MeadowHill 1.1 Documentation by Tomas Toman

MeadowHill

Created: 23/11/2013
By: Tomas Toman
Web: www.tomastoman.cz

First of all, I would like to thank you for choosing MeadowHill! I firmly believe that you will be satisfied with the product. In case of any problems or doubts you can use the MeadowHill Official Support (in English, German or Czech).
Thanks so much!

Navigation

  1. About MeadowHill
  2. Theme installation
    1. Update to Premium Version
  3. Theme options
    1. General settings
    2. Homepage settings
    3. Colors (only in Premium Version available)
    4. Fonts
    5. Social networking (only in Premium Version available)
    6. Other settings
  4. Widget areas
    1. Main Sidebar widget area
    2. Footer widget area
    3. Footer copyright notices
    4. About Section on homepage
    5. Informational Section on homepage
  5. Custom widgets (only in Premium Version available)
    1. MeadowHill Social Widget
    2. MeadowHill Facebook Like Box Widget
    3. MeadowHill Twitter Widget
  6. Menu areas
  7. Page templates
    1. Homepage
    2. Sitemap page (only in Premium Version available)
    3. Full-width page
    4. Portfolio page
    5. Page without Comments
    6. Page without Title
    7. Logged In page
    8. Landing page
  8. Plugins
    1. Sitemap plugin (only in Premium Version available)
  9. Shortcodes
  10. Translations
  11. FAQs about WordPress

A) About MeadowHill - top

MeadowHill is an easy customizable WordPress blog and portfolio theme. It is a fully responsive theme that allows for easy viewing on any device. Let's explore how the MeadowHill looks like in the autumn garb! Using Theme Options panel, you can customize this theme directly to your needs.

MeadowHill Features

Compatible Browsers: Internet Explorer 8+, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari
Compatible WordPress Versions: 3.5+

B) Theme installation - top

For MeadowHill installation, you must follow these basic steps:

  1. Extract the folder "meadowhill.zip".
  2. Using FTP client (for example Total Commander) upload the extracted folder "meadowhill" to "wp-content/themes" directory on your host web server.
  3. Log in to your WordPress administration.
  4. Select the "Appearance => Themes" panel.
  5. Click on the link "Activate" at the MeadowHill theme.

Alternatively, you can install this theme via your WordPress administration. Go to “Appearance > Themes” panel and using “Install Themes” tool upload the original ZIP file. After uploading, activate the theme.

1. Update to Premium Version

Once you have purchased MeadowHill Premium Version, simply delete the "meadowhill" folder in "wp-content/themes" directory on your host web server and replace it by extracted folder that you have got by purchasing MeadowHill Premium Version.

Or, if the previous described procedure will not be comfortable for you, go to “Appearance > Themes” panel in your WordPress administration and using “Install Themes” tool upload the ZIP file which you got by purchasing MeadowHill Premium Version. Before this, you should delete the original Free Version of this theme, if you have installed it.

C) Theme options - top

The options framework is available through the link "Theme Options" located on the upper horizontal admin bar (or via panel "Appearance => Theme Options").

1. General settings

This tab is used for choosing one of the basic color schemes and setting the main parts of layout (header, right sidebar, footer, favicon). Please note that the "Header Options" apply only to the sub-pages - Homepage Header Options are available under "Homepage Settings" tab.
You can find here the single posts/pages displaying options, too. You can set if you want to display the featured images, dates, categories, tags and authors on individual posts.

2. Homepage settings

There are 3 options for displaying your homepage. You can set them in Settings > Reading panel in your WordPress administration.

  1. Your latest posts
  2. A static page
  3. A static page with About, Portfolio, Informational, Image and Blog Sections
    -> create a new Page and title it "Home" or an appropriate name. DO NOT add content. Leave it blank. Any content here will be ignored. Select "Homepage" Template for this page instead of "Default Template". Then in Settings > Reading set "Front page displays" to "A static page". In the drop down menu for Front Page select the page you have created in this step.

About, Portfolio, Informational and Image Sections settings apply only for option number 3.

