Saxon WordPress Theme Documentation

You can manage all theme settings with Live Preview in WordPress Customizer - go to Appearance > Customizer > Theme Settings or Appearance > Theme Settings to access all theme settings sections.

We will not cover all options sections in this Documentation because most of all options are very intuitive and Live Preview in Customizer allow you to see how all options works and which site parts affects in real time.

Just try to use all options and play with it - do not worry, options does not apply if you don't click Publish in Customizer, so you will not break anything.

You can always create Customizer options backup using Customizer Export/Import plugin and Import it later in case you break something.

To add your logo to theme follow steps below.

1. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Logo.
2. If you want to show Retina logo (high resolution logo for retina devices like iPhone, iPad, MacBook Retina, etc) you need to prepare your logo 2x size larger that original. For example if you want to see logo with 200px width on your site you should make your logo 400px width.
3. Select your logo image in Add new image and click Upload.
4. You can crop logo image if you want.
   
5. Upload Light logo for using with Transparent header (this should be the same logo with the same size as your regular logo, but in white/light colors, because it will be used on dark semitransparent backgrounds).
6. Click Save Changes.
7. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Logo and input your regular Logo image width:
   If you have big logo you can adjust Header height value in Appearance > Theme Settings > Header.
8. Click Save Settings.

Our theme allow you to create dark/black website - with dark background, and light text colors.

How to create dark website:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Colors and enable Dark theme option checkbox (this will enable light text colors and borders everywhere).
2. Specify your own Custom Colors Appearance > Theme Settings > Colors for your dark website (dark backgrounds colors, light text and links colors) OR you can select predefined "Dark" color skin.
3. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Header and select dark Header background color / image.
4. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > General and select dark Body background color / image.
5. Go to Appearance > Logo and upload Logo for Transparent header (Light logo) - it will be used for dark website.
6. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Top Menu and enable Dark Top menu style if you use Top menu.
7. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Footer and enable Dark Footer style.
8. If you use third party plugins that add custom elements, shortcodes or widgets you may need to add some Custom CSS to restyle this custom elements manually for usage on dark backgrounds.
9. AMP website version works separately from theme and will not use dark theme.

This theme allow you to have two types of homepage:

1) Blog page is your homepage - with theme blocks (and optional blog block).
You will not have additional separate blog page with just posts listing.

2) Homepage is a special static page - with theme blocks (and optional blog block).
You can have additional separate blog page with just posts listing, without theme blocks.

How to configure Blog page as homepage:

1. Go to Settings > Reading
2. Make sure that you have Your latest posts option selected for Front page displays (you will see your blog on homepage):
   
   
3. Adjust how many posts you want to show on homepage:
   
   
4. Click Save settings.

How to configure Static page as homepage:

1. Go to Pages > Add new and create new empty page with name "Home".
   Select "Homepage" template for this page in "Page attributes" section:
   
   
   
   Do not change other page settings - it will not be applied to this special system page.
2. Go to Pages > Add new and create new empty page with name "Blog".
3. Go to Settings > Reading
4. Select your Home page as Front page and your Blog page as Posts page.
   
   
5. Adjust how many posts you want to show on blog page:
   
   
6. Click Save settings.
   

Check next documentation section to understand how to build your homepage with homepage theme blocks.

In this theme you can build your homepage using homepage theme blocks that you can drag and drop to your homepage with any order and you can have multiple copies of same theme blocks with different settings. Blog listing with optional sidebar is a theme homepage block too and you may not add it to your homepage if you don't need to do this.

Theme Blocks Manager

You need to use theme Blocks manager in Customizer to add blocks to your homepage.
Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Home: Blocks Manager.

Here you can manage your homepage layout settings - add and order blocks. When you add new block you can configure its options depending on block type (displayed in [ ] brackets near block name). You need to ignore options that does not related to block that you want to add.

For example If you want to add [POSTS] Posts Line block you need to configure only options in POSTS block settings section. Ignore other sections with options, because it does not related to your block.

