Documentation for Nico

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.

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 the contact page you created earlier.

Image Sizes

The recommended image sizes for the Nico theme are:

• Post Thumbnail: 500×500px
• Portfolio thumbnail: 400×270px
• Portfolio slider: 750px in width, height can be set under CSSIgniter settings > Portfolio options

Setting up your theme

1) Creating theme pages

Let’s start by adding pages you are going to need. Go to Pages > Add New and create the following pages:

1. “Home” this will serve as your homepage, assign to it the “Front Page” template to it, from the “Page attributes” panel. See below for homepage configuration.
2. “Blog” this will be your posts page. Just create it, no further action needed.
3. “Contact” (optional) here you can place your contact form.
4. “Portfolio” this page will list your portfolio items. Apply the “Portfolio Listing” template and publish the page. You can also select the number of columns your portfolio listing page will have by selecting one of the available layouts in the “Portfolio Listing Details” box below the main text editor.

(TIP, all page titles serve as examples, you can name your pages according to your needs.)

Once the pages are created, navigate to Settings > Reading and set the “Home” page to be your static frontpage and the “Blog” page as your posts page, as demonstrated in the image below.

2) Populating your blog

To add new posts to your blog, go to Posts > add new, title your post, enter the content in the editor, upload a featured image by clicking “Set featured image” on the Featured Image panel, add a category and/or tag to the post, if you so desire, from the respective panels and publish the post by clicking “Publish”.

3) Adding portfolio items

To add a new portfolio item go to Portfolio > Add New. Set a featured image from the panel on the right, fill in any text you have for the portfolio item and move to the Portfolio Details panel below. Upload your project related photos in the Portfolio Gallery section (have a look at the end of this document for more info on gallery creation). Then you need to select whether the portfolio item will appear on the homepage and if it will have an internal slider.
Finally you have to fill in Project Details. Click the Add Field button to create a new field, you can enter client name, date of creation, suggested price, pretty much anything you like. Finally you can add an external URL, if available, to demonstrate your product.
TIP: The internal slider and the ‘related projects’ section title can be controlled under CSSIgniter Settings > Portfolio Options.

4) Creating your menu

Now that your content is in place, you will need a menu. Go to Appearance > Menus, check the pages you want on your menu and add them, give your menu a name and save it. Finally you will need to set your menu as “Main” menu, this can be done either by checking the “Main menu” box in “Menu Settings” just below your menu items in Menu Structure, or by going to the “Manage Locations” tab and selecting the menu you just created.

(TIP, for more info on creating and managing menus, please read the WordPress Menu User Guide here)

5) Setting up your homepage

The homepage on Nico consists of the blog sidebar that appears on the right, the featured portfolio items and posts below them and finally the footer widgets.
The number of columns for the featured portfolio items, the maximum number of portfolio items and the number of posts on the homepage can be configured under CSSIgniter Settings > Homepage Options.

6) Changing Footer text

The theme’s footer features an area for you to enter your copyright info, privacy policy etc. To change the text you need to go to CSSIgniter settings > Site options (5th box down).

7) Introduction Title

The theme allows you to set an introductory title which will appear on the top of all posts & pages. To do that you need to go to CSSIgniter Settings > Display Options. You can also select on which pages it will appear by checking/unchecking the available boxes.

8) Widgets

The theme features six custom widgets specially crafted to help you display your content. They can be found under Appearance > Widgets
Below each widget there is a small description which describes their functionality.

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! Please visit our support Hub