Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi RitzyThemes,
Thank you so much for the reply. And wow -- thank you most of all for mentioning Visual Composer. This is new to me, and I had no idea. But that's the exact solution I need for my client, because it would allow us to create a similar look for her site. I'm going to spend some time today exploring it further, but I do think that might be the solution I'm looking for. And it's less expensive than Design Palette Pro.
One follow-up question: If I plan to use Visual Composer, does it matter what theme I start with? I'm not sure I fully grasp how the custom layout designed with VC overrides the theme design. The VC website says it can be used with any WordPress theme, so I suppose the answer to my question is that no, it doesn't matter. But if you have any advice on a starter theme to use with VC, I'm all ears.
Thank you!!
I know this is an older thread, but I found it very helpful. I've been discussing AgentPress with Anita C offline, and she's been extremely kind -- and patient -- in answering my questions as I figure out exactly how AP works, especially with IDX integrated.
I too had the same question. I understand that if you set up AgentPress like the demo, including the Agent Press Listings Plugin, then you also integrate IDX, the site now offers two different ways to search for properties. And if I understand it correctly, the APLP searches the properties that have been manually entered into the site (assuming these would be a realtor's own listings). But, if a site visitor uses the IDX search tool, it will pull listings from MLS.
Here's what I'm trying to get clear on:
1. Do you need both search plugins? If an agent plans to incorporate IDX, will an IDX search also pull from the listings that have been manually entered in the site? (I suppose in a roundabout way it would, as long as those listings were on MLS. Correct?)
2. Is it confusing for a site visitor to have two search forms on a site? A visitor/user isn't going to know the difference between how the two search forms work, right?
3. Am I correctly "reading" the way the two plugins are used on this site: http://www.marottarealty.com? It's in the StudioPress showcase, and I'm guessing the search form on the home page slider is the Agent Press Listings Search, and if you click on "Advanced Search" in his navigation, that search is tied to IDX. Am I right?
I'm trying to get a grip on how/when/why one uses both plugins.
I'm late getting back here to thank you again for the help, Brad. You answered all my questions! Thanks so much.
See......this is why I come here! I'm not always able to retrieve the things from my brain that I already know and apply them to a new problem. 🙂 It won't surprise you to know I've always been bad at higher level math as well. But, I'm a very good cook. 🙂
It sounds like the second option you proposed might be getting me close to what I want. However, I'd prefer not to have the image prominent -- the ideal is to have a thumbnail of my head shot sitting over to the right, but the introductory text taking up most of the space. So, if I understand you correctly, when I copy the HTL, it will include both the text and the image. That sounds right to me -- did I understand it correctly?
If I did that, then all I need to do is change the background in my Settings, and it sounds like I'd be good to go.
Am I missing anything?
Brad,
Since I only know enough about the back end of WordPress to be dangerous, I almost understand everything you suggested. 🙂
I'm familiar with the Featured Page Widget. Can I put it in the Home Featured area without a slider? If so, I assume I would just set up the page the way I want it to display on the Home page; however, I'm not able to visualize what that would look like (relative to the site background).
If I could indeed do that, then my background issue should be pretty simple. Because I'm really only needing to change the gray patterned background between the green navigation and the four home boxes. And I know I can do that in the background settings.
David -- Thanks for the reply here. I had not added any other header images, so the option to choose between images didn't really appear. Therefore, I wasn't sure this was my solution. However, what I did do was just click on "Remove header image," hoping it would restore the default, which it did. Yay!
All good now. Thank you!
Anita -- You're an angel! I got it to work, thanks to the instructions you gave me via email. Yay!!
For anyone viewing this thread later on, here's what I did (on Anita's advice):
1. I de-activated the Genesis Latest Tweets plugin.
2. Installed the "Latest Tweets" plugin, the one from Tim Whitlock.
3. Since the Genesis Latest Tweets plugin was removed, I needed to go back and re-enter my Twitter API settings. (These fields are now found in the Dashboard under "Settings".) If you don't know how to get your Twitter API settings, here is a link that will help: http://www.ning.com/help/?p=4955 I filled in all four fields and saved the settings.
4. Now I went back to my Widgets page (Appearance>Widgets) and placed the new Latest Tweets widget in the Featured area. I left the Title field blank because I don't like the way the title displays on the site. I entered my twitter handle (without the @ sign), set the number of tweets I wanted to show, then checked the appropriate other boxes. Clicked Save.All done.