Blocks with [MISC] category can be configured independently in its own sections in Appearance > Theme Settings.

Common Blocks settings:

All homepage blocks have common settings that you can use for any block:

• Block title (optional) - displayed before block content. Leave it empty to show just block content.
• Hide block on blog pagination - if you add BLOG block to your homepage you can use this option to hide some of your blocks when user visit 2nd and other Blog pages for navigation between your posts pages in Blog. This is useful if you have a lot of theme blocks above your Blog block on homepage - user will not be need to scroll all this blocks to see next block page posts.

Next you can read about all available theme blocks and settings that this blocks support. Ignore settings that don't supported by this blocks - this settings values will not be applied.

Header Blog Slider

This homepage block located in site header (between top and main menu), you does not need to add it from Homepage Blocks Manager. You can show this block only on homepage or all site pages. You can select posts to be displayed in this slider in its settings.

Header Blog Slider settings can be configured in separate theme settings section: Appearance > Theme settings > Home: Header blog slider. 

Header Top Line

This homepage block located in site header (above top menu or header), you does not need to add it from Homepage Blocks Manager. This block displayed on all pages, you can add text, button and custom gradient background to this block.

Header Top Line settings can be configured in header theme settings section: Appearance > Theme settings > Header.

[MISC] Blog Listing

This homepage block used to show your entire blog listing (like on regular Blog page). It support pagination and use optional Blog sidebar (left or right) for your widgets. If you want to have simple blog you can use just this single block on your homepage to have just Blog listing.

Important Note: When you just installed theme (and does not imported demo data) you will have this block added to homepage by default with default settings. When you add any other homepage blocks to your homepage this sample block will be removed and you will need to add it yourself with your own settings from Theme Blocks Manager to desired position on your homepage.

Blog Listing block will be displayed on homepage only if you set your Blog ( "Latest posts" option) to be displayed on homepage in Settings > Reading. If you use static page as homepage and separate page for blog listing - this block will not work.

Block settings:

• Load more button - you can use Load more button option from "Posts block settings" section for this block to have Ajax load more posts loading instead of regular WordPress posts pagination.

Please note that other block settings (Posts offset, Posts limit, Category, etc) that you can see in Customizer does not available for Blog Listing block.

All other Blog listing block settings (Blog layouts, features, etc) can be configured in separate theme settings section - Appearance > Theme settings > Blog: Listing. This settings also applies to Archives and Search pages on your blog.

You can exclude some categories from Blog: Listing block display in Appearance > Theme settings > Blog: Listing if you already show it in other homepage blocks.

[POSTS] Posts Line #1

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as mini posts slider line with autoplay.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
  
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).
  

[POSTS] Posts Line #2

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as mini posts slider line with 3 posts per row with autoplay.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
  
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Fullwidth Posts Slider

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as fullwidth posts slider with autoplay.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Carousel

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as 4 posts per row posts carousel with autoplay.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Large Posts Slider

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as large posts slider with autoplay.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured), etc when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Showcase 1

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as special showcase grid with 5 posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 5 posts limit).
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Showcase 2

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as special showcase grid with 4 posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 4 posts limit).
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Showcase 3

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as special showcase grid with 3 posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 4 posts limit).
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Showcase 4

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as special showcase grid with 4 posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 4 posts limit).
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Showcase 5

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as special showcase 2 rows grid with 7 posts and grey fullwidth background.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 7 posts limit).
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #1

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 3 columns and additional info in posts (comments, views, social share buttons).

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #2

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 2 columns and overlay for posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #3

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 4 columns and overlay for posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #4

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 3 columns and blocks for posts.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #5

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 4 columns and blocks for posts without thumbnails.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #6

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as fullwidth grid with 4 columns.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #7

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as small grid with 3 columns.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Grid #8

This homepage block used to show your selected posts as grid with 2 columns and additional info in posts (comments, views, social share buttons).

