Installing your theme is pretty easy! After downloading you should have the responsive-brix.zip or responsive-brix-premium.zip file depending upon your version. This is your main theme file which contains all of the required templates and images required for the theme to function properly.

Premium users: Click here to download your premium theme zip file.

Upload the theme

1. Go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress Dashboard
2. Click on the Add New button
3. Click on the Upload link
4. Select the responsive-brix.zip or responsive-brix-premium.zip file you downloaded above
5. Click Install Now

Activate the theme

1. Go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress menu
2. Hover over the theme thumbnail and press the Activate button

Troubleshooting:
If you are getting a 'Broken Theme' or 'Stylesheet Missing' error, this simply means that you haven't uploaded the correct zip files. Double check and make sure you upload the exact files as mentioned above.

Troubleshooting:
If you are getting a 'Exceeds the maximum upload size' error, this means that your hosting company has a restriction on size of uploaded files (sometimes this limit can be as set as small as 2MB). Open a support ticket with your hosting company asking them to increase the PHP upload size to atleast 8MB. Most hostings will do it for you within a couple of minutes.
Alternately you can upload the theme using your hostng cpanel or using FTP.

Additional information: WordPress Codex – Using Themes

Alternative Method - Using FTP

Some servers place a restriction on the file size you can upload via web interface. If you are getting an error uploading the theme via WordPress Admin, you can upload it using a FTP program like Filezilla. It's pretty simple really.

1. Unzip responsive-brix.zip or responsive-brix-premium.zip on your computer.
2. Start FileZilla and login to your server using FTP details provided by your Hosting Company (hostname, FTP Username, FTP Password).
3. In left panel, browse to your local folder where you unzipped responsive-brix
4. In right panel, browse to your wp-content/themes folder. Most servers have it in the www folder
5. Right click your local folder and click upload. It will take a few minutes to upload the theme.
   

   Screenshot showing how to upload 'Chromatic' Theme
6. Once upload finishes activate your theme following the steps mentioned above

1. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Customizer.
2. Click on the Setup & Layout panel.
3. Select Boxed or Stretched layout for your site under Site Layout option.

1. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Customizer.
2. Click on the Backgrounds section
3. Set your Site Background and Content Box Backgrounds here.

   Content Box Background is only used if you selected Boxed layout in the steps above.

When you install Responsive Brix, you may not see any menu depending on your WordPress settings. Displaying a Custom menu is very simple with WordPress and Responsive Brix

Setup Custom Menu

1. Go to Appearance > Menus in the WordPress Dashboard
2. Click on the create a new menu link.
   (If you already have an existing menu from a previous installation, jump to Step No. 6)
3. Give a name to your menu in Menu Name and click Create Menu button
4. Now add the pages, categories, custom links you want from the leftside of your screen to this menu.
5. Click Save Menu
6. Click Manage Locations tab at the top
7. Select the menu you just created in the Primary Navigation dropdown.
8. Click Save Changes

500+ Menu Icons Premium Version

Premium version comes with the ability to add menu iconss. In the menu editor, simply select the icon to the menu item.

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your wp-admin
2. Add Widgets to Topbar Left and Topbar Right Widget Areas.
3. Once you Save Widgets, Topbar will be displayed automatically on the website.

Topbar will be automatically hidden if both Left and Right areas are empty.
If only one of these areas has content, then the Topbar content will be centrally aligned.

Creating a custom homepage like the demo site is quite easy using the Widgetized Template that comes bundled with Responsive Brix.

Create a Page using Widgetized Template

1. In your wp-admin area, click Pages > Add New to create a new page.
2. In the Page Attributes option box, choose the Widgetized Template in the Template drop-down option.
   
3. Publish the page.

Set this page as the Homepage

1. In your wp-admin, go to Settings > Reading.
2. Check on the Static Page option.
3. Select the page you created during the above steps in the Front Page drop-down.
   
4. Save the Changes.

Next, to add content to your frontpage, follow the steps in the next section.

Widgetized Template is very flexible and lets you add content easily using widgets. It is included in the theme for new users to quickly get started by creating a customizable Homepage. It is made up of several areas which can be arranged in any order.

We will use the demo homepage (which uses Widgetized Template) as an example for this tutorial. Take a look at the image below to understand how the homepage layout has been set up. Click on the image below to open a bigger view.

Setting Up The Layout

1. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Customizer.
2. In the Widgetized Template - Modules section, you will find the options to manage the layout.
3. You will notice that for the demo blog, we have not used all the modules. (You can disable modules by clicking the eye icon.)
   
