How to Set Up Your Featured Content and/or Email Capture Section

If you look at the home page of this site, you’ll see the featured content slider at the top. In this section, you can display an email capture form and/or featured pages/posts. It’s very simple to add the featured content slider to your site. Follow these simple steps, and you’ll have it done in no time.

Note: If you want to display only the Email Capture Form, skip to step 5.

1. Activate Featured Content/Email Capture on Theme Settings Page

On the Theme Settings page, click the link for “Featured Content/Email Capture Form.” You’ll see a setting titled “Add Featured Content/Email Capture Slider to Home Page.” By default, this setting is set as “No.” If you’d like to place a Featured Content slider and/or Email Capture Form on the home page, simply select “Yes.”

2. Select Pages/Posts to be Displayed

If you want a Page or Post to appear in the Featured Content section, you’ll need to get the Page or Post ID and place it in the proper field. You can find the Page/Post ID in the Edit Post/Page URL. For example, the page ID for the following example is “177.”

http://demo.solostream.com/wp-professional/wp-admin/post.php?post=177&action=edit

After you’ve gathered all the Page/Post IDs you want to feature, you’ll want to place them in the field labeled “Which Pages or Posts to Feature.” You should separate the IDs by a comma, and place them in the order you’d like them to appear in the slider.

For Example: 123,145,111,236,435

3. Adding Featured Content Images

1. Featured Content Image Size – The size of featured image is 500px wide x 300px height.

Important: for best results, ensure that your original Featured images are at least 500px by 300px. WordPress will crop larger images down to size, but it will not enlarge images that are smaller than 500px by 300px.

2. Selecting Your Featured Image

The simplest and best way to select your post thumbnail or featured article image for a post or page is to upload the image, and then select it as the Featured Image (click thumbnail to the right).

You can also use the Featured Image metabox that appears on the Add Post/Add Page screen. If you do not see this box, click the “Screen Options” tab in the top right corner, and select it from the list of options.

3. Multiple Images in a Post or Page

If you upload multiple images to a post or page, the theme will use the #1 image in your post gallery (see thumbnail to right) as the featured article image and/or thumbnail.

4. How to Use a Featured Video Instead of an Image

If you’d prefer to show a video in place in your featured image, simply paste your video embed code into the “Video Embed Code” field found just below the post editor on the Add/Edit Post/Page screen. The dimensions used in your embed code will be converted to the proper size to fit in the Featured Content section.

5. How to Display an Email Capture Form as First Slide

If you’d like to display an email capture form as the first slide, select “Yes” for the field labeled “Add Email Capture as First Slide.” Then simply complete the fields that follow. Click to enlarge the image below to determine which fields will appear in which position on the slider.

Email Capture Form Code

You will need to get this code from your email list provider (e.g. Aweber, ConstantContact, Feedurner, etc). If you do not already have an email list provider, Aweber is a very popular option.

Special Note: Your email subscription form code needs to be HTML format rather than the Javascript format offered by many providers.

For example, here’s what my HTML form code looks like from Aweber:

Enter Your Name:

Enter Your Email Address:

Once you’ve entered all the necessary information, be sure click the Save Changes button, and then test out your form.

About the Author: Solostream

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