Vital Theme

To install the Vital Theme you must first have a working WordPress(.org) installation. For information on installing WordPress, please see Installing WordPress, from the WordPress Codex. Once WordPress has been setup in your hosting environment, you can install your theme one of two ways:

FTP upload: download and un-zip your theme folder, and using the FTP program of your choice upload the theme folder to the ‘../wp-content/themes/’ folder on your server.

WordPress dashboard: download your theme and sign into your WordPress dashboard (e.g., yourdomain.com/wp-admin). Navigate to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload, and select your zipped theme folder, click “Install Now”. Once the theme is uploaded you will need to activate it, either with the provided link or under Appearance > Themes.

Note: If you use Safari as your primary browser you may find that your theme folder is not zipped after downloading it. You will need to re-compress your theme folder before initiating the second installation process.

The Jetpack plugin may optionally be used for the featured content slider and testimonials on the Home Page template. Jetpack is required for displaying Projects on the Portfolio template.

Note: The contact form is powered by Gravity Forms, an excellent premium WordPress contact form plugin (free alternatives include ‘Contact Form 7’ and ‘Jetpack Forms’). If you want to make use of the shop portion of the theme you will need to install WooCommerce.

You can install the theme demo content to be used as a guide with the .xml file available for download below. Please refer to the following tutorial for instructions on installing your demo content: Installing Demo Content

Download Demo Content

In order to setup the home page within the Vital Theme you will need to create a page and apply the Home Page template. Then, choose that page as “a static page” within the Customizer or the reading settings (Settings > Reading).

Theme defined image dimensions are as follows (these can be found in the ‘Theme Setup’ function at the top of your functions.php file):

Logo: 580x220px

Vital Featured Large: 2400x1800px
Vital Featured Medium: 1800x1200px
Vital Featured Small: 640x640px

The theme comes with 10 shortcodes. Please refer to the following links for examples.

Accordion
Alert boxes
Bar Ratings
Buttons
Columns
Headings
Icons
Modal Box
Tabs
Toggles

You can upload an image of your choosing under Appearance > Header in your WordPress dashboard, or within the customizer under Appearance > Customize > Header Image. The header image will be added at the top of the blog, archives, search results and pages without a Featured Image applied.

You can setup and manage your menu under Appearance > Menus, in your WordPress dashboard. The Vital Theme utilizes 2 custom menus; a Main Menu, and a Social Menu for displaying social media icons on the Home Page template. See the Codex for an explanation of the custom menu system (Note: this tutorial is for WordPress.com, but the process is the same).

The Vital Theme optionally uses the featured content slider from Jetpack under Appearance > Customize > Featured Content. Alternatively, if you do not have Jetpack installed, you may select a category for the featured content slider under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Page Template. In addition, you can choose the slider transition time and style under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Slideshow Settings.

You can setup and manage the Social Menu under Appearance > Menus in your WordPress dashboard. Please refer to the ‘Custom Menus’ section above for more information.

You may display a title, description and phone number for your business under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Page Template.

Featured pages can be displayed beneath the featured content slider on the Home Template under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Page Template. In addition, you can change or remove the background image for this section within the customizer.

The Vital Theme optionally uses the testimonial custom post type from Jetpack to display testimonials. Alternatively, if you do not have Jetpack installed, you may select a category for the featured testimonials under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Page Template. In addition, you can choose the slider transition time and style under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Slideshow Settings.

Team members can be added to your site via the Team custom post type in your dashboard. You can review existing team members under Team > Team, add new members under Team > Add New Member, and create team member related categories under Team > Categories. It is advised that you create at least one team member and category before following the steps below.

Setting up the Home Template Featured Team Section

Showing team members on the home page requires selecting a team member category to display under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Template. A title may be inserted above the featured team members by adding a description to your selected category within Team > Categories. In addition, you can add or remove a background image for this section within the customizer.

Setting up the ‘Team’ Page Template

1. Navigate to Pages > Add New, and create a new page.
2. From the ‘Page Templates’ drop-down menu, select the ‘Team’ page template option. Save and Publish.
3. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Additional Page Templates > Team Template Category to configure your team page (select a category to display in the same way that you did for the Home Template).
4. Navigate to Appearance > Menus to add your team page to your (custom) menu.

The tabbed section displays the most recent posts of a category selected under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Home Page Template > Featured Services Category. A title may be inserted above the services by adding a description to your selected category within Posts > Categories. Featured images may be displayed in the tabs by applying an image to the post. In addition, you can add or remove a background image for this section within the customizer.

Please see our ‘Quick Start Guide’ for setting up the Vital Theme’s various page templates.

The Vital Theme contains a Portfolio page template uses the portfolio custom post type from Jetpack to display portfolio projects. You may choose the column layouts for the Portfolio page template under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Additional Page Templates.

Note: Jetpack must be installed in order to add portfolio projects.

Team members from the Team custom post type may be displayed on the Team page template. Please refer to the ‘Featured Team‘ section above for detailed instructions regarding the setup of the template.

An image slideshow can be added to the top of a page using the Slideshow page template. Within the page editor, create a gallery using the Add Media button. Insert that gallery into the page content, and the page template will automatically create a slideshow from the gallery. You can manage the position of images within the gallery editor.

Please see WooCommerce documentation for help with using WooCommerce: http://docs.woothemes.com/documentation/plugins/woocommerce/

Widgets can optionally be added to the footer under Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard. If no widgets are added to the footer, this section will not be displayed.