   The Page Content module shows the content of the page which is using this template. In this example, its the 'My Home Page' page that we created in one of the previous instructions.
4. Click the dropdown icon next to each module for more options.
5. Save the Changes.

Adding Content

• Adding slider content
  1. In your wp-admin, click Appearance > Customizer.
  2. • FREE version: Goto the Widgetized Template - HTML Slider or Widgetized Template - Image Slider section to add slides.
     • Premium Version Premium themes display Slider A and Slider B sections instead of HTML/Image Slider. Premium theme users can select any slider they created in wp-admin area under Sliders > Add New.
  3. Select your slider layout and content here. If you are using a stretched layout, you may want to use the full width slider, just like the demo site.
     
  4. Save the Changes.
  
  
• Adding Widget Area content
  1. In your wp-admin, click Appearance > Widgets.
  2. Add Widgets to the Widgetized Template Areas.
     Note that the Hoot > Content Blocks widget available on this screen is a great and powerful way of adding content to the above Areas.

If you are using a custom homepage (like in the instructions above), you would most likely want to have a separate Blog Page which lists your blog posts.

Create a Blog Archive Page

1. In the wp-admin area, click Pages > Add New to create a new page.
2. Give this page a Title.

   You can enter page content as well. This will be displayed as description in the header on the Blog Page.

3. Publish the page.
4. In the wp-admin area, go to Settings > Reading.
5. If you followed the instructions in the previous section, the Static Page option would already be selected.
6. Select the page you created in the step2 above in the Posts Page drop-down.
   
7. Save the Changes.

You may want to add a link to this new blog page in you menu. In your wp-admin, click Appearance > Menu, and add the blog page you created in step2 above to your primary menu.

Blog Archive Layouts Premium Version

1. In your wp-admin, click Appearance > Customizer.
2. Goto the Archives section.
3. Select the layout you want under the Archive (Blog) Layout option.
   
4. Save the Changes.

This layout will be used throughout your site including the blog page, category page, tag page, and any other archive list page.

Responsive Brix displays archive descriptions (optional) in the header while viewing the archive index

Category / Tag Description

1. In your wp-admin area, click Posts > Categories.
2. Click the Category name to edit the category.
3. Enter the description in the Description textbox.
4. Save the Changes.

Blogpage Description

For entering Blog descripion, please refer to the Setup Blog Page section above.

Installing demo content is the easiest way to setup your theme and make it look exactly like the Demo Site.
New users often find it more helpful to quickly edit content instead of creating site from scratch.

1. Right click and save these files on your computer:
   Responsive Brix Import Files (Free version):
   WordPress Data (.xml) (Posts, Pages, Menus, Images)
   Customizer Settings (.dat)
   Widgets (.wie)
   Reference Files: Widgets Screenshot (You can take a look at this screenshot to understand how each widget was setup on the demo blog.)
   
2. Install the One Click Demo Import plugin
   • In your wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New
   • Search for One Click Demo Import in the search field on top right.
   • Click Install Now next to the plugin in search results.
   • Click the Activate button which appears once the install finishes.
     
3. Upload files and import content
   • In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Import Demo Data
   • Upload the 3 files you downloaded in Step 1 above.
   • Click Import Demo Data button only once.
   • This process will take some time. Please do not navigate away or close the window till the Import process finished.
     

Upgrading from Free to Premium version is pretty straight forward. Simply install the Premium theme like described above, and activate it.

Customizer Settings

Technically speaking, the Free and Premium versions are 2 separate themes. This is why the Customizer settings are stored separately by WordPress for Free and Premium versions.

Do note that HTML and Image sliders (in Appearance > Customizer > Widgetized Template HTML/Image Slider section) will get replaced by Slider A and Slider B. This is because Premium theme uses a separate post type Sliders to create sliders. Any slider created using this post-type can be selected in the Widgetized Template

Nav Menus

Menus are retained, but they may lose their location

Widgets

Widgets are automatically transferred when you upgrade from free to premium.

In small number of cases, widgets may not transfer properly.
Please note, your widgets are not deleted. They simply do not get assigned properly to the correct widget areas. This is due to the way WordPress stores widgets in the database. If you do not see widgets on upgrading, you can do one of thse 2 things:

1. In your Appearance > Widgets screen, you will see the widgets from Free theme in the Inactive Widgets area towards the bottom left of the screen. Simply drag and drop them back into the proper Widget Areas.

OR

2. If you have a lot of widgets, you can import them using the following method:

• Activate the free theme version.
• Once free theme is activated, install the Widget Importer Exporter plugin.
• Activate the plugin and go to Tools > idget Import Export
• Click Export Widget button and save the .wie file to your computer
• Activate the Premium theme, and go back to Tools > idget Import Export.
• Upload the .wie file you created in above step, and click the Import Widgets button.

