It doesn’t take a lot to install and set up your new WP-Jazz WordPress theme. Read on, and you’ll have it knocked out in a snap.

Step 1 – Unzip the File

The file you downloaded can be unzipped with any standard unzip program (if you don’t have one already installed on your computer, Stuffit Expander is a popular option for PC or MAC users). When you unzip the file, you’ll end up with a folder named either wp-jazz-basic, wp-jazz-prem or wp-jazz-dev, depending upon which license you purchased. Within it are all the theme files along with the end user license agreement (please take a moment to read over the license agreement).

Step 2 – Upload the Theme Files to Your WordPress Site

Option 1

If you are using WordPress 2.8 and above, you are able to install the ZIP file of the theme directly from the Dashboard. This simplifies things since you don’t need to use FTP:

1. When viewing the WordPress Dashboard, go to Appearance -> Themes
2. Click “Install Themes” (big tab at top)
3. Click “Upload”
4. Click ‘Choose File’ then navigate to where you downloaded the theme ZIP file; click ‘Open’
5. Click ‘Install Now’
6. When done installing, click “Activate”
7. That’s it!

Option 2

For this step, you’ll need an FTP (file transfer protocol) program. An FTP program allows you to transfer files between your computer and your web hosting account. There are several available, but I use SmartFTP. You’ll want to upload your theme folder to the /wp-content/themes folder in your WordPress installation.

Step 3 – Activate WP-Jazz

Login into your WordPress control panel, and click the Design tab. On the next page you’ll see all your available themes. Simply click on the WP-Jazz screenshot, then click the Activate link in the upper right-hand corner of the pop-up screen.

Step 4 – Set Up Your Featured Articles Section

If you don’t already have a “Featured” category, you’ll need to create one. Click the Post tab, then Categories on the sub-menu. Create a new category named “Featured.” Also, be sure the category slug is “featured.”

For the Featured Articles function to work correctly, you may also need to modify your permalink structure. To do that, click the Settings tab, then Permalinks on the sub-menu. Just be sure that any option other than the default permalink structure is selected.

Finally, the only thing left to do is to place some of your posts/articles in the Featured category. By default, the theme is set up to display your 5 most recent Featured Articles in the featured article box on your home page. You can change that number on the WP-Jazz Theme Settings page if you like.

Step 5 – Install and Activate Plugins Supported by WP-Jazz

WP-Jazz has built-in support for the following plugins:

WordPress Popular Posts – Your Most Popular Posts will appear at the top of the right sidebar in the tabbed navigation box as seen on this site.

Get the Image – This is a sweet, little plugin from the very brilliant Justin Tadlock. It will make it easier for you to include post thumbnails and featured photos for all your posts without using custom fields. More on that in another tutorial. Again, if you decide not to use it, the theme will function fine without it.

Be sure you download the latest version of each plugin and upload them to your wp-content/plugins folder. Then activate them. The theme will do the rest.

Step 6 – Add Some Content to Your Sidebars

Click the Appearance tab, then Widgets, and drag some content into your sidebars. Be sure to click the “Save Changes” button when you’re done.

Step 7 – Be Sure To Visit the WP-Jazz Theme Settings Page

The link for this page is available under the Appearance tab. We’ve given you a whole slew of optional settings for the theme, so feel free to change a few of them, and see what sort of site you can create for yourself.

Step 8 – Custom Menus – Very Important

In WordPress 3.0 and above you are able to take advantage of the custom menu feature. Here is a short screencast to show you how it works.

Please note that you must set up the custom menus as instructed in the video. Otherwise, you will have a duplicate page navigation bar as the category bar (if part of the theme).

Optional Step 9 – Make Your Featured Articles Scroll Automatically

If you want to turn on auto-scroll, open the features.php file and find this code at the bottom:

Then replace it with this:

Then, to turn off the active post highlighting, open your Stylesheet (style.css), and find this code about half way down:

#my-glider .controls a.active {
color:#fff;
background: #222;
}

Then, comment it out like this:

/*---- #my-glider .controls a.active {
color:#fff;
background: #222;
} ---- */