Now that you’ve added your content and configured the theme, you will be able to begin customizing what content is displayed in your widget areas. For new WordPress installs, you may need to drag out any default widgets from the widget panels.

Get started by going to Appearance → Widgets

On the right you will see a number of panels that you can expand:

• Sidebar
• Home Page
• Footer

Each widget  specific to your theme has been color coded to make setup easy. Simply drag the widgets you need into the corresponding panels. At the top of the page you will find a yellow ribbon containing a handy “Click Here” link, which will display a recommended widget setup in case you get lost.

Below is an explanation of each widget and how to configure it.

Home Page Panel

This panel accomodates any full-width or orange Obox widgets.

Thumbnail Widget

This widget displays up to 5 images from Albums or Posts from the Category selected (or all of them if left on All) with one post per row.

1. Enter a widget Title, if desired
2. Enter the URL you want the Title to link to in the Custom Title Link field, if desired
3. Select what you want to Display: Posts or Albums
   • Other content types may appear here, especially if you have plugins that add extra post types. Please note that those types may not work well with this widget.
4. Select a filter in the Filter By menu and click Save
5. Select a specific category or tag, or leave the default selected and click Save
6. Select a number of posts to show from the Post Count option.
7. Choose how to order the posts:
   • Date orders them chronologically, with the newest on top/left by default
   • Title orders them alphabetically
   • Random will shuffle them on each page load.
   • Comment Count looks at the number of comments to determine popularity
   • Manual Order (also called Menu Order) will look at the number entered into the Order field of the post.
8. Choose whether to sort Ascending(newest-oldest, 1-10, A-Z) or Descending (oldest-newest, 10-1, Z-A)
9. Posts Only: Check the Show Dates option to show the date below the image
10. Posts Only: Check Show Excerpts to show the excerpt below the image(and date if enabled)
11. Click Save

Large Thumbnail Widget

This widget has similar options to the Thumbnail widget, but is designed to show a single featured image or video. This closely resembles the Album post layout.

1. Enter a widget Title, if desired
2. Enter the URL you want the Title to link to in the Custom Title Link field, if desired
3. Select what you want to Display: Posts or Albums
   • Other content types may appear here, especially if you have plugins that add extra post types. Please note that those types may not work well with this widget.
4. Select a filter in the Filter By menu and click Save
5. Select a specific category or tag, or leave the default selected and click Save
6. Select a number of posts to show from the Post Count option.
7. Choose how to order the posts:
   • Date orders them chronologically, with the newest on top/left by default
   • Title orders them alphabetically
   • Random will shuffle them on each page load.
   • Comment Count looks at the number of comments to determine popularity
   • Manual Order (also called Menu Order) will look at the number entered into the Order field of the post.
8. Choose whether to sort Ascending(newest-oldest, 1-10, A-Z) or Descending (oldest-newest, 10-1, Z-A)
9. Select your Thumbnail Preference for how to prioritize your posts’ featured image or video:
   • Post Featured Images display the featured image attached to the post, or the oEmbed thumbnail on video posts using the Video URL. Select this if displaying Albums.
   • Video displays videos for all posts that have a featured video. Non-video posts will still show featured images.
10. Posts Only: Check the Show Dates option to show the date below the image
11. Posts Only: Check Show Excerpts to show the excerpt below the image(and date if enabled)
12. Click Save

 

Sidebar & Footer

You are free to put any widgets you wish into the sidebar and footer area, or leave it blank. Footer widgets are visible on all pages. Experiment to find a layout that suits your website.

The following explains the blue Obox widgets. For help with standard WordPress widgets, see the WordPress Codex.

Author Widget

This widget is designed to display information about you, the author. Use this widget to introduce yourself to your site visitors. Add a title, enter your ‘Gravatar Account’ email address and a description of yourself.

1. Enter a Title. This is displayed above your gravatar and description.
2. Enter your Gravatar Email address. This will show your ‘avatar’ on your website.
3. Enter a description about yourself.
4. Click Save

(Obox) Twitter Stream

Display the Twitter timeline. Please note that you cannot customize or change the format of the tweets beyond what the widget offers (this is a Twitter requirement)

1. Enter a Title such as “Follow Me on Twitter”. This title will link to your profile.
2. Enter your Twitter ID without the @
3. Click the link to go to your Twitter Profile widget page
   • Click Create New, then Create Widget.
   • Copy the numeric ID from the address bar URL and paste it below. ie https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/344941445658050562/edit
   • • 
4. Select the number of Tweets to show.
5. Select whether to display Replies/ Retweets
6. Select a default color scheme. When used in the sidebar or any dark background, choose Dark.
7. Enter a custom color for the links using an HTML color code (gray by default)
8. Enter a widget height to adjust the container height if showing more than 3 tweets.
9. Click Save

(Obox) Popular Posts

This widget displays posts links ranked by the number of comments received in all time.

1. Enter a Title
2. Select a Post Count
3. Select a Post Category
4. Click Save

(Obox) Social Links

Displays icons linking to your social profiles. Enter the full URLs to your social profiles here. For the email field, enter your email address. For RSS, enter your RSS Feed Url or Feedburner URL.

(Obox) Comments

Display the latest comments with a short excerpt and link to the post. This differs from the default WordPress widget in how it displays the information.

(Obox) Search

Provides a styled search field.

125x125 Adverts (also called Small Adverts Widget)

Displays 125x125 blocks added under Theme Options → Adverts

300px Adverts (Also Called Large Adverts Widget)

Displays 300x250 blocks added under Theme Options → Adverts

(Obox) Flickr Photos

Displays small thumbnails from your Flickr feed in a 3 column grid