How to Install and Set Up WP-Vybe 2.0
It doesn’t take a lot to install and set up your new WP-Vybe WordPress theme. Read on, and you’ll have it knocked out in a snap.
Step 1 – Unzip the File
The file you downloaded can be unzipped with any standard unzip program (if you don’t have one already installed on your computer, Stuffit Expander is a popular option for PC or MAC users). When you unzip the file, you’ll end up with a folder named “wp-vybe.” Within it are all the theme files along with the end user license agreement (please take a moment to read over the license agreement).
Step 2 – Upload the Theme Files to Your WordPress Site
For this step, you’ll need an FTP (file transfer protocol) program. An FTP program allows you to transfer files between your computer and your web hosting account. There are several available, but I use SmartFTP. You’ll want to upload your theme folder to the /wp-content/themes folder in your WordPress installation.
Step 3 – Activate WP-Vybe
Login to your WordPress control panel, and click the Appearance link on the left. On the next page you’ll see all your available themes. Simply click on the WP-Vybe screenshot, then click the Activate link in the upper right-hand corner of the pop-up screen.
Step 4 – Set Up Your Featured Articles Section
If you don’t already have a “Featured” category, you’ll need to create one. Click the Manage tab, then Categories on the sub-navigation bar. Create a new category named “Featured”. Also, be sure the category slug is “featured”.
For the Featured Articles function to work correctly, you may also need to modify your permalink structure. To do that, go to Settings -> Permalinks. Just be sure that any option other than the default permalink structure is selected.
Finally, the only thing left to do is to place some of your posts/articles in the Featured category. By default, the theme is set up to display your 5 most recent Featured Articles in the featured article box on your home page. You can change that number on the WP-Vybe Theme Settings page if you like.
Step 5 – Install and Activate Plugins Supported by WP-Vybe
WP-Vybe has built-in support for the following plugins:
Recently Popular – Your Most Popular Posts will appear at the top of the right sidebar in the tabbed navigation box as seen on this site. In WP-Vybe the plugin is configured to look at the past two weeks but this can be changed by modifying the plugin code in side-tabs.php:
<?php get_recently_popular(2, ‘WEEK’, 5, 0, 2); ?>
The first number within the parentheses is the interval length and the word following it is for the interval type (HOUR, DAY, WEEK, or MONTH). See the plugin’s page here for more details.
WP-Print – If you install and activate WP-Print, a printer icon will appear at the top of each Single post page. See this post for an example. If you don’t install it, the theme will function just fine without it; you just won’t give your readers the option to print out your posts. Note: Be sure to Update Permalinks AFTER you activate the plugin as mentioned on the “Installation” page for the plugin here.
Get the Image – This is a sweet, little plugin from the very brilliant Justin Tadlock. It will make it easier for you to include post thumbnails and featured photos for all your posts without using custom fields. More on that in another tutorial. Again, if you decide not to use it, the theme will function fine without it.
Be sure you download the latest version of each plugin and upload them to your wp-content/plugins folder. Then activate them. The theme will do the rest.
Step 6 – Add Some Content to Your Sidebars
Go to Appearance -> Widgets and drag some content into your sidebars. Be sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you’re done.
Step 7 – Be Sure to Visit the WP-Vybe Theme Settings Page
The link for this page is available under Appearance. I’ve given you a whole slew of optional settings for the theme, so feel free to change a few of them, and see what sort of site you can create for yourself.
Optional Step 8 – Make Your Featured Articles Scroll Automatically
See this comment.
Filed Under: Featured • Marketing • Productivity • Software • Sub-Subcat1 • Sub-Subcat2 • Tutorials
About the Author:
Michael/Darrell,
How did you get the Popularity plugin work? Please help.
Hi Michael great work on Vybe it’s great. I have a couple of questions which I don’t think have been asked yet.
I’ve tried inserting my own logo at the top of the page and want it to span the full width (about 990px) but it only seems to display half way across.
Also on the home page is it possible on a post to remove the thumbnail and have an image (or video) span the full width of the excerpt box
thanks
HI Michael!
I purchased one of your themes – love it so much I am back to purchase one for a client. I think this version is great but I need a specific shade of red #D7000F. Am I able to adjust the red? If not what is involved in customizing it and is it a service you provide?