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - number of posts that will be displayed in this block.
• Load more button - use this option to add Load more button that will load next portion of posts (the same as Posts limit option defined for block) via Ajax
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Masonry #1

This homepage block used to show 3 of your selected posts as complex masonry grid with 2 columns.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 3 posts limit).
  
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Masonry #2

This homepage block used to show 8 of your selected posts as complex masonry grid with 2 columns.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 8 posts limit).
  
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Posts Masonry #3

This homepage block used to show 4 of your selected posts as complex masonry grid with 2 columns.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 4 posts limit).
  
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[POSTS] Post Highlight

This homepage block used to show 1 of your selected post as special large post block.

Block settings:

• Posts type - select posts type to be displayed in this block. You can assign your posts to various posts types (Editor's picks, Promoted, Featured, etc) when you add/edit your post in Posts Settings metabox. Popular posts will show your most viewed posts.
• Category - you can use this option to limit your posts by category in addition to post type.
• Posts limit - this option does not available for this block (this block have predefined 1 post limit).
  
• Load more button - this option does not available for this block.
• Posts offset - number of first posts to skip in posts query for this block. Offset option will disable Load More button (this features does not available together).

[HTML] HTML Block

This homepage block used to show any HTML or shortcodes on your homepage. For example you can use it to add image banners to your website. Bootstrap 3 layouts supported in this block.

NOTICE: WordPress does not render [embed] shortcodes (used to insert video, audio, etc) in custom areas. If you need to add video or audio embeds to HTML Block you need to add player with <iframe> code that you can get on your video/audio service (for ex. YouTube).

Block settings:

• Block HTML content - add your block content as HTML code. You can use WordPress shortcodes here too.

[HTML] Instagram Block

This homepage block used to show fullwidth Instagram gallery from Instagram Feed plugin (provided with theme, plugin must be installed and activated to use this block).

Block settings:

This block settings (you can add your Instagram account, change appearance and design for Instagram feed, etc) can be configured in Instagram Feed plugin settings section - WordPress dashboard > Instagram Feed.

Instagram Feed and account configuration:

1. Go to Instagram Feed section in left WordPress dashboard menu (plugin should be installed).
2. Click Log in button and login to your Instagram account. You will see your Access token and User ID after this. Copy this data to corresponding fields below if it does not added here automatically.
   
   
3. Save Changes and click Customize tab.
4. Set values for options like you see on screenshot below:
   
   
   
   
   
5. Save settings.
   

[MISC] Categories Block

This homepage block used to show selected categories with categories images background and colors.

Block settings:

This block settings can be configured in separate theme settings section - Appearance > Theme settings > Home: Featured categories.

[MISC] Subscribe Block

This homepage block used to show email subscription form from Mailchimp WP plugin.

Mailchimp form and account configuration:

You need to install Mailchimp for WP plugin (provided with theme) to use this block.

How to configure your Mailchimp subscription form in WordPress:

1. Go to Mailchimp for WP > Mailchimp section in left WordPress admin panel menu (plugin should be installed).
2. Add your API key to MailChimp API key field (use Get your API key here link to obtain your key).
   
   
   
3. Save Changes.
   
4. Go to Mailchimp for WP > Forms.
5. Check your list for Lists this form subscribes to option to set what list will be used to subscribe your users on MailChimp.
6. Copy and paste HTML code below to Form mark-up field:
   
   <div class="mailchimp-widget-signup-form"><input type="email" name="EMAIL" placeholder="Please enter your e-mail" required /><button type="submit" class="btn">Subscribe</button></div>
7. Remember your form id:
   
   
   
8. Save changes.

Block settings:

This block settings can be configured in separate theme settings section - Appearance > Theme settings > Home: Subscribe block:

1. Copy and paste HTML code below to Subscribe block content field in Text (not Visual) tab:
   <div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<h5><strong>Sign up for our Newsletter and <br class="br" />stay informed</strong></h5>
[mc4wp_form id="10"]
</div>
</div>
2. Change 10 to your Mailchimp form ID that you remembered before.
3. Save settings.

