After you purchased SpiegelMagazine you can´t wait to get your site up an running?! With the themes optionspage, setting up SpiegelMagazine for the first time is as easy as 1, 2, 3. This is a step-by-step instalation guide.

Download, Unpack and Upload

After you downloaded and unpacked the zip-archive, you have a folder called PRiNZ_SpiegelMagazine_pro. This folder contains two more folders, the readme files in English and German and a logo.

Now take only the folder spiegelmagazine-pro not the whole PRiNZ_SpiegelMagazine_pro folder and upload it to your WordPress themes folder which is normally located at /wp-content/themes in your servers WordPress installation. If you upload the whole unpacked PRiNZ_SpiegelMagazine_pro folder you might encounter several issues. You will need an FTP program to do this.

You can not use the themes installation function within WordPress because that would use the whole zip-archive instead of just the theme folder.

Setup the Theme Options

Now go to your WordPress admin and open the themes options under Appearance > SpiegelMagazine Options.

At this options page you need to make some settings to make the theme work properly. To be very explicit on that: The theme works, there are no known bugs or major issues. If something doesn´t work double check if your settings are correct. In most cases it´s a users failure and not a themes issue. That´s the truth

Setup the Header

Choose if you like to use a Logo or your Blogname and Description in the Header. By default the Logo is used. You can change the Logo in the “Header” Section of your WordPress Administration (WordPress 3.0 or higher required).

Setup Pages and Categories Menue

Here you can setup the top menu bars. It is reccomended to use the WordPress custom menu functionality.
You can exclude pages and categories from the main horizontal menue bars on top of the page if you use the default menus. Enter the IDs of the pages and categories you want to EXCLUDE from the top menue bar. Enter the IDs separated by comma. If you don´t know how to find the IDs, have a look at this tutorial. If you don´t enter any IDs, every page and every category will be displayed here.

Categories that don´t contain any posts will never be displayed. So if you can´t see a specific category you should check if there is already at least one post in that category.

You can also specify if you want the pages- or category menubar to display or not. And you can tell the theme to use a WordPress custom menu instead or additionally. If you want to use the WordPress custom menu (Introduced in WordPress 3.0) you need to set it up under Appearance > Menus. I reccomend to use the custom menus because they offer much more flexibility.

Setup the Image Slider

Spiegelmagazine comes with a nice build-in image slider. This image slider shows a number of images with links to internal or even external ressources. At this point you just need to check the box to use the image slider. if the box is not checked the leadarticle will be used (see next headline).

Before you can use the imageslider you need to upload images under Appearance > WP-Cycle. Here you can also define whether an image has a link (to a page, post or even external). You can do some other settings as well like the transition effect. By default the trasition effect is “fade” which I think is the nicest. Always make sure the images have the right dimensions which are 940×350 pixels. Otherwise they will look ugly.

I will provide an extra detailed tutorial for the image slider in a few days. Meanwhile you may check out the page of the author of this nice plugin.

Setup the Leadarticle

The leadarticle can be used instead of the image slider. It provides a headline an image and some text. You should create a specific category for the leadarticle but you don´t have to. Just select the category from the dropdown select-menu. The theme will then display always the latest article from this category. When you write a post in this category you must use the “more” tag or fuction when you write a post. It will not produce an automatic excerpt.

Setup the featured Articles

The featured articles are the three articles that apear below the image slider or leadarticle on the homepage. They are taken from one specific category you may call “featured articles” or whatever you want. If this category already exists, you can select it from the dropdown selection menu. And remember: If there is no article assigned to this category, nothing can be displayed.

Setup the homepage bottom columns

In the lower area of the homepage two columns (left, right) with different categories are displayed. Here you can define which ones. In every column you can define as many different categories and number of posts per category as you like. Just enter the IDs of the categories seperated by commas and the number of post taken from each category. I reccommend one post per category.

