ElegantThemes Complete Documentation

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.

Back To Top

This occurs when you have not uploaded the theme correctly. For installation instructions you should extract the zip folder on your computer and read the included readme file. You can also refer to the following video tutorial:

/members-area/tutorials/uploading.php

If you don't want to use FTP, another option would be to ZIP the correct folder and upload it via the WordPress dashboard. To do this you would need to ZIP the folder located inside the "Theme" folder and upload it. For example, if you are using the ePhoto theme you will have downloaded a file called ePhotoTheme.zip from the membership area. If you unzip that folder on your computer you will see a Photoshop Files folder and a Theme folder. Inside the "Theme" folder will be a folder called "ePhoto." If you ZIP this "ePhoto" folder, creating ePhoto.zip, you can upload it via the WordPress dashboard.
Back To Top

The first thing I would try is disabling all of your plugins to insure that none are causing a conflict. If that doesn't work, then it's possible that your browser or server is timing out during the uploading process due to the large file size of the theme. If this is the case then you will need to use the FTP method to uploading your theme as explained here.
Back To Top

This is a sign that WordPress does not have permission to create folders on your server. The fix this you will need to change the permissions of the cache/ directory to 777 temporarily while you upload the theme. After the theme has finished uploading, be sure to change the folder back to 755. Leaving it at 777 is a huge security risk!
Back To Top

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 WordPress 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.

Back To Top

If when you upload your theme your website goes blank or displays an error and you can not longer log in to the WordPress Dashboard, then a major compatibility issue has occured. But don't worry, your website is still there, and still in-tact. In order to get every back to normal, however, the first step is to delete the theme from your server so that WordPress defaults to another theme that does not conflict with your setup. To do this you will need to connect to your server via FTP and delete the theme's folder from the wp-content/themes directory. Once you have done this and your website is restored, you can then start figuring out what actually caused the problem.

This can happen for one of two reasons. Either your Theme or your WordPress installation are not using the latest version, or one of your plugins is causing a conflict. Be sure to update the theme, update WordPress and disable all of your plugins before attempting to upload the theme again.

Back To Top

The easiest way to change the default logo that comes with the theme is to define a new logo image from within ePanel. Log in to the WordPress dashboard and click on the Appearances > Theme Options link. Once the page loads you will see a "logo" box with an empty field. Simply input the URL to your logo within this field and your website will update accordingly. If your logo has not been uploaded to your server yet, then you can use the "upload image" button next to the field to launch the WordPress media uploader. This can be used to upload your new logo image from your computer to your website. Once uploaded you will need to copy and paste the URL to your image into the logo field as explained in the video tutorial.

Back To Top

Most themes use a logo image for the title, which means you will need an image editor to add your own text. You can do this by opening the blank logo image located at Photoshop Files/logo_blank.png, or by opening the logo PSD file located at Photoshop Files/logo.psd. Replace the old logo with the new logo by placing it in the theme's images/ directory, and naming the file "logo.png". (this should replace the old logo.png file) If you need more room, or would like to edit the logo further, you can always do so by opening the original fully layered PSD file located in the theme's Photoshop Files folder.

Back To Top

Back To Top

The integrate tab is great for adding third party code to certain areas of the theme. Code can be added to your websites head and body, as well as before and after each post. For example, if you need to add a tracking code to your website (such as google analytics), but are unsure which PHP file to edit in order to add the code to the < body > of your website, you can simply input this code into the "body" field of the Integration tab.

Back To Top

The colorization tab of ePanel allows you to customize the colors of certain theme elements. Advanced customization cannot be achieved through this tab, however, it will allow you to alter the colors of most of the basic text elements on the page. To use custom colors, simply navigate to the "Colorization" tab in ePanel and "enable custom colors." You can then add color values to each of the fields, or use the hex color selector to choose your color and generate the code automatically.

Back To Top

Most of our themes come with a large "Featured Slider" on the homepage. In order to use this feature, you must first tell ePanel what content you would like to display. You can use two different methods for adding content: Posts or Pages. Using the Post method allows you to display the most recent articles from a single category in the slider. The most recent posts are always shown, and they descend in order of post date. Using the "Pages" method, on the other hand, allows you to display any combination of "pages" within the slider. These pages are ordered based off the value of the pages "order" field. To adjust the order of the pages in the slider, navigate to the Pages > Pages section of the WordPress Dashboard and "quick edit" each page. Add a value to the "order" field for each page that is displayed in the slider.

