Please read through each of the topics sections below. Each topic contains detailed documentation on theme setup and how to use Pivot. Each section also includes narrated video screencasts, everything you need is right here.
Important notes are highlighted in a big red box, pay attention to these.
These are important notes, pay attention when you see them. By The Way: Pivot works best in WordPress 4.0+ Also: All screenshots used are generic and meant to outline a step, their content may differ from your theme slightly. Lastly: Some sections have the sam accompanying video, this means that the section is covered somewhere in the video.
Installing The Theme Get This Beauty Installed
To install your theme in WordPress you must navigate to the menu "Appearance" on the left and then the submenu "Themes". From that page you should see your current theme "Twenty Eleven" by default OR whatever theme you currently have. Now click the "Install Themes" tab and then the text button at the top "Upload". You then should click Choose File and find your theme files on your computer and upload them. Note: You are only uploading the folder "pivotWPTheme.zip" Your final step is to "Activate" your theme.
This process is shown in the images below
First navigate to the themes page
Then click the add new button
Now click upload
Choose your theme file and install
Finally activate the theme
Installing The Theme - Video
Correctly Setting Permalinks Pretty Important
This is a required step in the theme setup, both for proper theme operation, and great SEO.
By default the pagenames will be website.com/p15 instead of website.com/about.
To fix this go to "Settings" > "Permalinks" and change to "Post Name". After choosing "Post Name", Click "Save Changes" and your done. Your urls will now display a proper Permalink structure.
If you get 404 errors on any posts or pages, come back here and set your permalinks to "default", if the errors then go away it means your server has URL rewriting issues. Switch to a default theme to see the same behaviour. You should then contact your webhost support team regarding this.
Setting Permalinks - Video
Installing Required Plugins This is the most important thing!
A Number of theme features come as external plugins to make your life easier if you ever switch themes. These need installing before importing the demo data for proper theme operation.
When you first install the theme you'll see a popup on your dashboard from the theme asking you to install a number of plugins.
Allow the theme to install these for you, it will add custom post types, a page builder, a portfolio post ordering plugin and a custom crop featured image plugin.
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Seriously, make sure these are all installed before importing demo data, you'll only cause yourself problems if you install the demo data first and do this second.
Installing Plugins - Video
Installing Demo Data Did you install the required plugins?
I cannot stress this enough, do not run this section until you've installed the plugins from the section above, if you do you'll only cause yourself problems.
Importing Demo Data (Auto Method)
If this method returns any errors, you must use the fallback demo import method (next section). This auto method can return errors depending on your server setup, 9 times out of 10 this method is perfect, remember, there is a fallback if this fails.
To use demo demo data installer go to "appearance" => "customise" from your WP Dashboard. Inside the customiser (this is also the theme options panel, you can modify loads about the theme from here) click on the "Import Demo Data" tab. Next click the "Import Demo Data" Button, a backup prompt will appear, click OK when you're ready on this, and then leave your install until you get a successful message. This process takes up to 15 mins. Do not do anything during this process!.
Developers: If you have wp_debug set to true, this process will fail, set to false whilst importing demo data.
After importing the demo data, you're about 5 mins away from a perfect demo setup. Please now follow the steps in "Initial Theme Setup" for the final steps to take.
Importing Demo Data (Fallback Method)
I have created a folder labeled "Demo XML Data" which contains an export for the Live Preview. The place to upload this XML file is in WordPress under Tools > Import.
Once you've arrived on the Import page, you will click on the "WordPress" link: Wordpress - Install the WordPress importer to import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags from a WordPress export file.
The first time you do this you will get a pop-up prompting you to install the "WordPress Importer". You will need to click "Install Now". Then You will have installed the plugin and need to click "Activate Plugin & Run Importer".
From here you will just need click "Choose File" and select the demo-data.xml file. Then click "Upload file and import".
You will then be prompted to Assign Authors. You can read the description at the top as this explains everything. Note: Make sure you Import Attachments.
Check the box "Download and import file attachments". This will download attachments for images included in the Live Preview demo.
You now just need to wait for the importer to finish. This might take a few minutes depending on your hosting server speed.
After importing the demo data, you're about 5 mins away from a perfect demo setup. Please now follow the steps in "Initial Theme Setup" for the final steps to take.
Installing Demo Data - Video
Initial Theme Setup Required after demo data install!
This is a required step after importing demo data and installing require plugins. This is the final step to producing the same site as my theme demo.
From your WP Dashboard go to "settings" => "reading" and click the "static homepage" option. Let's set the "home page" to any of the "home layout" pages, and let's set the "posts page" option to "blog", once you've done this hit the save changes button. You now have a proper homepage, and a proper blog page, nice one :)
Now the last step. Go to appearance -> menus and set the theme menus in place. Use the checkboxes at the bottom of the menus to set them in location. Set the main menu into the primary location.
Initial Config - Video
Using Menus Standard menu usage & mega menu.
