“Dandelion WordPress Theme” Documentation by “Pexeto” v.3.1.8


Created: 05/11/2010
By: Pexeto
http://pexetothemes.com/

Thank you for purchasing Dandelion theme. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please refer to the Support section. Thanks so much!



If you like this theme, please don't forget to rate it on the ThemeForest site. Thank you!


Table of Contents


  1. Getting Started
    1. If you are new to WordPress
    2. Working with the theme
  2. Useful instructions
    1. Activating the theme
    2. Options page
    3. Setting a custom field
    4. Setting a featured image to a post/page
  3. The header
    1. Changing the logo
    2. The menu
  4. The footer
  5. The sidebars
  6. The sliders
    1. Thumbnail Slider
    2. Accordion Slider
    3. Nivo Slider/Fader
    4. Content Slider/Fader
  7. Template pages
    1. Index/Blog page
    2. Home page
    3. Featured page
    4. Portfolio page
    5. Portfolio Gallery page
    6. Quick/Easy Gallery page
    7. Contact form page
    8. The default page
  8. Changing the theme style
  9. Shortcodes
  10. Social Sharing
  11. Fonts
  12. Translation
  13. Widgets included
  14. CSS files
  15. JavaScript files
  16. PhotoShop files
  17. PHP files
  18. Updates
    1. Installing an update
    2. Version 1.1
    3. Version 2.0
    4. Version 2.1
    5. Version 2.2
    6. Version 2.3
    7. Version 2.4
    8. Version 2.5
    9. Version 2.6
    10. Version 2.6.1
    11. Version 2.6.2
    12. Version 2.6.3
    13. Version 2.6.4
    14. Version 2.6.5
    15. Version 2.6.6
    16. Version 2.6.7
    17. Version 2.6.8
    18. Version 2.7.0
    19. Version 2.8.0
    20. Version 2.8.1
    21. Version 2.8.2
    22. Version 2.9.0
    23. Version 2.9.1
    24. Version 3.0.0
    25. Version 3.0.1
    26. Version 3.1.0
    27. Version 3.1.1
    28. Version 3.1.2
    29. Version 3.1.3
    30. Version 3.1.4
    31. Version 3.1.5
    32. Version 3.1.6
    33. Version 3.1.7
    34. Version 3.1.8
  19. Troubleshooting
  20. Support

Note: If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please refer to the Support section.


1. Getting Started


a. If you are new to WordPress


Although building a website with WordPress is significantly much easier than coding it by yourself, if you are a beginner, even working with WordPress may look hard for you. That's why, in this section we will provide some useful links and also will explain how to get oriented in the documentation and what pattern to follow when building your website with our theme.

Working with WordPress - Useful Links

b. Working with the theme


Once you have some basic WordPress knowledge, you are ready to go with setting the theme. Here are some example steps about how you can do this:

  1. Install and activate the theme - read about how to do this in the Installing and activating the theme section.
    Having problems with installing the theme?
    » Refer to the "Fail to install the theme" subsection of the Troubleshooting section.
  2. Change your logo - learn how to do this in the Changing the logo section
  3. Create your basic menu - during the process of setting your theme, you will be changing your menu links all the time. However, it is good to start with having the main menu set. Learn how to set your menu in the The menu section.
  4. Start with creating your content

    You can create all the content by creating your pages one by one. Here are some examples of what steps to follow when creating different pages:

    You need a Home page template with services boxes:
    1. Go to Template pages » Home page section - in this section you can read about how to create such a page and all the settings you can do about this page template. You can read about how to set your services boxes content, insert an intro text, select a slider, etc.
    2. You need to set a slider for the page? » Go to the The sliders section to read how to create a slider. After you have your slider created and populated with images, go back to your page in edit mode and select the slider you have created (how to set the slider for the page is explained the Home page section.)
    3. After you set your page, go to the Menus section and add it to your menu so it can be easily accessible.

    You need a Blog page:
    1. Go to Template pages » Index/Blog page section to learn how to create a blog page, how to create posts to it and all the settings you can do for this page
    2. You need to set a slider for the blog? » Go to the The sliders section to read how to create a slider. After you have your slider created and populated with images, you have to select the slider you have created (how to set the slider is explained in both The sliders and the Home page sections)
    3. You need a separate blog sidebar? » Go to the The sidebars section to learn how to create additional sidebars and how to add widgets to them. After you have created your sidebar, go back to the Index/Blog page section to learn how to set the sidebar you have created to your blog page.

    Basically, these are the steps you need to follow - when you need to create a page, just go to its relevant subsection of the Template pages section and read about how to create it and what settings you can do for the page. The main key about understanding how the theme works is to read the documentation we have provided carefully, as we have explained everything you need to know about the theme in here.

  5. Set your footer content - learn how to do this in the The footer section
  6. Once you follow all these steps and have the basic theme setup, you can also check the rest of the sections of this documentation to read what other features our theme provides.

We hope you will enjoy working with the theme!



Useful instructions  back to top


Activating the theme


There are 2 main ways to upload the theme:

  1. Via the built in WordPress theme uploader (recommended)

    Below you can read the instructions about installing a theme via the WordPress uploader, but you can also watch the "Installing a Pexeto Theme via WordPress Uploader" video here

    First you need to unzip the download file and find the zip file called "Dandelion_vxx" (xx-the version of the theme- 22 means version 2.2). After this you have to go in the admin panel » Appearance » Themes, click on the Install Themes tab and in this section in the top there is a link "Upload". After you click the "Upload" link, a new page will be opened where you will be asked to find the Dandelion.zip file on your local file system.

