Simpler Theme

WordPress is well-known for its ease of installation. Under most circumstances, installing WordPress is a very simple process and takes less than five minutes to complete. In the WordPress Codex you can find a guide to install WordPress yourself.

You can install the Simpler theme using the Administration Panel or manually using a FTP client.

Adding Simpler Theme using the Administration Panel

You can download Simpler Theme directly to your blog by using the Add New Themes option in the Appearance sub-menu.

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels.
2. Select the Appearance panel, then Themes.

   

3. Select Add New.

   

4. Either use the Search or Filter options to locate the Simpler Theme.
5. Click on the Install link to upload the Simpler Theme to your blog,

   

6. Or use the Upload link in the top links row to upload a zipped copy of the Simpler Theme that you have previously downloaded to your machine.

   

7. Follow the instructions below for selecting the new Theme.

Adding Simpler Theme Manually (FTP)

1. Download the Simpler Theme archive and extract the files it contains. You need to preserve the directory structure in the archive when extracting these files.

   

2. Using an FTP client to access your host web server, create a directory to save your Theme in the wp-content/themes directory provided by WordPress. The Simpler Theme should be in wp-content/themes/simpler. Simpler Theme provide this directory as part of the archive.
3. Upload the Simpler Theme files to the new directory on your host server.
4. Follow the instructions below for selecting the new Theme.

To select the Simpler Theme for your site:

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels.
2. Select the Appearance panel, then Themes.

   

3. From the Themes panel, roll over the Theme thumbnail image for the Simpler Theme to see options for the theme.

   

4. You can view more information about Simpler Theme by clicking Theme Details.

   

5. To activate the Simpler Theme click the Activate button.

If you want to create a demo site with the Simpler theme and fake content, you have to:

• Download test data: https://wpcom-themes.svn.automattic.com/demo/theme-unit-test-data.xml (updated 09/02/2014 18:49 UTC)
• Import test data into your WordPress install. Do this by going to Tools panel, then Import.

  

• Install the WordPress importer plugin to import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags from a WordPress export file.

  

  

• Activate the WordPress importer plugin.

  

• Select the file to Upload and then click on Upload file and import.

  

• Select the Download and import file attachments option. Note you may have to repeat the Import step until you see "All Done" to obtain the full list of Posts and Media.

  

Simpler Theme has been developed in English and it contains the Spanish (es_ES) translation. If you want to translate the theme to another language you can follow the instructions available in the WordPress Codex, using the simpler.pot file available in the "languages" folder.

Before you upgrade the theme, you have to backup your database and the files of your installation:

• You can find different methods to backup your database in the WordPress codex.
• You can find different methods to backup your WordPress files in the WordPress codex.

You can upgrade the Simpler theme using the Administration Panel or manually using a FTP client.

Upgrade Simpler Theme using the Administration Panel

You can upgrade Simpler Theme directly using the Themes option in the Appearance sub-menu.

1. Log in to the WordPress Administration Panels.
2. Select the Appearance panel, then Themes.
3. Any themes that have updates available will display an alert banner.
4. Click on the theme you want to upgrade and click on Update Now.

Upgrade Simpler Theme Manually (FTP)

To upgrade the Simpler Theme into your WordPress installation using the FTP, follow these basic steps:

1. Download the latest Simpler Theme archive and extract the files it contains. You need to preserve the directory structure in the archive when extracting these files.
2. Using an FTP client to access your host web server, upload the new files and folders in the wp-content/themes directory provided by WordPress. The Simpler Theme should be in wp-content/themes/simpler. Simpler Theme provide this directory as part of the archive.

A child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality and styling of another theme, called the parent theme. Child themes are the recommended way of modifying an existing theme.

• If you modify a theme directly and it is updated, then your modifications may be lost. By using a child theme you will ensure that your modifications are preserved.
• Using a child theme can speed up development time.
• Using a child theme is a great way to to learn about WordPress theme development.

The General Settings let you control how your site is displayed, such as the title, tagline, language, and visibility.

