Aspire Theme Setup

Theme Customizer

The Theme Customizer allows you to change the design of your theme without using any code!

To get started, first head over to your WordPress Admin, then go to Appearance > Customize to access the Theme Customizer.

Here are the list of options you can change with the Customizer –

• Logo/Header Image
• Theme Colors – Automatically change Links, Buttons, and Homepage Backgrounds Colors.
• Site Title & Tagline
• Front Page Background Images
• Menus
• Widgets
• Plenty More!

Plugins

Below are the list of Plugins used in the Demo. These plugins are free, and not required for the theme to work/function, but are useful if you want to add these features and replicate the Demo.

• Genesis – eNews Extended Widget
• Simple Social Icons
• Ninja Forms
• Widget Importer & Exporter
• WordPress Importer
• Genesis Simple Share
• Featured Custom Post Types

How to Import Home Page Demo Widgets

A quick and easy way to setup the Homepage demo is to download and install a Plugin called “Widget Importer & Exporter” – https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-importer-exporter/ Once installed, this plugin can import the Widget Content from the Demo’s Home Page automatically.

So by using this plugin, you won’t need to copy and paste the text and html code used from the demo since the plugin will automatically add it in your widgets for you.

We recommend this plugin since WordPress XML files won’t Import the Home Page Widgets from the Demo. The XML file will only import Posts, Pages, Categories, etc, but not Home Page Widgets. So in order to install the widgets all in “One Click“, you can use the plugin above and it will take care of the entire process for you.

You can download the Aspire Demo Widgets file here – https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjf66wdc751llq0/demo.appfinite.net-aspire-widgets.wie?dl=0 Import this file with the plugin.

NOTE: If you want the exact copy of the demo, make sure you already have the plugins listed above installed and activated. The Widget Importer plugin will import all of the Demo widgets including the content that was created using plugins from the demo. So in order for the plugin content/data to be properly Imported on your site, you’ll need to have those plugins installed beforehand. All of the plugins are not required if you don’t need or plan to use them. You can still import the other widgets and their content if you prefer.

To import this file, install the Plugin, then go to the Tools > Widget Importer & Exporter link from your WordPress admin page. From there you’ll see the Import/Export option. Choose the Import Widgets option, and upload the file above.

How to Change Home Page Background Images

Every background image that you see on the homepage can easily be changed by using the Customizer. To access the Customizer, head over to your WordPress Admin, then go to Appearance > Customize and you’ll see the options to change the background images under the Tab/Link labeled Front Page Background Images. From there you can change the background images of the homepage.

The default size of the demo images are 1800px width, and 1200px height. You can of course change this to whatever size you prefer for your site. Keep in mind, the images are designed to be large, full width and cover the entire area of each widget location.

Blog Posts / Front Page Content Settings

To add or remove the Blog Posts on the Homepage, click Appearance, then Customizer and select the “Front Page Content Settings” link.

On this page you can select whether to Show or Hide the latest Blog Posts on the homepage (bottom). You can also add/change the Latest Blog Posts Title if you choose to use that as well.

How to use the Home Page Widgets

To activate a Widget Area, simply add any widget you want into it’s place. Once you do this, the Widget Area will activate and show up on your homepage.

If you don’t need to use all of the available widget locations on your homepage, leaving them blank will deactivate/prevent them from showing.

The same process works for your Sidebar Widget Areas as well.

Front Page 1 Widget

For the Front Page widget area, we added an empty TEXT widget inside this widget location. The reason we added an empty text widget is simply to activate the widget. All we needed for the demo was to show the background image. The background image shows the stock photo we added to the theme. This image can be changed to any image you want using the Customizer.

You can access the customizer by going to Appearance Customize and then clicking the tab labeled Front Page Background Images.

Keep in mind, you can still add content, or any type of widget inside the Front Page 1 widget if you prefer.

Front Page 2 Widget

The Front Page 2 Widget Area is using the Genesis eNews Extended Widget plugin for the demo. You can access this plugin for free by downloading it from here – https://wordpress.org/plugins/genesis-enews-extended/

Once you download and install this plugin, the eNews widget will be available on your Widgets Page (reload that page to see it). You can then add this widget to the Front Page 2 Widget area and adjust the settings as you wish.

The Background Color for the Front Page 2 Widget can be changed using the Customizer. To change the background color for the Front Page 2 widget, you will need to go to Appearance > Customize > Colors then change the Accent Color to the color you want. This color that you change will affect all of the buttons, links, etc in your theme. So if you need to change your Theme Color to match your brand’s color scheme, this option will help you do it quickly with no code required!

Front Page 3 Widget

For the Front Page 3 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 4 Widget

For the Front Page 4 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Home Mid Left Widget

For the Home Mid Left Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Home Mid Right Widget

For the Home Mid Right Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 5 Widget

For the Front Page 5 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 6 Widget

For the Front Page 6 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 7 Widget

For the Front Page 7 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 8 Widget

For the Front Page 8 Widget Area, we are using 2 widgets. The first widget is a TEXT widget. You can add some basic text to this widget if needed.

For the 2nd widget, we are using a free plugin called – Featured Custom Post Types. This plugin is based on the default Genesis Featured Posts widget that shows up as a default widget in the Genesis Framework. This plugin adds a few extra features to the default Genesis Featured Posts widget. The reason we are using it is because you can add multiple Columns/Rows. We have this widget set to show 3 Columns/Rows. This can be set in the Settings panel of the widget.

You can download this plugin from here – https://github.com/calliaweb/featured-custom-post-type-widget-for-genesis

Front Page 9 Widget

For the Front Page 9 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 10 Widget

For the Front Page 10 Widget Area, we are using 2 TEXT widgets. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code for the first widget –

You can add this code for the 2nd widget –

Front Page 11 Widget

For the Front Page 11 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 12 Widget

For the Front Page 12 Widget Area, we are using a TEXT widget. Add a Text widget, then Copy/Paste this code –

Front Page 13 Widget

For the Front Page 13 Widget Area, we are using 2 widgets.

For the 1st widget, we are using a free plugin called – Featured Custom Post Types. This plugin is based on the default Genesis Featured Posts widget that shows up as a default widget in the Genesis Framework. This plugin adds a few extra features to the default Genesis Featured Posts widget. The reason we are using it is because you can add multiple Columns/Rows. We have this widget set to show 3 Columns/Rows. This can be set in the Settings panel of the widget.

You can download this plugin from here – https://github.com/calliaweb/featured-custom-post-type-widget-for-genesis

The 2nd widget is a TEXT widget. You can add some basic text to this widget if needed.