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Quick Start Guide

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zyml edited this page Nov 18, 2012 · 4 revisions

Quick Start Guide

Introduction

This guide is for site owners installing Arras Theme on a FRESH WordPress installation. For those who are either upgrading from an older version of Arras Theme (1.0 - 1.3) or are using other themes prior to this, check out Upgrading to Arras Theme.

This guide is accurate as of Arras Theme 1.4.3.1. Some of the information stated in this page might not work in prior versions.

Before You Start

  • Your blog is running the latest version of self-hosted http://www.wordpress.org (NOT WordPress.com).
  • You have administrator rights in that installation.
  • You have FTP access from your web host, along with a solid FTP client like http://www.filezilla.org.

Download & Installation

There are many ways you can download and install Arras Theme. To make things simple, this is (probably) the easiest way:

  • Login to your site's WordPress Admin.
  • Go to Appearance › Add New Themes (In WordPress 3.0 you will need to go to Appearance › Themes, followed by clicking on the Install Themes tab).
  • Search for Arras Theme using the field provided.
  • Click Install, then Install Now
  • WordPress will download the theme from their server. Once that is complete, you can activate the theme by clicking on Activate.

In Arras Theme 1.4.3, the theme should automatically reset the options to its default values. However in prior versions this will not be the case. To get the theme working correctly, you will need to go to the Theme Options and submit once.

Setting File Permissions (Optional)

This step is extremely important if you wish to use the legacy (timThumb) method of using post thumbnails in this theme. Basically, you will need to set the permissions for the folder /wp-content/themes/arras-theme/library/cache/ to 755. This ensure that the thumbnail script is able to cache the generated thumbnails used in the theme. For more information on setting file permissions with your FTP client: http://www.interspire.com/content/articles/12/1/FTP-and-Understanding-File-Permissions

Theme Basics

Here is a quick overview on the features of Arras Theme:

Theme Options

Once you have activated the theme you should see a new tab on your WordPress Admin navigation. Inside the tab there should be a link called Theme Options. When clicked, you should be at a page with many tabs and options.

This page allows you to customise Arras Theme to your liking. Setup your RSS feed services, Twitter and Facebook links. Customise your footer message. Try playing around with the settings to get an idea of how each setting work.

Featured Slideshow

The Featured Slideshow is located at the homepage of your blog installation, before Latest Headlines and News Posts at the content area.

To set up the slideshow, you will need to go to the theme options, under the Home (Layout for 1.4.2 and below) tab, and assign a category for the slideshow to grab its posts from. Alternatively, you may choose to allow the slideshow to display your stickied posts.

You may also set the number of posts to be displayed at the theme options.

NOTE: Certain WordPress plugins with certain Javascript code can break the Featured Slideshow. If your slideshow does not work, try disabling your plugins one by one to see which plugin is breaking it.

Tapestries (Display Types)

Arras Theme allows you to choose four different tapestries to display your posts in both your home template and archive/search templates. The default tapestries available are: Node-Based, Quick Preview, Per Line and Traditional.

Child theme developers can also utilise the Tapestries API to create any custom tapestries or remove an existing one.

Post Thumbnails

There are two methods to set your post thumbnails in Arras Theme:

  • WordPress Built-in Post Thumbnail (WordPress 2.9+) - Recommended
  • timThumb Script (Unavailable as of 1.5)

The First Method

  • Create or Edit a post by clicking Posts › Add New or Posts › Edit.
  • If you are editing a post, select which post you wish to add a thumbnail in.
  • Under the Post Thumbnail meta box, click on Set Thumbnail.
  • Upload your image that you wish to use as a thumbnail (external images will NOT work).
  • Click on Use as Thumbnail.
  • That's it! You're done!

The Second Method

This method is still available for the sake of those who have upgraded from 1.3.x. Ensure that you have set your file permissions before proceeding on the second method.

Pictorial Guide: http://i43.tinypic.com/4ida3n.jpg

  • Create or Edit a post by clicking Posts › Add New or Posts › Edit.
  • If you are editing a post, select which post you wish to add a thumbnail in.
  • Upload an image and copy its full URL (external images will NOT work).
  • Under the Custom Fields meta box, create a new custom field with the Key thumb.
  • Under the Value field, paste the full URL of the image you have just uploaded.
  • Save the page and you are done.

General Advice

  • Decide on your site's overall layout and the individual thumbnail sizes even before creating your first blog post, so that you do not need to install plugins to regenerate the thumbnails every time you change those settings.
  • Try not to edit the theme source files to customise the theme, especially /css/styles/default.css or /css/styles/legacy.css. You will lose those customisations whenever you perform a theme upgrade. Either add your custom CSS code in user.css or create a Child Theme and customise from it.

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