Gazette Edition

This theme documentation was last updated on 09 Feb 09

Contents of this document:

1. Installing Gazette Edition:

To install Gazette Edition, is not much different to installing any other (free) WordPress theme. There are however a few unique steps you will need to follow before jumping into the fun times using our themes. Follow these steps to get it up and running:

  1. Unzip the the template file (gazette.zip) that you have downloaded.
  2. Via FTP, upload the whole folder (gazette) to your server and place it in the /wp-content/themes/ folder. The template files should thus be here now: /wp-content/themes/gazette/.
  3. You will then also need to CHMOD the 'cache folder' in the themes folder i.e. /wp-content/themes/gazette/cache/ to 777 (details here).
  4. Log into your WP admin panel and click on the Design tab. Now click on the Gazette Edition theme to activate it (see the first screenshot below).
  5. Note: When first clicking the theme to activate it, the preview pane will show that the theme contains 'errors', but this is only because you haven't set up the Theme Options yet.
  6. Complete all of the required inputs on the Gazette Edition Options page (in the WP admin panel) and click 'Save Changes'. Section 2 below details this process (See the second screenshot below).
Theme Activation

Screenshot 1: Activating the theme.

Theme Options

Screenshot 2: Set up the theme on the Gazette Edition Options tab.

2. Explaining the Theme Options:

Gazette Edition incorporates a user-friendly theme options page to allow you to easily customise / tweak a variety of options for the theme, without having to touch the code. The theme options is located under the Gazette Edition Options tab in your WordPress admin panel. Here is an explanation of all the options that can be found on this page:

(Note: Options marked with '*' is required to be completed otherwise your theme might not function properly.)

General Settings

  • Theme Stylesheet* Choose the stylesheet you would like to use (located in root/styles/).
  • Use Gravatars? Gravatars can be used for your comments. Check this box if you wish to activate the build in Gravatars functionality.
  • Custom Logo Simply paste the complete URL for your custom-created logo image.
  • Google Analytics Paste the tracking code of your Google Analytics account here. This will also support other analytical software's embedding code and will be inserted just before the '</ body>' tag of the template.
  • Feedburner RSS URL Paste the URL of your Feedburner feed here. If you use this option, it will replace all RSS links within the template from the default WP RSS2 links to your Feedburner RSS link.
  • Feedburner ID This theme integrates nicely with Feedburner to allow your readers to subscribe to you RSS feed via e-mail. Don't know what your Feedburner ID is?
  • Archives Page - Please select your archive page. TIP: Add your archive by creating a new page (Write > Page), and selecting the 'Archive' page template. You also need to set pretty permalinks for this to work.
  • Disable Dynamic Image Resizer (thumb.php) - This will disable the image resizer. You will need to manually resize the featured slider image to 595px—270px, upload it, and then place the image URL in the Gazette Custom Settings below your post edit window.

Front Page Layout

  • Featured Category* Select the posts category that you would like to have displayed in the Featured section on the homepage.
  • Featured Entries* Select the number of featured entries that you would like to have displayed in the featured section on your homepage.
  • Display Video? * If you'd like to display the video panel on the homepage, you need to check this box. If left unchecked, the video panel will not be displayed.
  • Display Video below Featured Section? - Check this box if you wish to display the video panel below the featured section. If unchecked, it will be display below the recent entries on the homepage.
  • Video Category* Select the posts category that you would like to have displayed in the Video panel on the homepage.
  • Front Page Layout - Choose the layout of to be used for the normal entries on your homepage. Default will show two columns. Blog will show one column.
  • Homepage Entries - Select the number of boxes that should appear below the Featured Entries.

Sidebar Components

  • Flickr ID - Use idGettr to find it.
  • Flickr URL - Enter the URL of your Flickr account here.
  • Number of photos - Select the number of photos to display in Flickr sidebar box (3 per row).
  • ect the number of asides you'd like to publish.

Banner Ad Management (468x60 Top)

  • 468px—60 Banner Ad (Top) - Image Location - Specify the URL of the location for the banner advertisement's image.
  • 468x60 Banner Ad (Top) - Destination - Specify the destination URL of the banner advertisement when it is clicked.

Banner Ad Management (300x250 MPU)

  • Disable 300px—250 MPU Check this box if you wish to ignore the 300px—250 MPU.
  • Display Only On Homepage? Check this box if you only want to display the 300px—250 block ad on the homepage. When checked two 125px—125 banner ads will be displayed on all inner pages.
  • 300px—250 Block Ad - Image Location Specify the URL of the location for the banner advertisement's image.
  • 300px—250 Block Ad - Destination Enter the URL where this block ad points to.

