Before you can upload your theme, you first need to download the theme package from the Elegant Themes Members Area. Log in and locate your desired theme on the list and click the "download" link. There will be two download options: Theme Package and PSD Files. Click the "Theme Package" link to download the theme. Next you must upload the .ZIP file you just downloaded to your website via the WordPress Dashboard. Log in to wp-admin and click the Appearances > Themes tab. Next click the "Install Themes" button and then click the "Upload" link. Click "Choose File" and locate the .ZIP file you just downloaded and click "Install Now." Once then theme has been uploaded, you can activate it from within the Appearances > Themes tab.

This theme requires plugins to function. After installing the theme, you should also install and activate the following plugins:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-postratings/

Thumbnail images are added using Custom Fields. First you should make sure that you have Custom Fields enabled. While editing your post or page, click the "Screen Options" link on the top right of the screen and make sure that "Custom Fields" is checked. Next, scroll down below the text editor and locate the Custom Fields box. Under "Add New Custom Field," click the "Enter New" link. In the "Name" section, input the word "Thumbnail" (this is case sensitive). In the "Value" area, input the url to your thumbnail image. Your image will be automatically resized and cropped. The image must be hosted on your domain name.

This theme can embed videos from other sources, but does not have a native video player. This means that you can only post videos that are taken from online video sources such as Youtube. When you make a new post you will need to add a custom field with the Key "Video" In the Value area just paste the embed code from your video host. For example, an embed code from youtube looks like this:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WneDU-K3Sww&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WneDU-K3Sww&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

You will notice that some video hosts try to add in links to their website, you probably want to delete these. All you need is the object and or embed codes.

You can define your own logo image from within the ePanel theme options page in your WordPress Dashboard. Within ePanel, under the General Settings > General tab, locate the "Logo" field. In the field, input the full URL to your logo image. You can use the "Upload Image" button below the field to upload your logo image if haven't already done so. After uploading, copy and paste the URL to the file into the field and click "Save" to save your ePanel settings.

If you don't already have a logo image, then you can use the included logo.psd file as a starting point. If you have Photoshop, this file can be opened and the logo's text can be easily edited using Photoshop's type tool. If you don't have Photoshop, then you can use included logo_blank.png file as a blank canvas in a different graphic design program. These files (logo.psd and logo_blank.png) are located within the Theme Package inside the /psd/ folder.

You can change the images used in each of the advertisements, as well as which URL each ad points to, through the custom option pages found in wp-admin. Once logged in to the wordpress admin panel, click "Appearances" and then "Current Theme Options" to reveal the various theme options.

ePhoto comes with the option of having a Blog section that is separate from your photos. You must choose a category to be your "Blog" category. Any posts within this "Blog" category are added to the Blog section of ePhoto. You can choose which category to use as your Blog category via the ePhot Theme Options page, under the Navigation > Categories tab.

The Featured Articles are pulled from a specific category. You can choose which category is used for the Featured Articles section via the Theme Options page in wp-admin. Under the General > Featured Articles section of ePanel (the elegant themes options page) you will see a dropdown menu where you can choose your featured articles category.

After you upload and activate the WP post ratings plugin it will automatically be integrated into the theme. However, you may want to customize it's appearance. You can choose which elements are displayed, and in the demo of ePhoto on elegantthemes.com I have customized the display slightly. If you want your theme to look just like mine, go to the Ratings > Ratings Template page in wp-admin. In the "Ratings Vote Text" input the following:

%RATINGS_IMAGES_VOTE% (<strong>%RATINGS_USERS%</strong> votes - <strong>%RATINGS_AVERAGE%</strong> / %RATINGS_MAX%)

In the Ratings Voted Text field, input the following:

%RATINGS_IMAGES% (<strong>%RATINGS_USERS%</strong> votes - <strong>%RATINGS_AVERAGE%</strong> / %RATINGS_MAX%)

If you are starting from scratch, and installing Nova onto a WordPress blog that does not have any content yet (posts, pages, categories, etc), then you can choose to import our sample data file, which will populate your new WorPress blog with "dummy content." This dummy content is just a bunch of gibberish text, however, it will give you a good template to work with. Instead of following the above instructions, some people prefer to simply upload the sample data first, and then replace the dummy content with their own. To do this, you can use the Tools > Import feature in wp-admin to import the included sample data file. This sample data file comes with all themes, and is located in your theme folder here: sampledata/sample.xml. When performing the import procedure, be sure to check the "Import epanel settings" box.

All of our themes come with a comprehensive collection of shortcodes. These shortcodes allow you to use pre-made design elements to create advanced page/post layouts without any HTML knowledge. When you install the theme, you will notice that some new buttons have been added to the WordPress text editor. Clicking these buttons will reveal options for adding shortcodes to your post. For complete shortcode documentation you can refer to the video on the left, as well as the following documentation page: http://www.elegantthemes.com/preview/TheProfessional/357-2/

All of our themes come with a collection of page templates that can be used for a variety of purposes. You can apply each of these page templates to any page that you have created. When you edit a page in wp-admin, you will notice a Templates dropdown menu to the right of the text editor. Here you can select from a list of available page templates. Once a template is selected, additional settings will appear in the "ET Page Templates Settings" box below the dropdown menu. These settings should be configured to acheive the desired result, as outlined in this video tutorial.

You can use the included Mo and Po files (located in the /lang folder of your theme) to translate the various English words that occur throughout the design. You can learn more about translating WordPress here: Translating WordPress