logo

Merchant Theme Documentation

How to quickly setup and use this theme.

In order to install the theme, you have two options:

  1. In the downloaded .zip file go in the /theme folder and upload the Merchant sub-folder contained in it to http://yourdomain.com/wp-content/themes/ directory via any FTP program.

  2. Take the .zip found in the theme folder and install it through the dashboard.
      In order to activate the Theme:
    • Log into your Wordpress admin using the following URL: http://yourdomain.com/ wp-login.php
    • Next, go to Appearance > Themes. Here, you should see a thumbnail of Merchant theme.
    • Click on the Activate link to activate this theme

You will be promted in the WordPress Dashboard to install theme required plugins. Follow the prompts to install them.


Required Plugins

  • ACF Pro
  • WooCommerce
  • Yith Wishlist
  • Revolution Slider
  • Realy Simple Twitter Feed

Optional (but Recommended) Plugins

  • Flatfolio Plugin
  • Contact Form 7
customize

Demo content has been included in your download to make it easier to set up the theme. It is of course completely optional.

Go to Tools/Import and install the WordPress importer plugin. You can then use it to upload the included merchant-demo.xml file.


Note: - Make sure you have installed the required plugins before importing the demo content.

customize

This theme features advanced customization features with live preview. Click on 'appearance/customize' to open the customizer.

Colors

Highlight colors of the theme can be set.

Logos

You can upload a header logo.

Header Image

Set a sitewide custom header image. The header image is shown on pages using the 'default' template

Note: - You can overide the header image on individual pages.

Blog Layout

Select one of 2 sitewide blog layouts.

Typography

Select from Google fonts included. You can toggle default fint settings on to return to the demo font setup.

Social Links

Add your social links. Any fields with values entered will automatically display the social icon in the footer on the frontend.

homepage

    Homepage

  1. Create a new page using the homepage template (If you imported the demo content, you can skip this step)
  2. Go to 'appearance/customize' and select the 'Static Front Page' tab. Set the 'Front page'.

    Blog Page

  1. Create a new page using the default template and enter your title/subtitle. Leave the rest of the page blank.
  2. Go to 'appearance/customize' and select the 'Static Front Page' tab. Set the 'Posts page'.

Note: - To set the same page as your homepage and main posts page, simply set the "Posts Page" to your desired page and leave the "Front Page" selection as the default -select-.

sidebar

Merchant features dynamic sidebars (and footers). Select the 'Sidebars' menu to create new sidebars. The sidebars will magically appear in Appearance > Widgets. Now in pages/posts you can select any of your sidebars from the dropdown. Or leave it to display the 'default' sidebar. You can also create new footer areas as well.

sidebar

Note: - You can also delete sidebars.

Footer Sign-up Form: The demo has a sign-up form in the footer. This uses the 'Mailchimp for Wordpress' free plugin. It allows you to create custom forms. Here is the form code used in the demo:

<figure class="amp-ad-hover"><div class="img-holder" href="">
<img width="577" height="500" alt="" class="attachment-mer-ad" src="path_to_image">
<span>
<input type="email" id="mc4wp_email" name="EMAIL" placeholder="Your email address" required />
<p><input type="submit" value="Sign up" /></p>
</span>
</div>
</figure>
posts format

The Merchant theme supports several post formats. You can select 'gallery', 'quote', 'audio', 'video' or standard post format from the raio list on the right.

When you click the desired post format the post entry fields will change.

Gallery Format

This format adds an image slider to your post.

Video Format

Adds video above your post. Simply enter the video link. oEmbed does the rest.

Standard Format

This is a regular post. You can anter a 'featured image' to display above the post.

The Merchant takes full advantage of Category features.

In appearance/menus you will want to click on the 'options' tab (top right corner) and make sure the 'categories' box is checked. Now you can add categories directly to the menu.

Click on 'posts/categories' or 'products/categories' to create new categories. You will notice in this theme categories support custom page headers, splash intros and menu images. This gives you tremendous flexibility when setting up your site navigation.

The Merchant theme doesn't use standard page templates. Instead we have included more 'in-page' options for added flexibility.

pagebuilder

This theme includes simple 'page builder' sections which allow you to quickly layout pages.

When you create a new page or post you will notice the 'layout' section. Simply click on the 'add row' button from the bottom right to pull up the sections menu. Simply select the section you would like to add.


Note: - The 'editor'section pulls up the main WordPress content editor.

Note: - Drag & Drop sections to reorder them. Or hover over the right edge to delete them.

Every page, post and category has fields to add custom headers images. This custom header will overide the default header image set in appearance/customize.

pagebuilder

Note: - header images are best at 1900px + wide.

Every page, post and category has fields to add a splash intro. This is the large full page image seen before scrolling down the page.

The page title will display over the spash image. Or you can 'hide' the title/subtile.

pagebuilder

Note: - splash images are full screen so they should be large in dimension, but try to keep the file size down so they load quickly.

Slider Page Intros

From the 'Splash Header' section you can opt to 'Use a Slider instead' of a static image. You can simply select one of your created sliders from the dopdown.

pagebuilder

Note: - You must have created at least one slider first in Revolution Slider settings.

Sublinks

You can select up to three product category sublinks by their titles (dropdown options) to be displayed below the page title. If you are editing the 'blog' page, you can add blog category sublinks. These can appear in the page header if present, or over the large 'splash' image.

pagebuilder

Note: - you can drag and drop the sublinks to change the order.

Sidebars & Footers

You can select any custom sidebar or footer from the available dropdowns. See 'Sidebar & Widget' section above to create new sidebars/footers.

contact

Add your social links in appearance/customize under the 'social' tab. Any links you have entered will be automatically added to the site footer.


You can create a child theme to add custom css. See more here.

The theme includes sets of icons which can be used in some page builder sections.

Quick Reference Sheet


  • WordPress
  • Google Fonts
  • jQuery