Welcome to Press75’s Balanced theme documentation page. Please review all set-up instructions and theme usage documentation below to find what you are looking for.

These setup and usage instructions assume that you have working knowledge of the WordPress publishing platform. For more detailed information on how to use WordPress, please refer to the official WordPress documentation codex.

Sample Data and Child Theme Download

Use the links below to download the sample data file and child theme for this theme.

NOTE: WordPress does not provide import functionality for theme options, custom fields, required plugins or other settings. This means that even with the theme sample data file, you will still need to adjust your theme options and most likely add content according to the setup and usage instructions below. Download theme sample data file Download Child theme
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.


WordPress Customizer

The customizer page is where you will find all the theme specific configuration, customization and featured content options. Within your WordPress admin, click "Appearance" and then "Customizer" to load the options page. There will be on screen descriptions and instructions for each option within the page explaining what the option is for and how to configure it. The customizer page and included options will most likely be different for each individual theme, but the concept is the same for all themes.

Balanced Theme Homepage Setup

This theme uses a Static Homepage:

Add a new page and in the right hand sidebar in the ‘Page Attributes’ metabox, choose ‘Home’ from the ‘Template’ dropdown.
Update the page by clicking the ‘Update’ button in the right hand sidebar in the ‘Publish’ metabox.

This will assign the Home template to the Home page.

  1. Navigation to Settings->Reading
  2. Select the ‘A static page’ radio button in the ‘Front page displays’ area
  3. For the front page, select ‘Home’ from the dropdown.
  4. You can leave Posts page blank.
  5. Click the ‘Save Changes’ button
Navigation Setup

There are two sets of navigation: Main Menu and Footer Menu

  1. Go to Appearance->Menus
  2. Click on the Manage Locations in the top tabs area on the settings page and assign Main Menu to Main Menu in the dropdown.
  3. Assign Footer Menu to Footer Menu in dropdown
  4. Choose Edit Menus in the top tabs area on the settings page to navigation back to the Menus.
  5. In the text field titled ‘Menu Name’ create a ‘Main Menu’ menu and add the menu items below. Balanced supports up to 3 dropdown. When complete click the ’Save Menu’ button.

Repeat the process again to create a Footer Menu. Footer menus only support top level navigation. No dropdown support in the footer navigation.

General WordPress Customizer Options

Site Title & Tagline:
Add a site title and tagline and choose whether nor not you want to display it using the checkbox below both text fields. Note: If logo exists, the custom title and tagline will not display.

Colors:
The color option only affects the button text color in the top banner. Default is white.

Header Image:
If you would rather have an image display instead of a video, click the Header Image bar to display the image uploader. Click on ‘Add new image’ to open the media library modal. Select or upload new image (recommends a header size of 1200 × 600pixels.) and click ’Select and Crop’. This will add an image below your navigation on the homepage.

Note: If you already have a video url set in Appearance->Customize->Balanced, Then you must remove the video url for your banner image to display. Also, since mobile doesn’t support the video, on a mobile device, the banner image will display, so it is important to set you banner image even if you don’t want it to display on desktop.

Widgets:
There are three widgets in Balanced: Footer Left, Footer Center, Footer Right.
These will display just above the social icons in the footer.

Advanced WordPress Customizer Options

Logos:
Upload a logo (We recommend using SVG format) by clicking on the ‘Logos’ tag which will display the uploader for both he custom logo and favicon. Click the ‘Select Image’ button and this will bring up the media library modal. Click on the image you’d like to display and click the ‘Choose Image’ button. To remove the image, click the ‘Remove’ button and start the process over again.

Homepage Options:
Click the Homepage Options tab to show the available options. If you want to display a video, first, upload a mp4 video to your media library. Make sure your media library allows for image/video files above the standard 1MB. If not, change it in your settings or search online for the best available options to do so. After uploading your video to the media library, click on the video. This will open a modal with the video and the meta in the right sidebar. Copy the URL and navigate back to the Customize. Appearance->Customize->Balanced->Homepage Options. Past the the URL of the video in the Featured Video mp4. Some browsers will only support the ogg format, so there is an available space to add another video as a fallback. Most browsers will use the mp4 format.

Featured Button:
Add a featured button text by adding Text in the textbook.
Add a featured button link by adding a url in the box below title ‘Featured Button Link’

Featured Page:
Choose from the dropdown (Must create pages first) which page you want to display on the homepage below the video/image banner.
On the page you choose to be pulled on the homepage, use the custom excerpt field for content to be displayed. This can be activated by clicking ‘Screen Options’ in the top right hand corner of the Edit Page screen. This will display box with options. Check the ‘Excerpt’ box. This will add a custom excerpt box below the main content editor for you to add a custom excerpt.

Display Posts or Portfolio:
Choose which Posts you want to show up below the Featured Page: Options include Posts or Portfolio

Posts:
Check the box if you want the author info to display on single posts. Authors appear below main content on single posts.

Animations

On-scroll Animation Options:
Choose which animation you’d like to fire on scroll. These animations will appear on the homepage and the blog feed.

Enable Animations on mobile:
Choose whether or not you want animations to load on mobile.

Social Media:
Add your social media urls in the text fields. This will display the social media icons in both the footer and the off-canvas navigation

 

Footer

Copyright:
Add custom copyright text to the footer. Appears next the branding.

Show branding checkbox: Choose whether or not you want the Press75 branding to display.

Adding a Portfolio

Add a new page and in the right hand sidebar in the ‘Page Attributes’ metabox, choose ‘Portfolio’ from the ‘Template’ dropdown.
Update the page by clicking the ‘Update’ button in the right hand sidebar in the ‘Publish’ metabox.
This will assign the portfolio template to this page so it will display the gallery.

To add portfolio items to the gallery:

  1. Click the Portfolio link from the left hand admin navigation. Choose ‘Add New’. Add a title, content, a featured image.
  2. Portfolio custom meta can be found below the featured image in the right hand sidebar. Options include: Client Name, Date of Project, External URL. In the ‘Filter’ metabox, select which category the portfolio item is attached to.
  3. Update the page by clicking the ‘Update’ button in the right hand sidebar in the ‘Publish’ metabox.
  4. These portfolio items will now populate the Portfolio page you assigned the Portfolio template to.
Adding Posts

The only difference with posts is the ability to add a subtitle. The subtitle is below text field is below the main content editor.

Columns Shortcode

When using shortcodes in WordPress, you can simply wrap your content in one of the shortcodes that you can see below. You can see these shortcodes in action on the demo here. Whenever you use a column shortcode, remember to include [ row_start] at the beginning, and [ row_end] at the end (no space).

Two, Three, and Four Column Shortcodes

[two-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.[/two-column]

[two-column-last]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.[/two-column_last]

[three-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/three-column]

[three-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/three-column]

[three-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/three-column-last]

[four-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/four-column]

[four-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/four-column]

[four-column]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/four-column]

[four-column-last]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/four-column-last]

Content Separators / Borders

Change border width/thickness, style, and color

[separator][/separator]
[separator width=”4″ style=”double”][/separator]
[separator width=”4″ style=”dashed” color=”#666666″][/separator]
[separator width=”2″ style=”dotted”][/separator]