“The Agency Theme” Documentation by “Flow” v1.3.2

“The Agency Theme”

Created: 11/10/2011
By: Anthony Jones and Flow
Support Forums: Support Forums

Thank you for purchasing my theme. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to post your questions on support forums. Thanks so much!

Table of Contents

  1. Info
  2. Preinstallation
  3. Installing the Theme
  4. First Steps
  5. Portfolio
  6. News, Coming Soon, About and Contact Pages
  7. Customizing Footer
  8. Theme Settings
    1. General
    2. News
    3. More Sidebar Areas
    4. Footer
    5. Typography
  9. Files (HTML/PHP/JS code)
  10. CSS
  11. PSD File
  12. Sources, Credits and Goodbye

A) Info - top

This theme was created by Anthony Jones (follow) (design and idea) and Flow (follow) (code). It was tested on Wordpress 3.2.1. I'm sure that it's going to work also on some older as well as some further versions of Wordpress. I will update it in case it doesn't work on some further version of Wordpress and notify you about it on ThemeForest item page. Once updates become available you will be able to download all the files from ThemeForest again.

If you encounter any errors please contact me on support forums and I will fix them as soon as possible (you will be able to redownload fixed theme from ThemeForest item page). If you have any suggestions regarding this theme let me know! I will improve or fix it if necessary because I'd like everyone to by fully satisfied with it! Okay, so let's get started!

B) Preinstallation - top

You need a working copy of Wordpress installed on your own server (wordpress.com hosting won't work) in order to start. You should know how to use it (e.g. how to enter admin panel, how to write posts etc.). This may help you: New To WordPress - Where to Start. Make sure that your server is using PHP5 (not PHP4).

C) Installing the Theme - top

You can install and configure this theme the same way as most of the other themes. Please follow the steps below:

  1. Upload the theme - login to your server using any FTP client. Go to wp-content > themes and place ENTIRE FOLDER with your theme there (not files without folder). Theme files should be directly in that folder. Alternatively, go to admin panel > Appearance > Themes > Upload and pick ZIP package with folder with theme files inside (not main download package that you downloaded from Themeforest).
  2. Activate the theme - login to Wordpress admin panel and go to Appearance > Themes. Activate the theme.
  3. Import sample content - in the package you'll find one XML file. You don't have to use it but you may find it useful as it contains all the posts, tags, categories, menus and some theme settings from live preview. It doesn't contain sidebar widgets and footer widgets. If you'd like to use it (recommended) go to Tools > Import and import that (you'll have to install importer first but that's not complicated). After importing sample content you still have to configure the theme and create some things like footer and sidebars manually.
  4. Install Typography Plugin - in the main package you'll find second package with Typography plugin. Please unzip it and upload to your server to plugins directory. It's necessary to replace standard fonts with live demo fonts.

Check out my video presenting how to install our themes. This video includes our other theme but the process is EXACTLY the same (totally no differences).

Please visit support forums if you have any problems with installing this theme.

D) First Steps - top

Once you install this theme some new tools will appear in the admin menu. If you have imported sample content then you will not have to configure anything except adding your sidebar and footer widgets (dribbble feed on coming soon page and social media icons in footer). Below you'll find explanation of each theme option. This should make it easier for you to configure everything and replace sample content with your content.

E) Customizing Portfolio - top

If you look at the demo website you'll notice one global portfolio page. It will display all your portfolio entries in random order with filter to the left. Filter lists all the portfolio categories that have at least one post in them. Each portfolio entry is a separate post (see admin panel, portfolio section to have a complete list of all your current posts). Each portfolio post requires: Title (double, yellow and green areas), Description, Date (in format like dd.mm.yyyy) (optional), Client name (optional), Agency (optional), additional portfolio slides (optional) (which are simply additional images or videos related to project (see demo for example project pages)). There are custom fields for each of those things except additional slides. Additional slides are added through SuperSlide editor.

If you'd like to add new slide to your portfolio project please go to [Portfolio > Edit (some project) (or Add new)]. You'll find there SuperSlide editor (since v1.2). To add new slides drag and drop images (or videos) and they will appear as new slides or use "Image" or "Video" icon. Example screenshot with "Add Image Slide" panel:

Notes:

  1. Once you import sample content you'll have working website with example posts. However, you will have to replace our live demo portfolio images with your ones.
  2. (14/04/2012) Please ignore any [Tools > Import] errors. Those are all WordPress importer errors. We can't do anything about them. Perhaps WordPress will fix that soon. Luckily, they don't have any impact on imported content. Everything imports fine.
  3. Portfolio template has image resizing script (for thumbnails and project slides) so you may use images in any size.
  4. SuperSlide editor should work flawlessly. If you notice any errors, most likely your server is misconfigured. Please contact our support in such event.