Setup the Image Dimensions

Here you can define the dimensions (width and height in pixels) of the various images on the homepage and the archive pages. This is a very powerful feature that allows you to change the image dimensions whenever you like. Thanks to the TimThumb image script all images are croped and scaled “on the fly” and can be changed as often as you like. Imagehandling has never been so easy. The settings effect the images of the leadarticle (if you don´t use the image slider), the featured articles (only the height because of the layout), the hompage bottom colums and the archive (category overview) pages.

Setup the 3-colum page template

The 3-column page is a special template to display content from three different categories in a very prominent way. Take a look at the demo and see how it can look like. All relevant settings can be made here. See the tutorial to this template (it´s the same for all PRiNZ Pro Themes) for more details.

Setup the Footer

Choose if you like to use the alternative Footer. You will get an additional 4-column widgetized area on the bottom of the page that you can use for various purposes.

Google AdSense and Analytics Code

Here you can put your Google AdSense code for the Leaderboard advert on the homepage and the code for Google Analytics (or another tracking code). If you leave that empty just nothing will be displayed.

Troubleshooting

No Categories

Make sure you use correct category IDs otherwise you will see “no categories” where you expect the name of a category (e.g homepage bottom column articles)

Image Thumbnails do not show up

If you have issues displaying the image thumbnails on the homepage have a look at this tutorial that shows you how to use images. Another tutorial which can be found here, deals with potential issues with the image handling script. Don´t worry: there is a solution in 99,9% of all cases.

Slider shows no images

Make sure you have uploaded images under Appearance > WP-Cycle and also make sure they have the right dimensions (940×350 pixels).

No articles appear

The reason why no articles appear for example in the featured article area is because you have no articles in that category. Once you write an article it will apear. So always make sure your categories have articles.

It´s quite a good helper to write e.g. 3 testarticles and assign them to each category. That gives you a good overview how it works.

Further Readings and Tutorials

• How to use images on the homepage
• Use Widgets in the Sidebar
• More Tutorials

You just purchased WyntonMagazine and want to make a quick start? Thanks to the themes optionspage, setting up WyntonMagazine for the first time is pretty easy. Here I explain it step-by-step.

Download, Unpack and Upload

After you downloaded and unpacked the zip-archive, you have a folder called PRiNZ_WyntonMagazine_pro. This folder contains two more folders, the readme files in English and German and a logo.

Now take only the folder wyntonmagazine-pro not the whole PRiNZ_WyntonMagazine_pro folder and upload it to your WordPress themes folder which is normally located at /wp-content/themes in your servers WordPress installation. If you upload the whole unpacked PRiNZ_WyntonMagazine_pro folder you might encounter several issues. You will need an FTP program to do this.

You can not use the themes installation function within WordPress because that would use the whole zip-archive instead of just the theme folder.

Setup the Theme Options

Now go to your WordPress admin and open the themes options under Appearance > Branfordmagazine Options.

At this options page you need to make some settings to make the theme work properly. To be very explicit on that: The theme works, there are no known bugs or major issues. If something doesn´t work double check if your settings are correct. In most cases it´s a users failure and not a themes issue. That´s the truth

Setup the Header

Choose if you like to use a Logo or your Blogname and Description in the Header. By default the Logo is used. You can change the Logo in the “Header” Section of your WordPress Administration (WordPress 3.0 or higher required).

Setup Pages and Categories Menue

Here you can exclude pages and categories from the main horizontal menue bars on top of the page. Enter the IDs of the pages and categories you want to EXCLUDE from the top menue bar. Enter the IDs separated by comma. If you don´t know how to find the IDs, have a look at this tutorial. If you don´t enter any IDs, every page and every category will be displayed here.

Categories that don´t contain any posts will never be displayed. So if you can´t see a specific category you should check if there is already at least one post in that category.

You can also specify if you want the pages- or category menubar to display or not. And you can tell the theme to use a WordPress custom menu instead or additionally. If you want to use the WordPress custom menu (Introduced in WordPress 3.0) you need to set it up under Appearance > Menus.

Setup the Leadarticle

The leadarticle is the most recent newsarticle displayed in the top-left area of the homepage. You need to define the ID of the category you want do show here. It makes sense to create for example a “news” category and use it for the leadarticles only. If there is no article assigned to this category, nothing can be displayed.

