First of all, thank you for buying this theme. To make your experience pleasant, we've added as much info as needed in this documentation.

While we have tried to keep an easy-to-use user interface, we understand that you might have some questions about installing and using our theme. Following is a detailed step-by-step guide to help you with most of the questions or issues that you may be experiencing.

How to Use This Document

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There are two methods to install the theme. If the normal installation method (a) is not supported by your web host, you will have to use the alternate option (b).

a. Normal Installation

  1. Log into your WordPress admin panel and go to Appearance » Themes
  2. Click the Add New button at the top.
  3. Click the Upload Theme button at the top.
  4. Click the Choose File button and navigate to the location of the theme zip file smallbiz.zip.
  5. Click Install Now to begin the installation.
  6. Wait for the success message, then click Activate.

b. FTP Installation (alternate method)

  1. Unzip the theme zip file smallbiz.zip.
  2. Using an FTP client to access your host web server. Go to /wp-content/themes/ and place the theme folder inside it.
  3. Log in to your WordPress admin panel and go to Appearance » Themes
  4. Locate the theme thumbnail and click the Activate link.

ImportantAfter activation, you will be presented with several plugins that you have to activate. Do not forget to activate them all or not all of the theme features will be available.

Smallbiz recommends a few plugins to extend it's functionality. These plugins can be installed automatically from the notification in WordPress Administration Panel (Dashboard). Although, Smallbiz will work perfectly without any of these plugins, you may want to extend the theme's features with them.

Recommended Plugins

  • One-Click Demo Import

    To import content from our demo!

How to Install the Plugins

  1. Log into your Dashboard page.
  2. Go to Appearance » Install Plugins.
  3. Click install link below the plugin you want to install.

We have included Smallbiz with one-click demo importer feature. You can easily to import content from our demo then you can edit it with your content. But first please install the One-Click Demo Import plugin. Please take a look the Installing Recommended Plugins section to read how to install the plugin.

After that please go to Appearance → Import Demo Data, then click the Import Demo Data button. Depending upon the number of content, images and server speed, the process may take long to complete.

ImportantIn some themes you need to install some of the recommended plugins before importing the demo content such as Jetpack, TJ Team Content, WooCommerce, etc.

WordPress child theme allows you change the functionality of the theme without having to edit the original/parent theme template files. If you plan to making any customization, we recommend to create a child theme instead of editing the theme template files. Since the child theme is stored separately, you don't need to redo the changes next time you upgrade the theme.

Creating a Child Theme

There's a plugin you can use that will create a child theme from within the WordPress dashboard: https://wordpress.org/plugins/child-theme-configurator/

More About Child Theme

You can read more about Child theme on WordPress Codex →

If you are migrating from another theme, then upon activating Smallbiz you may find previously added images display strangely with weird aspect ratios and sizes. Don't worry. It is normal. The image thumbnails are required to be recreated using Smallbiz's presets.

There is a very easy fix to this issue. Just install Force Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.

How To Use It?

  1. After you install it, go to Tools > Force Regenerate Thumbnails
  2. Click the Regenerate All Thumbnails button
  3. Depending upon the number of images and server speed, the process may take long to complete.
  4. After it done, you can deactivate and delete the plugin.

The Site Icon is used as a browser and app icon for your site. Icons must be square, and at least 512px wide and tall.

How to upload your favicon?

  • Select Appearance > Customizer
  • Choose Site Identity
  • You will see the Site Icon uploader.
  • Recommended size is 512px x 512px

With Smallbiz, you have the option to display links to your social media profiles in the header, just above the website menu. Available icons:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Github
  • Dribbble
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Codepen
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Rss Feed
  • Vimeo
  • Youtube
  • WordPress

How do I set up a social links menu?

Launch the Customizer and click on the Menu tab on the left and click the + Add a Menu button. You can name it "Social Menu" or choose any other name.

Check the Social Location under the Menu Location.

How to add different social icons?