For a starting overview of how the menu system in WordPress works, please see the official WordPress menu documentation here:
It's best to use the "Ebor Template Builder" to create your mega menu layout, this gives you access to loads of elements. Be sparing though, the mega menu is a little less capable than a page, so although you can insert a portfolio in there, it's probably best not to :) The best elements to use are the code, image & menu blocks in the page builder.
You'll notice in the demo of Pivot that we have a mega menu option, this is incredibly simple to use.
Go to ebor mega menu post type on your WordPress Dashboard and make a new post
Now go to "appearance" => "menus", look at the list of menu item types on the left of the menu screen, if Ebor Mega Menu is in there, great, select your new Ebor Mega Menu post and add it to your menu as a submenu item (Ebor mega menu items must be a submenu item, and they must be the only submenu item). If you don't see ebor mega menu, click on "screen options" in the top right of the screen, then in the dropdown tick "ebor mega menu" and repeat this step.
With the post set as a submenu item in your menu, save and check your site, you should now have a wide dropdown bar where you added the item.
Head back to your ebor mega menu post, we can now work with the post content to add whatever you need. The best way of doing this is with the page buider.
It's up to you what you add in here, but to make it a little more pretty, make sure you use the ebor template builder to create a layout shortcode, insert this into your post.
That's it! Ebor mega menu should be seen then as a way to add post content directly into your menu, how you use it is entirely up to your own creativity!
Using Mega Menu - Video
Using Theme Options All Theme Options & Fonts Usage
All the theme options are very self-explanatory, but if you're a beginner, please read my section about using Google Fonts if you wish to change the theme fonts.
The Theme Options
Using Google Fonts
Heads Up! Please read this section carefully if you plan on changing the fonts used by the theme.
Google fonts are the only tricky part of the theme options, the reason for this is that we've chosen a simple integration of this rather than a huge resource-hogging implementation that's going to slow your server down. The negative of this is that our font control option is a tiny bit trickier than some others, but hey, you probably only change your fonts once and my implementation makes your server faster than most themes!
Pivot gives you 3 areas that you can change the font for, Body, Headings and "Alternate", if you want a fast page load, make these all the same font, if you use 3 different fonts be prepared that this means 3 times the font data to download.
Ok, here's how you change your theme fonts to another Google Font:
Navigate to the fonts section of the theme options via "appearance" -> "customise" => "Pivot: Styling Settings"
In the description of the "fonts" section, click the link to take you to the google fonts website
Whilst on the Google fonts website, try to just choose 1 font at a time to save you some hassle.
To choose a font, click the "Add to collection" button, once you've done this you'll get a grey bar on the bottom of the page, click the "Use" button. Click this button to add the font to your "collection", only do this with one font at a time!Click the use button to advance to the next steps.
In the next window you can review the font weights you wish to include, and any font-subsets you may need, check boxes for these, but do it sparingly!
Now see step 3 & 4 on the Google Fonts page you're currently viewing, first let's use step 4 to fill in our "Font" option, so if step 4 says this: font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; Then we just want to use the value that's inside the quotations, so we would enter this for our option: Open Sans
Next, let's use step 3 to fill in our "Font URL" option, from step 3 click the "@import" tab (it's easier to look at) and see the font URL like this: @import url(http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans); From that, we're just interested in the actual URL, so in the theme option we'd add: http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans
That's it! Save your options and if you've done this correctly your fonts will update to your new choices, you can't really go wrong here, but see the default values below if you need to roll back and start again.
Here's the default settings for this area: Body Font: Open Sans Body Font URL: http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300italic,400italic,400,300,600,700 Heading Font: Open Sans Heading Font URL: http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:300italic,400italic,400,300,600,700 Alternate Font: Raleway Alternate Font URL: http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Raleway:700
Using Theme Options - Video
The Page Builder How To Build Pages
Creating pages is really simple, just go to "appearance" -> "ebor page builder" and start dragging blocks from the left into your page template on the right.
You then go to a published page edit screen and click the "add template" button and add in the content of your choice, make sure you set the "page attributes" template to "Page Builder" so that WordPress knows what the content is.
The basic structure of a page builder template is the "page section" block which you use to mark out the sections of your page, and then add your content in appropriate to the page you're creating.
Using Ebor Page Builder - Video
Using Post Types An overview of the additional post types in Pivot.
Client & Testimonial post types are simply content creators for the corresponding elements in the page builder, neither post type has a single or archive view, so any content entered can only be picked up by the appropriate blocks in the page builder.
Portfolio Posts
Heads Up!
A single portfolio post represents a singular image within the portfolio post feeds on the site. Portfolio posts are automatically show at /portfolio/ on your site, though you can use the page builder to add these to a page instead.
Portfolio posts function exactly in the same way as blog posts. Any additional features of a portfolio post can be modified in the additional portfolio settings section underneath the WP Editor when making a portfolio post, take a look through these options, and make a mental note of what they offer.
Heads Up!
Each Portfolio post MUST have a featured image set. This image should be a minimum of 440px X 330px and should have a maxiumum width of 2000px
To change the layout of a portfolio post from full width to left/right, just use the portfolio layout control in the additional portfolio settings.
