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.
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.
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 "Design" and then "Boutique Theme Options" to reveal the various theme options. You can also use the 125x125 advertisement widget by adding the ET: Advertisement widget to your sidebar, and filling in the required fields.
The featured slider can be set up using two different methods. You can either populate the tabs using Pages, or you can popular it using posts from a designated category. In the Appearances > Boutique 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.
These posts are pulled from a specific category that you define within the Appearances > Boutique Theme Options. Under the General Settings > Homepage tab, you will see a dropdown menu where you can choose which category to use for your special offers. You will also see a field where you can choose how many items to add to the slider. It's best to choose increments of 4, as 4 slides are displayed at a time with each row of the section.
Boutique works by integrating with several already-popular eCommerce plugins. To enable eCommerce functionality, simply choose one of the following plugins and install them. All of the features and custom fields on these plugins (such as price, descriptions, shopping carts, etc) will automatically interface with the design.
Simple PayPal Shopping Cart
Cart66
WP eCommerce
Shopp
Boutique makes it easy to change what fonts are used in the theme. You can change the Header and Body fonts independently from within the Appearances > Boutique Theme Options page under the General Settings > General tab. Look for the "Header Font" and "Body Font" settings and select your desired font from the dropdown menu.
Boutique comes with loads of background options. You can change the background color as well as choose from various overlay patterns to give your background a unique look. To adjust the background color of your theme, adjust the "Background Color" setting in ePanel located under the General Settings > General tab. When you click the field, a color wheel will pop up allowing you to choose any color.
Next you can choose a background texture via the "Background Texture" setting located in the General Settings > General Tab of ePanel. You can also upload your own background image via the "Background Image" option.
Boutique comes with a nifty customization control panel that allows you to adjust the visual elements of your theme on the fly. This control panel makes it easier to choose great colorschemes, instead of having to adjust colors one-by-one in ePanel, and having to save/preview along the way. To enable the control panel, locate the "Show Control Panel" option in the General Settings > General Tab of ePanel. Once enabled, a settings box will appear on the left hand side of your screen when browser your website. Use the various settings to adjust your theme's colors until you have found a combination that pleases you. Then simply add the color values you have chosen into ePanel and turn off the control panel to finalize your setup.
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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