Now you should see your subscribe form when you will add Subscribe homepage block to your homepage.

Footer Shortcode and HTML Blocks

You can show HTML blocks in footer with any shortcodes or content inside it.

How to use this:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Footer and use Footer HTML block and Footer Shortcode block settings to add your custom content in footer.
2. Click Publish to save Customizer settings.

You can manage blog posts and categories in Posts section inside WordPress dashboard.

Post settings

You can select different sidebar position for posts and assign post to different sections used in your Homepage Blocks in Post settings metabox.

Post review feature

If your post contain some kind of review (for example product review) and you want to rate reviewed item by different criterias, show item pros and cons, and display summary rating for post you can use Post Review feature. Information will be displayed at the end of your post in this way:

How to specify post review settings for your post:

1. Edit/Add post.
2. Scroll down post edit page to see Post Review settings Metabox:
   
3. Fill all fields as you like, and add criterias with ratings for your review.
4. Save post.

Post categories

In this theme you can assign images and colors for your Posts categories. Categories images used on Categories (Archives) pages for category title display and Categories homepage block. Categories colors used everywhere on site for categories badges in posts.

To assign color and image for category add or edit your category and use special options for this:

WordPress Tiled Galleries

If you want to add WordPress Tiled galleries in your posts for images you can install JetPack plugin and enable its tiled galleries feature. After this you will have new options for gallery style when you add regular image gallery to your post content.

Managing Excerpt for posts (short post content)

You need to divide your articles short content from full content to show your posts with "Continue reading" button on blog listing pages (your homepage for example) or you will see full articles. Check this WordPress guide how to use More WordPress tag in your posts to use this feature.

Also you can show posts excerpts with automatic text cut and Continue reading buttons. To enable this feature go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Blog: Listing and choose excerpt for Blog posts short content display option.

Please note that some homepage blocks with posts have predefined excerpts lengths that you can't change.

Disable featured image on Single post page

You can disable featured post image in your posts single page (you will still have it in blog post listings):

1. If you want to disable featured image on single post page for all posts in your blog go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Blog single post and disable Featured image option.
2. If you want to disable image on single blog page for some blog posts only you need to edit your post and enable Don't show featured image on single post page option in Post Settings.
   
   
3. Save your post.

Header image for Single post page

You can show header with custom background image for your posts (different image for different posts).

How to use this feature:

1. Edit your post and upload your image in Header Background section in post settings:
   
   
2. We recommend to use wide image in good resolution for nice cover display (1600px wide or more).
3. Save your post.
4. You can enable Transparent header feature for posts and pages with Header Background image in Appearance > Theme Settings > Blog: Single post:
   

Related posts

You can display related posts (by tags or categories - you can change this in Theme settings) for all your posts in some blog layouts.

To Enable this feature:

1. Assign the same tags for some of your posts (related posts feature works by tags or categories). Posts with the same tag will be related to each other.
2. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Blog listing or Blog single post and enable Related posts display.
   
3. Click Publish to save Customizer settings.

Post Views and Likes

You can display post Views and post Likes on Single blog post page and in some of Homepage blocks and Blog listing layouts.

• Post Views - show number of total visits to your post (this is not a unique visitors like in Google Analytic - this is number of total views for your post).
• Post Likes - show how many times unique site visitors liked your post (Clicked heart icon in post. One user can like same post only once).

You can enable post likes and post views counters display in Theme Settings > Blog: Listing and Theme Settings > Blog: Single post, separately for single post page and blocks/blog listing.

You can filter posts by "Most liked" in Homepage Theme Blocks and Saxon List Post widget.

Featured post (Sticky post)

You can display some of your posts (important posts) always at first position in blog listing and mark this as featured post. In different blog styles and layouts this "mark" can look different.

How to display your post as featured:

1. Edit your post in Posts.
2. In Publish section check Stick to the Front Page option. If you use Masonry layout for your blog you should add Featured image for this post (because it will be used as background for featured post).
   
