Introduction & Installation
Introduction
What do all consultants need? In short, trust. This is achieved with professional presentation and the ability to communicate clearly with existing and potential clients. Whether you are an accountant, a managerial, advisory or analytical consultant – our ConsultPress WP theme has everything you need.
Installation
I assume you already have a fresh copy of WordPress installed on your server.
Download the theme zip file
The first thing you will need to do is to download the theme installation zip file.
If you bought the theme on our ProteusThemes Shop, you should have received an email with the list of themes you have access to. You can click on the theme link with file name ending: -installable.zip or you can login to your account and download the installable zip file from there.
If you bought the theme on ThemeForest, then you have to download the installable WordPress files only zip file from the ThemeForest download section.
Install the theme
You can install the ConsultPress WP Theme in two different ways:
- Upload a zip file - preferred method
When you are logged in your WordPress dashboard go to Appearance » Themes » Add New » Upload Theme and select the theme installation zip file you downloaded from our Shop or from the ThemeForest and click Install Now button. - FTP upload
Unzip the contents of the theme installation zip file and upload the extracted folder to your server towp-uploads/themes/
folder using a FTP client.
Once your theme is on the server, activate it by clicking the Activate button below the preview image in Appearance » Themes
Congratulations! Now the ConsultPress WP Theme is installed.
Updates
Automatic updates
You can register the theme and receive automatic updates. Go to Appearance » Theme Registration and follow the instructions on that page. This will register your copy of the theme and you will get update notifications in the admin dashboard, whenever an update is available.
If you have any issues with the automatic updates, please go to you wp-admin to Dashboard » Updates and click on the Check Again button, to refresh the update data.
Manual update
You can also update the theme manually: here are the steps on how to do that.
Customize the Appearance
You can fully customize the appearance of the ConsultPress WP Theme. Go to the Appearance » Themes and click on the Customize button:
The new window appears and you can now customize the appearance of your theme - upload your custom logo, change the base colors, enable/disable theme features, add Custom CSS or Javascript etc.
Demo Content
One Click Demo Install
You can import demo content from our demo site (with blurred licensed images) with a single click of a button. Go to Appearance » Import Demo Data and click on the import button.
When setting up a content with your new theme, put special focus on the page speed optimization, especially on the image optimization process. This way you can save on your bandwidth, reduce the bounce rate on your website, and make your users happy. Our themes are created with the speed in mind but large, non-optimized images can and will ruin this experience.
Import XML File
If you want to import the demo content the old-fashioned way, you can get a fresh copy of the XML file on our server at this URL: http://artifacts.proteusthemes.com/xml-exports/consultpress-latest.xml. Don't forget to activate all required plugins before importing demo data. To import the demo data go to Tools » Import, click on WordPress (install the WordPress Importer plugin if not already installed) and upload/import the previously saved xml file (don't forget to enable the Download and import file attachments checkbox to also import the images).
Demo Widgets
After you import the demo content, you can also import widgets the old-fashioned way. The file for widget import is also located on our server: http://artifacts.proteusthemes.com/json-widgets/consultpress.json. Rename this file to consultpress.wie
(mind the file extension) and use it in the plugin Widget Importer & Exporter. Go to Tools » Widget Import/Export and import the file.
After import setup
After you have imported the demo data and widgets, you should also setup these things:
- go to Settings » Reading, set the the Front page displays to a static page and select the front page and the blog page in the appropriate dropdowns,
- go to Appearance » Menus, select the main menu from the dropdown at the top and click on Select. Scroll to the bottom and set the Theme location to Main Menu (if there are more locations you can also assign other menus to those locations),
- go to Appearance » Widgets, and set Custom menu widgets, by selecting the correct menu (in footer and our services sidebars),
- optionally set other things (like logo, colors, ...). These settings can be found in Appearance » Customize.
If for some reason these URLs are not available:
- and you bought the theme on our ProteusThemes shop, you can login to your account and download the extras zip file, or
- if you bought the theme on Themeforest, you can download the All files & documentation zip from ThemeForest
Once the main theme zip file is downloaded you will find the content.xml and widgets.json file in the extras folder.
Header
Logo
The logo can be changed in our Theme Options - Appearance » Customize » Theme Options » Logo.
