Updated for Stallion Responsive 8.5 (October 2016). Within this part of the Stallion Responsive Tutorial Series we will take a look at one of the main Stallion Responsive SEO Package options pages, the Stallion Responsive Layout Options Page accessed under “Stallion Theme” >> “Layout Options”. The Stallion Responsive WordPress SEO Package includes a LOT of layout/design options, I’m not exaggerating when I say a LOT, I don’t think you’ll find another WordPress theme with this many layout and WordPress design options. With Stallion Responsive you can turn on/off almost everything via a tick box that with most themes would require hacking the themes code. Having so many layout and design options is great, there’s not a lot you CAN’T do […]
Continue Reading WordPress SEO Theme Layout
WordPress Sidebar Layout
Hi David,
I am setting up a site using Stallion Theme and I really like it so far. I ended up pulling my hair out for awhile over sidebar issues, though. I wanted a single sidebar on the right, such as you have here on the Stallion site. Though I clicked the radio button for “Right 310px” in my theme setup I was still getting extra stuff (Categories, Archives, etc) in my right-hand sidebar which I hadn’t put there.
I finally figured out that my Right sidebar was being composed of the Right sidebar stacked on top of the Left sidebar in my right-hand column. I don’t mind this at all, I can spread widgets between the two sidebars evenly.
But is this what’s supposed to happen? And if so, can it be made a little clearer in the theme layout options or documentation?
WordPress Sidebar Layout
WordPress Theme Layout
That’s a fair point, should be better documentated, will add some text to the Stallion layout options page for the next update.
Thanks for the feedback.
David
Theme Development
Thank you for the quick reply David. So nice to see an active developer open to feedback!
How to Clone WordPress Install?
David:
I have setup a blog with all the adsense, amazon, and video widgets in place on Stallion. Is it possible to use this as a template on other blogs? Thank you for the help.
Jamie
WordPress Clone Plugins
I’ve not used WordPress clone plugins, but understand it’s possible to clone an entire WordPress setup and use it for generating more sites. There’s no domain specific activation with Stallion, so there shouldn’t be issues with cloning a WordPress setup including Stallion.
Stallion 6.2+ also includes default settings files you can edit, they are under
/stallion-seo-theme/mydefaults/
the files
stallion_defaults.php – The Stallion defaults you see with a new setup
stallion_defaults_seo.php – The SEO defaults I tend to use
Can be edited in a text editor (mainly changing 1’s and 0’s, instructions within the files) and used so you don’t have to manually add your AdSense ID, which layout you use etc… on the main Stallion options page after activation you select which of the two files you want to use for a site and all settings are setup as added to the file.
This doesn’t impact widgets or other WordPress settings, that would require a WordPress clone plugin.
David
WordPress Clone Plugins
Add Phone Number to WordPress Header Area
Hey David, it has been a while. Hope all is well! Couple of quick questions.
I am building a local Roofers site and fired up Stallion your theme. How do you:
Add the phone number and address into the header to display prominently? Custom Header and Photoshop? Can’t just add text to header?
Remove the Meta, Links and Recent Articles from the right sidebar? Nothing displays in the right side bar in Widgets so I can’t remove it.
Big question- will removing those that screw up the any SEO?
Thanks!
Add Phone Number to WordPress Header Area
How to Add Business Details to WordPress Header
Question 2 is learn to use widgets.
Add any widget on the Appearance >> Widgets page to the left and right
sidebars and you’ll see the defaults ones are completely cleared. You
have to add one to the left and one to the right to clear, so you
don’t remove them one at a time (common misconception).
No major SEO damage, pretty SEO neutral though the recent one is
useful for getting your new article indexed faster. Also your links
one is useful for adding links to other sites you own, go to Links >>
All Links and delete all the default WordPress links and add your own.
You can use the header widget area for adding an address and phone number.
The header widget is located where the search form is, so you first
have to disable it.
Stallion Layout Options page : Search Form OFF
There’s a Search Form widget, so if you want a search form add the
widget version to a sidebar.
