Menus
Giornalismo comes with up to two menus for your liking. The main menu is always displayed between the header section and the main body of each page. The top menu is optional and can be set to be shown in the WordPress Customizer under the “General Settings” tab.
Custom Header
While the suggested practice is to let the header be the site title and description, there is the option to upload a custom header image. To upload the image, go to Appearance->Header in the WordPress admin area. For the best display, header images should be 530px by 150px.
Featured Photos
This theme relies a lot on featured photos and it is recommended that each post comes with a featured photo. The optimal size for featured photos is 735px by 440px.
Customizable Homepage
Giornalismo leaves a number of options open to users, including the homepage. Users can completely customize what posts show up in the homepage and where they show up. Each column can either display posts from a category or the latest posts in order and each column can show a different number of posts. Users can also select which category shows up in the top story slot at the top. All of these options can be found in the WordPress Customizer under the “Homepage Options” tab.
Sidebars
There are a couple of different options when it comes to the sidebars. There’s the generic right sidebar layout, then there’s the left sidebar layout and finally there’s the two sidebar layout. It is important to note that if the two sidebar layout is in use, the third column on the home page will not appear.
Story Highlights
One of the best features your readers will enjoy is the story highlights feature. Shown at the top of the post right underneath the post meta, you can enter up to three key points for each story. This will highlight the most important parts of the story so the reader knows what’s going on. To implement this feature, install the “Giornalismo Story Details” plugin (see the How To’s section).
Post Details
In addition to the story highlights, Giornalismo also has spots for a photo credit and caption for featured photos and a spot to place an embedded video in place of a featured photo. Like the story highlights, you will need to install the “Giornalismo Story Details” plugin. To make the YouTube embed work, on the YouTube video you want to embed, click share, embed and copy the source link. Make sure the url has the “/embed/” in the middle of it.
Related Stories/Latest Stories
Want the readers to be able to dig deeper into your content without adding another plugin? Giornalismo has that covered. The theme has the ability to show related stories and latest stories from a category on the single post view. To implement these features, select the respective checkboxes in the “General Settings” tab of the WordPress Customizer.
Staff Page
Giornalismo also has a special staff page template to show off your staff of however many peope you have. To create this page, add a new page and select “Staff” in the template dropdown menu.
Header Ads
There is a spot in the upper right hand side of the header for a widget area. This spot is recommended for ads if you wish. To implement this feature, see the “Header Ads” How To section.
Breaking News
Giornalismo also comes with built-in support for the “JM Breaking News” plugin. Simply install the plugin (details in the How To’s section), and create a new breaking news post and set a time limit. The banner will show up without having to add any code.
Breadcrumbs
Let your readers know where they are on your site with breadcrumbs at the top of the page. Click the checkbox in the “General Settings” tab of the WordPress Customizer to implement this feature.
Social Links
Social media is everything these days and Giornalismo makes it easy to display links to your social media pages. Just enter your links in the respective text boxes in the “Social Options” section in the WordPress Customizer and the links will automatically show in the header. The theme currently supports Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and RSS feed options with more social media sites to come down the road.
Editor Styles
Also, with Giornalismo you’ll know exactly how your theme is going to look from the font to the link color to blockquotes and tables. Everything will be styled in the editor exactly as it will be on the page.
Author Details
Lastly, allow your writers to talk about and promote themselves. Giornalismo has support for author bios, photos and social media links at the bottom of each post as well as on the staff page template. Install the “Extra User Details” and follow the directions in the “Author Details” part of the How To’s section.