You can update to the latest version of your Premium Theme using either of these 2 methods:

Manual Update

1. Download the latest version (.zip format) from the My Account page on wphoot.com (click the My Account link visible in top Menu when you are logged in).
2. Upload it to your site using the instructions provided above.

One Click Update (Preferred)

Please note, this feature is only available in Hoot 2.0 framework. Hence, One Click Update is not available for Responsive Brix version 1.8.2 or below

You can update your premium theme with the click of a button right from inside your wp-admin area (similar to the way you update free themes from wordpress.org). You will need to input the license key on your site to activate One Click updates.

» How to find your License Key

You can find your license key at any of these places

• On the landing Purchase Receipt page when you make the payment.
  
• In the welcome email you received when you made the purchase
• You can also find your license keys on the My Account page on wphoot.com (click the My Account link visible in top Menu when you are logged in)
  

» Activating One Click Update on your site

1. In your wp-admin area, go to Appearance > Hoot Theme Manager.
2. Enter your License Key and click the Save License Key button
3. You can now Activate/Deactivate the license key for this specific site by clicking the Activate License Key for this Site button

» Updating the site

You will get a notice within your wp-admin area once a new version is available. Simply click the update now link to update the theme.

How to install Child Theme

1. Download the sample Responsive Brix child theme from above link to your computer.
2. Upload and activate the child theme. (See Theme Installation section if you need help installing a theme.)

Switching between Parent and Child Theme

Since WordPress stores customizer settings separately for child and parent theme, you may want to port Customizer settings when you first switch from parent to child theme (or vica versa). Fortunately our premium version comes with a simple Import/Export feature.

1. Install and activate your child theme.
2. In your wp-admin area, go to Appearance > Hoot Theme Manager
3. Under Export Customizer Settings copy your parent theme's customizer settings
4. Paste this code in the Import Customizer Settings
5. Click Import Settings button.

Installing demo content is the easiest way to setup your theme and make it look exactly like the Demo Site.
New users often find it more helpful to quickly edit content instead of creating site from scratch.

Automatic One Click Demo Install (Recommended)

1. Install the One Click Demo Import plugin
   • In your wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New
   • Search for One Click Demo Import in the search field on top right.
   • Click Install Now next to the plugin in search results.
   • Click the Activate button which appears once the install finishes.
     
2. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Import Demo Data
3. Click Import Demo Data button only once.
4. This process will take some time. Please do not navigate away or close the window till the Import process finished.
   

Manual Install - Method 1

1. Right click and save these files on your computer:
   Responsive Brix Import Files (Premium version):
   WordPress Data (.xml) (Posts, Pages, Menus, Images)
   Customizer Settings (.dat)
   Widgets (.wie)
   Reference Files: Widgets Screenshot (You can take a look at this screenshot to understand how each widget was setup on the demo blog.)
   Customizer Settings (.txt) (This can optionally be used to import Customizer Settings via Appearance > Hoot Theme Manager screen.)
   
2. Install the One Click Demo Import plugin
   • In your wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New
   • Search for One Click Demo Import in the search field on top right.
   • Click Install Now next to the plugin in search results.
   • Click the Activate button which appears once the install finishes.
     
3. Upload files and import content
   • In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Import Demo Data
   • Click the Switch to Manual import link on this screen
     
   • Upload the 3 files you downloaded in Step 1 above.
   • Click Import Demo Data button only once.
   • This process will take some time. Please do not navigate away or close the window till the Import process finished.
     

Manual Install - Method 2

If for some reason the One Click Demo Plugin does not work as expected on your site, you can install the demo content manually using these original plugins:

1. Right click and save these files on your computer:
   Responsive Brix Import Files (Premium version):
   WordPress Data (.xml) (Posts, Pages, Menus, Images)
   Customizer Settings (.dat)
   Widgets (.wie)
   Reference Files: Widgets Screenshot (You can take a look at this screenshot to understand how each widget was setup on the demo blog.)
   Customizer Settings (.txt) (This can optionally be used to import Customizer Settings via Appearance > Hoot Theme Manager screen.)
   