Favicon
Since WordPress version 4.3, the favicon setting can be found in Appearance » Customize » Site Identity, where you have to set the Site Icon option.
Header Widgets
There is one header widget area in this theme, called Header, which is visible on all pages.
You can put a lot of widgets in the Header widget areas, but your header will look great with the following widgets:
Icon Box
With widget Icon Box you can put any kind of title with small text and image in the header. In our demo we use this widget for contact information which we think is very important for customers.
In this widget you can choose Title, Text and Icon from Font Awesome. You can also choose a link for the whole box. If you leave that field empty the Icon Box will not be click-able.
We give you few Icons to choose from but you can actually use any icon from 519 Font Awesome icons. Just paste the icon title in the Icon field and that's it. How cool is that?
More than one Icon Box widget can be used in the Header.
Main Menu
Main Menu can be set in wp-admin » Appearance » Menus. Theme locations for Main Menu is called Main Menu.
Pages
wp-admin » Pages is the area where you will spend most of your time when building a site. We added a few tools in that process so you can create your pages easier and faster.
Page Templates
You can choose between 3 different Templates - Default Template, Front Page with Slider and Front Page With Layer/Revolution Slider.
Default Template: Just a default template for simple layouts and Page Builder. First you must choose the Page Builder option under the title and you are ready to go. You can add our widgets here, choose different visual styles and much more. More about that in the next chapter.
Front Page with Slider: This is a unique template which adds an option for a slider in the page options. It can be used with Page Builder. More about that in the Slider chapter.
Front Page with Layer/Revolution Slider: We don't include these two slider plugins with the theme but we make sure they work nicely, since we know our customers want to use them. When you activate this template there is a new Page Slider meta box in which you can put ID/alias from Layer/Revolution Slider.
Page Builder
Page Builder is a very powerful tool for making pages. Here is one example of how it looks:
You can make any kind of grid with adding new rows and inside them you put widgets. When you are finished with adding widgets you can also move whole rows up and down.
For more information on how to use Page Builder please visit Page Builder by SiteOrigin documentation page.
You should also watch this great short video course: Page Builder Tips.
Page Builder Row Style
Let's take a look at how we can style Page Builder rows.
To start off we have to click on "Edit Row" for the row that we want to style as shown on the image above. An "Edit Row" window will open, and on the right, there are three setting tabs: Attributes, Layout and Design. Here you can customize different things for this particular row.
In the Layout tab you can set the Bottom Margin, Padding and change the Row Layout to Full Width. In the Design tab you can set the Background Color, Background Image and other things.
To achieve the same design for the testimonial widget as on our demo page you have to click on Layout tab and set the Bottom Margin to 100px, Padding to 90, 0, 74, 0px and the Row Layout to Full Width. Then click on the Design tab, set the Background Color to #e7ecee and for the Background Image select the pattern_light.png image.
Page Builder Widgets
You can use almost any widget in the Page Builder. Let's take a look at a few not so straightforward ones.
SiteOrigin Editor Widget
SiteOrigin Editor will create for you the same editor environment as a normal WordPress editor does. You can use this widget if you want normal text editing options. The SiteOrigin Editor Widget is part of Site Origin Widgets Bundle.
Call to Action Widget
How do I add a button? With our custom shortcodes. You can find instructions in the Buttons section.
Featured Page Widget
Featured Page is a really simple widget that we use in Page Builder. All you have to do is to select the page and one of the two layouts we made for you.
But how do I change the image and text on the Front Page?
The image on the Front Page is just the normal Featured Image of the selected page. You can change that in the sidebar of every single page. Text can be changed in the Excerpt field which can be found at the end of the page settings. If the excerpt field is not there, you must click on the Screen Option (at the top of the page) and check Excerpt. For more info please take a look at the screenshot below.
Open Position Widget
Open Position is the perfect widget for listing your Jobs. This widget is very easy to use, with clear fields. If you want to use the collapse option with the widget you will need to insert Read More tag as seen below. This tag will hide everything beneath it and will add a collapsible Read More link.
Twitter Widget
This widget can be included everywhere - in page builder and in a normal sidebar. For that widget we use a normal WordPress Text Widget.