In the Simpler Theme you need to tweak some options. To change your site’s general settings, go to Settings, then General.

Here you have to upate:

• The Site Title, which will be shown at the top of the page.
• The Tagline, which will be displayed just below the site title.
• The Date Format, because the dates are shown below the title in the individual entries.

In the Simpler Theme you need to tweak some options. To change your site’s general settings, go to Settings, then Reading.

Here you have to upate:

• The Front page displays. The Simpler Theme is designed to be a personal blog, so you have to select Your latest posts.
• The Blog pages show at most: the number of posts to be displayed, per page, on your site.

Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual weblog posts, as well as categories and other lists of weblog postings. A permalink is what another webmaster or blogger will use to link to your article (or section), or how you might send a link to your story in an e-mail message. The URL to each post should be permanent, and never change — hence permalink.

We recommend that you avoid the Ugly format (some like http://example.com/?p=N) and set one of the Pretty Permalinks formats available.

In the Simpler Theme you need to tweak some options. To change your site’s general settings, , go to Settings, then Permalinks.

You can find more information in the WordPress Codex.

If you haven't a menu, you have to create one.

Creating a Menu

• To create a new menu, go to Appearance -> Menus to bring up the Menu Editor.

• Select Create a new menu at the top of the page.

• Enter a name for your new menu in the Menu Name box.

• Click the Create Menu button.

Adding Items to the Menu

You can add different link types into your menu, these are split between panes left of the menu you're currently editing.

• Locate the pane entitled Pages.
• Within this pane, select the View All link to bring up a list of all the currently published Pages on your site.
• Select the Pages that you want to add by clicking the checkbox next to each Page's title.
• Click the Add to Menu button located at the bottom of this pane to add your selection(s) to the menu that you created in the previous step.
• Check the Primary Menu to locate this new menu in the Primary Menu.
• Click the Save Menu button once you've added all the menu items you want.

You can find more information in the WordPress Codex.

Simpler theme has one social menu, above the sidebar.

It uses the Font Awesome icons and supports:

• WordPress.org.
• WordPress.com.
• Facebook.
• Twitter.
• Dribbble.
• Google +.
• Pinterest.
• Github.
• Tumblr.
• Youtube.
• Flickr.
• Vimeo.
• Instagram.
• LinkedIn.

Creating a Social Menu

• To create a new social menu, go to Appearance -> Menus to bring up the Menu Editor.

• Select Create a new menu at the top of the page.

• Enter the name "social" for your new menu in the Menu Name box.

• Click the Create Menu button.

Adding Items to the Social Menu

You have to add Custom links into your menu.

• Locate the pane entitled Custom links.
• Within this pane, insert the URL link in the URL box. You URL must have one of the next strings (v.gr. https://www.twitter.com/fontethemes):
• wordpress.org
• wordpress.com
• facebook.com
• twitter.com
• dribbble.com
• plus.google.com
• pinterest.com
• github.com
• tumblr.com
• youtube.com
• flickr.com
• vimeo.com
• instagram.com
• linkedin.com
• Insert the social network name in the Link Text box.
• Click the Add to Menu button located at the bottom of this pane to add your social network to the menu that you created in the previous step.
• Check the Social Menu to locate this new menu in the Social Menu, above the sidebar.
• Click the Save Menu button once you've added all the menu items you want.

The Simpler Theme has one sidebar aligned to the right where you can put widgets.

To configure your widgets, yo have to:

• Click on Appearance, then Widgets from the main navigation menu in your Dashboard.

• Add new widgets from the Available Widgets section by dragging them to the Sidebar.

• Preview your site and you should see the content from your new Widget.
• Return to the Widgets Panel to continue adding Widgets to the Sidebar as needed.
• To arrange the Widgets within the Sidebar, click, drag and drop the widgets in the order you want.
• To customize the Widget features, click the down arrow (or edit link) in the upper right corner to expand the Widget's interface.
• To save the Widget's customization, click Save. (If simply moving a widget to the sidebar without making customizations, you do not need to click the Save button.)
• Preview your site again, and all of your changes should be visible.