Thanks!
Pat Williams
CyberCletch LLC
http://www.CyberCletch.com
http://www.RealHomeSense.com
Twitter: cletch
This is by far the best Theme I’ve ever purchased. I do have one ? if you don’t mind. Is there anyway I could add a dropdown categories box beside the dropdown archives box? Any input you may have regarding this would be much appreciated. I would also like to say Thanks for such a great Theme.
It appears you figured this out already Dusty, but for the benefit of others who may have the same question, here’s the answer.
1. Open the side-tabs.php file and find this code:
<ul class="tabs cleafix"><li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(1, 4, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_1" class="on" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Subscribe"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(2, 4, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_2" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Archives"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(3, 4, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_3" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Tags"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(4, 4, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_4" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Popular"); ?></a></li>
</ul>
2. Change to this:
<ul class="tabs cleafix"><li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(1, 5, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_1" class="on" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Subscribe"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(2, 5, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_2" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Archives"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(3, 5, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_3" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Tags"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(4, 5, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_4" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Popular"); ?></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(5, 5, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_5" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Categories"); ?></a></li>
</ul>
3. Scroll to the bottom and find these last 2 lines:
</div>
</div>
4. Just above them, add the following:
<div id="content_5" class="cat_content" style="display:none"><div class="sidebox">
<form action="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/" method="get">
<?php
$select = wp_dropdown_categories('show_option_none=Select category&show_count=1&orderby=name&echo=0');
$select = preg_replace("#<select([^>]*)>#", "<select$1 onchange='return this.form.submit()'>", $select);
echo $select;
?>
<noscript><input type="submit" value="View" /></noscript>
</form>
</div>
For more info on this, see the Codex here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_dropdown_categories#Dropdown_without_a_Submit_Button_using_JavaScript_.282.29
Hi! I purchased the theme and really like the look. The theme is great to work with in terms of adjustments as well. I have two questions though:
(1) I would like the 468×60 ad to not appear on the front page, but have it appear on the individual post pages. What is the code to remove from the main index to do that?
(2) Twice when I was setting up the new theme, something happened that reset everything to the default WP theme. My host had gone down around the same time it happened both times, so I’m guessing that triggered it, but I’m not sure. Is there a way to lock things down so that a server issue won’t suddenly switch themes on me?
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
As an update to my last comment, the theme automatically reverted to the WP default again without anything odd like a server crash happening. Obviously this is a big problem!
One more update. I think I located the problem, which was a server issue, but if anyone out there has seen Wordpress automatically revert to the default theme, I would love to hear from you.
In the mean time the Vybe theme has gotten a good number of compliments from friends. I definitely recommend it!
Michael
Quick question – if you look at http://www.jamooza.com/ each of the stories on the front page below the featured block – all the type is bold. Everything below the featured block is now bold. I am not sure how this happened and it seemed to change on its own. Previously the story title was bold but the excerpt was normal text like always.
Any ideas how this happened and what I can do to get it to stop making the excerpt text bold also? Thanks!
Thank you for your purchase of WP-Vybe!
The first featured article, “Women Against Sarah Palin. A Movement?” appears to be what is causing the rest of the text on the page to be bold. The ellipsis at the end has the following code, which instead of the closing tag for bold (
</b>) is currently<b>:“… Below are their voices.
<b>…<b>”Once the ending
<b>is changed to</b>you should be all set.Alistair you were correct and I am not sure how I missed that. Thank you for the assistance. I greatly appreciate it. Thanks again!
Already have your WP-Mag theme, wondering about Vybe, anyway – the question is the same;
Is it possible to get the tag-cloud instead of tag-drop-down-menu in the sidebar (“siteguide”)? Or do I have to install a new plugin and edit the sidebar/”siteguide” code?
>>>>> Is it possible to get the tag-cloud instead of tag-drop-down-menu in the sidebar (“siteguide”)? Or do I have to install a new plugin and edit the sidebar/”siteguide” code?
Michael:
You’d have to edit the code to show the tag cloud instead of the drop-down tags.
Or you could simply use the standard wordpress tag cloud widget somewhere else in one of the sidebars.
Hi Michael
Once again a beautiful theme…Is there a way to turn off gravatars altogether?