Drag a Text Widget to the Header Ad Widget area and in the large text
widget form add your code.
Any HTML coding will need to be added to the text widget, if you
wanted something like
With address and telephone in bold you’d start with something like this:
This is on my list of features to add to Stallion in the future, so
rather than building a text widget have a widget where all the
formatting is built in.
Or you could create a custom header image :-)
David
How to Add Business Details to WordPress Header
bbPress Forum Themes Compatibility
I would like to report that the Stallion theme v7 is very compatible with bbPress. I was having trouble with bbPress before. I do not know if it is the new v7 code or bbPress has evolved, but I have tested this on a test site and found no issues.
Ironically, after a lot of testing, I wonder if I will bbPress as I noticed the code of bbPress is only modestly SEO-ed. Pemalinks and things like breadcrumbs are fine, but a lot of no-follows.
So my point and the good news is, if anyone wants to add a forum to their Stallion theme powered website if is possible. Just use bbPress. I might have a little button that says something like ‘ask me anything’ which brings people to a bbPress forum.
Yet, as we have discussed here before, nothing beats the WordPress comment system with no registration and the ability to leave comments that have the super comment function. It makes things like forums and even social networking a little passé if you are keen on SEO.
I would rather have people dialogue-ing and communicating on my website rather than a private message systems via a social network, that does not create much content that other people can read or react to, like a blog.
Nor a Forum that has a lot of user content which is low quality with half sentence replies and a lot of emoticons :) ;).
The best and something I have been trying to conceptualize is using WP as Stallion exists to have people use it like a forum and social network without loading up on alien (alien to Stallion) plugins and code not needed.
I am almost at this point but not sure yet how it will come together, yet. I think Stallion comments with Gravatar widget, super comments, image rich widgets like Stallion posts widget, great layout options and a little imagination about the structure and maybe I think I can make it work.
bbPress Forum Themes Compatibility
BuddyPress Themes Compatibility
I installed BuddyPress, that is WordPress’ official answer to a social network onto a Stallion site and as long as you use an extra template pack plugin, Stallion works great with BuddyPress. So if anyone wants to extent their Stallion website with a social network, much to my delight it works.
I have been testing Stallion with an array of plugins and really taking it to the limit in terms of things that can be done and with V7 I have found no problems.
BuddyPress + Stallion SEO + Adsense or bbPress Stallion SEO+ Adsense is not a bad combination. I will play around with some more options before I go live on one of my new website with the idea.
BuddyPress Themes Compatibility
How to Change WordPress Child Theme CSS and Background Color
Dave,
I should know this but I do not, I am new to the child theme concept.
I want to change the background color of a child theme.
I go to the normal appearence -> background -> select colors -> save changes.
It does not work.
I can go to color delicate.css and alter it here in the parent and activate that theme.
But how do change the css for your ‘stallion-child-example theme’? Do I copy over the altered delicate.css from the parent and put it in the folder called ‘colors’?, then activate the child.
Or do I create a custom01.css and these changes will be picked up on the child when I change the theme to custom01?
I think I have to create one child theme and it all should click. I can create a lame one for practice. However, I hit a few little snags. :)
How to Change WordPress Child Theme CSS and Background Color
WordPress Theme Background Colour and Child Themes
On the Appearance >> Background page I’ve not looked into how the Background Color setting works in detail, I added the feature for the background image upload feature.
Gave it a quick check and the setting is working, when you view source of the home page for example you’ll find the background colour code, but it’s not overriding the background colour from the css files.
It’s because I’ve used gradient code and the WordPress background colour code isn’t the same format, will have to see if there’s a way to override it, hmm wonder if I could add a gradient override that would be a nice feature.
If you look in the Delicate css file at the top you’ll find:
If you wanted the ability to use the WordPress background colour changer you’d delete
Funnily enough I’ve not used gradients in Delicate, kept the code in the file for others to adapt :-) You can see the colour code sets are the same, if you want a gradient you change either the left or the right one and I left them the same so no gradients.