Setup the featured Articles

The featured articles are the articles (three by default) on the right side of the Leadarticle of the homepage. They are taken from one specific category, typicallly the same as the Leadarticle. By default it´s the second, third and fourth article of this category. The offset value (1 by default) defines the order in which the articles appear. “1″ means not the first but the second article of the specified category appears. That makes sense if you display the first article as the leadarticle and the second, third and fourth as featured articles. And remember: If there is no article assigned to this category, nothing can be displayed.

Setup the homepage bottom columns

In the lower area of the homepage three columns (left, center, right) with different categories are displayed. Here you can define which ones. In every column you can define as many different categories and number of posts per category as you like.

Setup the Image Dimensions

Here you can define the dimensions (width and height in pixels) of the various images on the homepage and the archive pages. This is a very powerful feature that allows you to change the image dimensions whenever you like. Thanks to the TimThumb image script all images are croped and scaled “on the fly” and can be changed as often as you like. Imagehandling has never been so easy.

Setup the 3-colum page template

The 3-column page is a special template to display content from three different categories in a very prominent way. Take a look at the demo and see how it can look like. All relevant settings can be made here. See the tutorial to this template for more details.

Setup the Footer

Choose if you like to use the alternative Footer. You will get an additional 4-column widgetized area on the bottom of the page that you can use for various purposes.

Google AdSense and Analytics Code

Here you can put your Google AdSense code for the Leaderboard advert on the homepage and the code for Google Analytics (or another tracking code). If you leave that empty just nothing will be displayed.

Troubleshooting

No Categories

Make sure you use correct category IDs otherwise you will see “no categories” where you expect the name of a category (e.g featured articles)

Images do not show up

If you have issues displaying the image thumbnails on the homepage have a look at this tutorial that shows you how to use images. Another tutorial which can be found here, deals with potential issues with the image handling script. Don´t worry: there is a solution in 99,9% of all cases.

No articles appear

The reason why no articles appear for example in the lead article area is because you have no articles in that category. Once you write an article it will apear. So always make sure your categories have articles.

It´s quite a good helper to write e.g. 3 testarticles and assign them to each category. That gives you a good overview how it works.

Further Readings and Tutorials

• How to use images on the homepage
• Use Widgets in the Sidebar
• More Tutorials

You just purchased BranfordMagazine and want to make a quick start? Thanks to the themes optionspage, setting up BranfordMagazine for the first time is pretty easy. Here I explain it step-by-step.

Download, Unpack and Upload

After you downloaded and unpacked the zip-archive, you have a folder called PRiNZ_BranfordMagazine_pro. This folder contains two more folders, the readme files in English and German and a logo.

Now take only the folder branfordmagazine-pro not the whole PRiNZ_BranfordMagazine_pro folder and upload it to your WordPress themes folder which is normally located at /wp-content/themes in your servers WordPress installation. If you upload the whole unpacked PRiNZ_BranfordMagazine_pro folder you might encounter several issues. You will need an FTP program to do this.

You can not use the themes installation function within WordPress because that would use the whole zip-archive instead of just the theme folder.

Setup the Theme Options

Now go to your WordPress admin and open the themes options under Appearance > Branfordmagazine Options.

At this options page you need to make some settings to make the theme work properly. To be very explicit on that: The theme works, there are no known bugs or major issues. If something doesn´t work double check if your settings are correct. In most cases it´s a users failure and not a themes issue. That´s the truth

Setup Pages and Categories Menue

Here you can exclude pages and categories from the main horizontal menue bars on top of the page. Enter the IDs of the pages and categories you want to EXCLUDE from the top menue bar. Enter the IDs separated by comma. If you don´t know how to find the IDs, have a look at this tutorial. If you don´t enter any IDs, every page and every category will be displayed here.

Categories that don´t contain any posts will never be displayed. So if you can´t see a specific category you should check if there is already at least one post in that category.

