22359 comments found.
Are there any planned updates for wordpress 4.5? Heard of problems with Visual Composer 4.11.1
I personally didn’t have any issues when testing 4.11.1 on WP 4.5 but some people did say they had some. I am going to be updating the theme later today with the updated Visual Composer but I have some other updates I wanted to finish first for Total 3.4.0 – You can see the upcoming changes (that are already complete) here: http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/upcoming-update-changelog/
I will get the update out ASAP but I don’t like to rush through my last checks because I might miss a bug when testing. Thank you for your patience!
hi,
great theme!
http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/base/portfolio-item/down-the-road/Where does the name “portfolio-item” comes from? and where/how to change that in something else?
thanks
Please see here: http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/renaming-post-types/ (change the setting that says Post Type Slug).
Glad you like my theme 
- AJ
Will there be an update soon for the problems caused to Visual Composer by the Wordpress 4.5 update? Thank you!
The update will be released soon. I am testing everything before updating to make sure there aren’t any other issues/bugs.
Thank you very much! If you wouldn’t mind responding to this thread when the update is available, that would be most appreciated. Thank you!
If I were to just update the VC plugin would that be okay? It wouldn’t cause any problems?
If you are using the latest version of Total 3.3.5 then yes it should be fine because the updates are minor.
Sorry I am doing some extra tweaks requested by customers before the official update. Coming today though for sure!
Looks like I have an old version 1.12. Anything I should be aware of before I update to 3.3.5? Will the site break or anything?
Oh my that is a very old version. I recommend checking this page: http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/updating-1-6-0/
A LOT has changed (for the better) since your version. But also I just released Total 3.4.0 so it would be best to just wait and update straight to that.
You shouldn’t have to worry about much when updating but it is a good idea when you are done to go to Appearance > Customizer and look through the new settings and get familiar with them and if anything got screwed up after the update re-tweak them. But definitely do advice updating as you are missing out on a lot of good stuff 
Well, it broke the site, every page is mostly blank, menu items are missing. Please take a look: http://iptconline.com ... any ideas what to do?
If I don’t hear back from you soon, I may have to revert back to the old version of the theme, seeing as it changed the site so completely (ie there’s no content to behold, I see the header only and every page is blank, with missing pages as well). If that’s the case, let me know if you think I need to purchase another license to receive Support so I can submit a ticket, or if you think we can resolve it another way. Thank you!
Hi, sorry for the delay. You responded pretty much as I ended my work day. Then I went to sleep.
When you updated your theme did you also update the Visual Composer? http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/updating-visual-composer/
If you did not you may have had a PHP error causing your pages to be blank. You should have WP_Debug enabled on your server though – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/enabling-wp-debug/ – which shows any errors on your site this way when updating things or installing new plugins you can make sure they don’t have errors rather then seeing blank pages.
My recommendation is to:
- Make Sure WordPress is up to date.
- De-activate all your plugins prior to updating
- Update the included plugins (after updating the theme you should see notifications to update Visual Composer, Revolution slider..etc.)
- Re-enable your plugins 1 by 1 to see if any of them are breaking the site
- If you do still have errors let me know. But make sure WP_Debug is enabled so you can tell me the exact errors you have.
But of course everything should be working it was most likely an issue with an outdated plugin (my guess). Hope this helps!
- AJ
Hi there, sorry it took so long for me to do this. As a courtesy and thank you for your help, I just purchased Extended Support for this theme.
Let me know if this is not the venue for this and I can submit a ticket in your support system.
I followed your steps, updated the themes, and before I even updated the plugins I had blank pages on the site. I couldn’t get the WP_Debug to show any errors. So I reverted back to the old theme, and got the errors pasted below. Please let me know your thoughts on how I can get the theme updated without having blank pages, thank you!
Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget in wpex_social_widget is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use __construct() instead. in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3718
Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget in wpex_flickr is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use __construct() instead. in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3718
Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget in wpex_video is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use __construct() instead. in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3718
Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget in wpex_recent_posts_thumb is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use __construct() instead. in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3718
Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget in wpex_recent_posts_thumb_grid is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use __construct() instead. in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3718
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare layerslider_load_lang() (previously declared in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-content/plugins/LayerSlider/layerslider.php:120) in /home/content/78/5445678/html/wp-content/plugins/layerslider/layerslider.php on line 78
Hi,
Thank you for purchasing the extended support. I appreciate that!
So most the errors are caused by having WordPress up to date but not the theme.
Do you mind telling me what version of the theme you are currently using to make sure the updates are smooth as butter when you do update? (disabling WP_Debug should hide those errors for now).
My guess is you may have to de-activate some plugins before updating to make sure you don’t have problems. But if you are updating from a version prior to 1.6.0 then you may need to pay attention to a few other things or more-so be aware of some changes.
So please let me know what version you are currently using so I can provide the best feedback.
Also I am releasing a new update tomorrow so it would be of course easier and best to just wait for that version to update so you don’t have to update twice in a row.
- AJ
I’m using Total version 1.12. I tried deactivating the plugins but had now luck. Let me know if I need to submit a ticket to get you Wordpress Admin credentials. Thank you so much!
Oh wow, ok version 1.12 is like 2 years old. There has been HUGE changes to the theme. I would highly recommend waiting for the 3.5.0 update which will be released asap (should be today the latest). I would also recommend opening a ticket – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/support/ – and request the ticket be sent to me (AJ) so I can assist with the update to make sure everything is smooth as butter and point you over to some crucial docs I would recommend you check out.
- AJ
Thanks, I’ve opened a ticket with the subject line addressed to AJ, I appreciate the help, and hope we can make this work!
I still have a few more things to get done for the 3.5.0 update so thank you for your patience. I have not forgotten about you! If you don’t hear back from me by tomorrow please reply and I’ll answer right away.
I just want to make sure this update 3.5.0 is awesome 
OK thanks, can you please let me know of progress? Did you get the ticket all right?
Hi Luke, I replied to you a few minutes ago. thank you for your patience!
AJ (or to whom it may concern):
The update to your theme broke the vc_text_separator title function of your old theme. Below is a snippet of code: my main concern is that the font size is not large like I would like it to be. Is there a way I can fix this globally throughout the site?
title="Getting Started" title_align="separator_align_center" element_type="div" style="four" font_size="42px" font_weight="400" margin_bottom="0px"]
Hi,
The vc_text_separator module was modified in version 3.0.0 on September 3, 2015 – sounds like you may have updated from a very old version then. You can have a look at the notes for 3.0.0 – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/changelog/ – if you want a better explanation of what changed.
It would be pretty easy to change things globally for sure, can you share the URL with the issue so I can suggest a fix?
Also there is now a new “Heading” module in that you can use which has much more options and I believe it’s easier to use.
- AJ
Thanks! Here’s the url: http://www.iptconline.com/utah-pilates-training-center-about-us/instructors/ ... I’d like the main heading at the top to be bigger, and the subheadings to be not as big, like they used to be. Let me know if there is a global fix, if not, I guess I can go page by page and update to the new heading modules as you said. Thanks!
Oh hey there!
Didn’t we have a ticket open for this. I clearly remember this site and I thought I was waiting to hear back from you but I don’t see any pending tickets 
Anyway, the easiest thing would be to just apply some custom CSS to the site if the site is already done and you just want it looking good. Here is the code I would recommend:
/* make centered headings bigger */
body .vc_separator_align_center h4 { font-size: 28px; font-weight: 600px; color: #222; }
body .vc_separator_align_left { margin-bottom: 16px; }
body .vc_separator_align_left h4 { color: #333; }
Results: https://cl.ly/011W3A3k0r1N
Since you are using the centered at the top and the left on the bottom then you can use CSS to tweak things. This code will affect all pages though – FYI.
Please let me know how I can further assist!
- AJ Clarke
Awesome! Worked great much thanks, you can ignore the update to the ticket I had made earlier today. Thanks!