This tab is used for setting Header, About, Portfolio, Informational, Image and Blog sections on your homepage. You can set here the headlines of Portfolio and Blog sections and choose a category of posts which you want to display in Portfolio. You can also hide the individual homepage sections.
Please note that the content and headlines of About and Informational sections are editable in "Appearance => Widgets" panel, not directly in Theme Options.

3. Colors (only in Premium Version available)

This tab is used for setting your own color scheme. You can choose here the colors of individual parts of layout, headlines and texts. Using color pickers, you can easily choose exactly that color you want. You can also directly enter the hexadecimal code of your favorite color.

Tip: If you want to use the same color for more items, simply copy and paste its hexadecimal code instead of setting it using color pickers on each item.

Color Options

Color settings panel

4. Fonts

This tab is used for selecting Google fonts for individual headlines and text areas. MeadowHill offers more than 200 fonts for choosing. The default fonts are specified in the main stylesheet file (style.css in the main theme folder).

5. Social networking (only in Premium Version available)

On this tab, you can choose wheter to display or not the Facebook, Twitter and Google +1 sharing buttons which may appear below your single posts/pages content.

Social Networking

Social networking panel

6. Other settings

On this tab, you can fill your own cascading style sheet information (CSS) for modifying the layout. So you do not have to write your custom CSS straight into the file style.css in the main theme folder. The CSS information defined on this tab appear in the "head" section of source code.

Above the Custom CSS field, there are also links for editing widgets and menus.

D) Widget areas - top

There are several areas for displaying widgets in MeadowHill Theme:

  1. Main Sidebar widget area
  2. Footer widget area
  3. Footer copyright notices
  4. About Section on homepage
  5. Informational Section on homepage

The Widget panel is located in "Appearance => Widgets" section. If you want to place a widget in some of that areas, simply drag its panel and drop it to the area where you want to display the widget.

Main Sidebar widget area displays in the right sidebar, below the Sidebar navigation, on all your pages and posts. Its name in "Appearance => Widgets" panel is "Main Sidebar". You can put here as many widgets as you want.

Footer widget area displays in the footer as the 3 columns of widgets. In "Appearance => Widgets" panel, you can see 3 areas for individual columns: "Footer left widget area", "Footer middle widget area" and "Footer right widget area". This boxes represent those 3 columns. You can put as many widgets as you want on each column.

The widget area for copyright and other notices displays in the footer, below the main Footer widget area (described above). Its name in "Appearance => Widgets" panel is "Footer notices". Put here one "Text" widget. Into the content field of this widget fill the text (or HTML code) you want to display here. The "Title" field of this Text widget should stay empty.

4. About Section on homepage

The widget area for displaying information in Homepage About section. Insert here as many Text widgets as you want. The title of the first widget represents the main headline of Homepage About section.
You also can insert into the Text widgets the custom shortcodes (for displaying images, specific post listings, etc. - see this related chapter about shortcodes).

5. Informational Section on homepage

The widget area for displaying information in Homepage Informational section. Insert here as many Text widgets as you want. The title of the first widget represents the main headline of Homepage Informational section.
You also can insert into the Text widgets the custom shortcodes (for displaying images, specific post listings, etc. - see this related chapter about shortcodes).

E) Custom widgets - top

MeadowHill Theme offers 3 custom widgets:

  1. MeadowHill Social Widget
  2. MeadowHill Facebook Like Box Widget
  3. MeadowHill Twitter Widget

1. MeadowHill Social Widget (only in Premium Version available)

This widget is ready to use for displaying icons with links to your profiles on social networks and RSS feed. Put MeadowHill Social Widget into Sidebar or Footer widget area in "Appearance => Widgets" panel and fill requested URL addresses. These social networks and services are supported:

2. MeadowHill Facebook Like Box Widget (only in Premium Version available)

This widget is ready to use for displaying Facebook Like Box. The Like Box is a special version of the Like Button designed only for Facebook Pages. Using this widget, you can easily promote your Facebook page on your website.
Put MeadowHill Facebook Like Box Widget into Sidebar or Footer widget area in "Appearance => Widgets" panel and fill the full URL of your Facebook Page that will be liked. Then set a height of Like Box and specify whether to display the profile photos of people who like the Page and a stream of the latest posts by the Page.