2. XML File: Install the WordPress content
   • In your wp-admin, go to Tools > Import
   • Click Run Importer under WordPress option. (If instead of 'Run Importer', you see 'Install Now' option under WordPress, click it to install the plugin. Once this finishes, you will see the 'Run Importer' link)
     
   • Upload the .XML file you downloaded in Step 1 above. Click Upload file and Import.
   • In the next step, select the Download and import file attachments checkbox and click Submit
3. WIE File: Install and run the Widget Importer & Exporter plugin
   • In your wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New
   • Search for One Click Demo ImportWidget Importer & Exporter in the search field on top right.
   • Click Install Now next to the plugin in search results.
   • Click the Activate button which appears once the install finishes.
   • Go to Tools > Widget Importer & Exporter
     
   • Upload the .WIE file you downloaded in Step 1 above.
   • Click Import Widgets
4. DAT File: Install and run the Customizer Export/Import plugin
   • In your wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New
   • Search for Customizer Export/Import in the search field on top right.
   • Click Install Now next to the plugin in search results.
   • Click the Activate button which appears once the install finishes.
   • Go to Appearance > Customize > Export/Import > Export/Import
     
   • Upload the .DAT file you downloaded in Step 1 above. Select the Download and import image files checkbox.
   • Click Import Widgets

Images (jpg, jpeg, gif, png) in Lightbox

Lightbox gets activated automatically on installing Responsive Brix Premium. By default it opens all links pointing to images (.jpg .jpeg .gif and .png) in a standalone lightbox.

WordPress Gallery in Lightbox

When you create WordPress Galleries, Responsive Brix's Lightbox automatically converts the links to a lightbox gallery. Just make sure your gallery images link to Media File in the dropdown.

Disable Lightbox for specific images

You can disable a link pointing to an image simply by adding the no-lightbox class to the link.

Example: The original link added by WordPress (opens in lightbox)

<a href="http://my-site.com/image.jpg">Click Here to open Image</a>

Same link with the no-lightbox class added (opens normally in browser window)

<a href="http://my-site.com/image.jpg" class="no-lightbox">Click Here to open Image</a>

Disable Lightbox throughout Website

1. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Customizer
2. Click the Setup & Layout section. Check the Disable Lightbox checkbox.
3. Save Settings

Shortcodes are powerful shortcuts used in WordPress to help users insert special kinds of content. Responsive Brix Premium comes with a set of powerful shortcodes which can be inserted anywhere in Posts / Pages editor and even Widgets.

Shortcode Generator

1. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Shortcode Generator
2. Select your shortcode in the left panel. In right panel select the options for shortcode.
   
3. Click Create Shortcode
4. Copy Paste this code to your widget, or add it to your Editor using Shortcode block.
   

Responsive Brix Premium adds a new Sliders Post Type to your WordPress Admin. Go to Sliders > Add New Slider to create Sliders and Caousals.

Inserting a Slider/Carousal to your Home Page

1. In your wp-admin, go to Sliders > Add New Slider and create the Slider you want to add to your HomePage.
2. If you haven't done it already, follow the steps in Setup Homepage section above to set up your homepage using Widgetized Page Template
3. In your wp-admin, go to Appearance > Customizer.
4. Under Widgetized Template - Slider A or Widgetized Template - Slider B section, select the sliders you want to display on your Homepage.
5. Save your settings.

Inserting a Slider/Carousal to your Content

1. Insert a slider to your Post/Page by going to Post/Page > Add New.
2. Click Add Block button (the + button on top left)
3. Click the Shortcode block to add it to your Page. The Shortcode block can be found under the 'Widgets' section
   
4. Copy Paste the Slider Shortcode into the Shortcode block

Displaying a Slider/Carousel using Widgets

You can display slider in Widget Areas (Appearance > Widgets) by adding a Text Widget. Copy Paste the Slider Shortcode into the Text Widget and Save

A slider shortcode is simply [hoot_slider id="123"] where 123 is the Slider ID.
You can also find the slider shortcode on the Sliders screen

Responsive Brix Premium lets you display a custom page for the default 404 Not Found page.

1. In your wp-admin area, go to Appearance > Customizer
2. Click the 404 Page section.
3. Select Custom 404 Page option.
4. In the dropdown, select the Page you want to use as your 404 page.
5. Save Settings

Once you have Saved the Settings, head over to Pages > All Pages to edit the content of this page.

1. Setup your Google Analytics account and get your tracking code.
   
2. In your wp-admin, click Appearance > Customizer.
3. Click the Custom Code section.
4. Copy and paste the Google Analytics tracking code to the Custom Javascript text box.
5. Check the Include Custom Javascript in Header checkbox
6. Save Settings

Logo Image

The logo image is automatically reduced to the maximum available width which is 457 pixel (40% of the 1200px grid - 13px padding)

The logo height is also limited to a maximum of 120 pixel. Unlike the width, this however can be removed. To remove the height restriction, follow the steps in this code snippet.