Hi Anita,
Thank you for the reply. I did create an API Key in my Twitter account, following a tutorial I found online. I was able to get the four pieces of information required in the Latest Tweets Settings, and I do have those inserted in my Dashboard.
I'll check to see which widget I have, and will look into the one you mentioned.
I've sent you a message through the contact form on your website with more details.
Thank you!
Thank you for the input, anitac! Do you have any idea when the new themes will be released? Weeks, months?
Elizabeth -- I'm using the Outreach theme on my site, and I love what you did with this one. Clearly, you figured out how to add a custom logo to the Outreach header, something many folks have had trouble with. 🙂 Can/would you share how you made it work?
My site: http://www.thedianekrause.com
Thanks, David. Oh, and I forgot to add this other detail for Bill. The book is actually already published. It's a collection of recipes from a food service business we ran and closed in late 2008. We had a very loyal customer base, and many of them wanted the recipes -- hence the cookbook. I sold several hundred within the first year, but I still keep copies on hand because I do still get an order every now and then (don't do any active marketing). I've been printing copies locally, so I could do very small print runs. At this point, I have the ebook thing down, so I'm taking the cookbook content and creating an ebook version. I'm also going to go ahead and do an updated print version through CreateSpace so I can list it on Amazon.
My reason for the unique URL is that old customers who might want to look for the book will know it by that name -- or someone who has a friend with a copy, and they want one themselves. Basically, people shopping for this book will know it by name and search for pretty close to the exact term. I'm curious to see how the ebook version will do. It was a minimal investment since the content was already created, so it was a "why not?" type of project.
David -- yes, I agree on the interesting URLs! This one is kinda long, but one my target audience will know.
Thank you, gentlemen! You answered my question.
Bill -- Yes, I knew there were SEO considerations, and I ran those past my favorite "web guys" for input. I had already purchased the domain, and I have a hosting account that allows me up to 5 domains, so there's no additional fee to host it, beyond what I'm already paying. I don't plan to do an entirely separate site, mostly because I don't want the maintenance of it. So I've decided just to do a landing page and have the new domain direct to that landing page. The initial question I ran past my "web guys" was whether there was any benefit to making use of the separate URL, or would keywords within the landing page on http://www.thedianekrause.com be sufficient? We tossed it back and forth, and I decided to go ahead and set up the separate URL since it wasn't a great deal of extra time and/or expense.
David -- Thank you for the great explanation. That was exactly what I wanted to know. I guessed that was how it works, but wasn't entirely sure. I'll go into my hosting account and look for the re-direct. If it's not a DIY task, I'll get in touch with my hosting guy and have him complete it for me.
Thank you again. You guys were very helpful.
Diane
Susan,
Is it safe to assume this plugin allows you to upload a new logo image (with transparent background) and it will replace the default text in the header title? Mobile display is not my issue, but I have had trouble replacing the default text with a new logo image. My attempts so far have just yielded a big mess.
My site: http://www.thedianekrause.com
Hi kathiemt -- I did not attempt Paul's modification, because I am not to be trusted manipulating code. I wanted a solution I could handle myself, without having to pay someone to make modifications for me.
I did end up finding something that worked for me, at least for now. It's not the 100% ideal, but a suitable temporary option. After some searching, I found the ML Slider. I installed it as a WordPress plugin, and the widget was super-simple to place in the Home Featured area, with no code manipulation required. It's easily re-sized, so I left the width the same as the Genesis Responsive Slider, but decreased the height a bit so that the headings of my 4 Home boxes can be seen.
I like this slider because the slides work pretty much just like posts in WordPress -- I just type in the text I want, and can add an image. I also like it because the content in the slides aren't pulled from pages or posts -- they're entirely separate. So, I can add/subtract/edit as I need to. My only complaint about it is that the slides don't seem to allow any formatting of the text, so I'm not able to display lists, or even do paragraph breaks; only one paragraph. But I can work around that. I am able to insert links into the text. so that's good. If I need this as a teaser for a post or page, I can add a link to the full post.
As I said, this isn't the perfect solution, but it at least works for now. My primary goal was to be able to have an image in the slider, with text to the right. This allows me to do that.
And BTW, in all my searching here on the forums, this particular thread seem to address this issue better than any others I found.