Sure thing!
I actually noticed I accidentally moved your ticket to a different folder and didn’t see your responses. Sorry about that! If you ever need to message me privately or you notice I haven’t responded within 2-3 days please comment here so I can go in and make sure there aren’t any issues with the ticket. Again, my apologies and thank you for being such a good customer 
- AJ
Visual composer 4.11.1 and wp 4.5 problems.. Can you please update the Visual Composer Plugin to 4.11.2?
The update will be released soon. I am testing everything before updating to make sure there aren’t any other issues/bugs.
Is there a way to edit the font on an overlay header with white text. I’d like the text to be completely white, instead of a faded white. Can this be achieved.
For example: http://www.webcentre.website/delray/concierge-services/
As promised, I picked up another license for continued support. Like I’ve said before, the most important 2 pieces in any theme: continual updates & support. You offer both. Keep on building onto this Total theme. It’s the best one i’ve found over the years.
It’s very easy. Here is some custom CSS:
#site-header.overlay-header.light-style #site-navigation .dropdown-menu > li > a { opacity: 1; }
And actually I called this style “light” in the code, so I can make a new style called “white” for the next update. Good idea! So if you want you can simply wait for the update: http://cl.ly/0B3V3z2S1l3g
Thank you for extending your license, it helps me keep going and doing what I love 
- AJ
Thank you for the code! Worked like a charm. And the variations of “light” and “white” will be great additions to the theme.
And no problem, I’m glad to keep you doing what you love! You help me do what I love, so I have no problem helping you.

Following up on this conversation, is there a way to also make the font bold or increase the weight of the font on the overlay header + with the custom css? I know I can make the font larger in size, but I’d like to keep it the same size.
Updated link: http://www.webcentre.website/delray/our-difference/
Sure thing:
#site-header.overlay-header #site-navigation .dropdown-menu > li > a { font-weight: bold; }
But you can also go to Appearance > Customize > Typography and here you can change the typography fort he main menu including the font-weight 
But if I did it through the customizer it would change it for the whole menu, whether it was an overlay or not, correct?
Correct. But font weight should probably be consistant site wide for the menu, imo.
You’re correct. Good point.
Along these same lines, I set the Slider Revolution to have a dotted overlay in the settings for the slider. But it’s like the dotted overlay goes on top of the overlay header logo and menu. Why is that?
http://www.webcentre.website/delray/The overlay is behind the logo and menu when I check. Did you manage to fix the issue? http://cl.ly/0R3I3g1b1X11
Honestly I really like what you are doing with the site, looks great! However, a lot of the customers may be older people I would highly recommend maybe disabling the overlay header and using a dark/black (maybe like #222) header color that really pops and is super easy to read the menu links on. But ya the layouts are coming out great! And the yelllow schedule appointment looks hot 
- AJ
Hey AJ, good recommendations. Right now with this example site, i’m going for straight best design possible. Later I’ll adjust it more for usability, but I like your suggestions for sure.

VIsual Composer not working/broken after WP 4.5 update for Total theme, can you help me, please
I will be releasing an update shortly. I am testing everything before updating to make sure there aren’t any other issues/bugs. Thank you for your patience.
The front-end editor doesn’t seem to have any issues though for the mean time.
- AJ
I am unable to use Backend Editor after updating to WP 4.5. I tried with different browser, but same, the Editor never loads. So, I am guessing its a Visual Composer problem, may be? Can you please update the Visual Composer Plugin?
I will be releasing an update shortly. I am testing everything before updating to make sure there aren’t any other issues/bugs. Thank you for your patience.
The front-end editor doesn’t seem to have any issues though for the mean time.
- AJ
Dear support!
I have a problem. Yesterday I updated the WP 4.5 version. Since then, it does not work in the visual composer. Why? What is the problem?
Thank you in advance for your help.
I will be releasing an update shortly for compatibility with WP 4.5. I am testing everything before updating to make sure there aren’t any other issues/bugs. Thank you for your patience.
