webonary-zeedisplay Theme

Webonary gives language groups the ability to put their bilingual or multilingual dictionaries on the web with little or no technical help. webonary-zeedisplay is a Webonary theme based on the theme zeeDisplay by ThemeZee. Kudos for a great theme.

Installation

zeeDisplay, the theme on which this theme was based, has been tested on all major browsers including Firefox 2 & 3.6, Opera 9.5 & 10, Internet Explorer 7 & 8 and Safari 3.2.Your browser should have JavaScript enabled to make this theme work! For example, the DropDown Navigation and the Content Slider need Javascript to work.

The theme works on WordPress 3.1.3 without any problems. Previous versions have not been tested and are not supported. Make sure to update your WordPress installation, especially to protect yourself from security flaws.

Theme Installation

Upload the theme files to your WordPress theme folder wp-content/themes and activate the theme in your WordPress admin panel.

Plugins Installation

If you are using the theme as a dictionary, you will need the following plugins:

  1. You will need the WordPress plugin SIL Dictionary Infrastructure.

  2. Assuming you have a bilingual or multilingual dictionary, you will also need to download, install, and activate qTranslate.

  3. For showing page numbers instead of "Previous/Next entries" below the search results, you might want to make use of WP Page Numbers.

  4. If you allow people to comment on your pages or entries, you will want some sort of anti-spam plugin. We have successfully used Quiz.

See the section “WordPress Options” below for more plugin support inherited from the base theme.

The following notes come from the zeeDisplay author:

  1. Post Thumbnails. This theme uses the WordPress post_thumbnail function. You can easily add your thumbnail in every post by clicking on Set featured image in the Featured Image box on the right, upload your picture and click. Use as featured image.

  2. Media Settings. The size of your thumbnail images is set in your WordPress media settings and can be changed at WP-Admin > Settings > Media. The theme uses medium_size in single posts and pages and thumbnail_size in index and archiv files.

  3. Pagination.The theme includes css styles for the 'wp_pagenavi' plugin. Simply download the plugin here and install it to use pagination.

Settings

Log in to the WordPress administration.

  1. You'll want to have some sort of backup before starting. The minimalist way of doing this is go to Tools. Select Export. Select “All content” and press the “Download Export File” button.

  2. Go to Appearance

    1. Select Themes. Activate the webonary-zeedisplay theme, if you haven't already.

    2. Select Widgets.

      1. In Available Widgets, select Search and drag it right to the Sidebar Blog.

      2. Add any other widgets you want. The Links widget in particular could be helpful. Feel free to experiment.

  3. Go to Settings.

    1. Select General. Make sure all the settings there are correct.

    2. Select Reading. Select either “Your latest posts” or “A static page.” Either choice is acceptable, but the Featured Posts Slider (explained below) works only with “Your latest posts.”

    3. Select Discussion. You probably want most of the defaults, but here is where you decide whether you want allow people to comment on your pages or entries. If you don't, uncheck “Allow people to post comments on new articles.” This should be the third box down.

    4. Still in Discussion, see if you want to change any of the other options.

    5. Select Media. Near the bottom, uncheck “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders.”

    6. Select Privacy. You probably want the site to be visible to everyone, but can change it here if you don't.

    7. Select Permalinks. Select Custom Structure and type “/%postname%”.

    8. Select Languages. (This will not appear until you have installed the qTranslate plugin.)

      1. If you get a message that qTranslate could not load OpenSSL, disregard.

      2. Under "Advanced Settings" one has to set the "URL Modification Mode" to "Use Query Mode (?lang=en)"

      3. Scroll down to add language(s).

      4. Scroll back up to set the Default Language/Order.

  4. Return to Appearance

    1. Select zeeDisplay Options

      1. Assuming you are using the theme for a dictionary, leave the Mode at “Dictionary.” (You can, if you want, use the theme for an ordinary blog.)

      2. Change the Logo with your own.

      3. Set the other Theme Settings as desired. Notes from the zeeDisplay author: “The theme comes with a couple of color skins from which you can select one in the theme option panel. You can also choose the custom color skin and add your own hex color code via the theme option panel. All styles are stored in the folder /includes/styles. There is a CSS file and a image folder for each color, which you can manually change or even add new ones. So you have the opportunity to create individual and unlimited skins for your theme. Have fun!”

      4. If you want to use the Featured Post Slider, check the box. This could be a useful feature. For example, if you are making frequent updates, you can show the latest.

      5. The theme comes equipped with Social Media and the ability to display ads. See the zeeDisplay site for more information.

    2. Select Background. If you want to change the Background image or color, this is the place to do it.

    3. Select Header. Replace the header image with your own, or remove it altogether.

Pages

You will most likely need some pages that has information about your site. For example, most sites have a Contact page. Add these pages in the Pages area.

Menus

This theme supports two menus, a top menu and a main menu. You'll probably want to arrange your pages in the main menu.

The top menu can be handy for multiple language support. For example, suppose you have Spanish and English in your dictionary. When you select Spanish, the site changes to a Spanish interface, and when you select English, it changes to an English interface. In the Menus area, you can create a Custom Link for each language name. Put the link for the site in Spanish: www.MyDictionary.org. Then put the link for the English version: www.MyDictionary.org?lang=en.