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2. Theme Options

David Green
posted this on December 09, 2011 12:18 pm

Step 2 - Theme Options

Your website comes preconfigured with a premium theme that adds powerful features to the underlying WordPress engine. The theme provides a professional design look to your website and controls how your website is displayed and functions. The theme adds functionality to many of the admin pages but most of the theme configuration options can be accessed from the Theme menu.

Review Live Website Pages

For this initial setup exercise we will focus on just a few of the most visible options. Click Visit Site in the top menu to see the live website. Note the areas the following steps will show you how to change:

  • Edit contact text displayed in the upper-right
  • Edit footer text displayed in the grey bar at page bottom
    Note the footer grey bar does not display on the home page but appears on all other pages.
  • Edit copyright text displayed in the bottom-left

The changes above affect all website pages. We will also make some changes which apply only to the website home page:

  • Edit intro slideshow to display your images and text
  • Edit main call-to-action text displayed in the grey bar
  • Edit the button displayed in the call-to-action grey bar area
  • Enter some text to display on the home page, between the call-to-action and footer grey bar areas.

Edit Theme Settings for All Pages

OK, ready? Let’s make those modifications from the theme area of the admin pages…

  • Click Dashboard in the top menu bar to get to the website admin pages
  • Click Awake Theme button on the left menu in the admin pages
    Awake is the name of the premium theme installed and configured for your website.

Edit contact text displayed in the upper-right

  • On the General Settings page, edit the Extra Header Text field
    Note you can enter contact information, a tagline for your website or any other information you like. You can even enter HTML code if you would like to insert a link.
  • Click Save All Changes at the bottom
  • To view changes, click Visit Site in the top menu bar and then click Dashboard to get back

Edit footer text and the copyright text displayed at page bottom

  • Click Footer tab on left
  • Edit the Footer Outro Text field
  • Edit the Copyright Text field
    Note that “©” displays as the copyright “c in a circle” symbol.
  • Click Save All Changes at the bottom
  • Click Visit Site in the top menu bar to view changes; then click Dashboard to get back
Great job! Let’s move on to making some changes to your home page.

Edit Home Page Text and Slideshow

TIP: The home page is arguably the most important page of your website, providing a first-impression to visitors and pointing or promoting different areas of your site. Once you get the hang of editing your website and you have all other content in place, it will be clearer how the home page can be done to be most effective. For now let’s just put some placeholder content so you can make it your own. You can easily revise and improve on it later.

Edit home page text (call-to-action and other text underneath)

  • Click Homepage tab on left
  • Edit Call to Action Text field
  • Edit Call to Action Button Text field
    For now you can leave the Custom link field empty so the button will not do anything. Once your website is done, you can enter the address of the page where you want the button to take site visitors to.
  • Edit Custom Homepage Text area for the text that will display below the call-to-action.
    Use various editing options for rich formatting and advanced editing functionality. These options are similar to when you create or edit any page or blog post for your website so you will be able to experiment with those options later.
  • Click Save All Changes at the bottom
  • Click Visit Site in the top menu bar to view changes; then click Dashboard to get back

Edit home page slideshow

  • Click Slideshow tab on left
    Note the Slideshow page shows 5 initial slides that display on your home page and demo various settings.
  • Click Add New Slider button
    Note a new slide will be added at the bottom, expanded and ready for your input.
  • Click Upload button to have the slideshow display one of your own images
    Note the media upload overlay appears.
  • Click Browse button
    Note your computer file browser window appears.
    • Navigate your file system, select an image and click Open.
      Note the file path is filled in the upload window.
    • Click Upload button.
      Note the image file is uploaded and an image thumbnail is displayed alongside more image info. The image from your computer has been uploaded into your website’s Media Library. The image is now be available for you to use in the Slideshow or on other website pages.
    • Click Insert this image.
      Note the upload overlay goes away and the image path in the media library is filling the new slideshow image URL.
  • Enter some text for the slide Title (optional)
  • Enter some text for the Description (optional)
  • Click the Stage Effect drop-down and select one of the available options
  • Click Save All Changes at the bottom
  • Click Visit Site in the top menu bar to view changes; then click Dashboard to get back

TIP: To harness the flexibility of the slideshow feature, plan to spend some time experimenting with all its options. Note images are automatically scaled and cropped to fit their designated area. You can enter a web address in the Link URL field to make the image clickable and display a Read More button, both leading to that URL. Note also the Description field allows HTML so the slide can display your own buttons or links.

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Step 3: Choose a Skin