   
3. Save your post.

Worth reading post

In addition to Related Post that works automatically you can also manually select special posts ("Worth Reading" posts) that will be assigned to your post and displayed in nice fixed popup in the right bottom side of your Single Blog Post page. This block will show one from assigned posts randomly.

How to use this feature:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme settings > Blog: Single post and enable Worth reading post feature.
2. Edit your Post(s) and assign Worth reading posts to each post where you want to see it in Post settings:
   
   
3. Save post.

Reading progress bar in Single post

You can display reading progress bar in your single post pages for your visitors. When user will scroll post page this progress bar will show current reading progress of entire post content in fixed header.

How to use this feature:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme settings > Header and enable Sticky header feature.
2. Go to Appearance > Theme settings > Blog: Single post and enable Reading progress bar feature.

Featured post (Sticky post)

You can display some of your posts (important posts) always at first position in blog listing and mark this as featured post. In different blog styles and layouts this "mark" can look different.

How to display your post as featured:

1. Edit your post in Posts.
2. In Publish section check Stick to the Front Page option. If you use Masonry layout for your blog you should add Featured image for this post (because it will be used as background for featured post).
   
   
3. Save your post.

Single post small width (side margins)

You can display your posts and pages with side margins for nice look.

To Enable/Disable this feature go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Blog: Single post and enable Small content width option.

This option work for both pages and posts without sidebars (you can disable sidebar for post and page in its settings when you edit your post).

Post formats

Our theme support different post formats:

You can select post format when you create post at the right Document > Post Format section.

Gallery Post format

1. Go to Posts > Add new and create some post (or edit your existing).
2. Select Gallery post format at the right (this is important, otherwise your gallery will not display).
   Click Add or Upload Files button in Post Formats option section for Gallery images:
   
   
3. Select your photos for gallery (original image size will be used, so crop/resize your photos before uploading it here).
4. Save your post. Now it will display your gallery instead of Featured image. On single post page gallery will work as lightbox for all images.

Video Post format

1. Go to Posts > Add new and create some post (or edit your existing).
2. Select Video post format at the right (this is important, otherwise your video will not display).
   Add your video url from video service (Vimeo for example, full list of supported video services available here) to Video url field in Post Formats options section for Video post:
   
   
3. Save your post. Now it will display your video instead of Featured image.

Audio Post format

1. Go to Posts > Add new and create some post (or edit your existing).
2. Select Audio post format at the right (this is important, otherwise your video will not display).
   Add your audio url from audio service (Soundcloud for example, full list of supported audio services available here) to Audio url field in Post Formats options section for Audio post:
   
   
3. Save your post. Now it will display your audio instead of Featured image.

Do not add your video file or audio file url directly, this will not work. You should use WordPress supported video and audio services (like Vimeo or Soundcloud) to upload your files and add to blog.

1. Go to Pages > Add new.
2. Input some page title.
3. Add page content.
4. You can Input page class if you want to add some CSS styles only for this page.
5. Change page settings:
   
   
   
   • Don't display this page title (only show page content) - enable if you want to hide page title
   • Page sidebar position - you can specify widgets sidebar position for this current page (every page can have different settings here).
   • Page header background image
6. Publish page.
7. Go to Appearance > Menus and add created page to menu.

“Gutenberg” is the codename for the new WordPress editor focus. The goal of this focus is to create a new post and page editing experience that makes it easy for anyone to create rich post layouts. You can read more about this new Visual WordPress editor and test it here.

Gutenberg Editor is default editor in WordPress 5.0 and later and included with this theme. If you want to continue using old Classic Editor you need to install separate plugin for WordPress 5.0 and later (or disable Gutenberg plugin in Plugins if you use WordPress 4.x).

All demo posts and pages in this theme created using Gutenberg editor in its blocks elements, and may not display correctly without Gutenberg installed.

This theme does not require you to use Gutenberg editor (this is optional plugin provided with theme), you can use Classic Editor or any other your favorite WordPress Page Builder.

We prepared few help articles for you to learn how to use Gutenberg editor in our Help Center article.

