All Entries in the "Themes" Category
My New Favorite Theme From Solostream
I just purchased a new developer version of Wp-Ellie the latest theme from Solostream. Themes have come a long way recently, but Solostream is still at the top of their game. If you have purchased one of my new sites chances are this is the theme I based it on. Here are some helpful tips in using the new theme and navigating and posting on your site.
Installation and plugins here is a list of the plugins that have built in compatibility with Wp-Ellie.
How to set up the featured content. You can turn featured posts off or on from the theme settings in the WordPress dashboard. If you would like to make a post a featured post all you have to do is add the featured tag to the posts tags. The ideal size for featured images is 500px wide by 220px height.
From a design point of view you should always resize your images properly. I constantly see siteson Flippa with images that have been stretched to fit in the featured windows, when proper resizing will make the difference between an amateur looking site and a professional looking site.
As far as the recommended plugins definitely install Get The Image because once it is activated it will make the first uploaded image automatically become the featured image and the thumbnail image. You don’t even need to put the image in the post just upload the image in the post and click publish and Get The Image will do the rest. If you have more than one image in your post just reorder them by changing the order numbers, the featured and thumbnail images need to be number 1.
The only other recommended plugin that I always use is Yet Another Related Posts Plugin this keeps the content fresh and gives your readers more relevant options to explore, plus when combined with All In One SEO Pack the combination helps with the SEO of the site.
Popularity: 29% [?]
How To Add Images To The WP-Smooth Theme
One of the things that makes WP-Smooth so stunning is the images. In order to add an image to the featured articles of WP-Smooth you first need to resize the image to:
width: 650 px
height: 250 px
Then all you have to do is upload the image and the theme takes care of everything else. Don’t forget to view the video in full screen click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner.
Popularity: 76% [?]
Recommended Plugins For WP-Smooth
There are a couple of plugins supported by WP-Smooth that will help with the full functionalityof the theme. One is popularity contest which makes your most popular posts appear in the right sidebar under the tabbed navigation box. If you have trouble activating the plugin your hosting company may need to white list the permissions. I have been having this issue with HostGator since they have beefed up their security.
To get around it all I have to do is email them and give them the URL, and the WordPress user name and password, and ask them to white list the mod security rule. If they don’t understand what you are talking about you can always copy the permission denied message you get when you attempt to install or activate the plugin. This shouldn’t be an issue though. I usually send the email and it is taken care of within the hour.
The other recommended plugin is Get The Image By Justin Tadlock. With this plugin your thumbnails will automatically be populated without you having to mess with custom fields.
Popularity: 19% [?]
How To Set Up Featured Articles In WP-Smooth
In order to use the Featured Articles Section in WP-Smooth you need to set up a category called featured, you also need to make sure the category slug is called featured. Before this function will work you have to make sure your permalinks are modified. They can be set to anything other than the default setting and the featured category will work.
You can change your Permalinks under Settings, Permalinks. I usually set mine to custom /%postname%/.
After that just click on the featured category for any posts you want in the featured box. By default your six most recent featured posts will be displayed in this box. You can change this number on your WP-Smooth settings page.
If you want to know how to turn the auto scroll feature for the featured articles on or off see option 8 in this post; How To Install and Set Up WP-Smooth.
Popularity: 24% [?]
How To Use WP-Smooth
One of my favorite themes is WP-Smooth by Solostream. As far as premium themes go the selection at Solostream is amazing. WP-Smooth is my 3rd premium theme by Solostream and chances are if you have purchased a site from me this is the theme I used because I try to always purchase a developers license whenever I purchase a premium theme. That way I can use it on as many sites as I want and I can customize the theme and sell it as well.
If you have purchased a site from me that uses WP-Smooth, just click on the WP-Smooth link above, and scroll down to WP-Smooth 1.0 and click on theme demo, setup, and tutorials. There you will find tons of information and examples on how to edit your theme and get the most out of it. But the real beauty of WP-Smooth is the customized theme backend that allows tons of changes and customizations without ever having to know how to code.
I think all of the Solostream Themes are brilliant, and they all have the easy to customize interface. If your are in the market for a real premium theme, check out what Solostream has to offer. Most Solostream themes come with your choice of three licenses. The Basic license is a single use license for one site, the Premium license is for use on multiple sites owned by you, and the Developer theme gives you the license to use the theme for your own sites and sites that you sell. You just can’t sell the theme on it’s own. I usually prefer to purchase the developers license when I find a theme I like. But with Solostream you can purchase any license and then upgrade later.
Like I said before you can get most of your WP-Smooth questions answered from the demo on the Solostream site. But I will be making some tutorials as well.
Popularity: 29% [?]