    Note: Some servers sometimes can't handle a whole theme upload and in such cases you have to upload the theme via FTP.
  2. Via FTP client

    Below you can read the instructions about installing a theme via FTP, but you can also watch the "Installing a Pexeto Theme via FTP" video here

    If you know the FTP login details of the server where your site is hosted and you have a FTP client installed, you might consider using this way of uploading your theme. First you have to unzip the download file, find the zip file called "Dandelion", unzip it and upload the folder to the main WordPress installation folder » wp-content » themes. Please note that if you prefer this way of installation, you have to make sure that the main files of the theme are contained just within one folder of the themes folder. The right way to locate your root theme files is for example themes/Dandelion but not themes/Dandelion/Dandelion.

After you have uploaded the theme to the server you will need to activate it. In order to activate this theme you have to go to the admin panel » Appearance » Themes. In this section you should see the theme with a title Dandelion by Pexeto. Just click on Activate button and your theme should get activated.

Note: This theme is WordPress version 3.0 and higher compatible, so please make sure you have the latest version of WordPress installed.

Importing the demo content
If you would like to import the demo content and start editing the theme from the created content rather than from scratch, you need to import the demo_exported.xml file that is included with the download folder. You can do this by going to the WordPress admin panel -> Tools -> Import -> Select WordPress, find the demo_exported.xml file from your local file system and upload it.Please note that not all the settings are saved with the demo exported data- settings such as custom menus, slider images and sidebar widgets don't get saved so it is always recommended to set your theme from scratch rather than installing the demo content and editing it.



Options page


When you activate this theme, an options page is created in order to help you make the theme settings much easier. This page is located in the admin panel » Appearance » Dandelion Options.






Setting a custom field


Many times in this documentation you will be told that you need to set a custom field for a page or post. There are some custom field that have been created for this theme. Those custom fields are located just below the main content area of the page/post when opened in "edit" mode. For the portfolio items the section is called "Dandelion PORTFOLIO ITEM SETTINGS" and for the pages the section is called "Dandelion PAGE SETTINGS".




c. Setting a featured image to a post/page


In order to set a thumbnail (featured image) to a post/page, when creating/editing your post/page in the bottom of the right sidebar you will see a link "Set a Featured Image":

If you click on this link, a window will be opened where you can choose the image. When you select the desired image, you have to click on the "Set featured image" link.



The header  back to top


Changing the logo



You can either use your own existing logo image or edit the included logo PSD file. If you choose the second option then the file you need to edit is called logo.psd - it is located in the photoshop_files folder of the main download package.

In order to change the logo, go to the options setting page » Styles » Logo and upload (or insert the image URL) in the Logo Image section.

If you would like to have a sharp logo image on retina displays, the image uploaded should be twice bigger than its display size - for example if the standard logo image size is 30x70 pixels, the image size of the uploaded image should be 60x140 pixels.
The default logo image width is 160 pixels and the height depends on the original image ratio. If you would like to apply custom width or height to the logo image, you can do this in the "Logo image width" and "Logo image height" fields.




The menu





Here are the steps you have to follow in order to set the menu:

  1. Go to Appearance » Menus. To create the menu click on the "Create a new menu" link.
  2. After you create the menu, you can add Page, Category and custom links from the left sidebar.
  3. Then click on the "Manage Locations" tab section and select the menu that you have created in the "Main Menu" field.

The footer  back to top


This theme supports a widgetized footer and you can insert whatever widgets you like in there. There are 4 different columns in the footer and each of them supports multiple widgets.

You just have to go to Appearance » Widgets and and drag and drop the desired widgets into the sections "Footer First Column", "Footer Second Column", "Footer Third Column" and "Footer Fourth Column".

Disabling the widgetized footer
If you would like to disable the widgetized footer, you can do this in the options setting page » General » Main Settings » Widgetized Footer field.

Changing the copyright text
You can change the default Copyright text (located below the widgetized footer) in the Translation » Other section of the options setting page.


The sidebars  back to top


This theme supports multiple sidebars and they are all dynamic. This means that you can put whatever you want on them.

There is one default sidebar that goes to each of the pages. If you would like to have more sidebars than the default one, then you can create your new sidebars in options setting page » General » Sidebars section:

To customize your sidebars you have to go in the admin panel » Appearance » Widgets. There you should see your sidebars on the right part of the page. Now you can drag and drop widgets from the left into your sidebars and that's it!
Here is an example of a sidebar:


The sliders  back to top


Thumbnail Slider


The thumbnail slider looks like this:

In order to add images to this slider you have to go to the options setting page » Sliders » Thumbnail Slider section. All you have to do is to upload the selected image (or add its URL), link of the image (links can be set to the images, so that when the user clicks on the image to be redirected- this feature is optional) and description (also optional) and press the "Add Image" button. After you add the images, you can sort them by dragging and dropping the image box to the desired position.

Note: After you have added the images, please do not forget to press the "Save Changes" button.

Optimal image size: 980px × 370px

Creating additional Thumbnail Sliders

If you would like to add a new slider, you have to go to the bottom of the Thumbnail Slider section, in the subsection "Add new Thumbnail slider". In this field you can add a new slider, you just have to make sure that if you have multiple sliders, they will have unique names. After you add the names of the new sliders, you have to press the "Save Changes" button and after that you will see new sections for adding images created for the new sliders.

