Gather - Homepage Setup

Overview of Gather homepage widgets:

STEP 1: CONFIGURE PAGES

If you imported the demo content, the Home and Blog pages will have already been set up for you, so you can skip step 1.

1. In your Wordpress dashboard, go to Pages > Add New. Name the page “Home.” Scroll down and find Layout Settings. Select the Full-Width layout (the rightmost option) and then publish the page. Add another new page and name it “Blog” and publish the page.
2. Go to Wordpress > Settings > Reading. Under Front Page Displays, choose “a static page.”

3. For the Posts Page, choose the “Blog” page you created. For the Front Page, choose the “Home” page you created.  Save changes.

STEP 2: IMAGE SLIDER

The Gather slider uses images sized 1130 x 450px. For best results, we recommend that you crop your slider images to this size before uploading them (you can do this in Photoshop or a free program like Pixlr).

1. Install and activate the   Meta Slider plugin. Once installed, click the Meta Slider tab in the left column of your dashboard.
2. Click the “+” to create a new slider.
3. Upload your images.
4. Configure your settings as seen here:

5. Once your slider is created and saved, go to Wordpress > Appearance > Widgets.
6. Drag the Meta Slider widget into the    Home Slider widget area. Select the slider you created, and then hit Save. 

STEP 3: Subscription Widget

The "Get the Latest" subscription widget in the Gather theme uses  Genesis eNews Extended. To learn how to configure this plugin, click here.

Go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag the Genesis eNews Extended widget into the  Home Slider widget area underneath the Meta Slider widget. Configure the widget how you would like, and then save. 

Step 4: Featured Posts

The Gather theme has four widget areas for featured posts. Each widget areas displays the Featured Posts in a different format (1 column, 2 column, 3 column, or 4 column). Each widget area is very flexible, meaning you can add as many widgets as you would like to each area and configure them how it works best for your website.

The next several screenshots will show you how the demo Featured Posts widgets are configured. You do not have to use this exact configuration. Again, these widgets are super flexible so you can switch it up however you like! You could have your homepage only display in a 2 column format, or only display in a 1 column format, or display in your own unique mixture of columns.

"HOME - 2 COLUMN" WIDGET AREA 

Displays the Genesis Featured Posts widget in two columns. 

To add widget(s) to the 2 column section, go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag a Genesis Featured Posts widget into the Home - 2 Column widget area. The demo uses the following settings configuration in the Home - 2 Column widget area: 

"HOME - 1 COLUMN" WIDGET AREA

Displays the Genesis Featured Posts widget in one column with an image on the left, title and content on the right. 

To add widget(s) to the 1 column section, go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag a Genesis Featured Posts widget into the  Home - 1 Column widget area. The demo uses the following settings configuration in the Home - 1 Column widget area: 

"HOME - 3 COLUMN" WIDGET AREA 

Displays the Genesis Featured Posts widget in three columns. 

To add widget(s) to the 3 column section, go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag a Genesis Featured Posts widget into the  Home - 3 Column widget area. The demo uses the following settings configuration in the Home - 3 Column widget area: 

"HOME - 4 COLUMN" WIDGET AREA 

Displays the Genesis Featured Posts widget in four columns. 

To add widget(s) to the 3 column section, go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag a Genesis Featured Posts widget into the  Home - 4 Column widget area. The demo uses the following settings configuration in the Home - 4 Column widget area: