Set Your Blog Up With The New Revolution Magazine Themes
When Bryan Gardener recently announced that he would be giving the Revolution Wordpress Themes away for free the blogging world became very excited.
I was one of the first to jump in and download the free themes and have been using them for many of my projects since.
I am sure the most popular of the new free Revolution themes are the Magazine themes. These truly are high grade professional themes with a lot of cool features and a highly customizable design.
The problem is that all the Revolution themes are unsupported. Of course this is fair. We can’t expect Bryan to give away his themes and then answer everyone’s questions and for free.
As a noob trying to use the Revolution Magazine themes you will realize that getting the theme to work requires a little more knowledge than you may have. In this post I am hoping to take you through some simple steps to get the theme working for your blog.
This tutorial should work great for both of the Free revolution magazine themes, Revolution Church and Revolution Lifestyle.
……on to the tutorial:
Last night I started a new project with a friend. He is interested in Guitar so we thought we would collaborate on a guitar based project. After deciding on a great domain and deciding to use the fantastic Revolution Church theme I spent a while setting the site up. I realized at this point that many noobs would have no clue what to do to get that far!
When you first install Revolution Church on your Wordpress blog it is less than desirable. Just take a look at this screen shot.
With a few simple tweaks and mods you can make your blog look something like this site: Home Guitar Player
Put Your Logo Up
One of the first things you will want to do is get your own logo up so your site looks like yours.
First thing you should do is download the original supplied Revolution Church Logo. You can find this by going to /wp-content/themes/church_10/images/logo.png
If you then open this in your graphics program and take a small section of the background to stretch across the whole image. If you are unsure how to do this, here is a blank version of the logo for you to start with (right click and save as to save to your desktop).
Once you add your design make sure you save this as a png with the original filename (logo.png).
Above you can see my logo for my site. You will also notice that I made it a little wider. The theme allows for this a bit but I would not go any wider than my logo above if you want a banner to appear on the right.
To get your logo working simply upload back to the original location, overwriting the original logo.png
Getting the Gallery to work
The gallery looks great in this theme so it’s something you have to get working. This function is added by way of a plugin called Featured Content Gallery which can be downloaded on the Revolution Wordpress Themes.
Once activated you will find some settings in wordpress. Go to your dashboard > settings > Featured Content Gallery. If you set the width to 590px that will fit this theme. I decided to set my category as Featured
Now when you are writing a post that you want featured in the Gallery simply select the correct category and scroll down to the area that says Custom Fields. Set the key to articleimg and then add your image URL into the Value field.
….With any luck that should work (sometimes need 2 or 3 featured posts before it looks right).
The Two Small Featured Areas
When you load up the Revolution Church theme you will notice two little featured boxes below the Featured Gallery.
To get these working you will have to jump into a little bit of coding! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!! But don’t worry it’s easy.
I always recommend backing up files before making changes
The default titles for these areas is OUR MINISTRIES and SERVING OPPORTUNITIES. We can go into the code and select what category these pick up and change the title.
Go to your wordpress dashboard then Design > Theme Editor. Select the file home.php from the right hand side.
Scroll down to <div id=”homepageleft”> in the code. You will see the Our Ministries text a few lines below this between <h3> and </h3>. Change the title to whatever you want it to be.
Now we need to set the correct category for the box to pick up. Find the code <?php $recent = new WP_Query(”cat=11&showposts=3″);
cat=11 needs to be changed to the category id of the category that you want. To find the cat id go to your Wordpress dashboard. Then click on Categories. When you hover over the category you will see a long link at the bottom of your browser. The last part if the link will tell you the cat id (id=??).
And then change showposts=3 to reflect the amount of posts you want the post to show.
Here is an example of the final code:
<?php $recent = new WP_Query(”cat=22&showposts=5“);
Now for the second box repeat all this for the code underneath <div id=”homepageright”>
….Setting the thumbnails fo these featured sections
Like you set up the custom thumb for the Featured Gallery you will need to set the custom thumb for these blocks. When writing a post simply set the Key as thumbnail and the Value as the URL to the image.
Changing the bottom section to a Latest Post Section
The settings for changing this section are very similar to the changes you made to the two featured areas.
Go to home.php and find the code <div class=”hpbottom”> Again amend the title between the <h3> and </h3> to whatever you wish it to be. In my case Latest Posts.
Now find the code <?php $recent = new WP_Query(”cat=9&showposts=3″); here you have the choice to choose a category and the amount of posts to show again. As I wanted this to show the latest posts and not from a specific cat, my code looks like this:
<?php $recent = new WP_Query(”showposts=8″);
Now….. again you need to use custom fields for your thumbnails when setting up your posts. In this case the Key needs to be hpbottom.
Here is a screen shot of a post set with all the custom fields for this theme:
One last thing: Some thumbnail Settings
You may notice that if you don’t use 70×70 images for your custom thumbnails that the images in the featured sections don’t look that great. So I found a little way to mod the theme so that it displays the images at the right size even if they are bigger than the 70×70 size. I would still suggest using relatively small images so you don’t kill your bandwith but at least this way you don’t always have to be exact.
So it’s a code thing again I am afraid!
Goto your wordpress dashboard then Design > Theme Editor. Select the file style.css from the right hand side.
In the code find each of these pieces of code and add the line of text, max-height: 70px; , as highlighted in red.
.featuredtop img {
border: none;
margin: 0px;
max-height: 70px;
}
.hpbottom img {
border: none;
margin: 0px;
max-height: 70px;
}
.hpfeatured img {
border: none;
margin: 0px;
max-height: 70px
}
I think that is about it for now. Follow all this and you should have a pretty good functioning Revolution magazine Theme.
Please let me know if you have any questions, if anything isn’t clear and if you need to know how to do anything else.
You can get the revolution theme from this banner below:
Thanks Forest! This is awesome!
I’ve been dieing to use this theme but it’s too “sophiscated” for me. Thanks
Wow Forest I like the look and feel of that blog, even commented, I like the chords post, G/f Is gonna get a guitar so I might just be lurking in there a little more often
Hey Forest, thanks for the link to that theme - I’ve implemented it on my site : http://backlinktactics.com. Looks much neater than the one I had before.
Holy smokes, Batman! I should send a bag of chocolates your way or something. This is awesome stuff, Forest.
My fave Brian G theme is Revolution Church and i have it downloaded on my flips, but i could never get it to work. Not user friendly at all for code/html noobs. But this tutorial of yours is awesomesauce.
I will bookmark this page and print it out. I’m sure i will be able to do it now. When i have it manipulated, i will be sure to send you a link to the finished product. I promise.
I totally have Fresh News figured out, this is why i keep using it. But i so wanted to learn Revolution. Super super thanxs!
Missy.
No problem Missy,
Any other questions you have just zip me an email.
Hey, Forest:
I’m starting my redesign now and first the featured image area box is perfect at 590, at 490 it was not wide enough. The height i set it at 250 and the overlay text thing i set it at 40.
I will work on the logo and the small featured boxes next. As you can see i have loads of categories, and each one is showing up on the homepage. This looks awful, i will have to either delete a series of categories or set it up so don’t they show up there.
Will come back and keep you posted. Thank you.
Hey Missy,
Where can I see the design in progress? That’s great stuff though and I can’t wait to see it finished.
I started it last nite on G34 Media. But its gonna take me some time, as that theme is really super complicated.
I plan to work on it again tonite. I’ll be on Skype after 7pm if you wanna help me. Peace.
Missy.
wow. I’ve been banging my head against the wall for the last few days before I finally googled the answer to my woes in your post. Thanks for publishing it, VERY much appreciated.
here’s a link to my page, which I couldn’t have done without ya.
http://www.ihatebikes.net/wordpress
Hey Jason, Great to have to you here…. I will be extending this post very soon too so please sign up and ask any questions if you get stuck. You can also get me by email: Forest.parks@gmail.com if you need anything.
hey, thanks again. you saved me many hours with this post. I’m definitely adding you to my RSS feed!
