How do I create a child theme for my website?

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  nafyadmin · Member · Mar 21, 2015 at 11:53 pm

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  I am unable to create a child-theme for my website: https://avenuesofart.wordpress.com Can you advise? Thank you!

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  pmciano · Member · Mar 22, 2015 at 1:58 pm

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  @nafyadmin

  Child themes are only possible on self-hosted, WordPress.org sites, not WordPress.com sites.

  Please visit the following link for a clear explanation of the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org:

  WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

  If you have additional questions, please let us know.

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  nafyadmin · Member · Mar 23, 2015 at 4:16 am

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  Thank you….so given our current site and theme, am I unable to adjust the width of the main column underneath the header? For example, on the home page: http://avenuesofart.org/, it says “The Story”….and then has text below it. Is there any way, given our current set up, to adjust the width of the text/main column?

  Thanks again for your help!

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  shawnajroberts · Member · Mar 23, 2015 at 9:10 pm

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  Adjusting the width of the content are of your site is a pretty big structural change. If you’re already comfortable with CSS, I’m happy to help you with this. Just let me know the code you have and I can help you get it the way you want.

  If you’re not comfortable with CSS already, maybe we can find another theme with a wider content area that you like. Then I can help you make smaller changes with CSS.

  Here are a few wider themes:

  • Museum
  • Kelly
  • Widely
  • Awesome

  Let me know if I can help with anything else!

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  nafyadmin · Member · Mar 24, 2015 at 12:58 am

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  Thanks Shawna – I appreciate your help.

  I believe the width of the one-column design is limited in style.css:

  /* One column */
  .one-column #page {
  max-width: 585px;
  }

  Are you able to adjust the main column width to 1000 pixels for me?

  Thanks again!
  Rena

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  shawnajroberts · Member · Mar 24, 2015 at 1:28 am

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  So, I took a look at your site using the inspector. And I found this width setting for the main content of your pages:

  .singular .entry-header, .singular .entry-content, .singular footer.entry-meta, .singular #comments-title {
    width: 68.9%;
  }

  My next step would be to plug that into the CSS pane in the Customizer on the site and try changing that percentage for width. Try doing that and let me know if I can help further! :)

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  nafyadmin · Member · Mar 25, 2015 at 3:06 am

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  Brilliant! I plugged it in and it worked perfectly. So helpful – thank you. The only other question I have is regarding the padding underneath the menu bar and above the page title. You can see on this page, for example, that there is quite a bit of white space between the bottom of the blue bar and the text “The Story”.
  http://avenuesofart.org/the-story/

  Is there CSS coding to reduce the white space here?

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  shawnajroberts · Member · Mar 25, 2015 at 4:57 pm

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  Sure! Here’s the CSS code I found that’s making that padding happen right now:

  #main {
    padding: 1.625em 0 0;
  }

  Try changing that number a bit and see if you can find a spacing that you like. :)

  Learning how to target your site’s CSS will help you make certain design and layout changes. Here are some very helpful posts that will help you customize your site with CSS:

  • https://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/css-selectors/
  • http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/css-intro/
  • http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/css-matched-rule-pane/
  • http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/how-to-find-your-themes-css/

  If CSS is new to you, here are some resources for learning more about it:

  • CSS Basics
  • Editing CSS
  • CSS tutorials

  Good luck, and let me know if you need help with anything else!