All you need is use the Custom Links panel. Inside the "URL" field add the social page url and inside the "Link Text" add the name of the social, for example "Facebook".

Smallbiz comes packed with multiple Theme Options available via the Customizer:

  • Custom RSS URL:

    You can use any custom RSS url such as Feedburner service.

  • Thumbnail Aspect Ratio:

    This setting only applied to Front Page Template and Grid Page Template.

    Landscape Square
  • Enable comment on Posts:

    Enable or disable comment section on Posts.

  • Enable comment on Pages:

    Enable or disable comment section on Pages.

  • Pages: Show page title:

    Enable or disable title on page.

  • Pages: Show page featured image:

    Enable or disable featured image on page.

  • Single Post: Show author box:

    Enable or disable author box on single post. Author box is an information about the author of the post.

  • Single Post: Show next & prev post:

    Enable or disable next and previous post navigation on single post.

  • Footer Text:

    Customize the footer text/credits.

By default, the homepage will display your latest posts in a traditional blog format. If you prefer, the Front Page template can be used to display three optional featured page areas, three optional widget areas, and a big leading image with a call-to-action (as seen in the theme demo).

If you’d like to use this template as the front page of your site, follow these instructions:

  • Publish two pages and give them titles that are easy to remember, like Home and Blog. To publish a page, navigate to Pages > Add New
  • Launch the Customizer and click on the Static Front Page tab on the left and set “Front page displays” to “A static page.”
  • Select the page to which you just assigned the Front Page template as “Front page,” and then choose another page as “Posts page” if you would like to display your blog posts.

The Front Page Template includes the following:

  • A featured area with a full-width featured image and an overlay containing the page content.
  • Three featured pages, displayed side-by-side in columns.
  • Three front-page widget areas, displayed side-by-side in columns. This is where you can get creative and use any of the available widgets

Set the Front Page featured area

  • Go to the editor of your Home page.
  • In the right sidebar, Select “Front Page” in the Template dropdown menu.
  • Add a title and introduction to your page. For best results, we recommend a few paragraphs.
  • Set a Featured Image. It will appear as the large header image on the front page

Set the Front Page featured pages

  • If you’d like to display the three featured pages below the featured area, create One parent page and Three or more child pages of the page.
  • Launch the Customizer and click on the Widget tab on the left and click on the Front Page Top tab.
  • Click the Add a Widget button. And find Smallbiz - Featured Pages widget. Assign the parent page and you are all set.

Set the Front Page widget areas

  • Launch the Customizer and click on the Widget tab on the left.
  • Focus on 3 sidebar areas for the front page:
    • Front Page Bottom 1
    • Front Page Bottom 2
    • Front Page Bottom 3
  • Add a widget you want to use to each sidebar area.

The Grid Page Template displays all child pages of the page in a grid format. You might use this for your case studies, services page or features page, for example.

The Full Width Page Template is fitting for landing page, embedding a map, a video, or a contact form.

All of our themes include a language file to make translating to a different language easy. Inside the theme folder /wp-content/themes/themename/languages, you'll find a language file named themename.pot. Or in this theme file named smallbiz.pot

Configure WordPress

Before translating the theme, you'll need to make sure WordPress is setup correctly with your locale. Open wp-config.php and modify the line below.

/**
 * WordPress Localized Language, defaults to English.
 *
 * Change this to localize WordPress. A corresponding MO file for the chosen
 * language must be installed to wp-content/languages. For example, install
 * de_DE.mo to wp-content/languages and set WPLANG to "de_DE" to enable German
 * language support.
 */
define( 'WPLANG', '' );

Translating the Theme

  1. Download and install Poedit.
  2. Open smallbiz.pot in Poedit. Translate as needed.
  3. Save the file with the locale. For example, if you translate the theme to German language then you would save your files as de_DE.po.
  4. Copy both these files(de_DE.po and de_DE.mo) under the languages folder of smallbiz.