Anderson Documentation

Welcome to the Anderson theme documentation. These instructions briefly explain how to setup and configure all theme features.

Table of Contents

Theme Installation

Since it is the same procedure for every theme, this tutorial does not explain how to install the theme. If you need help with the theme installation, please see the Install WordPress themes tutorial.

Install PRO Version Plugin

Please be aware that the PRO Version of Anderson is an Add-on plugin for the Anderson theme. Therefore you have to install and activate the Anderson Lite theme and install the Anderson Pro plugin in addition. You can learn how to install Plugins on the Install WordPress plugins tutorial.

In case you are using the old Anderson Pro theme and want to switch to the new Pro Version Plugin, please follow this tutorial.

Configure Theme Options

Anderson supports the awesome Theme Customizer. You can configure all theme settings on your WordPress admin panel → Appearance → Customize on the “Theme Options” section.

Anderson adds a “Theme Options” section to the Customizer containing following sub sections:

  • General Settings
    Choose the sidebar layout and turn off the image grayscale filter.
  • Header Content
    Upload your own site logo, turn on social icons and insert an ad code to the header area.
  • Post Settings
    Decide between full posts and post summary and configure featured images of posts.
  • Featured Content
    Set a tag to feature your posts. Featured posts are displayed on the post slider.
  • Post Slider
    Activate the Post Slider and choose the slider animation style.
  • Theme Colors (only in PRO version)
    This section let you choose the font and background colors of various theme elements.
  • Theme Fonts (only in PRO version)
    Change the text, navigation and title fonts easily in this section.

Social Icons

Social icons are easy to add with Anderson. We simply use custom menus for social icons.

Set up WordPress Features

The theme supports several WordPress core features you know:

Set up Featured Post Slideshow

If you’d like to display a featured post slideshow on your homepage like the demo website, follow these instructions.

To set up your featured posts, go to Appearance → Customize → Theme Options, and add a tag under Tag Name in the Featured Content section. The slideshow will display all posts which are tagged with that keyword.

anderson-featured-content

Next, you have to activate the slider and choose the slider animation style in the Post Slider section in the Customizer (Appearance → Customize → Theme Options). You can turn on the post slideshow above the normal blog index or on the Magazine Homepage template.

anderson-post-slider

Featured Images

The Featured Post Slider as well as the Magazine Homepage template make use of featured images as thumbnails. The slideshow and Category Post widgets will look as intended when your posts have featured images.

If your existing posts have already had featured images, they may look disformed because they do not match the new required sizes for the front page template. In order to fix that you have to regenerate your thumbnails.

Your uploaded featured images should have a minimum image size of 840×440 pixels in order to look good at any screen size.

Configure Magazine Homepage template

If you’d like to have a home page with the magazine-style layout like the demo website, follow these detailed instructions:

Create a new static page

Go to Pages → Add New to create a new static page, or edit an existing page. Change the page template of your selected page to the Magazine Homepage template from the Page Attributes box.

magazine-page-attributes

Set Magazine Homepage Template as Front Page

If you want to use the Magazine Homepage template as your front page, go to Settings → Reading and set “Front page displays” to “A static page”. From the dropdown menu, select the Magazine page you created earlier. You can learn more about setting up a front page here.

magazine-reading-settings

Add Category Posts Widgets

After you created your Magazine Homepage, go to Appearance → Widgets and set up your Magazine Homepage widget area.

Anderson comes with four different Category Posts widgets geared to creating a magazine-style site, but you can also add any other widget you like.

Category Posts Columns

This widget displays the latest blog posts from two configured categories: Category Left and Category Right. The first post of each category can be highlighted in the widget settings and is then displayed with the excerpt, followed by the other posts with small thumbnails.

widget-category-post-columns-settings

Category Posts Boxed

This widget displays the latest four blog posts from a configured category in a boxed layout, like in the screenshot below. The latest post is highlighted on the left column and displayed with the excerpt, and the right column displays three additional posts.

Category Posts Grid

This widget creates a two-column grid layout, showing the latest blog posts from a category you select. You can also specify the number of posts to be displayed.

widget-category-post-grid-settings

Category Posts Horizontal

This simple widget displays the latest three blog posts from a selected category horizontally, like in the screenshot below.

Setup and Configure Pro Version Features

The Pro Version of Anderson is an add-on plugin which you can purchase on the Anderson theme page.

Install PRO Version Plugin

You can download Anderson Pro on our downloads page. If you need help to install the plugin please visit our Install WordPress plugins tutorial.

Custom Colors and Custom Fonts

You can customize the theme colors and fonts on Appearance → Customize → Theme Options → Theme Colors / Theme Fonts.

Footer Widgets

Anderson Pro adds four widgetized footer areas. You can add your footer widgets on Appearance → Widgets.

Hide Credit Link

You can disable the credit link to themezee.com on Appearance → Customize → Theme Options → General Settings.

Theme Specifications

  1. The main content column width is 860.
  2. The Featured Images used on posts are 275x275.
  3. The Featured Images used on the Featured Post Slider are 880x440.
  4. The Custom Header image will display at a maximum width of 1340 and a flexible height (default height = 250).

All measurements in pixels.

 

Thank you so much for using the Anderson WordPress theme.