Getting Started

After activating your theme, visit the Customizer under Appearance → Customize to set up the basic theme settings, such as background color, custom header, site logo, or Custom Menu.

Site Logo

Go to Appearance → Customize → Site Title & Tagline to add your site logo.

Check out this guide for full details on how to set up a site logo.

Portfolio

Candela takes advantage of Portfolios, offering unique layouts and organization for your portfolio projects.

With a dedicated Portfolio section in your dashboard, adding portfolio items is simple. Check out this guide for full details on how to set up your portfolio.

People love full-size images of your work, so make sure the images you include are at least 1000px wide. Candela displays these images beautifully.

Featured Images

Featured Images are important throughout Candela and work best when they are at least 1000px wide. They will appear in several places, including archive pages, portfolio page template, and portfolio shortcodes, so, don’t forget to add one!

Portfolio Shortcodes

Once you create portfolio projects, use the [portfolio] shortcode to display your projects in any post or page. Learn more about working with the portfolio shortcode.

Portfolio Homepage with Portfolio Page Template

This template will display your portfolio and allow you to set your portfolio as your site’s homepage.

When you first activate Candela, your posts will display in a traditional blog format. If you would like to show your portfolio projects on the front page of your site — like Candela’s demo site — just follow these instructions:

1. Create or Edit a page, and assign it to the Portfolio Page Template from the Page Attributes module.
2. Go to Settings → Reading and set “Front page displays” to “A static page.”
3. Select your portfolio page as the “Front page,” and then choose another page as the “Posts page” to display your blog posts.

By default, page title and content will appear. You can hide them if you prefer by going to Appearance → Customize → Theme and unchecking “Show title and content on Portfolio Page Template” option.

Where is the portfolio archive page?

Along with the Portfolio Page Template, your projects will be displayed on portfolio archive pages.

If your blog’s URL is http://candelademo.wordpress.com/, you’ll find your portfolio archive page at http://candelademo.wordpress.com/portfolio/.

If you’d like to add your portfolio archive page to a Custom Menu, create a custom link using the portfolio archive URL.

Theme Options

You’ll find Candela’s theme options in the Customizer, under Appearance → Customize → Theme.

Theme Layout

You can use Candela‘s default wide layout or personalize it with beautiful backgrounds using the boxed layout.

• Go to Appearance → Customize → Theme.
• Select Wide or Box from the Theme Layout dropdown menu.

Wide Layout

Candela will cover the full screen width in wide-layout mode. Any background color or background image will not be visible using wide-layout mode.

Box Layout

Candela will wrap the content in a box. This option is best if you want to use a background color or background image for your website.

Portfolio Page Template Title & Content

By default, page title and content will appear on the Portfolio Page Template. You can hide/show these elements via the “Show title and content on Portfolio Page Template” option.

Featured Images

Candela supports Featured Images on blog posts and static pages. Featured Images also appear above the title on the blog index and archive pages. For best results, use an image at least 1618px wide and 1076px high.

If you upload larger Featured Images or images with different proportions, they will be automatically resized to match the dimensions noted above. On single posts, your Featured Images are displayed at the larger size, so you can have big, beautiful Featured Images in your posts.

Add a Custom Header Image

Add a Custom Header Image to your site by going to Appearance → Customize → Header.

First, upload a new image or choose one from your media library. Once uploaded, you will have the opportunity to crop the image and set a few more options.

Note: Your uploaded image should be at least 275 pixels tall. The width should be at least 1920 pixels to provide a crisp background.

Add a Custom Background Image or Color

Add a Custom Background to your site by going to Appearance → Customize → Background.

Similar to the Custom Header Image, you can either upload a new image or choose one from your media library. Once you’ve chosen your image, you will have several options for displaying the background. You can also choose a background color instead of an image. You must choose the Box Layout in the Customizer’s Theme area to see background colors or images.

Custom Menus

Candela allows you to have a Custom Menu, which can be set up under Appearance → Menus.

Don’t forget to select Primary Menu in the Menu Settings; if the option isn’t checked, Candela won’t display your menu on the site

Social Icons

Candela allows you display links to your social media profiles, like Twitter and Facebook, as icons using a Social Links Menu. Read the full guide for setup instructions.

Available icons

Linking to any of the following sites will automatically display its icon in your menu.

Widget Areas

Candela comes with four widget areas: one in the sidebar, and up to three in the footer. The footer widget areas will activate once you add widgets to them in Appearance → Widgets.

Candela Widgets

Candela features two custom widgets:

Post List (Candela) Widget

The Post List widget will display posts from a category of your choosing alongside a small Featured Image. Go to Appearance → Widgets to use the Post List (Candela) widget.

Project List (Candela) Widget

The Project List widget will display portfolio posts from a category of your choosing alongside a small Featured Image. Go to Appearance → Widgets to use the Project List (Candela) widget.