Thanks
Thanks for your quick response Alistair you helped to solve my problem and sorry for the double post…a bit over eager to play with my new toy, thanks again
Hi Michael,
I am in the midst of playing with all the great customizations you have made possible and wanted to ask if you could point me to the correct area of code to change the colour of the activated box in the Subscribe/Archives/Popular etc section (e.g. I want to change it from the default green). Also I want to similarly change the colour of the wording that shows up to display other articles from the same category (e.g. where it says “Other entries from xxx”)
Thanks so much,
Michael
>>>>> I am in the midst of playing with all the great customizations you have made possible and wanted to ask if you could point me to the correct area of code to change the colour of the activated box in the Subscribe/Archives/Popular etc section (e.g. I want to change it from the default green). Also I want to similarly change the colour of the wording that shows up to display other articles from the same category e.g. where it says “Other entries from xxx”)
Hi Michael:
Sorry for the late reply. Had a hard drive failure over the weekend and lost your message temporarily.
1. To change the sidebar widget title color and activated box color and background, you’ll need to add this to the style-2.css file, and change the color codes according to your preference:
/* ---- [ Sidebar Widget Title Font Color ] ---- */#sidebar li .widgettitle {color:#ffffff !important;
}
/* ---- [ Sidebar Tabbed Box Active Link Background Color ] ---- */#sidebar li ul.tabs li a.on {background-color:#ffffff !important;
}
Hello Michael,
Another awesome theme. This is the second theme that I have purchased. I’m hooked.
I am having a little difficulty loading this theme into wordpress. I have all the files uploaded, but when I log on to my Wordpress control panel, wp-vybe screenshot is not there. I have used your other themes with no problem. What should I do?
Thanks in advance. Continue doing great work.
Daryl
Hi Michael Cohen,
Thanks for using WP-Vybe.
Sure thing, you can turn off gravatars by doing the following:
1. In WordPress Admin, click “Settings” at the top-right
2. Click “Discussion” at the top
3. Scroll to the very bottom, where it says “Default Avatar” — select “Blank” then click ‘Save Changes’
Michael,
Thanks for your reply. I would have posted the How-To myself once I figured it out but I wasn’t sure if it would offend anyone since I’m not the designer.
Thanks again,
Hi Michael,
Awesome theme! Way to go!
Quick question – since installing this theme my “add media” tab is now missing. (The little tab that you click to post pics, vids, etc when writing a new page/post).
I suspect this has nothing to do with the theme but I’m curious. Do you know how I can get that back? I need to post some pictures!
Thank you! Again, awesome theme!
Hi Michael,
Love the Wp-Vybe theme. I am using it on several sites and I wonder if you could give me the hex codes for the color on each site. I am building some logo’s and I am having trouble matching the color, particularly with the rust color. Thanks
Hi Sean,
Thanks for the kudos. I’ll be sure to pass them along to Michael.
I’m not sure why the “add media” tab is missing after installing the theme. This is going to sound totally unrelated, but are you using Firefox? I know that when viewing the admin interface in Firefox with Adblock it completely hides all of the images. You can get around this by going to Tools->Adblock->Whitelist this whole site.
Also have you tried using a different Web browser? Perhaps the images will display fine on one browser vs. another. Try that and see what happens.
Good luck. Let me know if you need any further help.
I have a couple of outstanding issues:
1. There is a bug in my version, at least, if you have the Recent posts widget in the left (smaller) sidebar. Then the “Recent posts in category” picks the category from the last recent post used, for all posts.
2. If you use display content and not excerpt on home page (like you would in a normal blog), all the archive pages use the same. That is not so good, as you only want excerpt there, to make it easy to browse through. I’ve manually changed the archive pages, but I’m not sure I’ve done it in the best way. Sometimes it looks a bit strange.
Thanks!
Michael & Alistair,
You know how skeptical I was after getting burned on another premium theme that was way to complex to set-up and the publishers support was lacking. I must say, you guys have done an awesome job with WP-Vybe. Easy to use, looks great and most importantly – great support. I got my new site up, customized, full of content and ads in two days. This is with NO prior WP experience (WP for Dummies helped).
I’m ready to upgrade to the Premium Multiple Use License… and sign me up for the affiliate program!
I have one little bug I can’t figure out…
I have three Featured posts on SellingMy.com. When the home page excerpt for the post titled ‘How To Respond To A Domain Name Inquiry’ is shown, the photo isn’t aligned properly. Any ideas how to fix it?
Thanks, Mark
Hi Mike,
on the same server I have a several blogs (under different domains). I’ve purchased Vybe for one of them and it ain’t working. The mistery looks like this:
- on one domain it’s not working. I’ve tried to make a clean new instal of Wordpress (2.6.2) on a subdomain of that domain and it’s still not working (looks like there is either CSS or any images).
- on other domain on the same server, Vybe works!
- on a third domain (same server) it’s not working. Creating a clear new install of WP doesn’t change anything-it’s no good.
But any other theme uploaded on any of above mentioned combination works?!
Any idea why this happens???
@dijaspora-info – in wp-admin go to settings and make sure you have the correct WordPress Address (URL) / Blog Address (URL) entered. If your hosting in a subdomain you will have to change the address location etc. Give this a try and let us know if it helps ….
Hi Steve,
We’re glad that you love the theme. Sure thing, below are the HEX codes for all WP-Vybe theme colors:
Blue: #073767
Brown: #C20865
Charcoal: #353535
Green: #356535
Light Blue: #366495
Pink: #C50666
Purple: #650767
Red: #960807
Rose: #663636
Rust: #963606
Turquoise: #066464
FYI, among all the great features of this theme, one of the best and easiest to use is the custom subscription form field built right into the content management panel. I don’t like using the feedburner options so all I had to do was drop the iframe code into the box provided at the “WP-Vybe Theme Settings” and that’s it. it looks and functions wonderfully!
I have two examples up and running:
http://adaptistration.com/
http://www.insidethearts.com/sticksanddrones/
Drew McManus
@Dusty Thanks for a try.
I’ve solved the problem my self after hours and hours.
Here what I did:
I dialled directly css url: http://www.domen/wp-content/themes/wp-vybe/style.php , so this was the message I’ve got :
Unable to access /srv/www/vhosts/domen/wp-content/themes/wp-vybe../../../../wp-config.php
So if you take a look at this part of UR: ‘wp-vybe../../../.’ you see that something is wrong, like something is missing…
I’ve changed the first line of style.php
from:
require_once( dirname(__FILE__) . ‘../../../../wp-config.php’);
to:
require_once( dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/../../../wp-config.php’);
So it works now. Why is this happening I’m not sure?! Could be a PHP bug or whatever?!
@dijaspora-info – Nice to see you solved the issue and Thanks for sharing w/ us how to done it.
OK, there is a big one:
what shall I do if I don’t want any sidebar within pages? I want to set up a forum so the sidebars leaves me not enought place.
By the way, in the next version of Vybe you should maybe reconsider the possibility to give this as Basic SIte Settings option (Single post Layout:1-2-3, Page Layout: 1-2-3 …)
Thanks in advance
@ dijaspora-info,
Use the page-full.php template if you want to have the page the full width without sidebars. It’s included in WP-Vybe.
Or copy that template and modify it to fit your needs.
When creating a page pick “Page Template (No Sidebars)”.
@ Martin,
Thank you a lot, it works like a charm! This way of choosing page layout is even better than the way I suggested in my post above. With every single day I’m getting more and more in love with this great theme! Good work!
Hi Guys,
Is there a tutorial or previous post on how to replace the entire header graphic/banner? (I can’t find one) If not, can you tell us how to do it? I will also need to know what size it is.
Thanks!
Alistair
Sorry for the late reply – it was actually a little plugin causing the problem.
Thanks for the help!
Maybe this has already been covered somewhere and it`s probably a snap, but I can`t seem to find any information on it.
How do I edit the “Entry Information” below each post?
Mark, in reply to your question, if you go to “design” –> “theme settings” there`s an option in there where you can upload your own custom header image which is 980px I think???
Click the 2nd link “Site Title Settings”, set Site Title Option to “image/logo type” then enter your header url in the box below.
Anyone have an idea on how to change the “Popular” component to something else say, “Categories” in the unpper right hand box?
Grateful for your help.
I’ve set the title at WeKnowColumbusBlog.comto image and I’ve added the link in the appropriate spot. It’s 960 px (max suggested) but there is a box of color that covers half the banner and I can’t figure out how to get rid of it.