[...] the same, when the demo site showed lots of different images. I then found this extremely useful blog post that detailed all the steps in tweaking this theme. Alternatively you can sign up for support at [...]
Hi
Thanks for this amazing guide. It is a great help in getting this theme to look great. I installed this on my site but can’t get the thumbnail images to work. My site is http://www.UggsAuthentic.com
1. How do I get different images in each of the thumbnails showing on the home page? There are different images within the post. I added those per category using the custom feature below the post. I tried using the post thumb plugin which is supposed to pull up the images fromt he post and automatically inserts them as thumbnails in the picture. If I had to manually insert images for each one, it will take me forever for hundreds of post.
2. How do I add more categories of post like the two on top, below the featured posts? I want to be able to add more content below the featured posts section. How can I do that? I mean to add some other boxes and pictures.
I don’t see anything in any of the other showcase sites either. It is alooking a bit bare at the bottom.
Thanks very much.
M
There’s something about gallery images that I’m not quite getting. The images I upload are either too big or too small for the gallery frame. Do I have to upload pictures that are exactly the same size as the space they are to be displayed in?
Hey Merge, sorry for taking so long to get back….
I’m not sure how to automatically pull the thumbs from the posts but you could try asking on either digital point or warrior forums.
Say you wanted to recreate the left featured box. Find this code in the home.php
Our Ministries
< ?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=11&showposts=3"); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>; ?/>/images/thumbnail.png” alt=”< ?php the_title(); ?>” /></a><br />
< ?php endif; ?><br />
<b><a href=)
” rel=”bookmark”>< ?php the_title(); ?>
< ?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, “thumbnail”, true) ): ?>
” rel=”bookmark”>
< ?php the_content_limit(80, ""); ?>
< ?php endwhile; ?>
Read More Posts From This Category
and then copy and paste that to the area you want it to appear. Then you can adjust the title and cat id to make it what you need.
Let me know if that helps and if not send me a mail forest.parks@gmail.com
@Hedley. I have noticed if you use an image that is too big that Gallery will not load it. I always try to use images that are just a bit oversized.
I am very pleased to see all this information. It has been a great time saver - thank you for the trouble and time you have taken.
Just to add that there is an error in your gallery description - the correct size is 590 not 490
Ooop!!! I have fixed the error and thanks for pointing it out!!
hey thanx frd … i needed a professional looking theme which seems like fully loaded for my niche blog …
here i hv set the revolution church theme : http://blog.1usedtrucks.com
would be great if u can post more of such tutorial type of magazine themes.
Hey Thanks RV Trader, I am currently reorganizing and redesigning this blog but am planning many more tutorials for the new year.
If you hae any specific question please feel free to email me forest.parks@gmail.com.
I just love you right now and could marry you! Thank you Thank you Thank you for sharing that! You rock!
Hey Darrell,
That’s one of the funniest comments ever :)… thanks so much for stopping by.
Dude I cannot tell you how much this tutorial means to me. Thank you for taking the time to explain just how to use this theme. I’ve been struggling with this theme for the last 2 days and falling miserably.
This saved me alot of time.. thanks again!
dude, i wish i had found this post five hours ago. your tutorial is awesome. http://www.badbeatblog.net
Hey Barackuse and Joe, awesome :). This is one of the best posts I have written and has had an awesome response.
@Everyone, I am planning a follow up to this post very soon so please let me know if there is anything you are stuck on so I can make sure to include it in my next post.
Cheers and Happy New Year.
Thanks for the tips especially about locating the id for the categories. Trial & error was very slow. When you have time would appreciate how to edit or remove sidebar items Thanks again. Enjoy 2009.
Sorry this is a little off topic. But I paid to download the Church theme from Revolution site. However, you mentioned that the themes were available as free downloads. I’d love to grab some of the other themes. Does anyone know if they still available for free?
So, I’m working on a new site (it’s up, but not functioning yet)…I’m a noob but I have a great concept for a niche community.
