Theme installation
The easiest way to install the theme, is by accessing your WordPress admin panel, then go to Appearance → Themes. Select the Install Themes tab and click the Upload link located just below the tab’s name. Click on Browse… and select the WordPress theme zip file you just downloaded. Then click the Install Now button, and after a few seconds, your new theme should be installed. Click activate and the theme is ready to use.
In order to install the theme manually, or in case you have trouble installing it through the admin panel, you have to unzip the WordPress theme’s zip file on your computer, and upload via FTP the resulting theme folder into your WordPress installation themes folder (wp-content/themes). Then, from the WordPress admin go to Appearance → Themes. The theme should be available in your themes list. Click activate.
After activation, you will be redirected to the CSSIgniter Settings panel (accessible from Appearance → CSSIgniter Settings) to start customizing your brand new theme.
Image Sizes
The recommended image sizes for the Memories theme are:
- Main thumbnail size: 740x420px
- Blog thumbnail: 820x320px
- Slider image: 1280x685px
Useful Plugins
These plugins provide functionality and features used directly (or not) by the Theme. So, it is recommended to install and activate them before importing your sample content.
- CSSIgniter Shortcodes you can use our custom made shortcode plugin to help you create a variety of layouts and elements on your site. Instructions can be found here.
- Socials Ignited use this plugin to create a widget that links to all your social profiles. You can also customize it with your icons and add new social networks, a guide can be found here.
- Contact Form 7 use this plugin to create a contact form, then copy the shortcode it gives you and paste it in an empty page.
Importing Sample Content using One Click Import
To automate the process of importing and for a better experience we have natively included support for OneClick Import Plugin. Let install it fist:
From your WordPress dashboard
- Visit ‘Plugins > Add New’,
- Search for ‘One Click Demo Import’ and install the plugin,
- Activate ‘One Click Demo Import’ from your Plugins page.
From WordPress.org
- Download ‘One Click Demo Import’.
- Upload the ‘one-click-demo-import’ directory to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory, using your favorite method (ftp, sftp, scp, etc…)
- Activate ‘One Click Demo Import’ from your Plugins page.
Once the plugin is activated you will find the actual import page in: Appearance > Import Demo Data.
Click on the Import demo data button and you are done!
This plugin requires PHP version of at least 5.3.x, but we recommend version 5.6.x or better yet 7.x. Please contact your hosting company and ask them to update the PHP version for your site.
Theme Features
The theme is designed to be a Photography Portfolio website but it’s up to you how you use it. It has the following unique features which will be described in subsequent sections:
- Homepage Template w/ slider
- Galleries custom post type
- Jetpack powered gallery display
- CSSIgniter Custom Options Panel
Setting up your Gallery
First thing you would want to do is set up your Galleries.
This is accomplished by navigating to “Galleries → New Gallery” from the WordPress Dashboard menu. The gallery post type is straightforward. The title input holds the Title of your Gallery, the Rich Text Editor should hold its description and content which will be shown in the single Gallery page of that particular Gallery.
To upload your gallery photographs, click on the upload button in the “Gallery Details” subsection. Select your photos via the WordPress multi-uploader, and hit upload. Once they are done uploading, make sure to set an image as a featured image. This will be your Gallery Cover, for the gallery listing page and your homepage.
Then all you have to do is create a gallery via the native WordPress media manager. If you don’t have prior experience to creating galleries this way the following video shows how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99soYUtwmfQ.
If you wish to display your galleries in a cool tiled way, read below in the Jetpack Support section.
Setting up your Gallery Listing Page
The Gallery listing page is where all your galleries will be displayed. You can create one by going to Pages → Add New. Give a title (like “Galleries”, or “My Work”) and leave the editor blank. Then from the Page Attributes on the right of your screen select the “Gallery Listing” template from the Templates dropdown.
Setting up your blog.
For the blog, you just have to create a blank page, name it (like “Blog” or anything), and hit Publish. Then navigate to Settings → Reading via the WordPress Dashboard Menu and select that page as your blog page via the dropdown.
Setting up your homepage.
You have two options for your homepage.
The first one is simply having it as a blog. You don’t need to do anything for this to happen. Just upload some posts.
The other one is the featured slideshow frontpage template.
Homepage with slider.
Create a new page, give it any name you want and then select the option Frontpage as its Template from the Page Templates dropdown.
Hit Publish and once the page is done saving navigate to Settings → Reading and select this page as your Frontpage via the WordPress dropdown (labeled Display a static page).
Other theme features.
You may have any page displaying full-width, without a sidebar. All you need is to assign the Page FullWidth template from the Page Attributes box.
You can set up how many columns you want your gallery and gallery single page to split into in the CSSIgniter Custom Options Panel in the Gallery Options section.
You may have a Posts Archive by creating a blank page and setting that page template to “Article Archives”. This will create a page where you can have your Posts Archive organized by date.
Jetpack Support
Memories is built based on new WordPress standards and supports the official Jetpack plugin for displaying galleries and lightboxes.
It is highly recommended that you download and install the Jetpack plugin (http://jetpack.me/) and activate the Carousel and Tiled Galleries features.
More info on how to use the Tiled Galleries can be found here: http://jetpack.me/support/tiled-galleries/
Please note that Jetpack requires to sign in to WordPress.com with a username on that website. If you don’t have one and don’t wish to create one, we’ve made the theme to work with the Slim Jetpack plugin which offers the same functionality but doesn’t require you to sign in. You can find the Slim Jetpack plugin here: http://wordpress.org/plugins/slimjetpack/
How to use the page builder template
The theme comes bundled with a page builder template which allows you to use your favorite page builder plugin on it and create unique layouts very easily.
To use that template start by going to Pages > Add New. This will create a new page. Add a title to your page and select the Page builder template from the template drop down in the Page Attributes metabox.
That’s it. You can now start building your page using the page builder of your choice, once done publish it and check it out.
Next Steps
Still have questions or problems setting up your CSSIgniter Theme? We will be happy to help you out in our support forums