The front-end editor doesn’t seem to have any issues though for the mean time.
- AJ
I may have asked this already but maybe not. Is there anyway to prevent the amount of hyphens that occur at various widths (and mobile) when using the VC text block? http://cl.ly/1M0y0P460v0j
Hyphens shouldn’t be added by the theme can you share a live example so I can see what you mean? The way text works is if the word doesn’t fit it should go down to the next line. You aren’t adding the hyphens yourself?
There was something odd with the text, despite me stripping it and making it plain text every other word was underlined even if it was spelled correctly, very strange. I manually retyped the copy and it fixed the issue.
This can happen when copying text from certain websites or processors (lime microsoft word) if you copied the text from somewhere maybe this caused the issue?
Well thats really weird is that what typically fixes this is pasting into a text edit and turning it into plain text. I checked the text tab after pasting and there was no odd code either, so maybe it’s something with how VC’s text boxes operate versus the regular WP description box. In any event, retyping it worked.
Is there a way to add the page name as the body class?
You can via the body_class filter – https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/body_class – but the page ID is already added by default in WordPress which is better then using the name which can change.
I feel the page id may change somehow but the page name would always be the same and is more accurate for my usage I think.
In WordPress page ID’s and Post ID’s never change that’s why they exist to prevent conflicts in the database. Pages can have the same name but never the same ID.
Gotcha. For simplicity’s sake, is there a way to add the page name to the body class with one of your functions?
Adding the name isn’t a good idea because names can be multiple words, but adding the “slug” may be a good solution for you. Example:
function myprefix_add_slug_body_class( $classes ) {
if ( is_page() ) {
global $post;
$classes[] = $post->post_name;
}
return $classes;
}
add_filter( 'body_class', 'myprefix_add_slug_body_class' );
Er yeah that’s what i mean’t, slug. Thank you 
No problem!
Is it possible to do an image grid like the one at the bottom of this page (full width spread out evenly, responsive etc)? https://forqy.com/@lemontheme. Also something similar to what’s on the bottom of this page too: http://winstonrestaurant.com/about
Yes. Use the “Image Grid” Visual Composer module and select 0px for the column spacing. Then either make sure all images are the same size so it’s even or use the built-in cropping settings to crop all images evenly.
Here is the guide for full-width rows – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/full-screen-rows/
Thank you!
This Theme is so nice – i bought it almost for every of my clients (More than 10). – Thanks for the updates.
One thing – on the moble navigation (Full-Width-Overlay). The user jumps to top BEFORE he goes to the links.
Like: 1. User Press Menue Button 2. System shows overlay and jumps to top 3. User can click on a link.
No my problem: if the usere dont want to navigate and closes it, its already jumpet to top. Can i disable the jump to top somehow ?
Greetz
That’s awesome thank you for choosing my theme!
Regarding the menu overlay I can’t quite seem to cause this problem. I am assuming you have the sticky header enabled. Here is my test: http://cl.ly/2H1l1C2P0V38
Do you have something different? Maybe using a different mobile menu toggle style? Can you share the URL so I can look?
- AJ
Just bought it again
– thanks for your reply. Strange by me it jumps to top. I can share you an url – just pm me
I might have found the bug: in the css i deactivated:
body.wpex-noscroll { position: absolute; width: 100%; overflow-y: hidden; /* top: 0; / / bottom: 0; */ }
top and bottom and now its working correctly
- deactivated top:0 and bottom:0
I actually removed the same thing in the theme already: http://cl.ly/401e17411b0L I must have noticed the bug at some point but I don’t remember when I made the switch it may have been in the last update or for the upcoming one.
Thanks for the purchase!
I have a row in VC with a background image and when I was performing speed tests I noticed the background image is being loaded twice because Visual Composer is linking to the attachment url of the image as well in the custom css for the site when it is live. For example the background image is photo.jpg and VC is linking to photo.jpg?id=233 causing both urls to load. How can I stop this?