In the bottom of this section there is a Slider Settings subsection where you can do the main settings for this slider.



Nivo Slider/Fader


The Nivo Slider looks like this:

In order to add images to this slider you have to go to the options setting page » Sliders » Nivo Slider section. All you have to do is to upload the selected image (or add its URL), link of the image (links can be set to the images, so that when the user clicks on the image to be redirected- this feature is optional) and description (also optional) and press the "Add Image" button. After you add the images, you can sort them by dragging and dropping the image box to the desired position.

Note: After you have added the images, please do not forget to press the "Save Changes" button.

Optimal image size: 980px × 370px

Creating additional Nivo Sliders

If you would like to add a new slider, you have to go to the bottom of the Nivo Slider section, in the subsection "Add new Nivo slider". In this field you can add a new slider, you just have to make sure that if you have multiple sliders, they will have unique names. After you add the names of the new sliders, you have to press the "Save Changes" button and after that you will see new sections for adding images created for the new sliders.

Also, in this section there is a Slider Settings subsection where you can do the main settings for this slider.



Accordion Slider


The Accordion slider looks like this:

In order to add images to this slider you have to go to the options setting page » Sliders » Accordion Slider section. All you have to do is to upload the selected image (or add its URL) and optionally you can set a title, description and a link (that will be displayed with the "Learn More" text). After everything is set for the image you have to press the "Add Image" button. After you add the images, you can sort them by dragging and dropping the image box to the desired position.

Note: After you have added the images, please do not forget to press the "Save Changes" button.

Optimal image size: 700px × 370px

Creating additional Accordion Sliders

If you would like to add a new slider, you have to go to the bottom of the Accordion Slider section, in the subsection "Add new Accordion slider". In this field you can add a new slider, you just have to make sure that if you have multiple sliders, they will have unique names. After you add the names of the new sliders, you have to press the "Save Changes" button and after that you will see new sections for adding images created for the new sliders.



Content Slider


Note: The Content slider has been implemented in version 2.6.7 of the theme.

The Content Slider looks like this:

In order to add images to this slider you have to go to the options setting page » Sliders » Content Slider section. All you have to do is to upload the selected image (or add its URL), link of the image (links can be set to the images, so that when the user clicks on the "Learn more" button to be redirected- this feature is optional), title and description (also optional) and press the "Add Image" button. After you add the images, you can sort them by dragging and dropping the image box to the desired position.

Note: After you have added the images, please do not forget to press the "Save Changes" button.

Optimal image size: 450px × 280px

Creating additional Content Sliders

If you would like to add a new slider, you have to go to the bottom of the Content Slider section, in the subsection "Add new Content slider". In this field you can add a new slider, you just have to make sure that if you have multiple sliders, they will have unique names. After you add the names of the new sliders, you have to press the "Save Changes" button and after that you will see new sections for adding images created for the new sliders.

The "Learn More" button text can be changed in the "Translation" section of the options panel

Also, in this section there is a Slider Settings subsection where you can do the main settings for this slider.



Template Pages  back to top


Index/Blog page


Index page is the default front page on WordPress - this page actually is a blog page.

Note: All the settings for the Blog page can be set in the options setting » Pages » Blog section.
Creating the blog page

There are 2 different ways of using this template:

  1. As a front page - it will be opened by default on your site. To set the blog page as a front page go to Settings -> Reading and select the "Your latest posts" option in the "Front page displays" field.
  2. As an inner, non-home page. In order to do this you have to first create a new page. After this you have to go in the Admin Panel » Settings » Reading and you have to select the "A static page" option in the "Front page displays" field. Below this field you have to select the page which will be your home page in the "Front page" field and you have to select the name of the page that you have just created in the "Posts page" field. Now your Blog page will contain the latest posts.
Creating blog posts

The theme supports custom post formats since version 2.9.0. The supported formats are Standard, Gallery, Video, Aside and Quote. The format can be selected in the "Format" section of the create/edit post screen:



Here is an explanation about each of the supported formats:
Hiding part of the content of the post with the "Read More" link:

Just before the text that you want to be hidden you have to click on the "Insert more tag" button (Alt+Shift+T):



Blog page settings Excluding categories from the blog:

In order to exclude categories from the blog you have to go to the options setting page in the section Pages » Blog » Exclude categories from blog. In this section you have to check the names of the categories that you want to be excluded.



Defining the number of posts on the blog:

In order to define the number of posts per page that will be shown on the blog you have to go to the options setting page in the section Pages » Blog » Number of posts per page and you have to edit the value of this field. Default is set to 5.

Selecting a slider for the page:

In order to select a slider you have to go in the options setting page in the section Pages » Blog » Slider on posts/blog page. In this field you can select between Thumbnail Slider, Accordion Slider, Nivo Slider/Fader, Content Slider, Static Header Image and None.
-If one of the sliders selected, to the blog page will be automatically assigned the default slider of the selected slider type. If you have created an additional slider and you would like this slider to be displayed, you can select it in the "Slider Name" field below.
-If None selected, then you can insert a title in the Page Title field below.
-If Static Header Image selected, you have to insert its URL into the the Static Image URL field below.



