Forums/Blogsites/Select your template

Doda Blog

Brad Hassett
posted this on November 08, 2011 04:57 pm

Images & logo sizes
You are able to adjust the width of the entire blog so the widths of the images below will change if you change your blog width.  Since we are not sure what width you would like the blog to be, we decided to provide you with the settings that are currently in our demo.  The following options can be found in the "ITDR Admin" (activate the ITDR admin in the Plugins area in WordPress) below the WordPress navigation on the left side.   

 

WordPress ITDR Admin
Your ITDR Admin is a plugin that will allow you to brand your blog among other things. If the ITDR Admin has been activated, you will find it at the bottom of the left navigation bar. If you have not activated this plugin please do so in the Plugins tab on the left navigation bar.

 

Image sizes:

  • Logo: 170 x 80 pixels (recommended but can change) - (found in ITDR Admin > Design)
  • Header images: 960 x 540 pixels (recommended, but can change).  Change the width by changing the "Blog Width" in the design tab. - (found in ITDR Admin > Header)
  • Welcome box images: 313 x 200 pixels (height can change) - (found in ITDR Admin > Welcome)
  • Latest posts images: 229 x 172 pixels (height can change) - (refer to section below titled 'Adding Images in the "Latest Posts" section of the homepage')

 

Setup home & blog page

NOTE:  If you don’t want a home page and would prefer to just have the blog page as your home page, you don’t need to do these steps.

In the "pages" tab click the "add new" button. Create a page called "Home". Then in the attributes panel on the right, use the Template drop down and select "Homepage". Now publish.

When you make a blog page leave the template settings as "default".

 Next, go to the "Settings" tab and go into the "Reading" section. Select the button that says "static page" and set the front page as "Home" and the posts page as "Blog" if you created a blog page.

To setup a welcome message and the intro boxes on the home page, go to the ITDR Admin (bottom of the WordPress navigation)  > Welcome tab.

To setup the twitter feed go to the ITDR Admin (bottom of the WordPress navigation) > Setup.  Now change “Use Twitter” to true and type in your twitter username in the “Twitter Username” field.

 

Add twitter feed
To setup the twitter feed go to the ITDR Admin (bottom of the WordPress navigation) > Setup.  Now change “Use Twitter” to true and type in your twitter username in the “Twitter Username” field.


Add welcome text
To setup a welcome message and the intro boxes on the home page, go to the ITDR Admin (bottom of the WordPress navigation)  > Welcome tab.

 

Adding images in the "Latest Posts" section of the homepage

NOTE:  You need to have WordPress 3 or greater.

  1. Go into your latest post in the WordPress backend
  2. Find the "Featured Image" panel in the bottom right and click "Set Featured Image"
  3. Click "Select Image" and upload your desired image.
  4. Click "Use as Featured Image".
  5. Click "Update" or "Save" to the post.

 


Setup archives page

In the "pages" tab click the "add new" button. Title the page. Then in the attributes panel on the right, use the Template drop down and select "Archives". Now publish.



Setup contact page

In the "pages" tab click the "add new" button. Title the page. Then in the attributes panel on the right, use the Template drop down and select “Contact”. Now publish.

If you want a sidebar on the contact page where you have the option to include your email, phone, fax, address, and even a Google map, go to the ITDR Admin (bottom of the WordPress navigation) > Setup > Contact and fill in your desired information.

To get a Google Map on the contact page like the demo, go to Google Maps and search your address. Now click "Link" on the top right of the page and copy the HTML embed code. Then go to the "Contact Page" section of the theme admin panel and paste the code in the Google Maps box. You can adjust the size of the map by adjusting the “height” and “width” in the code you just pasted.

 

Setup a portfolio page

Portfolio pages are essentially just a page with a Blogshow embedded in it.  To create a Blogshow:

  1. Create your page and Title it.
  2. Click the ITDR logo on the top bar of the editor (where you type text into your page).  Make sure your Blogshow Plugin is activated!
  3. (optional) – To change the design (including height and width) click the “Global Settings” tab.
  4. Click the “Image Sets” tab.
  5. Click “New” and title the set.
  6. Select the set you just created and click the "Image List" tab.
  7. Click “Upload” and upload your desired images.
  8. Click the "Insert" tab and click “Insert into Post!” on the bottom.



Setup your navigation

NOTE:  You need to have WordPress 3 of greater.

  1. Go to the "Menus" tab under "Appearance".  
  2. Create a New Row by giving it a title, then clicking “Create Menu”.
  3. Assign the menu to it's location by selecting it in the dropdown in the top left under the "Theme Location" tab.  Click save.
  4. Select the pages, categories, or custom links that you want in this navigation and add them to your menu.  To create a sub-navigation item, click and drag an already added menu item and put it under & to the right of the desired parent navigation item. 
    1. IMPORTANT: due to the complexity of the navigation this blog can only have navigation 2 levels deep.  Anything higher than 2nd level sub-navigation items will not work.
    2. NOTE: To create a "dead" navigation item (one that doesn't link to anything), create a custom link with a link to somewhere fake (example: http://something.com).  Then once added find it on the right column, click the dropdown arrow, and delete the link.