You can use Coming Soon feature when you just develop your site, that allow you temporally disable website frontend for regular visitors (they will see your custom Coming soon page), but allow website administrators to see site and work on it.

You can use this plugin to enable coming soon mode on your site:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/coming-soon/

This theme have 3 menu areas. Header and top menus can have different layouts and styles. Header and top menus support multilevel submenus.

Top menu:

Main menu (support Mega Menu settings):

Footer menu:

Menu locations

You need to set what menus where will be display (you don't need to do this if you used One-Click demo data import feature):

1. Go to Appearance > Menus.
2. Open Manage Locations tab.
3. Select/create menu Top Menu for Top Menu.
   Select/create menu Main Menu for Main Menu .
   Select/create menu Footer Menu for Footer Menu.
   
   
   If you don't have menus you need to create it and add your elements.
4. You can manage menu settings and styles in Appearance  >Theme Settings > Top Menu, Appearance > Theme Settings > Main Menu and Appearance > Theme Settings > Footer.
   
5. Save changes.

Top menu management

Top menu does not support Mega Menu, but you can use special menu CSS classes to add predefined icons to top menu elements and pull some elements to right side of menu.

You can add special classes to CSS Classes field when you add/edit top menu items as shown on screenshot:

Available CSS classes for use in top menu:

• pull-right - move menu item to the right side of menu (can be used together with other classes, separated by space).
• icon-arrow - add arrow icon to menu element.
• icon-email - add envelope icon to menu element.
• icon-cart - add cart icon to menu element.

Mega Menu management

You can use Mega Menu options for Main menu. Make sure Mega Menu feature enabled in Appearance > Theme settings > Main menu.

You can apply all mega menu settings to root menu items. Children items support only this settings:

• URL
• Navigation Label
• Title attribute
• Badge title
• Badge color
• CSS classes
• Menu item icon

This theme have 6 widgets sidebars where you can add widgets:

• Page Sidebar (Right or Left).
• Posts listing sidebar (Right or Left).
• Single Post sidebar (Right or Left).
• Footer sidebar #1 with 4 columns.
• Footer sidebar #2 with 4 columns (first large column) - this sidebar can be light or dark, depending on Theme Settings.
• WooCommerce sidebar.

You can configure sidebar position (or disable it) for pages and posts independently in every page/post settings or apply global settings in Appearance > Theme Settings > Sidebars.

After theme installation all WP widgets will be enabled (if you have WP fresh installation) so you need to turn off default widgets that you don't want to see:

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets
2. Move widgets from left "Available Widgets" block to right sidebar that you want to use to add it to display in theme
3. Move widgets from right sidebars block to left "Available Widgets" block to remove it from display in theme
   
   
   

Our theme have 7 special widgets for your blog that improve default WordPress widgets functionality, we recommend you to use this widgets instead of default:

Saxon Recent Comments

Display recent blog comments with date.

Saxon List Posts

Display posts by different criteria (latest, featured, promoted, editors picks, by category) and support 4 different post design templates to use. This widget can be used in Mega Main Menu sidebar with Fullwidth 1 Column layout to be displayed horizontally instead of vertical display.

Saxon Content

Display any HTML content in your widget, with image background, button, and predefined HTML styles support.


You can use any shortcodes from any plugins in Content Widget, for example to show Mailchimp subscribe form in this widget.

Saxon Social Icons

Display social icons with links (use Theme Settings > Social icons).



Also you can show social links from this widget anywhere (in content, theme content areas, etc) using [saxon_social_icons] shortcode.

Saxon Posts Slider Widget

Display posts slider with your posts by different criteria and settings (latest posts, posts from category, featured posts, promoted posts,  popular posts, editor's picks posts).

Saxon Categories Widget

Display posts categories with colors and posts count.

Our theme have built-in feature for banners/ads management that allow you to add any banners or other html in different predefined places in theme design.