3. MeadowHill Twitter Widget (only in Premium Version available)

This widget is ready to use for displaying Twitter Follow button. Put MeadowHill Twitter Widget into Sidebar or Footer widget area in "Appearance => Widgets" panel and fill the Twitter username you want to display via Twitter Follow button.

In MeadowHill theme, there are 2 areas for displaying menus:

  1. Horizontal header menu with unlimited levels of drop-down submenus
  2. Vertical sidebar menu

Menu settings panel is located in "Appearance => Menus". At first create a new menu and assign it to one of two pre-defined Menu areas. Then in left panels choose required pages/categories or custom links and add them to your new Menu. Then save all changes.

If you want to create a submenu, just drag required menu item and move it more to the right against its parent item. When you drop your sub-item, it should stay with indentation against the parent item. This way you can create unlimited levels of submenus.

Menu

Example of three-levels menu

G) Page templates - top

Beside Default Template, MeadowHill Free Version offers 7 other custom Page templates. If you create a new page or edit some existing page, you can choose the Page template in "Page Attributes => Template" right panel.

1. Homepage

"Homepage" Page template is ready for displaying the homepage with About, Portfolio, Informational, Image and Blog Sections. For more information about using it, please see this paragraph.

2. Sitemap page (only in Premium Version available)

"Sitemap" Page template is ready for displaying your sitemap page. If you want to use it, the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin must be activated. The sitemap options can be edited on "Settings => DDSitemapGen" panel.

3. Full-width page (without right sidebar)

If you want to display only some pages without the main right sidebar, simply use this template for these pages.

4. Portfolio page

This template is ready for displaying all of your Portfolio items (posts from category selected in Theme Options panel) together with another additional content. This Page template is also displayed without the main right sidebar.

5. Page without Comments

This template hides the whole Comments area (even if the comments are allowed for this page).

6. Page without Title

This template displays only the page Content without the page Title.

7. Logged In

This template displays the page content only for logged-in users (otherwise it displays only the Log-in form).

8. Landing Page

This template displays only the page content without menus, right sidebar, comments area and footer widget areas. You can use it for creating a temporary home page before your website will be ready for the public launch.

H) Plugins - top

Some functions of MeadowHill are conditioned by installing some plugins. The recommended plugins are included in the installation folder of MeadowHill (folder "plugins"). If some of the recommended plugins are inactive, you can see them in "Appearance => Install Plugins" panel.

List of recommended plugins:

  1. Sitemap plugin - Dagon Design Sitemap Generator by Dagon Design

The plugins are modified to ensure the best compatibility with MeadowHill. If you will find their newer versions on web, I don't recommend to update them, because all custom modifications will be lost. Plugins updates will come automatic with newer versions of MeadowHill.

1. Sitemap plugin (only in Premium Version available)

If you want to use the "Sitemap" Page template, the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin has to be installed and activated. This plugin provides many advanced options for displaying pages and posts in sitemap. You can set them on "Settings => DDSitemapGen" panel.

I) Shortcodes - top

MeadowHill offers several custom shortcodes for easy displaying of some HTML objects on pages/posts or widgets:

1.) [image src="Image URL"] (only in Premium Version available)
Shortcode for displaying images. It is especially useful for inserting images into Text widgets.

2.) [table cols="headline1,headline2" data="row 1 value 1,row 1 value 2,row 2 value 1,row 2 value 2"] (only in Premium Version available)
Shortcode for displaying tables. The parameter "cols" is used for inserting headlines of individual columns. The parameter "data" is used for inserting own data in rows of your table.

3.) [button link="URL address"]TEXT OF YOUR BUTTON[/button]
Shortcode for displaying left-aligned buttons.

4.) [centered-button link="URL address"]TEXT OF YOUR BUTTON[/centered-button]
Shortcode for displaying center-aligned buttons.

5.) [google-map address="Address of any place in the world" width="100%" height="200px"] (only in Premium Version available)
Shortcode for displaying Google maps. The "width" and "height" parameters are optional. You can set the dimensions in percentages or pixels, but for responzive displaying is recommended to input percentage dimensions.

6.) <!-- ddsitemapgen --> (only in Premium Version available)
Shortcode for displaying Sitemap in the content of any page/post.