Setup a sidebar

  1. Go to the ITDR Admin > Setup.  Change “Use Sidebar” to true.
  2. On the WordPress navigation go to Appearance > Widgets.
  3. Click and drag your desired widgets from the “Available Widgets” column to the “Sidebar 1” column.

 

Understanding the sidebar option

if you add a sidebar, some of these settings will change.  Because the sidebar is going to take up additional space, you must adjust your blog post images to be smaller.  if your blog content width is set to 800 pixels wide and you add a side bar (250 pixels wide), you are left with 550 pixels worth of room.

Single image width for blog posts (with sidebar): 550px


Using facebook comments

To moderate facebook comments you have two options:  moderating comments with your Facebook username or moderating comments with an app ID.  The difference is that with your facebook user ID you can only moderate comments by checking each post to see if there has been a comment.  You will be notified of comments and there is no central location to moderate all comments left on your blog.  If you use an app ID you can login to one central location to moderate all comments left on your blog.

To moderate with your Facebook user ID:

  1. Go Facebook and login. 
  2. Go to your profile page and look at the URL.  It should say something like "http://www.facebook.com/joesmith7" or "http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789".  Depending on your case your user ID is "joesmith7" or "123456789".
  3. Go to the ITDR Admin panel in WordPress > Setup > Social Media > type in your Facebook ID into the "Facebook Username" field.  Save.
  4. Wait a few minutes as it takes some time to kick in.
  5. Now to moderate your comments go the comments in an entry and you will see a "Moderator View".

To moderate with an app ID:

  1. Go Facebook and login.  
  2. Go to http://developers.facebook.com/
  3. Click "Apps" in the navigation.  Click "Allow" if prompted.
  4. Click "Create a New App".
  5. Title the app, read the terms if you're a reader ;), and click agree, click "Create App".
  6. Fill out the captcha if it comes up.
  7. Locate the section titled "Select how your app integrates with Facebook" near the bottom, Click "Website", and type in your "Site URL". (this must be an exact match AND include a trailing slash "/")
  8. Locate and copy the app ID.
  9. Go to the ITDR Admin panel in WordPress > Setup > Social Media > type in your app ID into the "Facebook App ID" field.  Save.
  10. Wait a few minutes as it takes some time to kick in.
  11. Now to moderate your comments you can go to http://developers.facebook.com/tools/comments/.  It is also worth noting that you can change the settings by click the "Settings" button on the right of this screen.

 

Using shortcodes

Shortcodes are just easy ways to enhance a page or post.  This theme comes with a bunch of shortcodes that you can find here: http://intothedarkroom.com/demos/en/blogs/doda/?page_id=13

To implement one of these shortcodes into your page/post just copy and paste the example given under the titles of each shortcode.  Then change the content within it to be your desired text.

For example to get a quote in your blog, copy and paste “[quote]your text here[/quote]” into your page/post, then change the text to whatever your quote is.

 

 

Comments

User photo
Liz Muder

Brad,

I could really use your help on something.  I would like the posts on my blog page to actually be 'mini posts', where you click on the mini post and it takes you to the full post.  I add multiple high res photos to my posts and my page takes a very long time to load, longer than I would like it to be.  I think if I had  the option to just list teaser posts instead of the full version, the page would load faster and look better.   Can you help me out?  If you're unsure of what I'm asking for, I have several sites I can point you towards as a reference.

Thanks,

Liz

February 07, 2012 09:02 pm
User photo
Brad Hassett
intothedarkroom

Liz, yup I understand what you're asking for as it's a common issue.  You can either limit the number of posts on your page (WordPress > Settings > Reading) or you can add a "more" tag, a link that cuts of the post where ever you add it and adds a button that says something like "Read the rest of the article".  When you click the link it takes you to the individual post.  To do the latter option go to WordPress > Your Post > "Insert More Tag" button that is located in the text editor menu.

Hope that helps!

February 09, 2012 02:10 pm
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Carla

I have included an abstract background image to my site which really ties in with my branding, however it interferes with the text and slideshow images.  How can I change the template so that it is not 100% translucent please?  

Is it possible to change the height of the header?  I can only see the width option available.  

 

Thanks!

March 12, 2012 09:20 am
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Henrique Carvalho

Hi everyone.

As said before, i'd like to know how can i change the height of the LOGO.

Logo: 170 x 80 pixels (recommended but can change)

When i change it, the hole black bar where the logo is inserted goes over the hole page....

 

How can i do that?

April 02, 2012 07:02 am
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Brad Hassett
intothedarkroom

Carla & Henrique,

Please submit a support ticket so we can better help you with these issues.

Brad

April 02, 2012 05:10 pm
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WILLIAM SOERJADJAYA

Hi, doda template main page has 4 recent post, could we add more than 4? Thanks

April 10, 2012 11:38 pm
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Brad Hassett
intothedarkroom

William, no, it's built to only have 4.

April 11, 2012 11:17 am
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