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!
Thanks for a beautiful theme. I just installed it and notice an error with trackbacks not appearing on posts. Instead I get this error message:
“Warning: call_user_func(list_pings) [function.call-user-func]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback in /home/xxx/reportr.net/wp-includes/comment-template.php on line 1334″
Can you help?
Updated the theme files to correct above. for anyone having this problem – email me host[at]fearlessflyer.com
Hi Michael. Thanks for sorting out the issue with trackbacks.
Having installed the theme at the weekend, the right sidebar is not floating and instead stays at the top of the page. The left sidebar does float.
I have the latest version of WordPress and have tried this with the original sidebar.php file but the issue persists.
Thanks,
the floating sidebar only works if its smaller than the height of the viewport. your sidebar exceeds that height, so it doesn’t float.
Nice theme…great work..!
Check my site now..! http://chaetakadai.com..! agency is really superb…! <3<3<3.
I’m not entirely rookie at this – but can you nudge me in right direction on how I swap out my logo code for the agency logo. thanks!
u can replace the image (logo.jpg) with your own logo…!
wp-content/themes/agency/images/logo.jpg
Really nice theme.Is there a restriction on how many of my own sites I can use this theme if i buy it? and do we get the .psd file to customize for our site?
Hello,
How do you display accents (i’m french..) in post titles and widgets on the sidebar please ? Or at least, not forcing the upper case ?
The links to the posts in the slider for “featured” are not working. They link to “/#fragment-(post number)” and not the actual post link. What’s wrong?
whats your url
Just bought this great theme!
Really happy about it!
I write in french and we do have accents that I can’t have in my post’s titles! How can I change that? If this is not possible with this font how can I change it?
Thanks a lot!
E.
i see that cufon (the fonts that the theme is using) doesn’t support the accents http://www.emreakkas.com/internationalization/cufon-and-foreign-character-sets-bring-your-missing-characters-back . to take out cufon, open header.php – look for these lines of code:
//cufon
Cufon.replace('.post-title, .sidebar-row h3, #search strong, h3#comments, #respond h3');
Cufon.replace('#featured .info h2', {
textShadow: '-1px 1px black'
});
$('#featured .info h2').css({
'font-size' : 50,
'lineHeight' : 70
})
then, adjust the font settings from style.css.
Thanks for this answer, it was exactly what I needed !
Great theme. 3 issues.
My sidebars are also not sticky, though I have not modified the theme at all to this point. Want to be sure I can get that functioning prior to customization.
The Categories section as shown in the demo does not appear on page or in the ‘sidebar-left.php’ file. I definitely need a categories section.
I am also in need of a tag cloud. Any recommended php scripts to insert?
Thanks!
Tags/Categories was a ridiculous oversite on my part. Widgets of course. The sticky sidebar issue I still don’t have resolved.
Obvious oversite on categories/tag cloud. Widgets. Still no solution on sticky sidebar.
All issues fixed. Not sure why, but the stickyfloat js funtions for all pages except blog. Would like to implement on blog as well, though it seems the main issue is fixed.
the sidebars will not float if its height is longer than the view port. – just fyi
greats! theme
This sticking sidebar is quite an issue. Any way to just disable the floating sidebar altogether? It would solve the issue, and personally, I prefer a static sidebar.
I deleted the following line from the header file to disable the sliding sidebars. If this is a bad idea, let me know :-)
//sidebars
$(‘.sidebar.left’).stickyfloat({duration: 400});
$(‘.sidebar.right’).stickyfloat({duration: 600});
that should work.
Hi there,
I am thinking of buying this theme,
1 question -
1) can the content slider go all the way across from left to right, and then the right bar & posts start below this ..with no left side bar?
Would this be possible and how would we do this?
Thanks!
that requires a lot of work.
Nice Themes but i have one simple and major problem that I have. How to change the sponsor banner ? Thanks.
I just bought this theme /Agenzy)
I can’t see featured post on my “home” site?
How do you change the adverts. I can’t find anything that lets me update them or link them to pages?
hi Michael,
How can I change the logo and delete the Rss feed and Twitter, and add my facebook account to that link ?
How I can activate the Styles Gallery with Lightbox?
since it does not work.
i fixed the bug with the lightbox. i emailed you the files
Hello, plz excuse if this has already been answered, but the comment archive isn’t accessible. Is there a way to make the widgets added to the sidebars determine the sidebar height, rather than the sidebar height being determined by the view port height? Thank you!
I thought it did that. Let me investigate and get back to u.