Magazine Style WP Theme – Agency

All in all, I think this theme is quite remarkable. Yup, a pat in the back – a job well done. Agency is what I call it. It is a magazine style theme that puts your content in a beautiful wrapper, complete with subtle page elements that is sure to add elegance to your pages. This theme is compatible with the latest WordPress release, taking advantage of some its newer features. Let me explain:

Features:

• A Custom Slideshow – sits in the home page, automatically switches through four images. These images are post thumbnails from posts assigned to a specific category. In other words, the slideshow pulls 4 posts from a category named “featured”. You can change the category by editing “feature.php” – look for the variable $myCat .
• Two Widgetized Sidebars – Each sidebar has a width of 140 pixels – just enough to house small ad spots, text and general widgets .The sidebars also sit on the center of the page as you scroll down.
• Custom Gallery Styles with Lightbox – The default WordPress gallery style is overridden to match the rest of the theme. Lightbox effect is also applied to all links leading to an image.
• Built in Contact Form – no need to install a plugin for a simple contact form, its already in the theme. Simply apply the page template “Contact Form” into your page and configure (see Configure the Contact Form Template below)

The theme also supports the WP 3.0 menu system, gravatars and threaded comments. The thumbnails for each posts, including the images in the slideshow are pulled from the post thumbnails.

How to Use:

Installing the theme is just like any other WordPress theme. Simply go to the “Appearance” > “Install Themes” section in your admin panel. Click the “Upload” link – browse to the theme .zip file and “Install Now“.

Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts:

To add images to your posts you can use the Post Thumbnail feature of WordPress. Simply go to the post in “Edit” mode. On the right side of the page – click on “Set Featured Image“:

This will trigger the image uploader. Upload your image and as soon as that’s done, click the “Use as Featured Image” link:

Note that you should keep the file sizes to a smaller size. The resizing script has a maximum size limit.

How to Activate the Slideshow:

The slideshow in the homepage pulls 4 posts from a category called “featured” (If you want to pull from a different category – see below). Simply go to “Categories” and one called “featured” – add 4 posts under it.

Visit your homepage and you should now see the slideshow area populated with the posts you just assigned to “Featured”. Now if you don’t see an image – that means you haven’t assigned a Post Thumbnail – so read the section above called “Adding Post Thumbnails to your Posts“.

*If you want to change the slideshow to pull from another category instead of “featured”, go to “Appearance” > “Editor” and click “feature.php” from the right side. In the editor – change the word “featured” into your category slug that you want (see below). Save your changes.

How to insert a Photo Gallery:

Adding a photo gallery into agency is as easy as pie. Simply go to the post / page you want in “Edit” mode and click on the image uploader. Navigate to your local directory and highlight the images you want and click “Open”.

As soon as the images upload, click on “Save Changes” and additional settings will show. Select your options and click “Insert Gallery”.

Update your post / page and preview it. You should see your gallery in place. The lightbox effect should also automatically pick up. All images that are linked to another image will trigger the lightbox effect in the Agency theme.

How to Customize the Navigation Menu:

Agency supports the WP Menu System which let’s you customize the links any way you want. Go to “Appearance” > “Menus” and start by creating a new menu. Enter a menu name and click “Create“.

This will create a blank menu panel in the right side of the page. The idea is to select categories, pages or custom links from the left side, click the “Add to Menu” button – and it will appear on the menu panel in the right. In this panel, you can drag and drop the links so you can design the menu hierarchy. Links that are staggered underneath become the drop down links from the respective parent – you get the drift.

Once the menu is done – hit “Save Menu” and in the top most left column box called “Theme Locations“, select the menu you just created from the drop down called “Header Menu”. Click “Save” and view your website. You menu should now be in place.

Configure the Contact Form Template:

Make sure you’ve already created a page – and applied the page template “Contact Form” to it. Go to “Appearance” > “Editor” and open Contact Form (should be on the right side). In the editor – look for $emailTo = ‘[email protected]’. Change the ‘[email protected]’ to the email address you want to send the emails to. Click “Update File“.

Credits:

The contact form code came from Trevor Davis. The lightbox effect for the images are from No Margin for Errors. The Javascript for the floating sidebar is from a plugin called “stickyfloat“. Finally, the awesome model photos from the demo site are from my friend Jigs Tambong.

Conclusion:

Agency is ideal for high content blogs with multiple post categories. Some HTML and CSS knowledge is required to customize, as well as Photoshop for the graphic elements. On the same note, my recent theme “Lucky Guess” is now FREE!. Please follow me in Twitter, Facebook or leave your comments below:

You can purchase Agency from this link.

BTW, you have to check out BlogEx for a large collection of WordPress Themes!