Sorry I am not quite sure what you mean. Do you mind sharing the URL or a screenshot?
The only thing I can think of is you have the image defined under “Design Options” in the row settings and you have parallax enabled so the image will be added in 2 places. Can you double check? Or are you using any sort of Visual Composer add-on plugins that could be causing the issue?
The background should only be added 1x like this – http://cl.ly/2b2X1G04133T – in the inline CSS.
Either way though browsers cache assets/images so it only loads the first time the second time it should be loaded from the browser cache.
- AJ
Sorry I had the image in a blog grid as well. That’s my fault I didn’t realise.
I have another question regarding the iphone and ipad icons. I have them added in the backend and they do come up on my devices when I want to add the website to my home screen. Although when I want to bookmark the website the icons don’t appear. How do I get that to happen?
You mean under Theme Panel > Favicons? These should show up on your mobile device, maybe try clearing your device & site cache if it’s not working.
Hi,
We’ve just bought a second license of your theme and installed on a new website. We’ve got the following message on top of the WP dashboard: “error occurred while creating the CSS / JS minify cache: No sources to serve”. Any idea about what could have happened?
Also, when importing the sample demo (base, full), we’ve got a lot of “failed to import”. Any problem because of that?
And the last question. If we want to remove a demo we’ve imported and import a different one, how could that be done in a “clean” mode?
Thanks.
Thank you for choosing Total for your new project!
Total does not have any CSS/JS minify error notice or functionality that would cause this. Do you have any 3rd party plugins installed (caching/minifying plugins) that may have caused that issue? If you search for the error notice in the theme files you can see it doesn’t exist so it’s coming from elsewhere.
When importing the Base demo you will need to have the WooCommerce plugin and bbPress plugins active otherwise you may see some failed to import errors because it can’t import the products or forums without the plugins installed. You can ignore the error if you don’t need this specific sample data.
The best way is to reset WordPress. Either by deleting the WP installation or using a plugin such as this one – https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-reset/
Please let me know if you have any further questions/issues.
- AJ
Thank you for your prompt reply. Yes, we have W3 Total Cache installed. We’ll try uninstalling and reinstalling it. We did have Woocommerce installed (not bbPress) and active when importing sample data. If that does not suppose any conflict, it’s OK. we don’t need that specific data. I guess it will be better to delete WP installation than using the plugin…
Best regards.
Be sure whenever you install any new theme or plugin to clear your W3 Cache for sure. Also I am working on an importer function I hope to release next month that will tell you which plugins to enable prior to importing sample data to avoid these confusions. Just letting you know hopefully it will be ready for future usage 
ps: Base is the ONLY demo with bbPress.
Hi AJ, I’m one of your customers. I was posting on the Fashionista page, but I finally purchased the Total theme. Amar
Welcome to the family!
Hello! I love your theme and plan to buy two more licenses in the near future for new projects. One thought I had is that I think it would be very helpful to have a second set of menus for when a user is logged in. Basically, on the “manage locations” you could have “Assigned menu (logged-out)” and next to it “Assigned menu (logged-in)”. Is this something you have considered? Or is there some way to do this already? Thanks!
That’s awesome, I am glad to hear that!
You can already do this easily via a child theme – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/snippets/display-custom-menu/
But I would actually recommend a plugin, this one is very popular and easy to use – https://wordpress.org/plugins/nav-menu-roles/screenshots/
Hi,
I’ve had an issue with the theme. I updated to the latest version of the theme but when I try to upgrade Visual Composer it says “An error occurred while updating WPBakery Visual Composer: Update package not available.”
Is there any way to fix this?
Thank you for your help! As always this is a great theme. My clients are very happy with it. 
This is not a very common issue but easy to fix! Simply de-activate the Visual Composer plugin then you should be able to update it then you can re-enable it. Please let me know if that doesn’t work!
- AJ
Woot! It worked like a charm! Thank you AJ! _
Great! Sorry for the initial troubles.
I have bought the total theme and have been very impressed how flexible the theme is.