I have the theme implemented, but after I changed the home.php and the css stylesheet the featured content window and the rest overlap.
It’s strange, because I got it to work on localhost so I thought maybe I was making a mistake but I double-checked and can’t find an issue.
Also, I was wondering if you knew how to get rid of the blogroll and admin sections of the theme…I feel like it clutters up the look of the site too much…I think removing those section would make a much more streamlined and aesthetically-pleasing interface.
Thanks a lot, and great work on this tutorial!!
You can delete my last comment if you’d like…I figured out what was wrong…I had added max-height to .featuredtop instead of .featuredtop img where it was supposed to go. I’m still trying to work out how to get rid on the blogroll and admin sections (the guy with the RV site has removed them)…any help would be appreciated!!
This is great info. Thanks a ton. I made all the modifications you prescribed with ease. Getting the video to show up caused me a little problem but I figured it out.
I have one question. How do I get my gravatar to show up on my comments?
Thanks.
@Joe, if you go to the website and at the bottom of each page there is a small link to download the themes, unsupported, for free. Let me know if you have any issues with that.
@Max, The sidebars are set as default right now. If you go to the design, widgets sections and then you can see on the right a place to select and add widgets to the 3 separate parts of the sidebar. Again, let me know if you have a problem with this.
@Bryan, Awesome stuff. I am meaning to write about the video in my next post about this…. that actually stumped me a little too!!! Gravatar…. I have not looked at that yet, I assumed it was built in. So hopefully in the next week or so I will take a look.
i must be blind because i can’t see it. i’m going to the revolutiontwo.com site and pulling up the themes. am i doing something wrong?
by the way, your tutorial is awesome.
Hey Joe.
It looks like Brian has made the themes paid
Which is bloody sad news!
They are still carrying the GPL license so I am a little confused so I guess if you already downloaded them you can still use them!
Here is a little more info http://www.briangardner.com/blog/kicking-off-2009-a-bit-early.htm
@Forest: Thanks for the info. I got my gravatar working. I had to change my email address in the settings tab and then add that email to my gravatar account. After I did that it started working. So, apparently the gravatar for the administrator posts pulls from the email in the settings tab.
I really wish I would have downloaded all the themes when they were available. I only downloaded the lifestyle theme. Dang!
Me too!! I had planned to use one for my Portfolio page!!
This is a great post - thanks very much, I was struggling with some aspects of the Lifestyle theme, similar to church and you have given me answers to lots of the questions I had.
Cheers
Hey Joanne, no problems… I keep saying it, but I am planning a followup to this post so if you have anymore questions please fire away.
Fricken AWESOME post, mate!!! Just what I was looking for.
Cheers
Cheers Neal,
Anything else you need to know just let me know.
does this work with City Theme too ? cos im getting no joy setting up the featured content section at all - I dont the sections you mention in setting up the gallery ie:
>>> Now when you are writing a post that you want featured in the Gallery simply select the correct category and scroll down to the area that says Custom Fields. Set the key to articleimg and then add your image URL into the Value field<<<
i see the custom fields but no artecling ?? I dont see the value box etc shown in the customfields.jpg ? something Im missing here ?
thanks
JJ
Hi JJ,
I have not tried the City theme yet but I would assume that they would have set up all of their themes kind of the same, so always worth trying.
Oh you may have to click on the custom field box to make it open up…
Hey Thanks Forest 4 the reply , all I see in custom fields is ratings (from my ratings plugin)I dont see “articleing”
Is it something to do with the Featured Content Gallery plugin Im not attending to ?
btw Im using Revolution City 1.0
Hope someone can contribute on this its freakin me out here ..
JJ
Hey Forest
Ok now I believe Im making headway here Ive modified the code and now have the gallery displaying on the home page, I have also added “articleimg” to the custom fields with the value pointing to the image location in my themes image folder, I have also set up the Categoy named “Featured” but the images are still not resolving to the window only text and empty boxes, what an I doing incorrectly ? is it the image size? the image format? perhaps you can let me know as I feel Im nearly there with this. thanks JJ
i have a question for you i have a revolution 2 lifestyle theme and i have a huge problem my thumbnails images not showing up on my home page.