Custom Cropping Featured Images
It's very likely you'll want deeper control of how the theme crops your featured images to be shown in the main portfolio feeds. If you installed the plugins recommended by the theme, then you're ready to do this. After you've set your featured image, click the crop image link underneath remove featured image, a window will pop-up. With the window open, choose the portfolio tab and then adjust and crop your image. Finally update your post. When you take a look at your site, if the image has not updated clear your browser cache!
Team Posts
Heads Up!
Team posts are automatically show at /team/ on your site, though you can use the page builder to add these to a page instead.
Team posts work just like blog posts, but have no post formats. Ensure each team post has a featured image set. You'll also want to set a job title, and some social icons for each team member using the additional inputs underneath the WP Editor/
Testimonial Posts
Testimonial posts have no single view, and do not make use of the featured image. Set the testimonial author as the post title, and add the testimonial to the post content. They can be added to your pages using the Testimonial elements in the page builder.
Client Posts
Client posts are a useful way of adding some client logos to your page, set the logo as the featured image, set the client name as the title, and add a client URL if you want the logo to link somewhere.
Using Post Types - Video
Theme Shortcodes Just a few
Pivot comes with a few shortcodes that it's ready to use, if you need more shortcodes available in the theme, just install your favourite shortcodes plugin like Shortcodes Ultimate or simiilar
The first 3 shortcodes have generator pages in this documnetation to make creating these easier for you, the countdown shortcode is used for coming soon pages and just uses a / seperated date to count to. Lastly the contact-form-7 shortcode is created by the plugin of the same name, and is used to place contact forms into the theme.
WooCommerce Installing & Using WooCommerce
Pivot is ready for WooCommerce if you need eCommerce in your theme. There's 2 steps to set this up, but you should also consider installing my demo data with WooCommerce pages and posts to make your life easier after setting up the plugin.
Install WooCommerce
Go to "plugins" => "add-new" => "install" and search for WooCommerce & then run the installer.
Let WooCommerce Set Up Pages For You
Once activated, WooCommerce will offer to install required pages for you, do this now.
Install WooCommerce Demo Data
By far the easiest way to use WooCommerce is to first install the WooCommerce demo data and then configure it to your needs, you already have all the required WooCommerce pages installed so now we just need to populate them.
Head to the Demo XML Data folder in your download, the data we're after is called woocommerce.xml
For details on importing this data, head to the Installing the demo data section of this documentation.
WooCommerce is now set up
That's all you need to do to get a fully functioning shop within Pivot, with the WooCommerce pages installed and with the WooCommerce demo data installed you're ready to rock.
You may want a little more help with how to use WooCommerce though, well Pivot does not modify any of the default WooCommerce methods of working, so by far the best resource for WooCommerce now is that already written by WooThemes themselves, below is a selection of links worth visiting;
Please read all of the following, a link to my ticket service is provided at the end of this section. Any ticket relating to customisation will be politely forwarded to -- http://www.madeinebor.com/customisations/ -- and then your ticket will be closed.
I run support
Weekdays 9am - 5pm GMT. You can expect a response within 12 - 48 hours, Monday to Friday unless there is a national holiday. Here is a list of UK national holidays: https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays. Note that "bumps" to tickets put you to the back of my queue, be patient, every ticket is answered promptly.
What my tickets are for:
Help using theme features, Help setting up / installing themes, bug reports & reasonable feature requests for future updates.
What my tickets aren't for:
Any issues relating to 3rd party plugins not recommended by the theme, theme customisations, or theme changes your client requires.
What counts as customisation?
If you want to change the appearance or functionality of the theme by editing or extending the theme's code, then that is customisation, and will not be supported through my tickets. Likewise if your client has a function request that does not exist in the theme, my tickets are not the place to have the theme extended for this.
You must leave a link to your site, if not we will ask you to do this anyway and it will result in a delay to your ticket.
Please be descriptive when leaving a ticket, use screenshots if possible, "doesn't work" is not an acceptable descriptive term.
Before opening a ticket, disable all non-theme-recommended plugins, undo any code changes, and ensure you're using a default, unmodified version of the theme files. You'll find a lot of the time this fixes your issue.
Tickets without a validated purchase will not be answered. Properly validate your purchase.
If you have a modified theme, or are using a child theme for modification, we cannot help with bugs. Please present bugs to us within the default, unmodified theme, and we will help every time!
Please note Envato's Licensing covers 1 URL per 1 purchase of a theme: http://themeforest.net/licenses/regular - ticket profiles covering multiple URLs with 1 license code, will be stopped until the remaining licenses are provided.
A quick point on theme support: All of my themes are tested and thoroughly scrutinised by themeforest support staff and are confirmed 100% working, if you're having any issues you should be 99.9% sure it's a user error, or a bug I will be happy to fix with you. With this in mind, please keep your tone calm & professional, you will always get the same from me. Any tickets left with vulgar language, or with threatening, unprofessional language will be promptly closed and/or deleted. All tickets left with a calm, professional tone will receive awesome support, as always.