Nimble Theme Documentation

Learn how to use your new theme

How to install your new theme

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.

Adding thumbnails (aka "featured images") to your posts

For each post, you can define an image that will be displayed along with your content on Posts and Category pages. Thumbnail images (aka Featured Images) are added using the "Featured Image" option within your WordPress Dashboard. Whenever you create or edit a post, look for the "Featured Image" box. This box will be located to the right of your text editor or below your text editor depending on the size of your screen. Click the "Set featured image" link and upload the image that you would like to use. Once uploaded, scroll down and select "Full Size" as your image size, and then click the "Use as featured image" link. This image will now be used as your Thumbnail image for the post.

Important Note: The WordPress thumbnail function re-sizes the image you upload based on what thumbnail sizes are needed for your theme. Each time you change a theme, you may need to re-generate these thumbnails so that they fit your new theme correctly. You can use the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin each time you switch themes to re-generate your thumbnails. After enabling this theme, you should run this plugin to update all of your old thumbnails to avoid design inconsistencies.

Defining a Custom Logo Image

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 installing, 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.

How do I set up the featured slider on the homepage?

The featured slider can be set up using two different methods. You can either populate the tabs using Pages, or you can populate it using posts from a designated category. In the Appearances > Nimble Theme Options page in wp-admin, under the General Settings > Featured Slider tab, you will see an option that says "Use Pages." If you select this option then pages will be used, if you don't then posts will be used. If you want to use Pages then you simply select "Use Pages," and then below the option select which pages you would like to display in the slider. If you don't use pages, then simply select the "Featured Category" from the dropdown menu and posts from that category will be added to the slider.

For each Page/Post that is in the slider, you can custom the content that appears (Title, Description and link URL). To do this, edit any page that is in your slider and locate the "ET Settings" box below the text editor. Select the "The Page Is Featured" option to reveal several fields that you can use to customize the content of your slider.

You shlould also define an image to be used for each page. To add an image to your slider, edit any Post/Page in your slider and add a featured image using the "Featured Image" link to the right of your text editor, or by using the Thumbnail Custom Field as outlined in the "How do I add the thumbnails to my posts? " sectcion above.

Configuring the three blurbs below the slider on the homepage

These blurbs are created using pages. Create three pages that you would like to use for these three blurbs, then go to the Appearances > Nimble Theme Options page and click the General Settings > Homepage tab. Under the "Content Area 1/2/3 Page" dropdown menus, choose the three pages you would like to use. Within the pages you can use a "more" tag to truncate the post preview. The content of each page will show up within each "blurb" on the homepage.

You will also need to designate an Icon image for each blurb, to appear above the text within the grey circle. To define a logo image for your page, you must create a new custom field with the Name "Icon" and a Value of the URL to the icon image that you would like to use. To create a new custom field, locate the "Custo Fields" section below your text editor when editing a page. A 50x50px icon with the image centered in the frame should yield the best result.

Configuring the "recent news" (blog) section on the homepage

THis section can be enabled/disabled from within the Appearances > Nimble Theme Options page under the General Settings > Homepage tab. Once enabled, your most recent posts will be displayed on the homepage. You can modify the heading and description of your "news" section from within the Settings > Homepage tab by modifying the "News & Updates section title" and "News & Updates section description" options.

Configuring the "recent work" section on the homepage

The "Recent Work/Portfolio" section of Nimble is managed using a separate post format called "Projects." Once the theme has been enabled, you can add new projects via the Projects > Add New link in your WordPress Dashboard. To define an image for each project, click the "Featured Image" link when writing your post and upload your desired project image. Once uploaded, click the "Use as featured image" link to set this image as your main project photo. You can modify the heading and description of your "recent work" section from within the Settings > Homepage tab by modifying the "Work & Feedback section title" and "Work & Feedback section description" options.

Configuring the "pricing tables" section on the homepage

The Pricing Tables are created using our Pricing Tables shortcode. The first thing you need to do is create a new page to be used as your "pricing table" section. Once your page has been created, navigate to the Appearances > Nimble Theme Options and click on the General Settings > Homepage tab. Locate the "Plans & Pricing Page" dropdown menu and select the page you created and click "Save." The next step is to use our Pricing Table Shortcode to add pricing tables to your page. Click on the "Pages," link in your WordPress Dashboard, locate your new page and click "Edit." Within the page content area, use the Shortcode Markup to create a pricing table. For an outline of our Pricing Table Shortcode markup, click here.

You can modify the heading and description of your "pricing tables" section from within the Settings > Homepage tab by modifying the "Plans & Pricing section title" and "Plans & Pricing section description" options.

Configuring the quote on the homepage

The change the text used in the Quote on the homepage, click on the Appearances > Nimble Theme Options page in your WordPress Dashboard. Navigation to the General Settings > Homepage tab and edit the text within the "Quote Text Line #1" and "Quote Text Line #2" fields.

Using Sample Data to populate your first installation

If you are starting from scratch, and installing your theme 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.

Using Shortcodes - Create advanced layouts with ease

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/

Using Page Templates To Create Advanced Layouts

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.

Translating The Theme To Another Language

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

How To Update Your Theme To A New Version

Updating your theme is done via the WordPress Dashboard just like any normal theme. Before you can update, however, you must first authenticate your Elegant Themes subscription using the Elegant Themes Updater Plugin. Once authenticated, you can update your Elegant Themes using the standard update interface in WordPress.

To authenticate your WordPress installation, you must first download and install the Elegant Themes Updater. Download the ZIP file here, and then install it via the Plugins > Add New link in your WordPress Dashboard. Once it has been installed and activated, navigate to the Settings > General tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will notice that a new section has been added called "Elegant Themes Automatic Update Settings." Here you will need to input your Elegant Themes Username as your Elegant Themes API Key. You can find your Elegant Themes API Key here. Once both fields have been filled in, click the "Save Changes" button. You can now update your theme when a new version has been released via the Dashboard > Updates page, or via the Appearances > Themes page.

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