Getting Started

Getting started

This document covers installation, set up, and use of this theme. It provides answers and solutions to many common problems. We therefore encourage you to read this document thoroughly if you are experiencing any difficulties before contacting our support team.


Theme Installation

Before you can start installing your theme you need to download it to your computer. To do that, simply log into your purchase account and from the download section download the theme.

To upload and install your theme via WordPress Dashboard, first log into your WordPress installation and go to “Appearance>>Themes”. There, click the “Add New” button at the top of the page and then click the “Upload Theme” button. Locate your theme's zip file (chia.zip) on your computer and select “Install Now”. Once the theme is fully uploaded and installed, click “Activate” to activate the WordPress theme.

After activation, you should see Chia Theme as an active theme:

 

Plugins

After theme activation, you'll see the notification bar at the top of the WordPress dashboard with a list of recommended plugins.

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Plugins are not required for the theme to work. However, they bring functionality that your website might need. In the theme demo, e.g. we used these plugins to add contact form, shop and recipe cards.

If you're not sure which plugins you'll need I'd recommend installing all of them. Once you get more insight of which plugins you'll require you can easily remove the ones that you don't need.

Below you can see how to easily install and activate all these plugins with just a few clicks.



How to start working with the theme?

Important: to be able to effectively use this theme, with all its features, it is required to have the latest WordPress version installed and the default block editor enabled.

There are two ways to start building your site with this WordPress theme.

1. Replicating the demo website and then starting from there.

This method is especially practical if you have a new website, a clean WordPress install or you're new to WordPress. If you want to replicate the demo, skip the rest of this page and follow the instructions for the one-click demo import.

If you want us to set up a replica of the demo site on your WordPress installation you can request it via HelpDesk. More information about this service you can find here.

2. Starting from scratch with your own content

This method might be more practical in case you already have a live website with lots of content and you're simply switching from a previous theme. Also if you're already experienced with WordPress and want to build your website page by page. With this method you won't be importing demo pages and posts.



The Next Steps

There are, of course, many different ways one can approach building a website. However, the most common is to start with the Homepage. There are 2 types of Homepages in WordPress: static and dynamic.

Static homepage displays the content you added to the one specific page while the dynamic automatically lists all your blog posts chronologically.

1. Static Homepage: the demo website of the "Chia" theme features a static homepage.

To start creating your front page navigate to the Pages, create a new page and name it (in the demo we named it "Home").

By default WordPress on the Homepage displays your latest posts. If you want to set the page you created as your homepage just navigate to the Customize » Homepage Settings and instead of the default "Your Homepage Displays: - Your latest posts" select "A static page" and from the drop-down choose the page you created.

From the Posts Page drop-down select a page you want to use to display your posts.

After setting up your homepage we recommend following the documentation in this order: Blog Page>>Pages>>Header & Menu>>Footer>>Customizer

2. Dynamic Homepage: by default in WordPress your posts are displayed chronologically on the homepage. If you wish to have your homepage displaying your posts, continue to the Blog Page section.

After setting up the layout of your Blog Page we recommend following the documentation in this order:Pages>>Header & Menu>>Footer>>Customizer

If you'd like to have a replica of the demo site set up on your server and you don't have time or will to do it yourself, let us do it. We offer professional demo setup service for a small fee and quick turn-around time of max. 48 hours. More about this service you can find here: Professional Theme Demo Setup