Selecting a layout for the page

For the blog page you can select the layout to be Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar or Full Width. You can do this in the Page Layout section. This setting will affect also the blog post, archive and search layouts.



The blog sidebar:

By default this page template uses the Default Sidebar. If you would like to use another sidebar, you can create one in the options setting page » General » Sidebars and after that you can select the created sidebar in the field Sidebar in the options setting page » Pages » Blog » section. To customize it you have to go to the Appearance » Widgets and find the selected sidebar. You can drag and drop widgets from the left into it.


Setting advanced blog pagination

In order to have advanced pagination enabled on your blog page (as on the screenshot above) you need to install the WP-Pagenavi plugin. You can read more about how to do it the section Widgets Included.


Enabling threaded comments (with reply functionality):

In order to enable threaded comments, you have to go to Settings » Discussion and check the field "Enable threaded (nested) comments x levels deep"



Home page


In order to make one page a home page you have to select the Template for this page to be Home page. If you want to set this page to be opened by default when a visitor first opens the site you have to go in the admin panel in Settings » Reading » Front page displays » Select a static page and select the page that you have just created in the Front Page list.


Setting the content of the home page
The content layout of the home page looks like this:


Basically, the structure of the Home page template consists of 2 parts- the main content and the services boxes. The main content you can insert in the main content area of the page. If you would like to have the same intro as the one on the demo (and the screenshot above), you have to use the intro shortcode:

  [intro]Intro content goes here[/intro]
  

After that comes the services boxes section. In order to set the content and links to them you have to go to the options setting page » Pages » Home and there for each of the 3 boxes you can set the content, icon and button settings.


Selecting a slider for the page

In order to select a slider for the page, you have to set the custom field Slider in the page.
-If one of the sliders selected, to the page will be automatically assigned the default slider of the selected slider type. If you have created an additional slider and you would like this slider to be displayed, you can select it in the "Slider Name" field below. into the the Static Image URL field below.
-If "None" selected there, you can set the custom field Subtitle below.
-If Static Header Image has been selected, you can set the static image by setting the image as a Featured one. Here is explained how to do this.

Inserting additional services boxes

If you would like to insert additional services boxes, you can do this by using the services boxes shortcode. You can read about how to use the shortcode in the Shortcodes section.



Featured page


The main purpose of the Featured page template is to show some featured blog posts. In order to make one page a featured posts page you have to select the Template for this page to be Featured page

Above the Featured Posts section you can insert some intro content by inserting it in the main content area of the post.

Selecting the Featured category:

All the posts that that are shown below the main page content are posts from one category. So the posts that you need to be shown in this page should be set to belong to one "featured" category. To set the category whose posts will be shown you have to go to the options setting page » General » Main Settings and set the Featured Category field.

Setting a thumbnail/image to the featured posts:

You can read here how to set thumbnails to your featured posts.

Selecting a slider for the page

In order to select a slider for the page, you have to set the custom field Slider in the page.
-If one of the sliders selected, to the page will be automatically assigned the default slider of the selected slider type. If you have created an additional slider and you would like this slider to be displayed, you can select it in the "Slider Name" field below. into the the Static Image URL field below.
-If "None" selected there, you can set the custom field Subtitle below.
-If Static Header Image has been selected, you can set the static image by setting the image as a Featured one. Here is explained how to do this.


Setting the page layout

For this page you can select the layout to be Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar or Full Width. You can do this by setting the custom field Page Layout.


The sidebar

By default this page template uses the Default Sidebar. If you would like to use another sidebar, you can create one in the options setting page » General » Sidebars and after that you can set the custom field Sidebar and select the sidebar that you have just created. To customize it you have to go to the Appearance » Widgets and find the selected sidebar. You can drag and drop widgets from the left into it.


Hiding part of the content of the post with the "Read More" link:

Just before the text that you want to be hidden you have to click on the "Insert more tag" button (Alt+Shift+T):



Portfolio page


The main structure of the portfolio page looks like this:

To make one page a portfolio page you have to select the Template for this page to be Portfolio.

For this page you can make the following settings:
  1. You can select a portfolio category whose items to be displayed there by setting the custom field Display items from categories in the page. If "All Categories" has been selected, all the portfolio items that you have created will be displayed there. You can read about creating porfolio items in the next section below.
  2. You can select whether the items to be ordered by the date they have been created or by custom order by setting the custom field Portfolio item order in the page.
  3. You can set the number of thumbnails per page displayed on the right by setting the custom field Number of posts per page in the page.
  4. You can disable the automatic thumbnail generation by setting the custom field Turn on/off automatic thumbnail generation in the page.
  5. You can select a slider/fader on the portfolio page by setting the custom field Slider.
  6. If no slider is selected, you can add a subtitle to your portfolio page by setting the custom field Subtitle.
  7. You can change the words "More Projects", "Prev" and "Next" in the options setting page » Translation » Portfolio.

Creating portfolio items:

Creating Portfolio items can be accomplished in the Portfolio section » Add New.


Here are the settings that you can do to each of the portfolio items:

  1. Set the images » Each portfolio item contains 2 images- a small thumbnail and a bigger preview image which is shown when clicking on the small image above the main content area.
      2.1. To set the bigger (preview) image or video you have to set the custom field in your post called Preview Image URL to contain the full path of the image. For example http://domain.com/img1_preview.jpg
      2.2. By default the theme will create the small thumbnail by using the bigger (preview) image. However if you prefer to use your own thumbnail images you have to set the custom field Turn on/off automatic thumbnail generation in your portfolio page to off. After that in your portfolio post you have to set the custom field called Thumbnail URL and set its value to be the full path of the image. For example http://domain.com/img1.jpg. The optimal size of the images is 110px x 100px.
  2. You can set the content of the portfolio item in the main content area.


Portfolio Gallery page


Note: Below are explained the steps needed for setting the Portfolio Gallery page. Also you can have a look at the "Creating an advanced gallery with Dandelion Theme" video here.
In the video are shown the main steps you need to accomplish in order to set a portfolio gallery, however for full reference please read the instructions below.

The main structure of the portfolio gallery template looks like this:

To make one page a portfolio page you have to select the Template for this page to be Portfolio Gallery.

For this page you can make the following settings:
  1. You can select a portfolio category whose items to be displayed there by setting the custom field Display items from categories in the page. If "All Categories" has been selected, all the portfolio items that you have created will be displayed there. You can read about creating porfolio items in the next section below.
  2. You can select how many columns (items per row) to be displayed by setting the custom field Number of columns in the page. You can select between 2,3 and 4 columns.
  3. You can select whether the items to be ordered by the date they have been created or by custom order by setting the custom field Portfolio item order in the page.
  4. You can show/hide the portfolio item category filter by setting the custom field Show Portfolio Categories in the page.

    The purpose of this filter is to display the portfolio categories and filter the items by the category that is set to them. If in the field Display items from categories above "All Categories" is selected, then all the portfolio categories will be displayed. If a category is selected there, only this category and its subcategories will be displayed in this filter.

  5. You can show/hide the portfolio item descriptions by setting the custom field Show Item Descriptions in the page. If it is set to "Show" the item descriptions will be displayed below the item thumbnail. If set to "Hide" and the the item has a description set to it, then the description is displayed in the lightbox.
  6. You can set the number of items displayed per page setting the custom field Number of posts per page in the page.
  7. You can disable the automatic thumbnail generation by setting the custom field Turn on/off automatic thumbnail generation in the page.
  8. You can select a slider/fader on the portfolio page by setting the custom field Slider.
  9. If no slider is selected, you can add a subtitle to your portfolio page by setting the custom field Subtitle.
  10. You can turn on/off the link of the title by setting the custom field Turn on/off title link in the page. When descriptions are displayed and this field is set to ON, then after clicking on the title the user will be redirected to the post content area.

Creating portfolio items:

Creating Portfolio items can be accomplished in the Portfolio section » Add New.


Here are the settings that you can do to each of the portfolio items:

  1. Select what action to be taken after clicking on the item thumbnail by setting the custom field When clicked on the image open:. You have the following possibilities:
    • Preview Image in lightbox- when clicked on the thumbnail the image that is set in the Preview Image URL custom field of the item will be displayed. By default the theme will create the small thumbnail by using the bigger (preview) image. However if you prefer to use your own thumbnail images you have to set the custom field Turn on/off automatic thumbnail generation in your portfolio page to off. After that in your portfolio post you have to set the custom field called Thumbnail URL and set its value to be the full path of the image. For example http://domain.com/img1.jpg.
    • The content of the item- when clicked on the thumbnail a page that contains the main content of the item (inserted in the main content area) will be displayed. You can still use the automatic thumbnail generation functionality and generate the smaller thumbnail by inserting the image URL in the Preview Image URL field.
    • Play Video- when clicked on the thumbnail a video will be played. For the video link you have to set the custom field Custom Link/Video URL by inserting the link in there. You can still use the automatic thumbnail generation functionality and generate the smaller thumbnail by inserting the image URL in the Preview Image URL field.

      Here are some examples of inserting videos:

      • YouTube video:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geplBr2fcZc
      • Vimeo:
        http://vimeo.com/11326568

        Please note that a vime link containing www is not valid (such as http://www.vimeo.com/11326568)

      • Flash Alone:

        Please note that you need to insert width and height of the video

    • Custom Link- when clicked on the thumbnail the user will be redirected to a custom link that you have set in the custom field Custom Link/Video URL of the item. You can still use the automatic thumbnail generation functionality and generate the smaller thumbnail by inserting the image URL in the Preview Image URL field.
    • Do Nothting - nothing happens when clicked on the thumbnail image. You can still use the automatic thumbnail generation functionality and generate the smaller thumbnail by inserting the image URL in the Preview Image URL field.
  2. You can set the content of the portfolio item in the main content area. This content will be displayed after clicking on the title of the item (when descriptions are enabled and title links are set to ON on the portfolio page) or after clicking on the item (if "The content of the item" has been selected as an action above).
  3. You can set a description to the item by setting the custom field Description.If in the portfolio page the Show Item Descriptions is set to "Show" the item descriptions will be displayed below the item thumbnail. If set to "Hide" and the the item has a description set to it, then the description is displayed in the lightbox.
  4. You can set the item a category so that it will be filtered by this category in the category filter above the items (if enabled) in the right sidebar of the portfolio item page:

    You can read more about the category filter in the section above (where the Portfolio page settings are described).
  5. You can set an order number to your item if in the portfolio page the Portfolio item order field is set to "Custom Order". You can set the order number in the Attributes section of the right sidebar:



Quick/Easy Gallery page


This is the default WordPress image gallery - the purpose of this gallery is to insert multiple images at once - you can very quickly create multiple galleries just for several minutes.