Posts are entries that display in reverse order on your home page. Posts usually have comments fields beneath them and are included in your site's RSS feed. The Simpler Theme supports featured images with 735 x 400 px in the posts page and in the individual posts.

To write a post:

• Log in to your WordPress Administration Panel (Dashboard).
• Click the 'Posts' tab.
• Click the 'Add New' sub-tab.
• Start filling in the blanks: enter your post title in the upper field, and enter your post body content in the main post editing box below it.
• As needed, select a category, add tags, add a featured image and make other selections from the sections below the post.
• When you are ready, click Publish.

Simpler Theme supports featured images in the posts and in the pages. You can use:

• 735 x 400 px featured image in the posts page, in the individual posts and in the pages with sidebar.
• 1200 x 653 px featured image in the pages without sidebar.

Below you can see a 1280 x 853 px. image used in a post (735 x 400 px) and in a page without sidebar (1200 x 653 px) as featured image .

To add a featured image in a WordPress post or page, click on “Set Featured Image” link inside the featured image meta box.

This will open the WordPress Media Uploader.

You can use it to upload an image from your computer or use an existing image from the WordPress media library.

Once you select the image, click on the "Set Featured Image" button.

The image will show in the Featured Image meta box.

Then you have to save the changes clicking on the "Save" or "Update" post/page button.

In this section you can find a selection of plugins recommended to be installed with the Simpler Theme:

• All In One SEO Pack.
• Contact Form 7.
• Google XML Sitemaps.
• Jetpack by WordPress.com.
• WP Super Cache.
• WordPress Importer.

All in One SEO Pack is a WordPress SEO plugin to automatically optimize your WordPress blog for Search Engines such as Google.

You can find more information and download the All in One SEO Pack plugin here.

Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.

You can find more information and download the Contact Form 7 plugin here.

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it's much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently.

You can find more information and download the Google XML Sitemaps plugin here.

Jetpack adds powerful features previously only available to WordPress.com users including customization, traffic, mobile, content, and performance tools.

You can find more information and download the Jetpack by WordPress.com plugin here.

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

You can find more information and download the Jetpack by WordPress.com plugin here.

Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.

You can find more information and download the WordPress Importer plugin here.

Thanks so much to

• Photos: The photo displayed in screenshot.png is licensed with CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. You can download the photo from Pixabay.
• Font Awesome CSS file is licensed with MIT License. You can download the Font Awesome here.
• Superfish is licensed with MIT License. You can download the Superfish files here.
• Source Sans Pro is licensed with SIL Open Font License, 1.1. You can link the Source Sans Pro font here. You can download the Source Sans Pro font here.
• Navgoco, the vertical multi-level slide navigation used in this documentation page. Navgoco is licensed with BSD license. You can download the code here.

Version 1.2.2 (June 25, 2015)

Rollback the screenshot to a previous one.

Version 1.2.1 (June 25, 2015)

Rename the thumbnail references (featured images), adding the "simpler-" prefix.

Version 1.2 (June 13, 2015)

Add featured images in the posts and in the pages. 
Add a social menu just above the sidebar.

Version 1.1.4 (May 22, 2015)

Remove all the commented code at functions.php.

Version 1.1.3 (May 21, 2015)

Remove favicons.

Version 1.1.2 (May 10, 2015)

Small changes in the translation

Version 1.1.1 (May 10, 2015)

Add favicons.
Change an incorrect text domain.
Small changes in navigation arrows.

Version 1.1 (April 22, 2015)

Add the Font Awesome font (local files).
Add the simpler.pot file (Translation template).
Add the es_ES.po file (Spanish translation). 
Add the es_ES.mo file (Spanish translation). 
Add the licenses.
Small changes in the tags.

Version 1.0 (March 02, 2015)

Initial release.

All content on this site documentation is provided for use under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

This documentation uses parts of the WordPress Codex, provided under the GNU General Public License.