StartUp Theme

To install the StartUp 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.

StartUp requires either the free Organic Builder Widgets plugin, or the Builder Widgets Pro plugin for building custom page layouts, including the home page. The plugin transforms the WordPress customizer into a page builder using custom widgets, allowing you to create pages with dynamic content sections. You will be prompted to install and activate the plugin upon activation of the theme.

Demo content can be installed using the One Click Demo Import plugin. Upon activating the theme, you will be recommended to install the plugin.

The Jetpack plugin may optionally be used for displaying projects on the Portfolio page template, and testimonials on Testimonials page template.

Note: The contact form in our demo 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.

A theme license is what allows you to have access to ongoing theme updates. By applying the theme license, you will see automatic notifications for all future theme updates in the Appearance > Themes section of the dashboard – this makes updating the theme very easy! If you have not yet applied a license key to your site, please do so by logging into your www.organicthemes.com account and navigate to the Account > Licenses page in order to retrieve the theme license. Copy the license key and apply it within the WordPress dashboard section under Appearance > Theme License. Paste the license key in the license field, and click the “Save Changes” and then “Activate License” buttons.

Demo content can be installed using the One Click Demo Import plugin. Upon activating the theme, you will be recommended to install the plugin. Follow these steps to install the demo content:

1. Installation and activate the One Click Demo Import plugin.
2. Navigate to Appearance > Import Demo Data within the WordPress admin.
3. Click the blue “Import” button for the Default Demo Import.
4. Wait for the import to complete. It may take a few minutes.
5. Begin editing.

Note: All content, widgets and customizer options will be imported from the theme demo. Importing demo data will add to any existing content you have already created. Deleting the demo content must be done manually.

To replicate the homepage as shown in the demo you will need to first create a page and assign the “Organic Custom” page template to it. The theme demo homepage uses “A Static Page” setting, within the WordPress dashboard’s Settings > Reading tab. Here, you’ll need to set your home and blog pages within the dropdown menus under the top “Your Homepage Displays” section. See our ‘Reading Settings‘ tutorial for more information.

It is a good idea to first edit your photos in a photo editing software, such as Photoshop, prior to uploading them into your Media Library. Use the following image size guidelines, and make sure to “Save For Web” when possible. 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: 80 x 320px

StartUp Featured Large: 2400 x 1800px
StartUp Featured Medium: 1200 x 800px
StartUp Featured Small: 640 x 640px
StartUp Featured Square: 1200 x 1200px

You can add a logo to your site within the customizer’s “Site Identity” tab (Appearance > Customize > Site Identity). Here, you can also set your Site Title and Tagline. Before uploading your logo image, we recommend saving the image as a PNG file, and using no larger than 1080×180 pixels as a general guideline for image size.

The StartUp Theme main menu style transitions to a fixed white bar once you begin scrolling down the page. For this reason, we give the option to add a light logo (to display on dark menu), and also a dark logo (to display on light menu). Some logo designs work universally, so it is not always necessary to add both a Logo Light and Logo Dark.

You can setup and manage your main menu under Appearance > Menus, in your WordPress dashboard. Please see our “WordPress Custom Menu” tutorial for detailed instructions on how to setup a main menu to display on your site.

You can setup and manage your social menu under Appearance > Menus, in your WordPress dashboard. By default, this theme displays the social media menu within the footer section throughout the site. Please see the “Social Menu” section in our “WordPress Custom Menu” tutorial for detailed instructions on how to setup a social menu on your site.

StartUp requires the Organic Builder Widgets plugin for building custom page layouts, including the home page. The plugin transforms the WordPress customizer into a page builder using custom widgets, allowing you to create pages with dynamic content sections. The plugin allows you to customize the home page however you see fit, by displaying a variety of sections such as content slideshows, hero sections, testimonials, pricing tables and more.

Please refer to the tutorial for using the Organic Builder Widgets.

Note: After creating a home page, you may need to set the page as the “Front Page” for your website:

1. Navigate to Settings > Reading within the WordPress admin.
2. Select the option to display a static front page.
3. Choose your desired page as the Front page from the dropdown page selection.
4. Click the blue Save Changes button.

This page template is necessary to use the Organic Builder Widgets on a page. Once you’ve applied this page template to a page, click the blue “Customize Page” button to enter the customizer and start adding and editing widgets within the page.

This template allows you to create a collection of posts. You can view an example here in our demo. The Portfolio page template displays posts in either one of two ways:

• Using the Portfolio “Projects” custom post type, provided by the Jetpack plugin (although the Jetpack plugin is not necessary to use the Portfolio page template). If using this Jetpack custom post type, these “Projects” posts will automatically display within your Portfolio page.
• Using a selected post category within Customize > Theme Options > Page Template Options > Select Portfolio Categories. If you’re not using Jetpack custom post types, you will have the option to select a post category to display within the “Select Portfolio Category” dropdown menu here.

The theme contains a Testimonials page template that uses Jetpack custom post types to display testimonials. Alternatively, if you do not have Jetpack installed, you may select a post category for the testimonials under Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Page Template Options.

An image slideshow can be added to the top of a page using the Slideshow page template. See an example here.

If using the classic editor: Within the page editor, add a gallery by selecting Add Media > Create Gallery. Select your images, then click the blue “Create A New Gallery” button.

If using the Gutenberg editor: You will need to add the slideshow gallery by using the Shortcodes block, and listing the image ID numbers within the shortcode. You can find the image number by selecting “Media” in the dashboard, then clicking on an image. The number displayed within the URL at the top is the image number. The following Codex page explains the Gallery Shortcode in greater detail: https://codex.wordpress.org/Gallery_Shortcode. It should look like this:

This template allows you to display page content or text body at full width. See an example here.

A “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” page can be created by using the Landing page template. You can then apply the landing page as your front page within the WordPress Reading settings.