Lifestyle Theme documentation

Welcome to the Lifestyle Theme documentation! Here you will learn how to easily install a Lifestyle Theme for your website.

Basic setup for new established websites (no content)

Note: If you already have a website and you just want to switch an old theme to Lifestyle Theme, this basic setup may be skipped.

Change the name of the site, set the tagline and favicon (Settings > General).
Set the number of posts that you want to display on the Home Page and discourage search engines from indexing your site until you fill it with the content (Settings > Reading).
Edit permalinks (Settings > Permalinks). For SEO purposes I recommend /%postname%/
Import demo content to see all the Lifestyle Theme features and easily configure the appearance of the website (Tools > Import > WordPress).
- Download Lifestyle Theme demo content XML file.
- Read how to import a demo content.
Set bio for website authors. (Users > All users). This bio will be showed in the author footer under the post content (if you activate it).

Setup for existing websites

IMPORTANT. After the Lifestyle Theme activation, configure and activate all Customizer fields (Appearance > Customize). Be sure that you set and activate each of the field or radiobutton/checkbox in the Customizer by clicking on each of them, changing its content for a while and then changing it back if you want to leave it unchanged. After that, click Publish button. This will establish the Customizer data in the WordPress database and prevent from issues on the website.

Home Page Layout

(Appearance > Customize > Home Page Layout).

Website headers. There are two options. The first one is a big centered title/logo (for Home Page) and the second one is minimized header for the subpages. Of course, you can set a minimized header also on Home Page.

Main Topic. Three options. Two of them are the main topic with one post (smaller and bigger images). The third one is the main topic with two posts (two 50% width images). Mark a post as sticky to place it in this section. Sticky posts does not appear in the main feed so when you stop promoting the post, remember to unsticky it.

Feed. There are three options. Grid tiles, vertical feed and masonry tiles. You can hide this feed if you decide to display only portal style sections.

Portal sections. Create a portal website in the simplest way possible. Category sections one below the other with section headings, category links, and a feed of posts. With a sticky sidebar for ads.

Go to Appearance > Customize > Home Page Layout and check Show widgetized area under the feed. After you do that, go to Appearance > Customize > Widgets and then go to Area – Home Page Feed. There you can build your portal sections.

Sidebar. You may choose whether you want to show a sidebar on Home Page and whether you want to sticky it to the top of the screen so ads appear longer while scrolling.
How to customize sidebars?

Minor

Number of comments. You may choose whether you want to show number of comments on the post images.
Excerpt length refers to the vertical feed option.
You may choose the appearance of the pagination. Also you can hide pagination if you decide to display both feed and portal style sections.

Content Pages Layout

(Appearance > Customize > Content Pages Layout).

Heading. Three options. The first one is a header with a title and a big image, the second one is the same but without an image (just a title) and the third one is the second one option but modified (sidebar is located higher). What I mean is that in the third option, the website is divided on two – left wider side is a title and content area and the right side is a sidebar area (no heading 100% wide).
Note: Install Breadcrumb NavXT plugin if you want to have breadcrumbs above your post titles.

Post content. The post content can be displayed in two ways – with sidebar or without it (centered content).

Sidebar. You may choose whether you want to show a sidebar on Content Pages and whether you want to sticky it to the top of the screen so ads appear longer while scrolling.

Comments area sidebar. On the Post Page there is a second sidebar in the comments area. You may use it to show additional ads or to display rules for commenters etc.
How to customize sidebars?

See Also section. You may choose whether you want to display the See Also section between the end of the post content and the comment area. See Also section is based on Tags. You need to have tags in your posts otherwise this section may not appear even if it is activated.

Minor

Share a post icons. You may choose whether you want to show icons for sharing the post on social media. They stick to the top of the screen when you scroll. You can also choose which social icons you want to show. If you don’t want to use this in-build feature, uncheck it in the Customizer.
Post author info. It is located below the post content after the tags. You can edit post author’s bio in the Users tab in the panel.

Menus

(Appearance > Customize > Menus).

The Lifestyle Template has two menu areas. Both in the website header. They appear also in the site footer as links.

Widgets / blocks

(Appearance > Customize > Widgets).

All core WordPress widgets / blocks can be located in the sidebar. There are two special blocks.

First of them is a website’s author block (Lifestyle Site Author Block). You may set your avatar, bio, social links and place this badge in the right column using WordPress widgets feature.

The second one is an Editor’s Pick section (Lifestyle Editor’s Pick Block). If you want to promote certain posts for some time, you can use this feature. First, you need to create a category for your picks and assign at least one post to this category. Then, go to Appearance > Customize > Editor’s Pick, place an ID of that category and choose how many posts you want to promote. Finally, place this section in the right column using WordPress widgets feature. Chosen posts will appear in the right column. Note: Post assigned to “picks” category still appear in the main post feed.

Site typography

If you want to change fonts on your site, generate an embed code of a chosen font from Google Fonts and place the codes here: Appearance > Customize > Typography.
For example:

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto:ital,wght@0,100;0,300;0,400;0,500;0,700;0,900;1,100;1,300;1,400;1,500;1,700;1,900&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

The first part should be:

Roboto

The second part:

ital,wght@0,100;0,300;0,400;0,500;0,700;0,900;1,100;1,300;1,400;1,500;1,700;1,900

The “display=swap” will be added automatically.

Site social links

This site social links are located in the header on the Home Page. To set them go to Appearance > Customize > Site Social Links.

You need to have a newsletter client plugin installed to use this feature. After that, place a shortcode here: Appearance > Customize > Newsletter. Plugin’s output will appear in the footer. Some visual adjustments may be needed as there are many solutions for newsletters. To do that go to Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS. If you don’t want to use this in-build newsletter feature, uncheck it in the Customizer.

How to customize sidebars?

Switch between different subpages while using the Customizer and shape sidebars for each of the subpage by going to Appearance > Customize > Widgets.

How to import a demo content?

Go to Tools > Import and then go to WordPress. Click Run importer and upload the XML file. Here is the Lifestyle Theme demo content. Select assign posts to an existing user. Finally, check Download and import file attachments. Click Submit and wait until upload is finished. It may take few minutes.

How to create a portal style section header with category links?

Go to Appearance > Customize > Widgets
Go to Area – Home Page Feed
Create Header block and press ENTER
Create a List and fill it with few links
Select both blocks and gather them in a Group
In the menu on the right side, choose the middle option (Row)
Below, set Justification on the last option (Space between items). Done!

How to create a portal style post feed?

Go to Appearance > Customize > Widgets
Go to Area – Home Page Feed
Place Latest Posts block
Set it to Grid view
In the menu on the right side, set Display Featured Image
Below, set image resolution to Landscape Feed Thumb
Optionally, enable Add link to featured image if you want a thumbnail clickable
Choose a category to display posts from
Set number of items (posts) to display
Set columns to 2, 3 or 4 for best performance
Gather together header/links and post feed in a Group. If you want you may also add a „read more” button below the feed. Gathering all blocks into one block establish proper spacing between sections.

Assets

Lifestyle Theme calls fonts from Google’s server (https://fonts.google.com).
Lifestyle Theme demo images: https://unsplash.com.
Fonts: fonts:/fonts.google.com.