You can also specify if you want the pages- or category menubar to display or not. And you can tell the theme to use a WordPress custom menu instead or additionally. If you want to use the WordPress custom menu (Introduced in WordPress 3.0) you need to set it up under Appearance > Menus.

Setup the Leadarticle

The leadarticle is the most recent newsarticle displayed in the tabed area of the homepage. You need to define the ID of the category you want do show here. It makes sense to create for example a “news” category and use it for the leadarticles only. By default one article will appear here and it makes sense to leave the default number (1). Otherwise it would look strange and destroy the layout. Again: If there is no article assigned to this category, nothing can be displayed.

Setup the Featured Articles in the left Column

The featured articles are the articles (three by default) in the left column of the homepage. They are taken from one specific category, typicallly called “featured articles” (or whatever you like) which you have to setup first or you assign a category that already exists. Again you need to enter the ID of the category and the number of post to show (default 3 posts). And remember: If there is no article assigned to this category, nothing can be displayed.

Setup the Homepage middle Column

In the middle column of the homepage all other categories that you define are displayed. Always the most recent article from the categories will be displayed. Enter the IDs of the categories separated by a comma (e.g. 3,5,7,8,9). You can also change the number of articles to dislay per category but I reccomend to leave the default (1).

Setup the Image Dimensions

Here you can define the dimensions (width and height in pixels) of the various images on the homepage and the archive pages. This is a very powerful feature that allows you to change the image dimensions whenever you like. Thanks to the TimThumb image script all images are croped and scaled “on the fly” and can be changed as often as you like. Imagehandling has never been so easy.

Setup the Sidebar

Here you can define how many newsheadlines are displayed on the homepage sidebar and which categories should NOT appear in the list of categories. The newssection shows a number of headlines from the same category that you set as the leadarticle category. There is an offset of 1 which means that the list starts with article 2 from this category. If you have only one article in this category it will show this article as the leadarticle but no other article will appear in the list of news headlines. If you have two articles in this category the first one (most recent) will be the leadarticle and the next (older one) will appear in the list in the sidebar.

It might make sense not to display the “featured” and also the “news” category (or whatever they are called at your site) in your list of categories (Browse Categories). But it´s up to you. If you use widgets in the sidebar then you don´t need to care about this section. Widgets will completely replace the default stuff.

Setup the 3-colum Page Template

The 3-column page is a special template to display content from three different categories in a very prominent way. Take a look at the demo and see how it can look like. All relevant settings can be made here. See the tutorial to this template for more details.

Setup the Footer

Choose if you like to use the alternative Footer. You will get an additional 4-column widgetized area on the bottom of the page that you can use for various purposes.

Setup Google AdSense and Analytics Code

Here you can put your Google AdSense code for the sidebar ad and the code for Google Analytics (or another tracking code). If you leave that empty just nothing will be displayed (except the headline for the ads & sponsors section in the sidebar).

Customizing the Tabbed Section

Presumably you want to customize the tabbed section and get rid of the default “About this Theme” tab. Have a look at this tutorial that explains the tabbed area in detail.

Troubleshooting

No Categories

Make sure you use correct category IDs otherwise you will see “no categories” where you expect the name of a category (e.g featured articles)

How to remove the double “Continue reading…” below the Leadarticle

If you encounter a “Continue reading…” link twice below your leadarticle in the tabbed section and want to get rid of one of them just have a look at this FAQ entry.

Images do not show up

If you have issues displaying the image thumbnails on the homepage have a look at this tutorial that shows you how to use images. Another tutorial which can be found here, deals with potential issues with the image handling script. Don´t worry: there is a solution in 99,9% of all cases.

No articles appear

The reason why no articles appear for example in the lead article area is because you have no articles in that category. Once you write an article it will apear. So always make sure your categories have articles.

It´s quite a good helper to write e.g. 3 testarticles and assign them to each category. That gives you a good overview how it works.

