Question

I just started using WordPress 3.0 to get a simple blog up and going. For now I am working with the default theme “Twenty Ten”.

I want to make a simple change:
I’d like to modify the layout of the bloginfo( ‘name’ ), bloginfo( ‘description’ ), and php header_image() that appears at the top of the blog.

So, under Appearance, Editor, I select Header.php and I can see how this is being rendered.
It appears I can just modify this to my liking and I am good to go. (Correct?)

If so, my question is: is it considered proper practice to modify the html in header.php?
It seems to me that this is a bit dangerous, for example when it comes time to upgrade that same theme. How do I know which php files I have applied customizations to? Say I modify 6 php files, then an upgrade of the theme comes along…how does one handle re-applying these changes to the upgraded theme?

Is it a total “do over”?
Is there a better way to handle this scenario?
Maybe some themes are more powerful than others and can handle this type of customization more flexibly, and I should be searching for such a theme? Or, is there a reasonably proper and safe way to do this by directly editing the php files?

Answer 1

Child theme, child theme, child theme. Create a new folder in themes (name it whatever you want. Go crazy. As long as you don’t name it twentyten). Create a style.css file in that directory and copy the whole style.css file from twentyten into it. Then, change the theme name in the css headers and add this line after the tags:

Template: twentyten

Then copy the header.php file over to another file in your directory, and edit to your heart’s content. If twentyten ever gets updated, you’ll get the benefit of those updates (unless they’re in css or the header) without losing your changes.