Thank you for choosing Illuminate. This guide should take you through all that you need to know about how to use Illuminate

Before reading this read-me, make sure you have a basic understanding of how to use WordPress. WordPress has a very extensive documentation on everything you could want to know about using and developing for WordPress. For more, go here.

Warning: Before you edit any files, make sure to back them up, in case you make a mistake.

Widgets

For a basic understanding of widgets, click here

There are two customizable sidebars for widgets in this theme. The first, more obvious one, is visible on all pages, and is to the right of the main content area. This area is recommended for the majority of you widgets. The second sidebar is visible only on pages, and is inside of the ‘main content’ area. It is just to the left of the main content.

AJAX Search

Illuminate was built to be used with Dave’s Live WordPress Search for a AJAX based search. Dave’s Live WordPress Search is a wordpress plugin. To learn more about plugins, go here.

How to Set it Up

1. In the admin area of your blog (ex: http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin) click on Plugins on the right hand side of the content. Next click on Add New.
2. Search for Dave’s WordPress Live Search. In the results click install. In the upper right hand corner of the page click to install the plugin.
3. Choose to activate the plug-in.
4. On the left hand side of the backend, click on Settings. Next click on Live Search
5. Make sure Display Post Signal, Display Post Thumbnail, and Display Post Excerpt are unclicked. Under styles choose Theme Specific. Make sure Results Direction is Down
6. You’re finished, when you search your results should appear as you type.

Adding Your Logo

Illuminate uses an attractive text gradient as your pages title, so if you don’t have a logo image to use in your header, the site will still look good.

1. Create or use a logo image named logo.png Your logo should be a transparent png if you want to be able to see the background behind the logo. The height of the logo should be around 50px
2. Place your logo inside of the theme folder Illuminate in the folder img ( Illuminate>img>logo.png)
3. Inside of the theme folder Illuminate replace the folder header, with the folder header that you downloaded inside of Illuminate Theme Files (the same folder as the read-me)
4. Upload this modified version of the Theme Folder Illuminate onto your server, replacing the old Illuminate
5. Your Finished!

Customizing the Background

Illuminate has five different background images for you to choose from. Installing them is as simple as a drag and drop.

1. Choose your background image, located the folder Background Colors in the theme files folder you downloaded.
2. Replace the image background.jpg located in side of the theme folder illuminate with the background image you chose
3. Upload the modified theme folder to your server.

Customizing the CSS

CSS can be customized in the file carrington-text.css. This is located in the theme file at Illuminate>css>carrington-text.css.

Questions or comments? Contact us at http://bramblingdesign.com/contact/, but make sure to read through the read me first!