In order to create a quick gallery you have to:

  1. Create a new page (you don't have to set a page template to it)
  2. Click on the "Add Media" button above the main content area:
  3. Open the "Create Gallery" section. If you would like to upload new images click on the "Upload Files" tab and upload the images. If you would like to add existing Media Library images, click on the "Media Library" tab and select the images you like. After you select the images, click on the "Create a new gallery" button.
  4. After this when you click on each image in the gallery, you can set a title and description to it.
  5. If you would like to edit an image, click on it. The text that you enter in the Caption section will be displayed as a caption below the image. The value of the Alternate Text field will be displayed in the lightbox as a title and the value of the Title field will be displayed in the lightbox below the image.
  6. Use the "Gallery Settings" section to change the gallery settings:

    In the "Link to" select "Media File" and in the "Gallery Columns" field select 5 if the page is full width or 3 if the page contains a sidebar.
    Click on the "Insert Gallery" button.
  7. If you would like to change the default image size, you can do it in Settings » Media » Thumbnail Size field. Please note that if you change the default size, you would have to reupload the images again, as WordPress automatically crops the images during image upload only.


Contact Form page


The contact form page looks like this:


This page contains an AJAX contact form and a separate contact sidebar.

To make one page contain a contact form you have to do some settings. When you create (or edit) your page, you should find the field Template and in it to choose the Contact form page option. After that immediately your page will contain a contact form.

To set a text in the contact page, just insert it as a content of the page.

Setting the email address to which to send the email
To set the email address, you have to go to the options setting page and in the section Pages » Contact find the field Email to which to send contact form message in. In this field you have to insert your email address.
As you can see in this section there are some other fields that you can edit. I have provided this feature in case that you need to translate your site or just don't like the text that is output.

Setting a sender e-mail address

You can set the e-mail address to which to send the messages in the Dandelion Options » Page Settings » Contact » Email sender field.

Important: Please make sure to set a sender email address to avoid messages sent by users using a Yahoo email address failing to be sent.

Yahoo has recently published a DMARC policy of reject, meaning that all the emails that are sent from Yahoo emails, but not from the Yahoo servers, should be rejected by the email providers. This means that if your site visitor sets a Yahoo email and this email is set as a sender, you may not be able to receive the email (depending on the email provider that you use to receive the messages). Therefore, please make sure to set your custom email address in this field (such as [email protected], non-Yahoo address), so that you can make sure that you will receive all the emails from Yahoo users.


Setting CAPTCHA

Having CAPTCHA enabled for your form will prevent sending spam emails by robots, just by asking the users to click on the checkbox.


The theme uses the Google reCAPTCHA service for the captcha feature. In order to enable reCAPTCHA for the theme, apply the following settings in the Dandelion Options » Page Settings » Contact section:


Important: In version 3.1.5 we have updated the reCAPTCHA widget to version 2, since the deprecation of version 1. The version 1 API will be shut down in March 2018, so if you are using capctha in your contact form, please make sure to update the theme to the latest version. If you have updated the theme from an eariler version, please make sure to follow the instructions above to generate and setup new API keys.

Setting the sidebar

By default this page template uses the Default Sidebar. If you would like to use another sidebar, you can create one in the options setting page » General » Sidebars and after that you can set the custom field Sidebar and select the sidebar that you have just created. To customize it you have to go to the Appearance » Widgets and find the selected sidebar. You can drag and drop widgets from the left into it.


Selecting a slider for the page

In order to select a slider for the page, you have to set the custom field Slider in the page.
-If one of the sliders selected, to the page will be automatically assigned the default slider of the selected slider type. If you have created an additional slider and you would like this slider to be displayed, you can select it in the "Slider Name" field below. into the the Static Image URL field below.
-If "None" selected there, you can set the custom field Subtitle below.
-If Static Header Image has been selected, you can set the static image by setting the image as a Featured one. Here is explained how to do this.


Setting the page layout

For this page you can select the layout to be Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar or Full Width. You can do this by setting the custom field Page Layout.




The Default page


The default page contains a separate sidebar on the right.By default this page template uses the Default Sidebar. If you would like to use another sidebar, you can create one in the options setting page » General » Sidebars and after that you can set the custom field Sidebar and select the sidebar that you have just created. To customize it you have to go to the Appearance » Widgets and find the selected sidebar. You can drag and drop widgets from the left into it.

Selecting a slider for the page

In order to select a slider for the page, you have to set the custom field Slider in the page.
-If one of the sliders selected, to the page will be automatically assigned the default slider of the selected slider type. If you have created an additional slider and you would like this slider to be displayed, you can select it in the "Slider Name" field below. into the the Static Image URL field below.
-If "None" selected there, you can set the custom field Subtitle below.
-If Static Header Image has been selected, you can set the static image by setting the image as a Featured one. Here is explained how to do this.


Setting the page layout

For this page you can select the layout to be Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar or Full Width. You can do this by setting the custom field Page Layout.




Changing the theme style


All the style settings can be done in the options setting page » Styles

The theme goes with several predefined skins. You can change between those skins in the Predefined Skins section:


If you would like to use another custom color, rather than one of the predefined colors, you can select your color in the Custom Theme Color field:


If you would like to select a pattern for the theme, you can do it in the Theme Pattern section.