If you want a Delicate colour scheme via a child theme that completely overrides the parent Delicate colour.
Copy
and the folder plus contents of
to the same location in the child theme, if you’ve kept the same folder name for the example child theme
The child theme will automatically use /stallion-child-example/colors/style-delicate.css because it exists. As a side note you copy the image folder /stallion-seo-theme/colors/images/delicate/ over as well because the css files reference /images/delicate/imagename.gif and not the theme folder name.
The above is just overriding current color schemes, if you copy a file from parent Stallion to child Stallion the child file will be used you can then edit the child version without touching parent Stallion. Same is true for image sets as well as long as you copy entire sets (only the first image is checked and other images of the set are assumed to be within the child theme as well).
If you want to be more adventurous you can add you own css files.
Lets say you wanted a colour scheme called Dark Delicate because you’ve given Delicate a darker look.
You’d copy
and the folder plus contents of
as described above into the child theme folder, but rename them.
Edit style-dark-delicate.css to your needs making sure you change the file locations in the CSS from images/delicate/ to images/dark-delicate/
Now edit ttk_child_functions.php within the Child theme folder
and either change the example code (this bit “|example-st|Example Colour below”) or add to it like this
If you compare the above to your file you’ll see I only added “|delicate-dark|Delicate Dark”, that’s a new dropdown menu option added to colour schemes, the first bit has to match the new css file name (style-********.css) and the folder name.
And change the function stc_child_colours code lower down to this
For the above I’ve edited the commented out code to my needs.
What we’ve done with the first code change is add a new option to the Child Theme Option page under the Colour Scheme dropdown menu, you’ll have a setting “Delicate Dark” and in the second code change replicate this setting for the post/page edit screens override meta box settings.
Since I’m making just over a dozen child themes (working on number 4, have 13 in total for sale) I’ve made myself a ‘master’ child theme that holds all the settings in one child theme folder for my use. You can do the same with purchased child themes or child themes you make so you only have one child theme to install on all your sites IF you want access to every image set you buy/create.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible because when I add a new feature it will be added to Stallion main, I’ll be using child themes for more image sets, colour schemes and layouts. Main Stallion is already too big (almost 10MBs and I don’t want to hit 10MBs) and I get a lot of support requests it won’t install because so many hosts have their max upload file size set at under 2MBs (it’s 2012 hosts, increase it!!!). My Master Stallion Child Theme is already 15MBs in size from the 13 new image sets for the child theme niches I’m making.
David
WordPress Theme Background Colour and Child Themes
WordPress Child Theme Navigation Menu
Thank you for your detailed reply. So far so good on what you have written. However, when I update to the child theme, on my website is not the menu I created but a menu that defaults to pages.
To anyone who has this issue they just have to reassign the menu under theme locations – primary navigation.
Would there be any value for creating an ability for commenters to upload images? I would be able to provide screen shots to illustrate.
Now the above is resolved mind you, it is just a suggestion.
WordPress Child Theme Navigation Menu
Changing WordPress Themes Resets WordPress Custom Menus
That’s normal WordPress behavior when switching themes including child themes the custom menus aren’t set, they still exist so you just set them to their locations.
Think about it when changing themes the locations, even the existence of menu locations can change, so makes sense to ‘reset’ the selected menus when a theme is changed. There’s nothing stopping anyone removing, changing, adding menu locations in a Stallion child theme.
Also true for the 2011 Header Image Set which is based on the TwentyEleven theme code (default WordPress code), they are reset to random when a child theme is activated (assuming the child theme doesn’t change the default from random). If under main Stallion or a child theme have the 2011 Header Images on, set them to Plants, go to Appearance >> Headers and select a specific image (so random off). Go to Appearance >> Themes switch to another Stallion child theme and Plants will still be set, but back to random. Not tested Appearance >> Background would assume the settings are reset since it’s default WordPress code.
Regarding commenters adding images it’s a tricky one, opens potential security issues, I’d be careful.
David
Changing WordPress Themes Resets WordPress Custom Menus