If you want to add Google Adsense, JavaScript, PHP or other complex advertisement to theme ads areas or widgets you need to install Advanced ADS plugin first. This plugin allow you to add any type of ads and then use simple shortcode to display it anywhere (in content, widgets or theme ads areas).

How to use add ads to theme areas:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme Settings > Banners management.
2. Choose place when you want to show your banner, enable it and add your banner HTML/image to this area.
   
   
3. Add HTML for your banner. If you use Google Adsense or other complex code ads - add this ads shortcode, that you can get after you added your ads to Advanced ADS plugin.
4. Click Publish to save Customizer settings.

Our theme allow you to enable AMP format support for your blog content. AMP will not change your site display for regular visitors (if you will not enable automatic redirect to AMP version for mobile users), its allow search engines to show special mobile friendly extremely fast pages and posts from your blog to mobile visitors and prioritize your site in search results. When AMP feature enabled you can see special pages versions by adding /amp/ to the end of your post/page url or your site url.

AMP is an open source framework developed by Google in collaboration with Twitter. Accelerated Mobile Pages create better, faster experiences on the mobile web. At its core, the framework allows you to build lightweight experiences for mobile by simplifying the HTML and following streamlined CSS rules.

All SEO and mobile performance enthusiasts seem to agree that a well-implemented AMP website will:

• Significantly increase the volume of organic search traffic.
• Increase engagement and conversions resulting from faster, better mobile experiences.
• Reduce the load on your servers since AMP CDN caches and responds to most search results.
• Provide an opportunity for your content to be featured prominently in AMP carousel on mobile search results.

How to enable this feature:

1. Make sure you installed and activated Accelerated Mobile Pages plugin provided with theme.
2. Follow AMP plugin setup wizard for quick configuration. Select SWIFT design for AMP website when asked:
   
3. Go to AMP section in WordPress dashboard and configure how you want to display AMP on your website.
4. Use Settings and Design tabs in AMP plugin to configure your AMP website display. You does not need to buy PRO plugin version if you don't want to enable additional features. Free plugin version have enough features to add AMP support to your website and get ranking benefits from Google.
5. Create new AMP website menus in Appearance > Menus and assign to AMP Menu and AMP Footer Menu areas.
6. Now you can view your AMP site version (better to use real mobile device) by adding /amp/ to the end of your homepage, category, post or page url. For example if your site url was http://domain.com/ now you can check AMP version at http://domain.com/amp/. Your visitors will see regular site version (even on mobile), however you can enable AMP version as mobile default (instead of responsive site version on mobile) in AMP plugin settings:
   
   
7. Now you can add your AMP website to your Google Search Console for AMP to improve your site ranking in mobile search results.

You can display cookie notice on your site for your visitors with link to your private policy page. Cookie Consent plugin must be installed to use this feature you can download it here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/uk-cookie-consent/

How to use this feature:

1. Go to Settings > Cookie Consent. 
2. Click Content tab. Set options like shown on screenshot:
   
   
3. Save changes.
   
4. Click Styles tab. Set options like shown on screenshot:
   
   
5. Save changes.

Additionally we recommend you to install and configure GDPR WordPress plugin:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/gdpr/

Our theme support retina and responsive images features. Your website will look beautiful and crisp on every device!

To use this features you need to install and configure optional WP Retina 2x plugin:

1. Install plugin from official plugin page or Plugins > Add > Search > WP Retina 2x.
2. Go to Media > Retina and regenerate responsive images for your site images.
3. Go to Meow Apps > Retina and select Picturefill method for responsive images.
   
   
4. Save settings.

Our theme include shortcodes that you can use in posts/pages content, your sidebars inside Saxon Content and default WordPress Text widget's.

Social icons shortcode

Shortcode will display your social buttons with urls that you configured in Appearance > Theme Settings > Social icons.

Usage:

[saxon_social_icons]

This theme is translation ready and WPML plugin compatible and this mean you can easy adapt it to your language or use it multilanguage. You can translate theme manualy of using Translation plugin that we included with theme.