Blog (Featured Images)

• Blog (Style 1 - Big)
  • with Regular Sidebar - 840 x 385 pixel
  • with Narrow / No Sidebar - 945 x 385 pixel
• Blog (Style 2 - Medium) Premium Version
  • with Regular / Narrow / No Sidebar - 420 pixel width (no height limit)
• Blog (Style 3 - Small) Premium Version
  • with Regular / Narrow / No Sidebar - 300 x 230 pixel
• Blog (Style 4 - Mosaic 2 column) Premium Version
  • with Regular / Narrow / No Sidebar - 420 x 190 pixel
• Blog (Style 4 - Mosaic 3 column) Premium Version
  • with Regular / Narrow / No Sidebar - 315 x 230 pixel

Content Block Widget

• Style 1, 2 and 3
  • 1 Column Blocks Full Width Image
  • 2 Column Blocks 840 x 385 pixel
  • 3 Column Blocks 420 x 190 pixel
  • 4 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel
  • 5 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel
• Style 4
  • 1 Column Blocks 840 x 385 pixel
  • 2 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel
  • 3 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel
  • 4 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel
  • 5 Column Blocks 315 x 230 pixel

Custom code snippets to modify your theme can be added using Child Themes. Custom CSS can also be added from your wp-admin by going to Appearance > Customizer and clicking Custom Code section (for premium theme version) or Additional Custom CSS (for free theme version).

Must Read:
• How to add Custom CSS to your Theme
• How to add Custom PHP to your Theme

## Increase Logo Size (remove height limitation)

The logo image is automatically reduced to the maximum available width which is 457 pixel (40% of the 1200px grid - 13px padding)

However, the logo height is limited to a maximum of 120 pixel. Unlike the width, this however can be removed. Remove the height restriction, and the logo will expand as much as it can (still restricted by the width though).

Add the following custom css to your theme.

#site-logo-img img {
  max-height: none;
}

Premium Theme: If you want to modify logo’s size in the floating sticky header as well, then add this CSS along with the above CSS.
(replace 50px with the height you want)

#header.stuck #site-logo-img img {
  max-height: 50px;
}

## Reduce Space between Menu Items

If you have a long primary menu spanning into more than one line, there are a few things you can do.

OPTION1: Reduce Menu Item Widths:

Add the following CSS to your theme to reduce the spacing between menu items.
You will need to modify the numbers below to suit your site - the code below has the default spacings in 'px' (pixels)

#menu-primary-items>li {
  margin-left: 18px;
}
#menu-primary-items>li>a {
  padding-right: 10px;
  padding-left: 10px;
}

OPTION2: Reduce Font Size:

You can even reduce the font size to 'squeeze in' the menu.

Premium Version You can reduce menu font size in Appearance > Customizer by going to Typography section. Change the font size under Menu Font option.

Free theme users who do not have this option available can add the CSS rule to do this:

#menu-primary-items > li a {
  font-size: 15px;
}

## Hide Title Area

Removing Title Area for specific Pages Premium Version

Sometimes you may not want to display the title area for some specific pages (for example, the checkout page of WooCommerce). In such cases you can disable the Title Area for specific pages from your wp-admin area.

Go to Pages/Posts > All and click the Page/Post you want to edit. On the Edit Page/Post screen, select the Hide Title Area for this Page option in the Page Options box.

In case you do not see Page Options box, make sure it is visible from the Screen Options dragdown button at the top right of screen.

Remove Title Area throughout the site

Add the following CSS to remove title area throughout your site.

#loop-meta {
  display: none;
}

Remove Title Area from all 'Pages' only

Add the following CSS to remove title area from all Pages on your Site.

.singular-page #loop-meta {
  display: none;
}

Remove Title Area from all 'Posts' only

Add the following CSS to remove title area from all Posts on your Site.

.singular-post #loop-meta {
  display: none;
}

## Reduce Page Title area height

Add the following CSS to modify the Title area height.
You will need to modify the numbers below to suit your site - the code below has the default spacings in 'px' (pixels)

.loop-meta {
  padding-top: 40px;
  padding-bottom: 40px;
}

## Delete descriptive text below Comment Form

WordPress adds default descriptive text below comment forms. To remove this, follow these steps:

Remove using PHP

Add this PHP code to remove the descriptive text (How to add Custom PHP to your Theme)

add_filter('comment_form_defaults', 'hoot_comment_form_defaults');
function hoot_comment_form_defaults($args) {
  $args['comment_notes_after'] = '';
  return $args;
}

Remove using CSS

Alternatively, you can simply hide it using CSS. Add the following CSS to your theme. (How to add Custom CSS to your Theme)

.form-allowed-tags {
  display: none;
}