VT Blogging Documentation

GETTING STARTED

Support

All of our Free themes come with free support. We handle support exclusively through the official WordPress.org Support Forum

Please follow the steps below before submitting a support request.

Make sure you are running the latest version of the theme and the latest version of WordPress.
Have a close look at theme documentation for the answer to your question.
Have a close look at the support forum whether the question has been asked before.
Disable all additional 3rd party plugins that you are using to check if it fixes the issue.

If the above steps didn’t fix your issue please create an account or login on the WordPress.org Support Forum.

Support includes:

Responding to questions or problems regarding the item and its features
Fixing bugs and reported issues
Providing updates to ensure compatibility with new software versions

Item support does not include:

Customization and installation services
Support for third party software and plug-ins

Installation

Installing Theme

Installation Requirements

To install your new theme you must have a working version of WordPress* already installed installed on your self-hosted site.

For information on how to install the WordPress software, please visit WordPress Codex – Installing WordPress.

This theme required WordPress at least 4.1+. It’s highly recommended that you have the latest version of your WordPress installed.

Theme Installation Process

You can install VT Blogging WordPress theme directly from your WordPress dashboard, like you would do with any other WordPress theme.

Log in to your WordPress site
Go to Appearance >> Themes
Click Add New Theme

Type “VT Blogging” into the search field on the right side
Click install to install the theme.

When the theme installation is finished you should see a message “Theme installed successfully”. Click Activate to activate the theme.

Go to Appearance > Customize: to get started customizing theme.

In case you are new to WordPress, you can find instructions regarding the theme installation in this tutorial: Using Themes in WordPress.

Menu Setup

1. Go to “Appearance > Menus”
2. Select “create a new menu” at the top of the page.
3. Enter a name for your new menu in the Menu Name box.
4. Select the “Pages” or “Categories” by clicking the check box next to each “Pages” or “Categories” that you want to include in the menu.
5. Click the “Add to Menu” button located at the bottom of tab to your menu.
6. Click the “Save Menu” button.

Note: If you already have Menu name and list, then you can select “Primary Menu” at the bottom “Menu Settings > Theme locations”, and “Save Menu”.

Add Featured Image/Post

Featured images also known as post thumbnails are a popular feature in WordPress themes.
Simply create a new post and scroll down a little to see if there is a meta box called featured images on the right hand side of the screen.

To add a featured image in a WordPress post, simply click on “Set Featured Image” link inside the featured image meta box shown in the screenshot above.

This will open the WordPress Media Uploader. You can use that to upload an image from your computer or use an existing image from your media library. Once you select the image, simply click on Set Featured Image button.

Set/ Show Author Avatar on Post Meta

The theme support to display the current authors avatar.

If you have a Gravatar set for the email address you used on your website, it will automatically be used.

If you do not have a Gravatar, you may sign up and create one here: http://en.gravatar.com

This is how the author avatar info box looked on the demo site.

1. Go to Media > Add New
2. Click on “Select Files”
3. Upload a square image of you. (Ideal size 250x200px)
4. Click on “edit”
5. Copy the link from “File URL”
6. Go to “Appearance > Widgets”
7. Move/ drag the “[VT] About Widget” to the Sidebar
8. Paste the url in the “Image URL”
9. Write a text in “About Description”
10. Add the url of your about page
11. Click on “Save”

1. Go to “Appearance > Widgets”
2. Move/ drag the “[VT] Popular Post” widget to the Sidebar
3. Set the number of posts to show
4. Add the url of your about page
5. Select “Display post date” to show the Post date on the widget
6. Click on “Save”.

Add an Author Info Box

The theme have built-in support for author bio boxes. which is no need to install additional plugin.

Login to your WordPress dashboard and Go to “Users Your Profile.” Under the Contact Info & About Yourself title and Fill out the the form with your information.

This is how the author info box looked on VT Blogging demo site.

Customize/ Theme Customizer

All of the options provided in VT Blogging theme are handled using the WordPress Theme Customizer, which was added in WordPress version 3.4. This provides numerous distinct advantages over 3rd party options panels, including:

Utilizing native WordPress features.
A simple, intuitive interface.
Live preview of options changes before committing them.
Cutting down on code bloat.

To get to the WordPress Theme Customizer, go to “Appearance Customize” in the WordPress Admin Panel. Once you are there, you will be presented with a screen consisting of the options panel on the left and the preview of your site on the right. It should be noted that nothing you change in the Theme Customizer will be committed until you select “Save & Publish.”

This is an incredibly handy feature as it lets you to view everything you’re changing on your site before any of your visitors see anything you’re updating, allowing you to get 4 things exactly the way you want them before making them live.

Theme Settings

You can customize Site Layout, Blog Layout, Logo, Color settings, etc

You will see any changes in a live preview

Whenever you change any value in the Customizer you need to confirm this change with a click on Save Changes before quitting the Customizer.

Contact Page

The theme supports the popular plugin “Contact Form 7” to easily create working contact forms.

Please read this to learn more: How to create a working contact page in WordPress.

Fullwidth Page template

To create a Fullwidth Page:

Step 1 – Go to your wordpress admin >> Pages and click the Add New button or Edit the page you need to make Fullwidth page.
Step 2 – Find the page attributes box and locate the template select box and choose “Fullwidth”.
Step 3 – Save or Publish the page, by click the appropriate button in the top right of your screen.
Step 4 – You will see a page that looks like the one below. Edit the fields for the desired output.

Additional Features/Options

If you have followed the above mentioned steps of this documentation, you have completed the basic theme setup of VT Blogging WordPress Theme. Now you can start creating amazing content.

Image Sizes

If you are migrating to VT Blogging from another theme you may wish to resize your images first so that they fit better within the new theme.
To do this, please install Regenerate Thumbnails WordPress plugin.

In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to “Plugins >> Add New.”

Type “Regenerate Thumbnails” in the search box, install and run the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.

Additional CSS

To add additional CSS go to “Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS” and simply put your CSS here.

Image Sources

100% of the images used in VT Blogging demo are from pixabay.com. published under Creative Commons Public Domain deed CC0.
This means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the images for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Pixabay.

Upgrade to Pro Version

We hope you enjoy using VT Blogging Theme by VolThemes. If you would like to have more features and options, you can support us with upgrade to the premium version and benefit from more awesome features and excellent theme support.

Configure your own news website or blog within a few minutes and benefit from endless possibilities to customize your website. Learn more about the premium version of this theme.