7.) [display-posts category="category-slug" include_excerpt="true"] (only in Premium Version available)
Shortcode for displaying a listing of posts in post/page content or in a Text widget.

Arguments for [display-posts] shortcode:
author
Specify the post author
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts author="bill"]

category
Specify the category slug (or comma separated list of category slugs)
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts category="fishing,hiking"]

date_format
Specify the date format used when include_date is true. See Formatting Date and Time on the Codex for more information.
Default: '(n/j/Y)'
Example: [display-posts include_date="true" date_format="F j, Y"]

id
Specify a specific post ID (or multiple post IDs) to display.
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts id="9, 10"]

image_size
Specify an image size for displaying the featured image, if the post has one. The image_size can be set to thumbnail, medium, large (all controlled from Settings > Reading), or a custom image size.
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts image_size="thumbnail"]

include_date
Include the post's date after the post title. The default format is (7/30/12), but this can be customized using the 'date_format' parameter.
Default: empty
Example [display-posts include_date="true"]

include_excerpt
Include the post's excerpt after the title (and date if provided).
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts include_excerpt="true"]

offset
The number of posts to pass over
Default: 0
Example: [display-posts offset="3"]

order
Specify whether posts are ordered in descending order (DESC) or ascending order (ASC).
Default: DESC
Example: [display-posts order="ASC"]

orderby
Specify what the posts are ordered by. See the available parameters here.
Default: date
Example: [display-posts orderby="title"]

post_parent
Display the pages that are a child of a certain page. You can either specify an ID or 'current', which displays the children of the current page.
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts post_type="page" post_parent="8"]

post_status
Show posts associated with a certain post status
Default: publish
Example: [display-posts post_status="publish, future"]

post_type
Specify which post type to use. You can use a default one (post or page), or a custom post type you've created.
Default: post
Example: [display-posts post_type="event"]

posts_per_page
How many posts to display.
Default: 10
Example: [display-posts posts_per_page="5"]

tag
Display posts from a specific tag, or tags
Default: empty
Example: [display-posts tag="tag1, tag2"]

taxonomy, tax_term, and tax_operator
Use these parameters to do advanced taxonomy queries. Use 'taxonomy' for the taxonomy you'd like to query, 'tax_term' for the term slug (or terms) you'd like to include, and 'operator' to change how the query uses those terms (most likely this field will not be needed).
Default: 'taxonomy' = empty , 'tax_term' = empty , 'tax_operator' = 'IN'
Example: [display-posts taxonomy="color" tax_term="blue, green"]

wrapper
What type of HTML should be used to display the listings. It can be an unordered list (ul), ordered list (ol), or divs (div) which you can then style yourself.
Default: ul
Example: [display-posts wrapper="ol"]

J) Translations - top

MeadowHill theme is ready for translation into any language. The .pot file (meadowhill.pot) is located in "languages" theme folder. MeadowHill contains integrated Czech (cs_CZ), French (fr_FR), German (de_DE), Russian (ru_RU), Slovak (sk_SK) and Spanish (es_ES) language localizations. The best way how to make the language localization is creating your own .po and .mo files and adding them in "languages" theme folder. If you will create them, please let me know, I will add your language localization into the official theme distribution.

If you don't know how to create the .po and .mo files, never mind! Simply install CodeStyling Localization plugin and create your language localization on "Tools => Localization" panel.

K) FAQs about WordPress - top

Go to the "Settings => General" panel and rewrite here the fields "Site Title" and "Tagline".

Go to the "Settings => Discussion" panel and set the options according to your needs.

Tags are similar to Categories. They are used for better description of posts. We can say that Tags are the keywords which specify the posts in great detail.

The easiest way is to install some SEO plugin, for example All In One SEO Pack.

Go to the "Settings => Reading" panel and set the options according to your needs.

Yes, go to the "Settings => Reading" panel and choose the option "A static page" instead of "Your latest posts".

Go to the "Settings => Permalinks" panel and choose the option "Post name" in section "Common Settings".

Go to the "Settings => General" panel and set the options according to your needs.

Once again, thank you so much for choosing 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. Best regards and have fun with MeadowHill!

Tomas Toman

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