First, go on https://twitter.com/settings/widgets and click Create new.
Now choose your Username, height of the widget, Theme and Link color. When you are happy with your widget click on Create widget button. You will get the code which you copy and paste in the Text Widget in your WordPress site.
Slider
Building a Theme slider has never been easier.
You can create a Theme slider on any page you want. The only thing you must do is choose the page template Front Page With Slider (you can use this template even if it's not for the front page). After you select this page template there will be a new meta box at the bottom of the page which is called Front page slider and header. Now you can add images or videos to your slider.
When you add a video, you also have to upload a video "thumbnail", which will serve as a clickable area (also a play button overlay will be added to this image). When a user clicks on this image, the video will open in a pop-up modal window.
As you can see on the example image bellow, you also have the Slider settings tab. In Slider settings tab, you can change how the slider behaves and change the slider options.
This is how the slider backend looks like:
Please take a look at this slider dimensions article for the recommended size of the slider images for this theme.
ProteusThemes Options
You can find all Theme Options in the Customizer: Appearance » Customize. This is a live preview editor for your page.
Here you can change:
- Logo
- Header
- Navigation
- Page Header Area
- Theme Layout & Colors
- Shop
- Footer
- Custom Code
- And Much More ...
Shortcodes
Buttons
For adding buttons you must use the button shortcode which looks like this: [button]Your Text[/button]
There are 7 options with different attributes - style, href, target, fa, corners, fullwidth and class.
Text: You can change the text of the button.
Example: [button]New Text[/button]
Style: You can choose between a few styles - primary, secondary, danger, success, info or default.
Example: [button style="primary"]Your Text[/button]
Href: You can add URL to the button.
Example: [button href="http://www.proteusthemes.com"]Your Text[/button]
Target: You can choose if you want to open the link in the same - "_self" or new - "_blank" window.
Example: [button target="_blank"]Your Text[/button]
Font Awesome icon: You can add a font awesome icon to the button.
Example: [button fa="fa-phone"]Your Text[/button]
Cornes: You can change the corners of your button to be rounded.
Example: [button corners="rounded"]Your Text[/button]
Full width: You can stretch your button to full width.
Example: [button fullwidth="true"]Your Text[/button]
Class: You can add extra custom classes to the button.
Example: [button class="btn-lg extra-custom-class"]Your Text[/button]
Icons - Font Awesome
Shortcode for Font Awesome is very similar to the buttons shortcode. It looks like this: [fa]
There are 3 options with different attributes - icon, href, target and color.
Icon: You can use any 519 FontAwesome icon. To set the selected icon, just get the title of the icon, for example "fa-phone".
Example: [fa icon="fa-phone"]
Href: You can add URL to the icon.
Example: [fa href="http://www.proteusthemes.com"]
Target: You can choose if you want to open the link in the same - "_self" or new - "_blank" window.
Example: [fa target="_blank"]
Color: You can set a custom color to your icon.
Example: [fa color="#ff00ff"]
So a Font Awesome icon shortcode with a home icon, linking to a page and opening in a new window/tab would look like this:
[fa icon="fa-home" href="http://www.proteusthemes.com" target="_blank"]
Widgets
Clients
This is actually a normal text widget with some html code.
<div class="logo-panel"> <img src="https://demo.proteusthemes.com/adrenaline/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2016/10/partner1.png" alt="partner1"/> <img src="https://demo.proteusthemes.com/adrenaline/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2016/10/partner2.png" alt="partner2"/> <img src="https://demo.proteusthemes.com/adrenaline/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2016/10/partner6.png" alt="partner6"/> <img src="https://demo.proteusthemes.com/adrenaline/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2016/10/partner5.png" alt="partner5"/> </div>
Change source of image - src="yourimage.jpg"
and your image will be shown.
Plugins
We also use and support some of the best plugins for WordPress.
Required and Recommended Plugins
You can install and activate these plugins by going to wp-admin » Appearance » Install Plugins.
