Recently, one of our readers asked us How to find the files to edit from a WordPress theme? 

If you're new to developing WordPress themes and want to customize your theme, then you need to know which files of your WordPress theme you need to edit to apply a change to a specific location.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to easily find files to edit on a WordPress theme.

How to find the files to modify in a theme

But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog 

Then back to why we are here.

Template file in a WordPress theme

WordPress themes control theappearance of your website. Each theme contains several template files that control how a particular section or page looks in your WordPress theme.

For example, the file " single.php »Controls the appearance of individual articles on your website. This is not the only file that can do it. 

How to understand the structure of WordPress files? Discover by consulting this link

If your theme does not have a "single.php" file, then WordPress will look for alternative models like "index.php" to display the page.

Learn by consulting this article How to manage WordPress files and folders

Most beginners are not familiar with the template hierarchy on WordPress. This makes it more difficult to identify which files to modify when they want to customize their WordPress themes.

That said, let's see how to easily find the files to edit in your WordPress theme.

How to find the file to customize a theme

The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the plugin " What The File ". For more details, see our step-by-step guide on way to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin works without configuration, so there are no parameters to configure.

After activation, you must visit your website and you will notice a new menu " What the File (Which file is this?) In the user toolbar.

How to find files to edit from a WordPress theme

Now you just need to move your mouse over the menu item, and it will display a drop down menu showing the template files used to display that page.

How to find files to edit from a WordPress theme

Clicking on the file name will take you to the default WordPress file editor where you can edit that particular file.

See also How to master the visual editor of WordPress

However, we recommend that you do not use the WordPress file editor because it does not have a cancellation option. If you accidentally lock your website, you will need to use an FTP client to unblock the situation. that's why we always use an FTP client and a text editor to edit our files

See also Some text editors for developers WordPress

Making real-time changes to your WordPress theme is also a bad idea. These changes will disappear when you update it.

If you just want add CSS code to your WordPress blog, you can add it as custom CSS in the customizer. For all other changes, you must create a Child theme.

This plugin will help you locate the theme files that you will need to copy and modify in your child theme.

Please note: : This theme works for all connected users, so you will need to use it in a test environment.

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins  

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling of your blog or website.

We offer you here some premium WordPress plugins that will help you do that.

1. Dropr

Dropr is a premium WordPress plugin that will integrate seamlessly with your WordPress website which will use it as a media folder for your website. With this plugin, you can insert any file from the Dropbox account directly into your pages or posts.

dropr

It will also allow you to use the Dropbox account directly in the WordPress editor, which will simplify the whole process.

Discover also our 8 WordPress plugins to add a translation system on a blog

It is a friendly WordPress plugin for beginners with a very simple and clean interface. It supports all types of important files, audio, video, PDF, Excel, images and more.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. Responsive HTML5 Music Player

Like all the other plugins on this list, this premium WordPress plugin will help you display a beautiful audio player on your website. Use the control panel to create multiple playlists and players with different settings and songs of your choice.

Responsive html5 music player premium wordpress plugins add audio player

You can add this audio player anywhere on your website: on the sidebar, pages, articles and even footers.

CFeatures include: a generator of shortcodes, FLASH engine support for older browsers that do not support HTML5, a playlist with download option for each song, uninterrupted audio playback across web pages, multiple instances of the player on the same page and much more more.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

3. Book a Place Pro

Book a Place Pro is a premium WordPress plugin through which you can set up a program for your theatre, cinema or restaurant. It also provides you with an event manager and a online booking.

Book a place pro wordpress plugin

This is a very easy-to-use plugin for users (who want to reserve a place), as well as for administrators (who want to create a program, add places, define prices, etc.). It was created to be as simple as possible. 

How to change the sidebar side on WordPress ? Find out by consulting this link.

Its main features are:  support for payments via PayPal, coupon management, a photo gallery and many others.

Download Demo Web hosting

Recommended Resources

Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.

Conclusion

Here! That's it for this tutorial. We hope that you will be able to easily find the files to edit on a WordPress theme. 

However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.

If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments. feel free to share this tutorial with your friends on your favorite social networks

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