These are the main style settings that you can do on the theme. In this section (Styles section) there are many other custom settings that you might need to change such as text sizes, text colors, background colors, etc.


Shortcodes  back to top


This theme goes with 28 shortcodes. For a full reference of their usage and examples you can refer to the Features section of the demo.

Using shortcodes is really easy- you just have to insert the shortcode in the main content area of the post/page. For example, if you would like to insert a button, you have to insert a content like this one:

		[button href="http://site.com"]Button text[/button]
		

Formatting buttons available from version 2.3

In version 2.3 of the theme, some formatting buttons have been included:

There are buttons for almost all of the styled elements that the theme provides. These buttons allow you to more easily insert styled elements and also you are able to see how they will look from the editor. However, if you feel more comfortable with using raw shortcodes, you can do it - they are still available for you.


Inserting Lighbox image

There are different ways to insert a lightbox image (via the formatting buttons and the shortcodes), but the easiest way to set an image lightbox is to insert the image into the post (via the "Add an Image" button), after that click on the image -> an Edit Image button will be displayed. You have to click on this button, and in the window that is opened you have to click on the "Advanced Settings" section. In this section, in the field "Link rel" you have to insert the word lightbox. This automatically will set the lightbox functionality to the image.


Additional Services Boxes

The services boxes look this:

Apart that you can use the services boxes when setting the "Home page" template to a page, you can also add additional services boxes wherever you like by using a shortcode:

[servicesboxes]
[servicesbox title="Title one" link="http://site.com" linktext="Learn More" image="IMAGE URL"]First box text [/servicesbox] 
[servicesbox title="Title two" link="http://site.com" linktext="Learn More" image="IMAGE URL"]Second box text [/servicesbox] 
[servicesbox title="Title three" link="http://site.com" linktext="Learn More" image="IMAGE URL" last="true"]Third box text [/servicesbox]
[/servicesboxes]
		
Note:Please make sure that all the shortcode tags are on the same line, but separated with at least a space (on the example above the shortcodes are set on different lines to improve readability), for example:

		... [/servicesbox] [servicesbox] ...
		


Social Sharing  back to top


The theme includes sharing buttons for the main social network sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn . These buttons can be enabled on posts, pages and portfolio posts single pages.

You can configure the how and where the buttons will be displayed in the Dandelion Options » General » Social Sharing section.



Fonts  back to top


All the fonts settings can be done in the options setting » Style settings » Fonts section. By default the theme uses web safe fonts: "Georgia" for the titles and "Verdana" for the main body text.

Using Cufon font replacement

You can enable Cufon font replacement by setting "ON" in the "Enable Cufon for headings" field. When Cufon is enabled the selected font will be set for all the main headings, and for the headings this font will be used with higher priority than any font settings set in the below section or within the style.css file. With Cufon enabled, you can still use Google or standard fonts for the rest of the sections.

If Cufon enabled, you can select either one of the fonts that the theme goes with (in the "Heading Cufon Font" field) or upload your own font within the "Custom Heading Font" field. The font to upload should be in JavaScript format and you can generate this JavaScript file on the following page: http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/

Using Google fonts

In order to use Google Fonts, the field "Enable Google Fonts" should be set to "ON". After that, you can add the new fonts in the text area provided within the "Add Google Font". When adding the new font, please make sure that you insert the URL of the font only, not the whole embed link. For example, if you would like to insert the Nobile font, you have to click on the "Quick Use" button:

In the new window that will be opened, select the settings according your needs and from the embed section you have to copy only the value that is contained within the href property:

After you add the font URL in the "Add Google Font" field, you have to set the theme use this font. You can do this, by setting its font name in the "Headings font family" or "Body text font family" field, depending where you would like to use this font. For example, if you would like to add the font for the headings, you first have to get its font name from the Google page:

and insert its name within the "Headings font family" section:

The other fonts, that go after this font name are the fonts that will be used, in case there is some problem with loading the font from Google.

Note:In order to use a Google font for the headings, please make sure that the Cufon font replacement is disabled.
Note:If you prefer not to use Google fonts, it would be better to disable them within the "Enable Google Fonts" field, so that the font files are not loaded unnecessary.


Translation  back to top


For this theme we have provided the possibility to easily translate/change the built-in words from the admin panel, without having to edit the PHP files. You can do this in the Appearance -> Dandelion Options ->Translation section. For the contact form you have to edit the fields in the Pages » Contact section.


Setting a multi-language installation

If your WordPress installation supports more than one language, you can set the theme built in words change depending on the selected language. In order to do this you have to follow the following steps:

  1. In Dandelion Options » Translation » Settings select "ON" for the "Enable Multilingual Translation" field.
  2. In the same section select the locale for the default language. If your default langauge is English, you don't have to change this field. If, for example, you would like to change the default language to German, in this field you have to insert de_DE. Here you can see some examples of locales. For the default installation language, the theme will use the words that are set in the Dandelion Options » Translation section.
  3. Create .mo files for the additional languages
    In the lang folder within the main theme folder you will find a file called default.po. You have to open this file with a program that can generate .mo files, such as PoEdit. Once you open it, you can insert the words in the additional language. Here is an example, with the file opened with PoEdit and the meanings of the words inserted into English:

    In the same way you can insert the translations in the additional language. Once you save the document, a .mo file will be generated in the directory you specify. You have to rename this .mo file to the locale of the language used. For example, if this language is French, the name of the file should be fr_FR.mo. After that, you have to insert this .mo file in the lang directory of the theme. If you are using a child theme, create a folder called lang and insert the .mo file in there.

