Support » Getting Started

Getting Started

This is a great place to start – go through this guide and then if you need more help on any particular section see the WordPress Tutorials for more info.

BEFORE YOU START:

Our themes are built for WordPress websites that are self hosted, so you will need to have WordPress installed to use them. For more information on installing WordPress go to:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

Your theme comes with a lot of features built in.
Although we have worked hard to minimise conflicts we recommend disabling plugins to do with slideshows and shortcodes and also the Options Framework plugin. Once your theme is active you can try plugins to see if they conflict.

HOW TO INSTALL YOUR THEME:

Download the theme zip file to your computer from the email we sent you.

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard at yourdomain.com/wp-admin
  2. If you have the options framework plugin installed we recommend disabling it
  3. Go to APPEARANCE > THEMES and click on the INSTALL THEMES tab
  4. Click on the UPLOAD LINK
  5. Locate the zipped theme file on your computer
  6. Click INSTALL NOW
  7. Click ACTIVATE
  8. Go to SETTINGS > PERMALINKS  – change to Post Name
  9. Go to APPEARANCE > MENUS – Set up a Menu and name it ‘Main’
  10. In ‘Manage Locations’ – Make sure this is selected as the ‘Header Menu’

THEME OPTIONS:

Our themes come with a Theme Options panel which is where you control the specifics of your theme. To access this go to APPEARANCE > THEME OPTIONS

Depending on the theme you will see controls such as:

  • Upload a logo and favicon
  • Show/hide an extended footer
  • Slideshow controls
  • Customise your background colour
  • Choose how your blog displays
  • Add your social media icons
  • and more …

BEST WAY TO SEE YOUR SITE EDITS:

When updating your site – it is best to work with two browser windows open in tabs.

  1. Open one tab for your WordPress dashboard (the CMS) where you will be making the changes
  2. Open another tab for your website so you can see your updates without closing your dashboard

Make changes in the dashboard & save, then toggle to your website & refresh the screen to see your edits.

ADDING PAGES:

Pages are webpages which are static – i.e. they cannot be categorized, tagged or added to feeds or archive pages.

Add a new page:

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to PAGES > ADD NEW
  2. Add a title in the TITLE field
  3. Add content in the TEXT box
  4. Choose a page template (if available)
  5. Click PUBLISH

If you would like more info re your pages – check out TUTORIALS SECTION > Creating & Editing Pages

ADDING POSTS:

Pages are static, whereas posts are dynamic – i.e. they can be added to your blog and can be categorized, tagged and displayed in your feeds and/or archive pages.

Add a new post:

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to POSTS > ADD NEW
  2. Add a title in the TITLE field
  3. Add content in the TEXT box
  4. Assign your post to the correct category (to create a category see below)
  5. Add tags to your post
  6. Add a FEATURED IMAGE (see section on this page)
  7. Click PUBLISH

Create a post category:

Click ADD NEW

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to POSTS > CATEGORY
  2. Add a name in the NAME field
  3. Click add NEW CATEGORY

If you would like more info re your posts – check out WP TUTORIALS SECTION > Creating & Editing Posts

ADDING A FEATURED IMAGE:

The featured image can be used in many ways depending on how a theme has been designed to use them:

  • As a thumbnail image for a blog post
  • As an thumbnail image representing a gallery of images
  • As a header image on a page
To set a featured image:

  1. Click the SET AS FEATURED IMAGE (in right hand panel)
  2. Choose an image you have already uploaded or click UPLOAD FILES to upload new images
  3. Make sure your image is larger than the set size of the thumbnail for your chosen theme or your image will be stretched and distorted – you can view the set thumbnail size in SETTINGS > MEDIA
  4. Click SET AS FEATURED IMAGE
  5. Click UPDATE

MANAGING YOUR MENU:

WordPress by default uses Page or Post titles as menu items however, if your theme allows, you can customise your menus using APPEARANCE > MENUS.
Customising your menus allow you to organise your menus manually rather than have them appear in the order you made your pages.

Create a customised menu:

  1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to APPEARANCE > MENUS
  2. Create a new menu – call it ‘Main’ or something meaningful
  3. Give it a name
  4. Select the pages, posts, categories etc you want to show in this menu – click ADD TO MENU
  5. Click and drag your menu items to reorder or place them as sub-menus
  6. Click SAVE MENU
  7. In the Manage Locations Tab – set Header Menu to ‘Main’
  8. Click SAVE CHANGES

NOTE: If you can’t see the menu category types (pages, posts etc) that you want to add – click the SCREEN OPTIONS Tab at the top right hand side of the page and make sure the panel you require is ticked.

If a menu item that you want to add is not showing – click the VIEW ALL at the top of the box.

Need more help? Check out WP TUTORIALS SECTION > Creating Menus

ADDING WIDGETS

Our themes come with widget areas allowing you to easily add content to sidebars (such as categories, your latest posts, text and images – don’t forget that you can use shortcodes in widgets to make them look great!).

To add widgets:

From your WordPress dashboard, go to APPEARANCE > WIDGETS

  1. Choose a widget and drag it to the correct widget area (e.g. Primary Sidebar) on the right.
  2. Click on the widget and it may give you extra info such as titles to fill out.

Remember you can further customise some of your Widgets using Shortcodes.
Need more help? Check out WP TUTORIALS SECTION > Using Widgets