The list of required and recommended plugins used in this theme:
- Advanced Custom Fields
- ACF Repeater Field (bundled)
- ProteusThemes Shortcodes
- Page Builder by SiteOrigin
- SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle
- One Click Demo Import
- Caldera Forms
- LifterLMS
- Contact Form 7
- WP Featherlight
- Breadcrumb NavXT
- Custom Sidebars by ProteusThemes
Caldera Forms
Caldera Forms is awesome form builder which works out of the box with the Bootstrap 3 style. It will look great right away. If you want to match ConsultPress style you will just need to turn off Form Styles in Caldera Forms -> General Settings -> Form Styles.
One last thing is to change button class from btn-default
to ConsultPress primary button btn-primary
.
That's it! Enjoy playing around with countless possibilities of Caldera Forms.
LifterLMS
LifterLMS is on a mission to democratize education in the digital classroom by making it easy to create, sell and protect engaging online courses. Just like with many other plugins LifterLMS will look great right away. You will just need to install LifterLMS plugin and add new content. For a quick start, we recommend importing LifterLMS sample.
Contact Form 7
We use Contact Form 7 for our Contact Us page. This is the code from our demo:
<div class="row"> <div class="col-xs-12 col-lg-6"> [text* your-name class:form-control placeholder "First Name*"] </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-lg-6"> [email* your-email class:form-control placeholder "E-mail*"] </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-lg-6"> [text your-subject class:form-control placeholder "Subject"] </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-lg-6"> [tel your-phone class:form-control placeholder "Phone Number"] </div> <div class="col-xs-12"> [textarea your-message class:form-control placeholder "Message"][submit class:btn class:btn-secondary "Request a call"] </div> </div>
And this is the Home page Request a Call contact form:
[text* your-name class:form-control placeholder "Your Name"][tel* your-phone class:form-control placeholder "Phone Number"][submit class:btn class:btn-secondary "Request a call"]
After that just place the plugin's shortcode into your Contact Us page.
Breadcrumbs NavXT
The breadcrumbs in this theme are powered by the Breadcrumbs NavXT plugin.
All the settings for breadcrumbs can be found in Settings » Breadcrumbs NavXT. When you first access this settings page, there might be a notice, which has a link Migrate now at the end, just click it and it will take you to the correct settings page. Here you can define a separator (which should be empty by default for our themes), breadcrumb hierarchies for different pages (pages, custom post types, taxonomy, ...) and set other breadcrumbs related things.
Default Product Breadcrumbs
Let's take a look at how to setup the default breadcrumbs used on this theme for the Products custom post type. Go to Settings » Breadcrumbs NavXT and click on the Post Types tab. Scroll down to the Product section, and set the Product Root Page to Shop page and since we set the root page, we can also disable (uncheck) the Product Archive Display checkbox. Don't forget to save the settings.
Footer
Last but not least there is our footer area. The footer area is divided into:
Top Footer
Top footer is divided in two sections that are explained in the subsections below.
Footer Featured Text
You can disable this custom text area, by deleting the content of the text area Footer featured text in Apperance » Widgets » Footer. In this text area, you can add whatever you want (text, images, HTML code, shortcodes, ...).
Footer Widgets
Here you can add widgets in the Apperance » Widgets » Footer. There are also few options for that area in Appearance » Customize » Theme Options » Footer. You can change the layout of the widgets, how many widgets to display and change footer colors.
Bottom Footer
The Bottom Footer area has 1 custom text field. Custom text for the Footer bottom text can be added in live customizer Appearance » Customize » Theme Options » Footer.
Translations
Manual translation
We have an article with a video on how to translate our themes.
WPML for Multilingual sites
This theme officially supports WPML. Head over to the WPML website, buy the subscription, then install the main plugin — likely the OTGS Installer Plugin. When prompted to download, install, and activate specific WPML plugins, make sure to install and activate these:
- WPML Multilingual CMS
- String Translation
- Media Translation
WPML’s setup wizard will also prompt you to install other plugins if it thinks you need them. For example, if this theme includes a WooCommerce-based site, WPML will prompt you to install WooCommerce Multilingual & Multicurrency. Install whatever WPML suggests installing.
Extras
Demo Images
All images used in ConsultPress WP can be found on Shutterstock. Images from slider:
- Slider 1
- Slider 2
Customizations
If you need advanced customizations for this theme, we can do that. See our Theme Customization page for details.
Changelog
View the ConsultPress WP changelog.
Support
If you need more help after all, you can write to us.