Got it -- seems that some updates take up to an hour to be applied. Have my original header back now.
I do like the bouncing ball! However, a big image of me sort of scares me. Perhaps when I've published a whole collection, I'll spread them all out then stretch myself across them in a red sequined dress. (Modestly, of course.)
I haven't stopped long enough to come back here and post an update. After some research, I believe I've found a workable option for the time being. I'm fairly code-ignorant, so it's probably not wise for me to tackle tasks that involve a lot of code manipulation. I've tried out the ML Post Slider, and I think it's going to work for now. Super-simple to install and set up, and it holds the same type of content as a basic WP post, with text and image. One big plus is that you create individual slides for the slider, so it's not tied to pages or posts.
I'm working on filling them in now; you can see it at http://www.thedianekrause.com.
Thanks for all your help!
Brad -- do you happen to know if there's anything else I can put in the Home Featured area besides a slider?
Thank you for the good info, Brad. From the demos I see for Easing Slider, it doesn't appear it's designed to incorporate text -- either over the image, or beside the image. Is that correct?
The reason I found the slidevilla sliders attractive is that they incorporate text and "previews" of the other images within the slider. Yes, GRS has the text overlay, but it looks best when it's at the bottom of the image (vs. the top), and you have to scroll down to see it.
Here's what my dilemma is and what I'm trying to accomplish: I'd like to have a smaller slider, but I'd also like room for some text in the Home Featured area. Since the slider takes up so much room, my site visitors have to scroll down below it to get to the four Home boxes that have the "meat" of my site info. I prefer something like a slider in the Home Featured area vs. posts, so I'm looking for a happy medium -- a slider with an area for text or callouts. I'm searching for the most efficient solution. Follow-up questions:
1. With Easing Slider, can you reduce the width of the image and add text to the right of the image within the slider borders?
2. I know I could keep the GRS, reduce the width, follow Nick's tutorial to add a sidebar, then insert another widget to accommodate text next to the slider in the Home Featured area. But it seems to me a different slider altogether would be more efficient than this option. Do you agree?
Hi @h2ofilters -- I'm laughing as I post this, because I feel like the least qualified to help anyone. 🙂 I'm more than happy to walk you through how I set mine up, though.
1. To have the search box appear in the colored navigation bar, from the Dashboard, go to Genesis>Theme Settings. Scroll down to the Navigation box, then choose what you want for "Enable Extras on Right Side". There are several options here.
2. To set up your navigation, go to Appearance>Menus. For the colored horizontal bar, set up your Main menu. This is where you choose which pages you want to appear in this navigation, and to set their order. When you get to the Menus page, you should see a tab in the center section that's labeled "Main" -- click on it to start setting up the menu. Now go to the left side and scroll down to the Pages box. Click on "View All". Check the pages you want to list in the navigation (the colored bar), then click "Add to Menu". You should see bars -- like widgets -- appear in the center section. Now, just drag and drop them in the order you want them appear (top to bottom here equals left to right on the nav bar). Any page you indent below another page will show up as a dropdown, so if you want them all to display in the nav bar, keep them lined up vertically. If you want to add pages as dropdowns beneath a main page, follow the steps to add pages to the menu, then drag the new page beneath the main page and move it over to the right a little so that it's indented. There's a separate step if you want to put a heading in the colored navigation bar which will have dropdowns beneath it but you don't the heading to actually be a page. Let me know if you need to know about that.
Remember to Save Menu to apply your changes.
Now, go to the left of this center area to Theme Location and choose "Main" (or whatever you named this menu you just created) for the Primary Navigation.
Notice at the top of that center section where you inserted the pages -- "Automatically add new top level pages". If you check this, any new page you create will automatically be added to that navigation. So leave it unchecked if you want to add things manually.
2. To add the menu items to the upper part of the header (where I have Home/About/Contact), you'll just create a second menu. Next to the tab labeled "Main", click on the tab with the plus sign to create a new menu and give it a name. I named mine "Top Nav". Now repeat the steps you did with the first menu by choosing the pages you want to appear there and drag them over to the menu. Remember to Save it.
I don't believe you need to do anything else; this second menu should show up automatically in your Outreach theme. Don't assign this to the Secondary navigation (theme location), because that navigation is actually below the one in the colored horizontal bar.
Feel free to let me know if any of this doesn't work or you have more questions.