West - aThemes

0. Introduction

Most of the content on this page shows how you can build an website for your business using the West WordPress theme and the Live Composer. If you're just running a blog powered by West then you can skip most of this page.

1. Quick start guide

a. Install the theme

Themes > Add New > Upload Theme > Choose File

b. Install Live Composer

Install Live Composer when prompted by the theme.

c. Import demo content (optional)

Demo content available here. Video help here.

d. Import premade layouts

Layouts available on this page. Video help here.

2. Video tutorials

a. Importing the demo content

Note that this is not a mandatory step. You should only do it if you want to import all the content from our demo site. It won't affect your existing content.

b. Setting a static front page

Setting a static front page allows you to add static content on your homepage. This is what you want to do in case you don't want to show only your latest posts on your homepage.

c. Using Live Composer

Remember that when you're using Live Composer on a page, it's best to assign the Composer page template for that specific page.

This video shows just a few things that the Live Composer plugin can do. You should also try the interactive demo that the plugin's author provides here.

d. Importing premade layouts

We have a growing collection of premade single page layouts for West, you probably already saw it here. This video shows how you can import any of those layouts into your own site.

Please note: to get the most out of the premade layouts you should first import the demo content.

e. Same page scrolling

In this video you'll see how you can add a link in your menu that will scroll to a section on your page when you click it.

f. Google Fonts

You can use any Google Fonts you want with full flexibility regarding subsets, weights etc. Check out this video to learn how to load your favorite fonts.

g. Passing Customizer settings from West to West Pro

If you’ve made a lot of changes from the Customizer while using West and you would like to pass them over in West Pro, follow these easy steps:

install and activate this plugin (while having the free version of West active);
go to Appearance > Customize > Export/Import and click on Export. You will automatically download a file;
open that file in any text editor (like Notepad on Windows, TextWrangler on Mac) and do a Find&Replace (Ctrl+H in Notepad, ⌘F in TextWrangler) for s:4:"west" and replace with s:8:"west-pro". Save the file;
switch to West Pro and visit again Customize > Export/Import. This time you will upload the file you’ve just edited. That’s it, you’re free to deactivate and remove the plugin now.