Use a Child Theme & Update Safely

Keeping NEOVANTAGE up to date keeps your site secure, and a NEOVANTAGE child themeThemeA collection of templates and styles that controls how your site looks. protects any custom code you add. The good news: because almost all of your design lives in the Customizer, updates will not wipe out your settings.

Updating the Theme

1. Back up your site first (database and files).
2. Go to Dashboard > Updates or Appearance > Themes.
3. If a NEOVANTAGE update is available, click Update.
4. Visit your site to confirm everything looks right.

What Survives an Update

• All Customizer settings – colors, fonts, layouts, social links, and so on.
• Your Custom HTML Code snippets (they live in the Customizer, not theme files).
• Your posts, pages, menus, and widgetsWidgetA small content block you place into a sidebar or widget area..

When You Need a Child Theme

You only need a child theme if you plan to edit the theme’s PHPPHPThe server-side programming language WordPress is written in. templates or add custom CSS/PHP directly in theme files. A child theme keeps those edits safe when the parent theme updates.

• Create a child theme folder with a style.css (with a Template: neovantage header) and a functions.php.
• For CSS-only tweaks, you do not even need a child theme – use Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS.
• Activate the child theme under Appearance > Themes.

Most users never need a child theme – the Customizer and Additional CSS cover the vast majority of changes.