Banner Ad Management (125x125 Sidebar)

  • Advertising Page - Please select the WordPress page that contains your advertising information & rates.
  • Display two 125x125 ads at top of sidebar Check this box if you would like to display top 2 banner ads in the sidebar.
  • Banner Ad #1 to #2 - Image Location Specify the URL of the location for the banner advertisement's image.
  • Banner Ad #1 to #2 - Destination Specify the destination URL of the banner advertisement when it is clicked.
  • Display two 125x125 ads at bottom of sidebar Check this box if you would like to display top 2 banner ads in the sidebar.
  • Banner Ad #3 to #4 - Image Location Specify the URL of the location for the banner advertisement's image.
  • Banner Ad #3 to #4 - Destination Specify the destination URL of the banner advertisement when it is clicked.

3. Adding Images To Posts / Using the Image Resizer:

Background Information

Many of the different template pages within Gazette Edition, uses an embedded image within a post when displaying the post to the user. This means that you need to add a custom image to a post should you wish to display the image with the post. If you decline to add an image to a post, it will not be displayed and won't disrupt the theme in any way. Note: Images do need to be added to Featured Posts as specified below in section #4.

Our themes use a custom image resizing script (thumb.php) which will dynamically resize, crop & create an image in the appropriate size needed for the template.

Instructions:

To add images to your posts, please reference the screenshot below and follow the subsequent instructions:

Custom Settings

Screenshot 3: Gazette Edition Custom Settings.

  1. On your Write > Post tab, complete all of the standard fields when adding a new post.
  2. Then, click on the 'Add Media' icon and upload an image of your choice.
  3. Once uploaded, copy the complete 'Link URL' field.
  4. Now scroll down to the Gazette Edition Custom Settings panel (just below your Categories) and paste the 'Link UR' into the 'Image URL' field.

4. Adding Featured Posts (Homepage Only):

Setting up the featured section

  1. First you need to create or identify a specific post category that you would like to use as your featured category. You can create a category by going to Manage > Categories in the WP admin panel.
  2. Now go to Gazette Edition Options and select the appropriate category as the 'Featured Category'. Then save those options.

Adding the post (basics)

  1. Go to Write > Post.
  2. Type a title for the post and complete all of the post's body content.
  3. Make sure to select the appropriate category (as you have specified on the theme options page - see above).
  4. Once you have completed the post's body content, copy a section of that body content, which you will use as the shortened summary of the post on the homepage. Now paste that section of content into the 'Excerpt' field further down the page.

Adding an featured image

Please follow the exact instructions as specified above in section #3 for adding an image to the featured post.

5. Adding Videos (Sidebar):

Setting up the video section

  1. First you need to create or identify a specific post category that you would like to use as your video category. You can create a category by going to Manage > Categories in the WP admin panel.
  2. Now go to Gazette Edition Options and select the appropriate category as the 'Video'. Then save those options.

Adding a new video

  1. Go to Write > Write Post in your WordPress admin panel.
  2. Select the category for your videos (the same category as the category you specified in Gazette Edition Options).
  3. Now you should have the YouTube page open to copy the complete URL i.e. 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdllbXv4uEI'.
  4. You will now need to enter this code into the content area in the following format: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdllbXv4uEI 285 234]. The 285 refers to the width of the video, whilst the 234 is the height of the video.
  5. Click Publish.

Using Other Video Services

You can use any other video services (eg. Google Video, Vimeo, Revver etc.) if you're not a fan of YouTube. You would simply need to revise their embed code (to alter the size of the video according to the dimensions mentioend above) and then include the full embed code (not in the format specified above) in the post content area.

6. Setting up special page templates:

Gazette Edition comes bundled with the following additional page templates for some added functionality to your WooThemes experience:

  • Archives (archives.php) - Displays all categories, monthly archives, popular tags and the 30 latest posts;
  • Image Gallery (imagegallery.php) - Displays the images you have associated with your posts in an image gallery, linking back to the original article; and
  • Sitemap (sitemap.php) - An alternative to some WordPress plugins out there, this page template will create a sitemap, which you can use for SEO & user-usability purposes.

Setting up the page templates

  1. Go to Write > Page in the WP admin panel.
  2. Simply fill in the page title, which can be anything, and then ignore the page body content.
  3. Scroll down to the 'Page Templates' box and select the page template you'd like to use (see the screenshot below).
  4. And publish!
Theme Options

Screenshot 4: Selecting your page template.