Choose a Design Theme
Once you've logged into your website's Control Center, click on the Design tab and scroll down to the More Themes section to choose a design theme for your website. When you first set up your account, the Sonata theme is automatically chosen for you. You can click on the Demo button next to each theme to see a sample website that uses that theme.
The active design theme for your website will appear at the top of the Design page under the heading Your Design Theme.
Customizing Your Website
To customize your website design, click on the blue Customize button under the Your Design Theme section to see the Theme & Variations section. Click on the various tabs (such as Colors, Fonts, Images, etc.) to customize the look of your website. While most themes have similar customization options, some themes will have additional options not discussed below.
Colors
Pick a color scheme for your website by clicking on one of the designer-chosen Accent Color swatches, then click on the Save Settings button.
Some themes also have the option to choose a Dark or Light palette as well. Click on your preferred look under the Theme Look section, usually at the top of the Color page.
❇️ Design Tip: Choose a color scheme that best matches the photographs you are uploading for the Homepage or other sections of your website to give it a custom look. For example, if your images contain a lot of blues, choose a blue color palette. |
Fonts
This section allows you to choose fonts for titles and headlines. Some design themes allow you to choose fonts for more than just titles, such as the body font. Simply click on the font sample you'd like to use, then click the Save Settings button.
Images
This section will allow you to upload images that will be used as large banners on the homepage and each section of your website.
Click on the Choose File button to select an image file from your computer that you'd like to upload, then click the Save button. Please upload large images (dimension-wise) in JPEG, PNG, BMP or TIF format. The image file size can be up to 20 megabytes, anything larger won't upload.
Most design themes allow you to upload different images for each section of your website. If so, those sections will be listed on the screen. You can use the bookmark buttons at the top to jump down to a particular section's image.
You can use an image you've already uploaded as a banner on multiple sections of your website without having to re-upload that image. To do that, click on the Select Image tab if it's not already selected, click on the image thumbnail that you'd like to use for the banner, then click the Save button.
➤ Is Homepage or another section missing from Images?
If your design theme uses a slideshow for the homepage, then you may not see a Homepage upload section on the Images tab. Instead, click on the Slideshow tab to upload images for your homepage. If you have particular sections of your website turned off, you won't see that section listed on the Images page. Click here to learn how to turn sections of your website On or Off.
❇️ Design Tip: Images play an important part in how your website looks, so be sure to upload high quality images that are high resolution. Wide images generally work much better than tall images. Tall images will experience a lot more cropping which may not look as good. |
Removing Images
The Remove button will remove the image that was assigned to a particular section banner, but it won't delete the actual image file unless you check the Permanently delete this image option on the confirmation popup. When you check that box, the image is removed from the banner AND permanently deleted. If you don't check that box, the image is removed from that section banner, but isn't deleted so it can be assigned to other banners.
There is a limit to how many images you can upload, so, if you reach that limit you will need to remove some images before you can upload more.
Homepage
This section allows you to customize the content modules that appear on your homepage.
➤ Turn Content Modules On or Off
You can turn the various content modules on or off by clicking on the slider button located to the left of the name for that section. So, if you don't want the News module to appear on your homepage, click on the slider button and it will turn gray to indicate it's Off. Click on Save Settings to save the changes you made.
➤ Change Content Module Position
Each content module allows you to choose the position on the homepage. Choose a number in the order you want that content module to appear. So if you choose 1, that content module will appear first. If you choose the same position number for more than one content module, the results may not be what you want.
➤ Change Content Module Heading
You can change the heading for most content modules using the Heading field within the content module box. The heading will appear above that content on the homepage. If you don't want a heading, simply delete it and leave the Heading field blank.
➤ Limit Number of Content Items
Some content modules allow you to display a limited number of items using the How Many field. For example, if you select 2 for the Latest News module, your homepage will display the two latest news stories. Some content modules will have different options.
Layout
This section allows you to choose different layouts for some sections of a theme. For example, the Photo Gallery section for a particular theme may provide a Masonry layout and a standard Grid layout, or you can choose a layout that contains photos or no photos for the Contacts page. Choose the layout options for each section, then click Save Settings.
Conclusion
Different themes will have slightly different options, but the above options are fairly common to most themes. When you're finished customizing, click on the blue X on the upper right of the page, or simply click on the Design tab or any other tab.
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