There is a video of SuperSlide editor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmgQR2oZ9qk

F) News, Coming Soon, About and Contact Pages - top

The theme consists of portfolio and four pages (see demo for reference) which are About Us, Coming Soon (it's a dribbble feed), News and Contact page. This help file will guide you through installation and further usage of those four pages. If you'd like to create other pages or something that is beyond the scope of this help file please ask your questions on our support board. Four pages can be created or edited in "Pages" section of your admin panel.

Once you import sample content you'll have working news section with example posts. I recommend to read the following anyway to find out how to create and edit blog. Follow the instructions below to create working blog page (the same applies to coming soon page except you skip steps number 3 and 5):

  1. Go to Pages > Add New.
  2. Choose some page title (like "Blog" or "News") and select blog template in the menu to the right.
  3. Go to Posts > Categories and add some categories that will be used to store your blog posts (like "Photography", "Coding", "Fashion" etc.). This is not required because categories will be not displayed anyway but just for your convenience I recommend adding categories. They might be useful when switching to other theme.
  4. Once you create some posts they will appear on news page. You can exclude some categories from being displayed on blog page in The Agency > Blog.
  5. Please note that each blog posts consists of Title and Description.

G) Customizing Footer - top

Select Footer in theme settings. You may want to change some settings there. Then go to Appearance > Widgets and populate footer column (second sidebar) with some widgets you'd like to use. On live preview I use only one text widget with the following code: <ul id="social"> <li><a href="javascript:void(null);" class="facebook"><span class="social-icon"></span></a></li> <li><a href="javascript:void(null);" class="twitter"><span class="social-icon"></span></a></li> <li><a href="javascript:void(null);" class="mail"><span class="social-icon"></span></a></li> <li><a href="javascript:void(null);" class="feed"><span class="social-icon"></span></a></li> <li><a href="javascript:void(null);" class="skype"><span class="social-icon"></span></a></li> </ul>

H) Theme Settings - top

Below you'll find all the theme settings with descriptions. This section is about settings available in admin panel to the left. Post settings (such as title, description, background image) are skipped here.

a) General - top

Choose the panel called The Agency > General. Main theme settings will appear to the right.

b) News - top

Go to The Agency > Blog.

Once you go to The Agency > Sidebars you'll be able to create additional sidebars there. More sidebars may be useful only if you'd like to have different footer content on different pages or multiple dribbble pages.

Select The Agency > Footer.

e) Typography - top

There's a typography plugin included in the package along with the theme. Follow the instructions in the package to install it. Then go to Appearance > Typography. There's a panel to manage your typography. More information on that is available in the typography plugin package and on support forums.

I) Files (HTML/PHP/JS code) - top

This theme is a liquid layout. All of the information within the main content area is nested within a div with an id of "content". It doesn't have sidebars. The general template structure is the same throughout the template. Most of the PHP, HTML and CSS code is well commented so it's easy to modify. Framework files are placed in "framework" folder. Everything is gropued into different sections. Standard WordPress' structure of files is also kept.

M) CSS - top

If you're going to edit CSS files make the backup copy first. The main style is in style.css file. It's very well commented so I believe that there won't be any problems with editing it.

N) PSD File - top

PSD file is included in the package. Almost everything is grouped and different elements are placed on separate layers. PSD file includes only the most important elements of the theme. Everything is layered so it should be easy to make some changes.

O) Sources, Credits and Goodbye - top

I've used the following images, icons or other files as listed. Big thanks to all great designers who provided preview content for The Agency.

Things above are mainly licensed under GPL or MIT (or both). Check websites and/or licensing folder for more information or email me to get more information.

Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this theme. As I said at the beginning, I'd be glad to help you if you have any questions relating to this theme. No guarantees, but I'll do my best to assist. If you have a more general question relating to the themes on ThemeForest, you might consider visiting the forums and asking your question in the "Item Discussion" section.

Flow on ThemeForest (follow)

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