Futura Documentation

Using the theme

To use the theme extract the main downloaded zip file.

After extracting you will find a folder named similar to theme name. That folder is the production ready ( live site ready ) theme.

To set up the theme properly with several setting options, please read through the documentation.

Please edit theme files using a proper code editor. There are lots of free and opensource code editor available. You can choose any of those, some popular free code editor Visual Studio Code , Atom

Installation

WordPress theme can be installed in 2 ways.

1. Through WordPress.
2. Uploading via FTP.

Through WordPress

Installing a theme through WordPress is very easy. Login to your WordPress Dashboard and be ready to go. Now you have to follow few steps described below.

• In WordPress Admin panel's sidebar navigation go to Appearance > Themes. Now click on Add New button at the top.
• Now click on "Upload Theme" and after That click Choose File and locate your Theme zip file(futurta.zip). Then install now.
• Within few seconds you will see a message "Theme installed successfully."
• Now click on "Activate".

Your new theme will be installed and activated successfully.

Uploading via FTP

In your themeforest download folder you will find a folder "futura" you have to upload this folder in your web host. Follow the instruction below.

• Connect your webserver via ftp and find the folder wp-content > themes in your WordPress installation. This folder contains all your installed themes.
• Transfer / upload the "futura" folder in that "Themes" folder.
• After successful upload, login to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes. You will see the Futura theme listed here.
• Hover over the theme Thumbnail and click on the "Activate" button. Your new theme will be activated successfully.

After installing the theme you will see a notification in dashboard which will ask you to install some plugins ( Meta box, Gbj Futura Companion etc) which are required and recommended with this theme. Please install and activate those plugins before going forward.

Common WordPress settings

Here I will mention some common settings which you should check and choose correct option before you go further.

Go to Settings > Reading in admin sidebar and check these option "Front page display" > "Your latest posts". Now click on save.

Go to Settings > Permalink and choose "Post name" in common settings and save.

Theme option configuration

For simplicity Futura theme uses WordPress's default customization option. Go to Appearance > Customize to see the available customization options.

1. Site Title and Tagline

   In this section you will see Your site title and tagline which you have set up at the time of WordPress Itself. If you want to change these you can do that.

2. General Settings

   In this section you will find some general settings which will be used in entire site.

   • Upload Logo: This is the place where you can upload the logo image of your site.
   • Theme Color: Change the primary color of the theme if you want.
   • Upload Favicon: This is the place where you can upload a custom favicon for your site. Recommended size 48px X 48px . ico format.

3. Sidebar Settings

   In this section choose the position of the sidebar (Right / Left).

4. Footer Settings

   In this section you will find footer related settings.

   • Hide Footer Widget Area: Check this if you want to hide the footer widget area.
   • Copyright Text: Enter the text you want to show in footer copyright area.

5. Color

   This is the option from default WordPress. If you want to change the background color of body area, you can do that in this section.

6. Background Image

   If you want to use any texture / image in your site background you can do that in this section. Ones you upload / choose an image for background there will be some more option visible related to background image.

7. Navigation

   This section is also comes with WordPress by default. In this section you can choose which menu (created in dashboard) will be shown in main menu area.

   It is recommended that to setup menu, you don't need use this section. you can do this from Appearance > Menus. It is the more easy way. Later in this documentation I will write, how to use Menus

8. Widgets

   This section also generated by WordPress by default. It's a way to quick add / remove / modification of widgets in your site widgetize are. In this theme sidebar and footer. It is the same as Appearance > Widgets option in admin panel left sidebar.

9. Static Front Page

   Normally You don't need to use this section. If you want to show a static page in place of blog posts in home page. You can try this.

10. Custom Code

    In this section you can quickly add custom CSS or JavaScript code to insert in your site. You can add your Analytic code here.

    If you want to add lots of css code, I will recommend you yo use a child theme.

    A ready to use child theme for futura is included in main download. Do not remove any file and code from it. Add your css in the style.css file.

WordPress beginner Instruction

How to Create menu

To setup navigation for your WordPress at first you have to create a menu. To easily create It is recommended that you create your pages at first. No problem if you keep this page blank at this point.

Go to Appearance > Menus now give a name to your menu and add menu item (pages or custom links) to this menu and then save the menu.

Now click on Manage Locations. Here you will see a table with two column "Theme Location" and "Assigned Menu". Choose your recently created menu from the dropdown option for the menu location (In futura theme it is called "Main Menu"). Now click on save changes.

How to add widgets

Go to Appearance > Widgets from the admin sidebar menu.

