Massive News Theme Documentation

Installing Your Theme

There are a number of ways to install a WordPress theme:

- WordPress admin
- S/FTP
- Hosting control panel (cPanel used as a specific example)

The recommended installation method for most people is through the WordPress admin, though some theme updates may require the use of S/FTP or your hosting control panel. Instructions for all three options can be found in the Using Themes Codex article.

Managing Custom Menus

Modern WordPress themes include native custom menu support which allows you to configure your theme menus however you like in a convenient drag-and-drop interface. With a custom menu you can easily add custom links, pages, and categories to your navigation menu. Follow the instructions below for more information on how to create and mange custom menus.

1. Log into your WordPress Admin (e.g. yoursite.com/wp-admin), and navigate to Appearance > Menus.
2. By default your pages will be listed, so click 'create new menu' to begin setting up your menu
3. On the left you will see options to add 'Pages', 'Custom Links', and 'Categories' to your menu.
4. Once done, click 'Save Menu' to save your custom menu, then under 'Menu Settings' check the box beside your desired menu location.

For more information on custom menus please see the Appearance Menus Screen Codex article.

Using Theme Widgets

Modern WordPress theme include widgetized sidebars and/or content areas. The widgets you have available to you depend on your theme and plugins installed (if your theme and plugins provide custom widgets). You can view and add widgets to your theme by logging into your WordPress admin panel, and then navigating to Appearance > Widgets. Please be aware that some widgets have options, usually within the widget itself (e.g. by expanding the widget after adding it to your sidebar), or in a dedicated admin panel sidebar.

For more information on widgets please see the WordPress Widgets Codex article.

Logo and Banner Advertisement

Adding a Logo

To add a logo to the top left area of your site header, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > Logo, and using the media uploader, upload or select the image you want to use as your logo. For best results ensure that the image you are using is 250px wide and 100px tall.

Adding a banner advertisement

There are two ways of adding a banner advertisement: the first is with an embed code and the latter with an image.

To add a banner advertisement with an embed code navigate to Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > Banner Ad > ‘Banner Ad code’ and paste your advert code into the provided textarea. Please be aware that this area is sanitized to allow embed codes, so be careful with the advert code you paste here (that is, don’t use code from disreputable sources).

You can also add a banner advertisement with an image, and can do this through the ‘Optional Banner Ad Image’, ‘Optional banner Ad Alt’, and ‘Optional Banner Ad link’ options. As with the logo area the ideal height for your image advert will be 100px tall. If you provide both banner advert code and an optional banner image, the advert code will take precedence and show instead of the image (so upload one or the other, not both).

Top Stories, Secondary Post Area, and Featured Posts

Selecting a Top Stories Category

The large grid section at the top of the homepage will display posts from a selected category, which can be set under Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > General Options > ‘Top Stories Category’. For best results make sure that the posts in the category you choose have featured images attached. The actual formatting of this area is handled by the theme so there’s no need to pre-size images unless you wanted to.

Selecting a Secondary Posts Category

The secondary posts section displays between the ‘Featured Articles’ and sidebar area on the home page. You can select a category to display in this area under Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > General Options > ‘Secondary Posts Area Category’. You can also hide the secondary posts area completely by unchecking the ‘Show Secondary Posts Column’ checkbox that is immediately beneath the option above.

Social Media

Adding Footer Social Media Links

Massive News comes with existing support for display social media links in the theme’s footer area. The following social media services are support (if you use a service that isn’t listed then let us know and we should be able to add support for that service):

– Facebook
– Twitter
– Google Plus
– LinkedIn
– Vimeo
– Instagram
– RSS URL

It’s important that you provide the full http:// or https:// protocol when entering the link to your social media profile, otherwise you will end up with a broken link structure that would look something like ‘press75.com/twitter.com/press75’.

Footer Copyright and Attribution

Removing the Press75 Attribution Image

The Press75 attribution image that displays to the right of the footer can be enabled or disabled by navigating to Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > Footer > ‘Footer Attribution Links’.

Adding Custom Copyright Text

By default the Massive News Theme comes with Press75 branded copyright text, but this can be easily changed by navigating to Appearance > Customize > Massive news Options > Footer > ‘Copyright’. Any text you enter into the ‘Copyright’ textarea will replace the default footer text.

ShareThis Social Sharing

Enabling ShareThis Support

Massive News comes with ShareThis integration, disabled by default. To enable this option you will need to navigate to Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > Social Sharing. You will first want to select the ‘Enabled’ radio button, then provide your ShareThis publisher ID in the text field below.

Portfolio Template

How to use the Portfolio Template

The process for setting up the Portfolio template is as follows:

1. Within your WordPress admin, navigate to Pages > Add New and create a new page.
2. Add your page title (e.g. ‘Portfolio’), and then select the ‘Portfolio’ page template from the page attributes metabox. Publish when ready.
3. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Massive News Options > Portfolio and select the category you want to feature on the Portfolio template. Save

All done, but there are a couple things to keep in mind:

1. The filters on the Portfolio template are child categories to the category you selected above. If, for example, you selected a category called ‘portfolio’, then this would represent the ‘All’ option you see in the portfolio template. The other options, which could be ‘illustration’, ‘drawing’, ‘videography’, would be the child categories to the ‘portfolio’ category (you can set children categories under Posts > Categories, by editing each category and assigning a ‘Parent’ to them).

2. Your posts will not display if you have no featured image assigned to them, so make sure you have a featured image assigned.

Creating Posts With Featured Thumbnail Images

Most themes require that you add a featured thumbnail image for each post that you publish. The featured image is used to generate post thumbnails for gallery style layouts as well as featued content areas within the theme. Follow the step-by-step instructions below for writing posts with featured images.

1. Within your WordPress admin, expand the “Posts” tab, then select “Add New“.
2. Create a title for your post and add your post content within the post editor.
3. Within the right hand sidebar, find the “Featured Image” box and click “Set Featured Image”.
4. After the pop-up dialog box loads, you have an option to select any image on your computer or an existing image within your WordPress Media Library.
5. Choose your image and then click “Use as Featured Image” within the pop-up dialog box.