Back To Top

Many of our themes come with dynamic homepage designs that include various "content areas." These content areas are generally pulled from the content of specific pages that you create. Once created, you can assign the content of certain pages to each content area on the homepage via the General Settings > Homepage tab in ePanel. If you are using a more traditional blog theme, then there will be additional options within this tab that allow you to choose which categories are included the homepage's feed of posts, as well as how many posts are to be displayed.

Back To Top

This usually means that you have a "static page" assigned as your homepage, which is overwriting the theme's homepage. This should be truned off. To do so, log in to the WordPress Dashboard and click the Settings > Reading link. Make sure that the "Front page displays" option is set to "Your latest posts."

Back To Top

ePanel comes with some great functions for customizing your SEO. To locate the SEO options, log in to the WordPress Dashboard and click on the Appearances > Theme Options link. Then navigate to the "SEO" tab. Within this tab are three additional tabs: Homepage, Single Posts/Pages and Index Pages. The Homepage tab allows you to customize the meta tags for your homepage, the single posts/pages allows you to custom the meta tags for all posts and pages individually, and the Index Page tab allows you to customize the meta tags for your category, archives, search and tag pages.

Back To Top

If, when loading the ePanel page in wp-admin, abnormalities occur (such as the tabs don't work, images do not appear, or the settings will not save) then the most likely cause of the problem is a plugin conflict. Plugins should always restrict their embedded code to their respective option pages. However, not all plugins are coded well and often times their code gets added to the entire WordPress Dashboard (causing conflicts with the ePanel scripts). You should disable all of your plugins to insure that none are causing the problem. You should also make sure that you are using the latest version of the Theme and the latest version of WordPress.
Back To Top

In the theme previews here on ElegantThemes.com, you will notice that all of the themes have a numbered pagination on the bottom of all index pages. By default WordPress will only display the next/previous post links. If you want to achieve the same pagination as seen in the demo then you will need to install the Wp Page Navi Plugin.
Back To Top

Whenever you make a new post you will need to add a custom field. Scroll down below the text editor and click on the "custom fields" link. In the "Name" section, input "Thumbnail" (this is case sensitive). In the "Value" area, input the url to your thumbnail image. Your image will automatically be resized and cropped. The image must be hosted on your domain. (this is to protect against bandwidth left)

If you do not see a Custom Fields section, be sure that Custom Fields have been enabled from within the Screen Options link when editing your post.

Back To Top

Another way to add thumbnail images to your post is to use the native thumbnail feature that comes with WordPress. This is referred to as the "Featured Image" method. When you write/edit your post, you will notice a "Featured Image" link to the right of the text editor. Clicking this link will launch a popup that will allow you to upload and select a thumbnail image for your post. If you are having trouble using the alternate "custom field" method for uploading your images, then using this method may be a better solution for you.
Back To Top

If you are using the native WordPress thumbnail feature, then your thumbnails will often appear at the wrong size when switching between themes. ni this case, you will need to regenerate your thumbnail images each time you change themes. You can do this using the following plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/
Back To Top

Another option for adding thumbnail images to your theme is to "grab" them automatically from your post content. The way this feature works is that, once enabled, the theme will search your post content for images. It will detect the first image that has been added to your post and then will use it automatically as your thumbnail image. The only limitation is that the images in your posts should be hosted on your own server. This option can be enabled from within ePanel under the General Settings > General tab.

Important Note: You must CHMOD the "cache" folder located in the DeepFocus directory to 777 for this script to work. You can CHMOD (change the permissions) of a file using your favorite FTP program. If you are confused try following this tutorial. Of course instead of CHMODing the template folder (as in the tutorial) you would CHMOD the "cache" folder found within your theme's directory.
Back To Top

This usually occurs when you both add the thumbnail image to your post and add it as your thumbnail. If you have added a particular image as your thumbnail using either the Thumbnail Custom Field method or the native WordPress Featured Image Method, then you probably don't need to add it to your post content at all. Simply remove the image from your post to avoid the duplication.

Sometimes, however, you will want to have the thumbnail image in the post. The most common reason for this is because you want to display the image at a certain (larger) size than the thumbnail will allow. In this case, the only way to avoid have the image duplicated on your posts is to disable your post-page thumbnail image. This can be done within ePanel under the Layout tab.