In futura theme There is 4 widgetize area one is "Main sidebar" and others are "Footer Widget area left / center / right"

Just drag available widgets from left side of this page into these widget area. and then insert necessary content and settings and save that widget.

Futura theme comes with 6 custom widgets.

Custom widgets

This themes comes with a custom plugin named Gbj Futura Companion. After installing the theme you will be notified to install and activate this plugin within your dashboard. Please install that plugin.

The custom widgets in futura are

• Futura - Facebook Widget
• Futura - Flickr Widget
• Futura - Mailchimp Widget
• Futura - Social Link Widget

In each widget a common option is title. It is the Title of the widget to show in your site. Other options for each widget is explained below.

Futura - Facebook Widget: Add your facbook Page URL in "Facbook Page URL" option. Example http://www.facebook.com/yourpagename

Futura - Flickr Widget: Set your Flickr ID in "Flicker ID" option. To get your ID login to flickr.com and click on 'you'. The last part between / is your ID. You can also use idgettr.com to get flicker ID easily.

Futura - Mailchimp Widget: Create a list on mailchimp and generate a subscribe form. Then copy the form URL and set it to "Mailchimp Form URL" option. Remember to remove /post from the URL.

Futura - Social Link Widget: This widget shows the social icons. Add Correct social link to correct field. To hide a icon Leave it blank. Mail icon and rss icon URL are special type. so follow the instruction there for those icons.

Different post formats

To make a new post go to Posts > Add New from the admin sidebar. This theme support various post formats. Choose which format of post you are going to create. At the right side you can see "format option". You can choose here.

Depending on which format you choose there will be a meta box (options for that specific post format you choose) below the post content box.

This options are pretty much self explanatory. I highly recommend to use these options for different post format. It will ensure that your posts will be rendered in your site correctly.

Demo installation

If you want to install the demo data as the Live demo site of this theme. follow the instruction below

Please note, If you import demo data maybe there will be some un-wanted data and / settings in your site. As well as maybe your previous settings will be removed totally or partially. Be sure, you want to do this.

Go to Tools > Import from your admin sidebar.

Click on WordPress. If you didn't used this option before then a popup will be opened showing "WordPress Importer". Click on "Install Now" button.

After successful installation click on "Activate Plugin & Run Importer".

Now click on "Choose file" button and locate "futura.wordpress.demo.data.xml" file. It is located in folder "Demo Data" in your themeforest main download folder. Now click on "Upload file and impoart" button.

In next step check this option "Download and import file attachments" and click on "submit"

Maybe some error or warning will display but don't worry if you can see a success message then it's fine.

It is recommended that use this demo data import for test / understand purpose only. Don't use these in your live site.

Changelog

V 2.1.1 - April 02, 2020

• Fixed Video and audio embed code in meta box was not being saved.

V 2.1.0 - May 17, 2019

• Transferred Custom widgets, social share icons and custom meta box for different post types, from theme to a separate plugin as per the Themeforest latest requirement.
• Fixed Pinterest share link.
• Removed Twitter and Google plus widget. Google plus service is no longer available by google. Now if you want to add twitter widget you can normally get embed code from Twitter Publish and use that in a html or text widget.

V 2.0.0 - February 08, 2019

• Fixed theme being replaced by another theme automatically. Now current theme version is bigger than the theme by another theme, WordPress will not show false update notification.
• Tested all compatibility with WordPress version 5. Now theme works with latest WordPress version.
• Removed custom favicon and custom code option from customize settings. These custom options are no longer required because now these options comes with WordPress by default.
• Rewritten some internal javascript for meta box options in post editor, to work with new Gutenberg editor.
• Fixed some minor issue which was recommend by WordPress theme Check and Themeforest Theme Check.

V 1.0.4 - July 15, 2015

• Fixes some child theme issue.
• Fixed one string was untranslatable and updated translation file.
• File which are modified - functions.php, style.css, futura.po and futura.mo (located in languages folder)

V 1.0.3 - July 14, 2015

• There was a javascript bug. Gallery and facebook type post had rendering problem in firefox. Now it is ok.
• Tag and category link's hover color was not changing after changing the theme color. Now it is changing.
• There was some problem regarding child theme. The site layout was broken after activating child theme. A ready to use child theme is included in the main download folder.

V 1.0.2 - June 14, 2015

• Some text of comment form and place holder text "Enter keyword..." in search form was not ready for translation. Now those are ready.
• Files which codes are changed... searchform.php, comments.php. Also .po and .mo file in languages folder are updated.

V 1.0.1 - June 11, 2015

• Fixes small CSS bug for mobile menu in firefox
• Fixes link of author avater in single post.

V 1.0.0 - June 09, 2015

• Initial release