Note: If you would like to translate the services boxes on the home page, you can use the services boxes shortcode to add the boxes in a Default page template, instead of using the Home page template. You can read about using the services boxes shortcode in the Shortcodes section.




Widgets included  back to top


The theme goes with several additional widgets included:

All the widgets are located within the plugins directory of the download folder. In order to activate them, you need to go to the WordPress admin panel -> Plugins -> Add New -> click on the Upload link and find the desired plugin file on your local file system. After the plugin has been uploaded successfully you need to click on the Activate link. For the WP PageNavi plugin only activation is needed. For the other two you need to go to the Widgets section and drag and drop them to the desired sidebar.



CSS Files  back to top


The theme contains the following CSS files:

The first file (style.css) contains all of the specific stylings for pages. The file is separated into sections:


For each of the main parts of the website there are comments. For example, for the menu the comments look like this:
 
/*-------------------- MENU --------------------*/ 
--menu styles here--
 


Javascript files  back to top


The theme contains the following JavaScript files:

Font files - all fonts have been downloaded from http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ and have been generated from http://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/


PhotoShop files  back to top


There are 4 PSD file included in this theme. Every PSD file has a clear structure and is organised in groups with well named layers.


Special thanks to all the great graphic resorces to:


PHP files  back to top


Except the main files needed for this theme to run, here are the other external PHP files used:

Updates  back to top


a. Installing an update


You can install an update of the theme either automatically by using the Envato Market Plugin or manually.

If you have modified the theme's code: your modifications will be lost when you install the update. Please create a backup of your code modifications and consider using a child theme instead of modifying the theme's code. More info here.

Installing the update automatically
Important: The folder that contains the theme files must be called "dandelion" in order to automatically update the theme.

Due to the retirement of the old Envato API, since version 3.1.4 of the theme we have changed the way automatic updates are installed from the Dashboard. We had to remove the Envato Toolkit Library from the theme and recommend installing the Envato Market Plugin that can replace it.

In order to install updates automatically from the dashboard, you first need to install the Envato Market Plugin. The Envato Market Plugin, created by the Envato team, can be used to install updates of all of your ThemeForest and CodeCanyon items.


Installing the Envato Market Plugin

  1. Download the plugin
    • If you are running version 3.1.4 or later, you should see a notification in your Dashboard to automatically install the plugin
    • If you are using an older version or you don't see the dashboard notification:
      - Download the plugin from here or
      - Go to the Envato Market Github page, scroll down to the "Installation" section of the plugin description and click on the "download" link. Do not use the "Download ZIP" link of the repository!
  2. Install the plugin. After you have downloaded the plugin, you can install it from the Plugins » Add new » Upload Plugin section and select the downloaded plugin zip file.

Configuring the Envato Market Plugin

Once you have the Envato Market Plugin installed and activated, you will need to setup your API token in order to be able to use it. To setup your token, visit the "Envato Market" page of your dashboard and follow the instructions on the page. This page includes a link to the Envato Market site where you can easily generate your token.

Once you setup your token, you should see a "Themes" tab on the page where you can install updates of all your ThemeForest themes. Clicking on the "Update Available" button will start installing the update.



If you experience issues with using the Envato Market Plugin



Installing an update manually

There are two main ways of installing an update manually:





Version 1.1


This version includes:



Version 2.0


This version includes:



Version 2.1


This version includes:



Version 2.2


This version includes:



Version 2.3


This version includes:



Version 2.4


This version includes:



Version 2.5


This version includes:



Version 2.6


This version includes:



Version 2.6.1


This version includes:



Version 2.6.2


This version includes:



Version 2.6.3


This version mainly includes incompatibility fixes regarding the upcoming WordPress 3.2. WordPress 3.2. would include jQuery 1.6 which implemented some structural changes and lead to some incompatibilties. The theme update changes:



Version 2.6.5


In this version we have updated Tithumb (the image resizing script) to the latest version (1.34) - a security vulnerability was found regarding this script and version 1.34 fixes this vulnerability.



Version 2.6.6


This version includes:



Version 2.6.7


This version includes:



Version 2.6.8


This version includes:



Version 2.7.0


This version includes:



Version 2.8.0


This version includes:



Version 2.8.1


This version includes:



Version 2.8.2


This version includes:



Version 2.9.0


This version includes:



Version 2.9.1


This version includes:



Version 3.0.0


This version includes:



Version 3.0.1


This version includes:



Version 3.1.0


This version includes:



Version 3.1.1


This version includes:



Version 3.1.2


This version includes:



Version 3.1.3


This version includes:



Version 3.1.4


This version includes:



Version 3.1.5


This version includes:



Version 3.1.6


This version includes:



Version 3.1.7


This version includes:



Version 3.1.8


This version includes:



Troubleshooting  back to top


In this section you can check the most common issues and the solutions for them


Support  back to top


We will do our best to assist with questions directly related to the theme set up, however please note that theme support is completely voluntary for ThemeForest authors. Therefore before you contact us, please consider finding an answer to your question in:

Note: If you have already explored all the sources of information stated above, and you are still experiencing problems with the theme set up, please open a ticket with your question on the Pexeto Support Site.


Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this theme! If you like it, please don't forget to rate it on the ThemeForest site.

Pexeto

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