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Getting Started

Congrats on your new theme! Below is a quick guide to help you get it installed.

Installing your theme

  1. Once your purchase is complete, you’ll receive an email with your license key and a link to the theme download.
Email received after purchase.
  1. This will redirect you to a download page where you can grab the theme (remember where you’re putting it!) but keep the email in Step 1 close; we’ll need that license key shortly.
Page where one can download theme.
  1. Now head over to your WordPress site and log in to the dashboard. From here, go to Appearance > Themes. From the top of the screen, click the “Add new” button.
Appearance theme page with Add New button highlighted.
  1. On the Add Themes screen, click the “Upload Theme” button at the top of the screen.
Appearance theme page with Upload Theme button highlighted.
  1. From the next screen, click the “Browse” you see in the middle of the screen.
Upload theme and browse window
  1. This will open up a window for you to browse your computer. Now go find the zip file you downloaded in step 1. Make sure it’s still zipped!
Browse computer window.
  1. Now select the zipped theme file and click “Open”.
Browse computer window, theme selected, open button highlighted
  1. You’ll now see your theme’s file set and can click on the Install Now button.
Upload theme window with Install Now button active.
  1. You’ll now see a “Theme installed successfully” message. Now click Activate.
Theme activate window

And voilà, your new theme is installed.


Activating your theme’s license

Once you have your theme installed, you’ll need to activate the license. This will allow you to download the updated version of the theme when one is available. In the example below we’re working with Waverly theme.

  1. From your dashboard, go to Settings > Theme Name Settings.
WordPress dashboard with theme settings page highlighted.
  1. Go back to the email you originally received, mentioned in step 1 ( Installing your theme), and copy the key.
Confirmation of purchase email with license key highlighted.
  1. Go back to the Waverly Settings page and paste your key in the field License Key field.
Theme settings page with empty license key field.
  1. Hit Save Changes. You should now see “License is active. You have x/5 instances activated.” under the License Key field.
Theme settings page with license key field filled

All done! You’ll now get notified if there are any updates to your theme.

Setting up your homepage

If you’ve purchased Waverly, it comes with three full homepage patterns which you can insert in just a few clicks. Full-page patterns are made up of smaller patterns. So every block can be modified, tweaked or altogether removed to create the exact page you want.

Step 1: Create a homepage and add content
  1. Start by creating a new page. From your dashboard, click Pages > Add new.
  2. Next, add a title. You can name it something like Home or Homepage.
  3. Next add a pattern. From the top-left of your screen, click the blue Blue plus to add pattern or block. button. This will bring up the blocks and patterns library.
  4. Click the Patterns tab.
  5. From the drop-down, select Full Page Pattern.
  6. Scroll until you find the pattern that works for you. Once you there, click on the pattern image. This will automatically insert the entire layout on your page. Now customize as much or as little as you need to.
  7. Hit Publish.
Step 2: Setting your page as your homepage

Once you’re done customizing, and you’ve published your page, don’t forget to set your page as your front page.

  1. Go to Setting > Reading.
  2. Clicking the “A static page” radio button.
  3. From the Homepage drop-down, select the page you just created.
  4. Hit Save Changed at the bottom of the page.

And you’re done! Piece of cake.

Adding content to your site

All our themes come with pre-built layouts called Patterns. Finding and inserting patterns is easy. As with the full-page patterns, in the previous step, these can all be modified to fit your site’s content.

Not sure what a pattern is? Check out this handy guide.

  1. Start by creating a new page or post.
  2. From the top-left menu click the blue + sign.
  3. Under the search box, click the Patterns menu.
  4. From here, depending on which theme you have purchased, you can select the pattern category from the drop-down menu.
  5. Next, scroll through the patterns until you see one you’d like to use.
  6. Once you’ve found the right one, click on the pattern to insert it into your page.
  7. You can now modify each pattern’s content and layout to fit your site and content perfectly.