Can you help out please.
I did everything right i think so, i put a custom field and called it thumbnail and then the url of my images that is 70X70 but still nothing.
Thank so much….
Yo.. i think you need to say to us that do not copy directly the code from your post. i mean if somebody copy this code directly from your post it will show error.. sample: when i try copy this code;
<?php $recent = new WP_Query(”showposts=8″);
Look the ” between showposts and the last 8. its not same one. this can make error when wp theme loading.
Just correct me if am wrong.
Soon i will use this amazing theme too..
Hi! I have been trying to set a thumbnail in my revolution church theme. I think that I had followed all the instructions above, but I didn’t have any luck. Every post I make display the image R default from the template.
Could anyone please help me with this? Thank you so much in advance.
Hey, I am sure it’s something simple. Send me a link to your site and I will go take a look and let you know if I can find the solution.
Thanks for the guide…Surely helped me
No problem,
Any questions just let me know…
It would be cool to know how to fit 4 cats below each other and not just the 2 the template currently have at the top.. So it would look like this…
Gallery, 2 categories, 2 categories, one wide category..
Thx
Hi John,
I am planning a post with a bunch of other adjustments… so I will leave a message and an update here when I do…
Hey first of all thanks for the great information!
But i cant seem to get the gallery to work. After doing as stated, i got something like this at my homepage:
Warning: include(/home/nutriti1/public_html//wp-content/plugins/content-gallery/gallery.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/nutriti1/public_html/wp-content/themes/church_20/home.php on line 14
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening ‘/home/nutriti1/public_html//wp-content/plugins/content-gallery/gallery.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /home/nutriti1/public_html/wp-content/themes/church_20/home.php on line 14
What is the problem here? Pls help. Thanks!
Hey Paul,
The plugin has been updated and they now use new code to insert the gallery… you can find the fix here: http://www.featuredcontentgallery.com/forum/download-install-upgrade-setup-instructions-13-10.html
Thanks, i’ll update this post soon with the right info.
I am so glad I found you! I bought a blog built with Lifestyle a week ago, being already built the home page looked great. That was until I made the mistake of adding a post!!!! I think I should be able to work out how to get the gallery thing working again from your info above.
Question. I did the auto update for the featured content plug in, and it wrecked the blog. So I had to go back to my original complete download. Do you think that’s a way for Brian to get everyone to buy the darn theme, if they downloaded them free (which I didn’t) or even if they bought a ready made site.
Bit annoying. Can’t really afford his prices.
Hi Lyn,
The gallery update just changed the code that calls the gallery plugin…. so no it’s not broken don;t worry.
Now you just use this line to call the gallery:
and it should work.
Oh it looks like you may have fixed it?
Hi,
I have recently started a site using the Lifestyle theme. Everything is working wonderfully well, but I would like to change the logo background. I have the title of my site up, I just want to put up a photo in the background. I have made the photo the right size, changed it to a png file, tried to upload it by overriding the logo.png file but it doesn’t want to show on the site. Any words of wisdom? or really, really clear instructions
Hi Brigit, send me your link to your site and I will let you know exactly what you need to do.
awesome tutorial!!! your site has been very VERY helpful. Thanks for sharing with all of us
I tried everything and had no luck in editing the style.css to include the Grey boarders around the square images in Brian G church theme.
Can you let me know? Thanks again!!
http://www.revolutiontwo.com/demo/church/category/music
Hey james,
The part in the style.css that is controlling that grey border is this:
.wp-caption {
border: 1px solid #DDDDDD;
text-align: center;
background-color: #EEEEEE;
padding: 4px 0px 5px 0px;
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-khtml-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
border-radius: 3px;
}
You just need to edit that and you should be able to change it to whatever you like.
Thank you for the great post, it’s extremely easy to follow. For those of us who downloaded the theme free when it was available as such, with no support, this is a godsent!