Announcing Agency Theme
More than a month ago
I’m excited to announce the release of the Agency Theme for WordPress. This theme is designed from the ground up to serve the needs of non-profits and organizations of all sizes. I wanted to take the best elements of the World Theme–including the fully widgetized homepage and large header images and move it a giant leap forward. The result is a beautiful theme that is easy to use as it is functional.
The large header can be great for sites that want to use powerful imagery, but in this case, I didn’t want people to be stuck with only one image to use across the site. I added the ability to have a slideshow as well as use featured images in the header on pages or posts. That way you can easily make the pages on your site unique and further communicate your message.
I also created a donation bar which allows you to easily set a fund-raising goal, show your progress toward that goal and also take up donations via PayPal. It’s completely optional so you can use it all the time, some of the time or never. The choice is yours and all of the details are easily taken care of in the theme options page.
The homepage is fully widgetized allowing you to place any content you’d like to right on the front page. I’ve included several custom widgets for featured posts, video, newsletter sign up and twitter to help you make your site.
Agency is cross-browser tested, includes six built in styles, is designed for WordPress 3.0 and includes support straight from the theme author. It’s available now for only $30. Check out the demo and when you’re ready, you can buy it here.
Agency Theme
More than a month ago
I’m excited to introduce you to the Agency Theme by Organized Themes. This theme is designed with non-profits in mind, though it can be used on any general business, church or organization site as well. It features a prominent header slide show with the ability to use a featured image on pages or posts to further define your site.
One of the prominent features is the “donation bar” for the homepage. Now you can easily raise money and show your progress towards your goal right on your home page. It’s an exciting option that is there when you need to have it, and can be removed when you no longer need it around.
I hope you like the Agency Theme for WordPress. I believe it has plenty to offer non-profits both large and small.
Agency Theme Instructions
More than a month ago
The Agency Theme for WordPress is designed to be simple to use so you can create a great site for your organization quickly and easily. To help you along your way, please refer to these instructions to serve as a guide.
Getting Started
Once you’ve activated the theme, there will be a new menu item called “Agency Theme Options.” On this page you can configure the site’s main options. On the top left of the page you can choose from one of six pre-built styles. Just choose one from the drop down menu, save your changes and the new style will be active.
Right below the styles, you can select to use an image logo if you have one, or the site’s name as the title. If you’d like to use an image logo, you will need to go to the Media menu and select add new to upload an image. Once the upload finishes, copy the URL for the image and come back to the Agency Theme Options page and paste it into the box for your image logo URL. You can also add a favicon (the small icon that goes beside your website’s URL in the navigation bar of a browser. Just follow the same method described above for the image logo for your favicon.
You can also easily add tracking for Google Analytics as well. Just paste the tracking code from Google into this box and select “yes” to include it. You can also use other tracking products as well. In the top of the right hand column you can find links for help and support if you need it. Also you can subscribe to the RSS feed for Organized Themes so you can stay on top of news around here as well as tips.
Donation Bar
The last section in the theme options menu concerns the donation bar. If you don’t need the donation bar, you can select “no” to disable it. If you’d like to include it, just choose “yes” and fill out the options below per your needs. The first box is the text that goes to the left of the donation graph. The next option is to specify the text under the graph.
The percentage box can be used to show your progress toward your goal. As you get more donations or commitments, just increase your percentage to reflect your progress. The next box is for your PayPal email address. You will need to fill this in for people to be able to donate via the donation bar. You can also specify which URL you’d like people to be returned from after visiting PayPal. That way you can have a special thank you or another way to respond to your donors. Next you select the beginning amount for your drive as well as your goal. Lastly you will need to enter text for your donation button.
That wraps up the theme options page. Now let’s move on to the other areas to configure.
Widgets
If you look under the appearance menu you’ll see an option for widgets. Here you can add widgets to various spots in the theme. To add a widget to a “sidebar” just click the title of the widget and drag it to the sidebar you’d like to use it on. Most widgets will have a few options that you can configure. The home page has a spot that is 3 widgets wide that you can use to show off featured videos, newsletter subscriptions and featured posts among other options.
Menus
To create your navigation, go to the appearance section and choose menu. You will now be presented with the new menu builder in WordPress 3.0 and up. First you will need to name your menu in the right hand column. Call your menu Main Menu in order to cause the navigation to look like the demo. It is important to name the menu “Main Menu. Now you can add pages and categories from the content in the left hand column. Once you’re finished save your changes and assign your menu to the primary menu area. You can also create secondary menus to go in sidebar widgets if you’d like to.
Slide Show and Featured Images
To add images to your header go to the Appearance section and select Slide Show. Here you can upload images to use in the site’s header. The header has the ability to work as a slide show, cycling through the images that are there. Images need to be 960 pixels wide by 448 pixels high or slightly larger.
If you add a featured image to a page or post that is 960 by 448 or larger, it will be displayed in the header instead of the slide show. This will give you the option to further customize the appearance of your site.
Page Templates
There are four page templates that are included with the Agency Theme. The first one is the default template which is used for basic pages. The second is the full-width template which omits the sidebar in order to give you a wider page to use. The third page template is a site-map page which will display all the content on your site in an orderly fashion. The last page template is the staff page template. See the next section for more details.
Staff Page and Staff Members
To make it easier to list your staff members, I’ve included a staff section. You can use it to easily have a directory of your staff members or key volunteers. First you will need to add your staff members by going to the staff section and selecting add new. Enter the person’s name in the title box and their bio in the main content box. On the right you’ll notice spots for the individuals contact information as well as social media links. Also there is a spot to add a picture of the person using WordPress’ featured image function.
Once you’ve added your staff members, you’ll need to create a page using the staff template. This will give you an opportunity to give a description of your whole staff as well as a featured image (or the default slide show if you leave it blank). Now you will have a page that will show off your staff. Staff members are listed in the order they were added with the most recently added member appearing first.
That wraps up how to use the features of the Agency Theme. If you need any more assistance, please feel free to ask.
Using PayPal For Event Registration Forms
More than a month ago
Sometimes churches and organizations need to use a sign up form for an upcoming event, but aren’t exactly sure how to integrate PayPal with their favorite WordPress form plugin so they can take payments along with registrations. I’m a huge fan of Gravity Forms, but there is no built in support for PayPal as of yet, so here’s how I use it along with PayPal for event registrations. If you have another favorite form plugin, please feel free use it instead. [Continue Reading]