Manual theme translation

We included POT files for translation with theme:

• /wp-content/themes/saxon/languages/ - main theme translations

Read this help article about WordPress translations.

Translation with theme translation manager

Read this help article about WordPress translations using Loco Translate plugin.

Using WPML plugin for translations

IMPORTANT: Go to WPML -> Languages and scroll down to the Language filtering for AJAX operations section. Check the box to "Store a language cookie to support language filtering for AJAX" and save your settings.

If you use WPML language switcher you can enable it in top menu or widgets, you can't use language switcher in main menu.

Check WPML Getting Started Guide for complete reference.

Please note that according Themeforest theme license rules you need to buy additional regular theme license for every additional language used on your site (language considered as separate website with another content). For ex. if your site have 3 languages you need to have 3 regular theme licenses at total.

This theme include Child Theme ZIP file. Check our special article how to use it.

Our theme created for very fast and effective work, with correct server configuration and content optimization you can get 100 / 100 score in Google PageSpeed Insights test and A grade in GTMetrix tests.

Site speed depends on multiple factors and theme itself is just one of this (theme already coded for extra fast work), like WordPress configuration, Server configuration and quality and Content optimization. We included simple guide how to optimize your website for extra fast work with our theme.

Important steps to optimize your website:

1. Make sure that you have good hosting/server (we recommend to use Bluehost to host WordPress themes). You will never get good score on cheap shared hosting. If you see in Google Page speed warnings about large "Service response time" - this means your hosting performance is very bad and hosting have slow connection speed.
2. Install W3TotalCache plugin and correctly configure it (enable all caches and configure it correctly).
3. Prepare your post images (resize and compress) before you upload it to WordPress (use images like 1200x800px JPG with 80% quality. Never upload original images from your camera in high resolutions like 4000x3000px).
4. After you resized your images compress it with lossless images compression utilities - . Only after this you can upload your images to WordPress. You can use this software: ImageOptim (MacOS) or Caesium (Windows). You need to properly configure this software (not just process images with default settings) for good results.
5. Use less third party widgets and elements that connects to external services (Facebook widgets, Instagram widgets, etc).
6. Enable browser caching and cache expiration dates on server for static files (you can ask hosting support how to do this on your server).
7. Disable all third-party plugins that you does not use to speed-up your website if your hosting is not very fast.
8. Use third party services that optimize your server response time and cache, like CloudFlare.
9. Check this official WordPress Optimization guide article and external article links in it.

If you still get bad score you can contact our support to get suggestions why your site have low score.

If you need help with site speed and score optimization you can order our special service with 20% discount because you purchased this theme:

Order Premium WordPress Website Google Page Speed and SEO Optimization service on Envato Studio.

Optimize WebSite speed & score with 20% discount >

This theme include recommended Envato Market plugin. This plugin helps customers receive updates to their premium Themes & Plugins purchased through Envato Market (ThemeForest & CodeCanyon).
You can configure this plugin in Envato market section in WordPress dashboard to receive automatic theme updates.

You can see theme release notes with all versions and changes in Themeforest theme description page and in full theme ZIP archive from Themeforest ("All files & Documentaiton" large ZIP file).

Always backup your website before updating theme or plugins!

Read this article - How to update WordPress theme

Manual theme update

• Download latest theme archive from Themeforest (FULL theme archive with documentation, not just theme installation file).
• Unpack archive and open Documentation/release-history.html file in your browser for view (not for Edit).
• Follow instructions in file to update your theme.

Automatic theme and plugin updates

If you newbie you can use this plugin for easy plugin and theme updates:

• Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades

We don't provide any support for any issues that you can get from this plugin and does not test our updates with this plugin. We recommend you to use manual theme update.

We offer theme support and lifetime updates for all our items.

If you have support questions about this theme you should:

1. Check WordPress section in our FAQ page.
2. If you don't find answer submit support question in our support system.
3. If you need customization service or WP/Theme setup - contact us.

We offer support in ticket system only - http://support.magniumthemes.com/.