Back To Top

If you are using the default navigation bars (and not the Appearances > Menu system) then you can order the Pages links in your navbar using the "order" parameter in the "Pages" tab of wp-admin. Log in to the WordPress dashboard and click on the Pages > Pages link. This will show you a list of all of the pages that you have created. Click "Quick Edit" for each page and adjust the "order" field. You can enter any number into this field. The lower of which will be displayed first in your menu.

After you have customized your order, the next step is to tell ePanel that you would like to apply this order to your links. Within the WordPress Dashboard, click on the Appearances > Theme Options page and then click on the Navigation > Pages tab. Under the "Sort Pages" option, choose "menu_order."

Back To Top

Dropdown menus are created automatically when you assign a page or categoriy to a "parent" page or category. All "child" pages are shown below parent pages in dropdown form. To assign a category to a parent category, log in to the WordPress Dashboard and click Posts > Categories. Choose a category and click "edit." Locate the "Parent" dropdown menu and choose your parent category. The same method works for Pages.

It's important to not that if you are using the Appearances > Menu system to manage your menu, then this method of creating dropdown menus does not apply. You must create your dropdown menus from within the Menu system.

Back To Top

By default, your navigation bar will be filled with all of your pages and category links. If you would like to remove certain links, however, then you can do so quickly and easily vai ePanel. Log in to the WordPress Dashboard and click the Appearances > Theme Options link. Once the page loads, click on the "Navigation" tab. Within this tab you will see two additional tabs: Pages and Categories. Within each of these tabs is a list of all of your pages and categories, each of which can be either enabled or disabled. Click on any of the links listed to enable/disable them. All links shown with a green check will be displayed and all links shown with a red x will be hidden.

Back To Top

Unfortunately there is often a finite space allotted for your menu items. If you exceed this horizontal space, then your links will bleed outside the navigation bar and create a second row of links. This is not visually pleasing and should be fixed. The best to do so is to simply re-organize your links using dropdown menus as explained here. By adding multiple links to a single dropdown menu you can save tons of space and create a more intuitive experience for your visitors. If creating dropdown menus is not an option, then the only other solution would be to re-name your links, shortening them to save space.
Back To Top

This is a tell-tale sign of misconfigured permalinks. If, when browsing your website, you receive a "no results found" error, try disabling custom permalinks to see if it fixes the problem. If when disabling permalinks the problems goes away, then your .htaccess file has not been formatted correctly. This usually happens when you fail to give your htaccess file 777 permissions before adjusting your permalinks structure. To create custom permalinks, WordPress needs to add code to your .htaccess file to create the redirects. If the file does not have 777 permissions, then wordpress will not have "permissions" to execute the file, which means the code needed to make your permalinks work will not be added. You should log in to your website via FTP and locate your .htaccess file (located in your main WordPress directory) and adjust the permissions. Once you have changed your permalinks successfully, however, it is very important that you change the file's permissions back to 644. Leaving any file at 777 is a big security risk!
Back To Top

Back To Top

By default all themes come with a "home" link that points back to your website's homepage. This is not a page or category, but rather a link that has been hard-coded into the theme files. To remove this link, you will need to disable it from within ePanel via the Navigation > Pages tab (look for the "Display Home Link" setting).
Back To Top

The only way to add an external link within your navigation bar is the use the Appearances > Menu system to create and manage your menu. This system gives you complete control over what links are added to the menu, as well as what order they are placed. All of our themes support the Menu system. You can learn more about using this system here.
Back To Top

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: /preview/TheProfessional/357-2/

Back To Top

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 achieve the desired result, as outlined in this video tutorial.

Back To Top

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

Back To Top

Threaded Comments should be enabled by default when you install WordPress. However, if for whatever reason your threaded comments are not working, you should check the Settings > Discussion tab in the WordPress Dashboard and make sure that "threaded comments" are enabled. All of our themes support this feature.
Back To Top

By default, comments are added to Posts and not Pages. You can change this from within ePanel under the Layout Settings tab. Under "Single Post Layout" and "Single Page Layout" you can enable/disable comments on both your posts and pages. If you are wondering why your comments are not appearing in either of these areas, then be sure to check this section of ePanel to insure that comments are enabled.