Learn how to use 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.
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.
An API key is required in order to use the Google Maps. To obtain an API key, log into the Google Developers Console, which will guide you through the process, and activate the Google Maps JavaScript API and any related services automatically. The first thing you will be asked to do is create a new project.
Next you will be asked to name your project. You can name the project anything you like. In this example, I simply called it "Maps." You can also input your website's domain name (add an * in front of it if you allow access from both www.domain.com and domain.com) to make sure to other website's are allowed to your your API key.
After you have created an named your project, you will be presented with an API Key that you can use.
After you have obtained an API key, you must copy/paste it into the theme options panel by navigating to:
Appearances>>Explorable Theme Options>>General Settings>>Google Maps API Key
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.
To add a new location on the map, you must post a new "Listing" within your WP Dashboard. Once you install and activate Explorable, a new custom post type will become available. Click the Listing > Add New button to post a new listing. Within the post create screen, you will notice some additional settings bellow the text editor within the "ET Settings" box. Here you can input your listing's Address, Description, Rating and Location. The location on the map is based off of Longitude and Latitude coordinates. The theme uses Longitude and Latitude to place a pin on the map instead of an address because the google API limits the # of longitude conversions per website. Within the ET Settings box, you can drag and drop the location pin to automatically detect Longitude and Latitude values, or you can use the following website to convert your address to Longitude and Latitude: Convert To Long/Lat.
Each location can categorized Types. Under Listings > Types, you can create new type categories and assign each location to specific types. These types are then available as a filter on the homepage towards the bottom of the page. For example, you could create the following types to separate posts into location groups on the map: "United States, Africa, China, Japan, etc..." When a visitor filters based on these location types, they will receive a result based on which listings have been added to the specified Type.
Each location can also be categorized using Tags. Whenever you add a Tag to a listing, that tag becomes a filterable category on the homepage towards the bottom of the page. For example, you could tag posts using types such as "Vacation Spot, Tourist Attraction, Historical Monument, etc.." If the user searches/filters based on these tags, they can easily find locations of certain kinds.
Explorable uses the WordPress Theme Customizer interface to allow you to adjust your theme's colors quickly and easily. To use the Theme Customizer, click the Appearances > Themes > Customize link. This will launch the customizer along with various color options.
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.
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
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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