Also I am trying to change the Black background of the right popularity sidebar. Where can I do that? Thanks for any direction you can provide.
Hi Sean,
It’s nice to hear from you again. Sure, you can change it to say something else if you want. Here’s how to do it:
1. In WP Admin, go to Design -> Theme Editor
2. On the right, click the side-tabs.php template
3. When you scroll down you’ll see the following line:
<li><a href="javascript:tabSwitch_2(4, 4, 'tab_', 'content_');" id="tab_4" rel="nofollow"><?php _e("Popular"); ?></a></li>4. You can edit just the part that says “Popular” to anything you want and the text will change on your site
5. Click ‘Update File’
Hopefully that answers your question.
>>>>> Maybe this has already been covered somewhere and it`s probably a snap, but I can`t seem to find any information on it. How do I edit the “Entry Information” below each post?
Patrick:
The Entry Information can be found on the Single Post template. Look for this block of code:
<h3 id="postinfo"><?php _e("Entry Information"); ?></h3><div class="auth-bio clearfix"><p class="cats"><strong><?php _e("Filed Under"); ?></strong>: <?php the_category(' • '); ?></p>
<?php the_tags("<p class='tags'><strong> Tags</strong>: "," • ", "</p>"); ?>
<p class="bio">
<?php // this is the author photo pulled from gravatar.com
if (function_exists('get_avatar')) {
$gravsize = $wp_vybe_grav_size;
$author_email = get_the_author_email();
echo get_avatar($author_email,$size="$gravsize");
} else {
//alternate gravatar code for < 2.5
$gravsize = $wp_vybe_grav_size;
$md5 = md5( $email=get_the_author_email() );
echo "<img class='avatar' src='http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=$md5&size=$gravsize' alt='' />";
} ?>
<strong><?php _e("About the Author"); ?></strong>: <?php the_author_description(); ?></p>
</div>
Michael
Just bought basic theme and I am having issues with the Featured tab. None of them is visible. Please take a look
http://sunitablogs.com/
to followup on the above comment. I used custom permlink
/%year%/%postname%/
Michael
I figured it out. Since none of my posts were categorized as ‘Featured’ , it wasn’t showing up in the features section.
All did was to rename the ‘Uncategorized’ category to ‘Featured’ and it worked like a charm.
Michael
Not sure how to fix this. Please help
I enabled Site Map page after going through the tutorial. for some reasoning it is throwing this error
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 71 bytes) in /home/sunitabl/public_html/wp-includes/taxonomy.php on line 1092
Wow, you really do get what you pay for. I’ve used no less than three WordPress templates, free, and have been generally satisfied. However, have been thinking about using WP Vybe for a more professional venture. Realized this afternoon, “Hmm, I wonder how WP Vybe prints out.” This is important for my pending venture.
Just tested it. Like a dream. You’ve thought of everything!
Can’t wait to crank it up over a rainy weekend sometime soon. Yes!
Sorry, I`m still having problems with the “entry information” section at the end of each post. Sometimes when I hit preview post my gravatar icon and my bio show, but never after I save a post.
I also have another issue. If you look at the recent article section, you will see the same text format doesn`t carry over. The spacing is different and bold text has been completely ignored.
Thanks in advance
http://www.japan-mono.com/
Hi, I purchased WP-Vybe recently and absolutely love the theme! I am using it to revamp my website completely (url – http://www.allaboutanimation.com/aaa) and it is just perfect for the amount of content that my portal has.
1) I have a small problem – I have set up the home page to show the latest posts but it does not show any posts! It just shows the title “Recent Articles” under the 468×60 ad banner, but none of the posts show up. Any idea what might be wrong? I have not made any changes to index.php
2) Also, if I want the categories in the category navigation bar to appear in a particular order, which is not alphabetical but as per my requirement, how do I do that?
3) When I go to any category page, above the posts the title reads “All Entries in the “XYZ” Category”. If I want it to just read “XYZ” ie just the category name, how do I change the code?
eg. If I click on the “Events” link on the navigation bar, it says “All Entries in the Events Category”. I just want it to say “Events”.
Help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Sunita,
That seems like it’s an issue related to WordPress, so you could try asking your Web host (BlueHost) for help with this issue. If they are unable to solve your problem, let me know.