reason — and I use Beyond Compare to see what was added and decide if I want to manually make the changes. That of course requires a higher level of comfort with code so I can’t recommend that for everyone, but so far it’s worked for me.

Still, point taken, and it is a valid point. ??

Yeah, I just make child themes off the commercial. Actually, I went so far as to remove the editor from the menu in most of my sites. I never use it.