Further Readings and Tutorials

• How to edit the tabed interface
• How to use images on the homepage
• Use Widgets in the Sidebar
• Changing the Logo
• More Tutorials

By default PRiNZ Pro Themes use a graphical logo to display in the header of the blog or website. There might be reasons to use the blog title and tagline that are defined in the WordPress admin settings under Settings > General instead of a logo image and this tutorial shows you how easy this can be done. This tutorial is only for themes versions prior to 5.1 because in this version you can make these settings on the optionspage.

Some little Code Tweaks

Currently there is no setting in the optionspage to switch between logo and text-header. This might be integrated in future updates. So meanwhile we need to edit some lines of code. Don´t worry. It´s no rocket science. I suggest to start with deleting the logo image (make it invisible).

Make the Logo Image invisible

Open the file style.css which is the main CSS file. and look up line 248 (in BranfordMagazine). Either delete or set in comments to make it invisible (put /* before and */ after the line)

Make the Blog title and Tag Line visible

First you have to set a title and tagline in the WordPress admin under Settings > General. Then you open the file header.php and lookup line 82 and 85 (in BranfordMagazine).

Remove the double slashes (//) in front of bloginfo('name'); and bloginfo('description'); to uncomment the php code and make it visible. It should look like this:

Of course you need to save the changed files and upload it to your server again. That´s all. Now your site displays the title of the blog and the tagline instead of an image in the header. The line numbers might be different if you use Wyntonmagazine or any other theme in the future but the code is pretty much the same.

Styling the Header

If you like to style the header text just open style.css again and change the folowing lines for the blog title:

And for the description / tagline:

Further reading

• Changing the Logo

One of the great things that come with my new PRO themes are custom widgets. Many people love to use widgets because they add extra functionality without touching a line of code. Although WordPress comes with a lot of nice widgets sometimes you need extra widgets that are custom made to support an indivuduals themes functionality. BranfordMagazine, WyntonMagazine and all themes that may come in the future have such custom widgets available.

Using Widgets

Using widgets is pretty easy and most WordPress users will know it. If you are brandnew to wordpress I reccomend to read a short introduction to widgets at the WordPress codex – the official documentation for WordPress.

Custom Widgets

As already mentioned above the custom widgets of e.g. BranfordMagazine add some extra functionality such as the Newsletter Widget and/or support specific functionalities such as the “More from this Category” Widget. Here is a more in depth description of the custom widgets.

PRiNZ Newsletter

The newsletter widget uses the email functionality of feedburner and lets your users subsribe very easy by providing a simple signup form. In the backend you can add a headline such as “Newsletter”, you need to enter your Feedburner ID and you can set a text that appears in the signup box.

PRiNZ About

This widget provides a sidebar box that displays information about the author or admin of the site. You can define if it should display an image (requires Gravatars), you can enter a little description, set a link to a page (e.g About us page) and define the name if the link.

PRiNZ More from this Category

There is nothing to set for this widget but nevertheless it adds great functionality to your site because it displays the 5 most recent posts from the same category of the post users are currently reading. This works only on single post pages of course.

PRiNZ Author Posts

Again there is nothing to set for this widget. similar to the “More from this Category” widget it displays the 5 most recent posts from the author of the article that a user is currently reading. This one also works on single post pages only.

PRiNZ Twitter

Twitter becomes more and more famous and also an important communication tool. The twitter widget lets you display your last x tweets in the sidebar. You can set the title need to enter your twittername, a number of tweets to show and you can add a link to your twitterpage if you like to.

PRiNZ Recent Posts

Why another recent posts widget you might ask. WordPress provides one by default. That´s true but it doesn´t deliver the style that fits for my themes. So the recent post widget does nothing else than the regular recent post widget but it adds the correct style that matches the themes style.

PRiNZ Comments

Just like the recent posts widget the comments widget lets you display a list of recent comments but again in the themes specific style.

PRiNZ Contact Info

The contact info widget provides a nice way to display some contact information in the sidebar. You can enter a title, your name, adress telephone and spam protected email adress.

Finally…

…it´s up to you which widgets you use and how you arrange them in the sidebar or somewhere else. As you know my themes have several widgetized areas and you can use the custom widgets in each of them of course.

Which additional widgets would you like me to add in furture updates and themes? Post a comment!