I just have a few issues:
1) I use different full height side bars on different apges and would like to have different background colors. But it seems like I can only have 1 color. when I add it in CSS: #sidebar . I need to have the background with opacity on some pages and others black.
2) I have 2 pages where I have added the total side bar with thumbnails, 1 for portfolio and 1 for posts. But when i click through to the posts from the widgets, the page the I came from is not highlighted in the menu. Is it possible to do that?
Great! Glad you like it so far 
1. You will need to use custom CSS to have custom sidebar colors. As you can imagine it would be way too much bloat to try and add a customizer option for every scenario.
You should be able to target your sidebars using the unique classes that are added to the body tag. If you aren’t sure how to do this, please show me your URL and let me know on what pages you want what and I can assist with the CSS.
2. Sorry I am not quite understanding can you please share an example? WordPress adds classes to the menu items for highlights based on the current page/post but it requires some sort of relationship, it’s possible your menu item isn’t “related” to the current post/page.
- AJ
The Revolution Slider on our site needs an update but I can’t update it because it says we need to register a license key. I have checked in the current theme folder and it doesn’t have the updated version for the Revolution Slider – is this because you need to update the plugin on your end?
Please have a look here – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/updating-slider-revolution/
Basically whenever you update your theme you should also be receiving updates for all the bundled plugins. I actually test all the plugins prior to updating with the theme to ensure there aren’t any issues so while sometimes you may have to wait a few days for the updated plugin (unless it’s a security update than I update instantly) you should have that extra piece of mind knowing there shouldn’t be any big bugs.
Please let me know if you have any issues updating I am happy to help!
- AJ
Hi AJ,
I’m looking into purchasing a multipurpose theme.
What differs your theme from other ‘top 10’ seller themes on Themeforest? Why would I purchase your theme?
We’ll I can tell you from experience that many of my customers have used some of the other top sellers and they often tell me how much more they like Total 
In fact a customer recently told me they were going to test the X theme to see if they liked it and sure enough they came back to Total – http://cl.ly/3l1e0D3O0R0w
You can look at most of the features available in the theme here – http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/features/
Please let me know if you have any specific pre-purchase questions I am happy to answer them.
- AJ
Thanks,
Well it’s bit hard deciding between those themes. All are using VC and claim to be ‘most versatile, best etc.’.
The only thing that may differ from the outside is support, that’s what I’m looking into before purchasing anyway
(how long it usually takes for dev to reply to comments).
I’ll still think a bit today and purchase a multi-purpose theme later on.
Sounds great. Just let me know if you have any further questions.
And if you choose to go with another theme and they disappoint I’ll be here to make your day better 
- AJ
Last question.
What’s the drawback of multipurpose themes? I assume speed. Anything else?
How much impact it has on speed?
Thanks!
I have coded Total in a way to keep it as fast as possible. The theme panel allows you to disable functions you won’t need: http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/features/theme-features/theme-panel/
And coding optimizations such as the theme’s global object which looks through main settings and stores them in memory so you don’t have to query the database multiple times as well as storing an array of theme_mods rather then calling get_theme_mod multiple times keeps the theme much faster then other themes that don’t use such optimizations.
When it comes down to speed it’s going to depend mostly on 2 factors:
- How big your site is (if you are using a lot of other plugins and if you are using really big images).
- How good your server is and if cache is setup correctly for WordPress.
You can see a demo of our theme here loading in under 1 second – http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/features/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/11/total-speed.png
- AJ
Thanks 
How to use one of the demos?
Please have a look here – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs-category/sample-data/
Thanks!
Two questions. What do to with widgets.txt and widgets.wie file?
Second, what does this mean (last row in that link):
Go to the Customizer setup your main options
Hi,
- The widgets file is actually to be used for a sample data importer plugin I am working on. But you can use it yourself if you want but you would need to use this plugin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-importer-exporter/
- Basically I am just saying when you are done with the import you can go to Appearance > Customizer and tweak the theme to your liking. I think most customers after they have looked through the options realize they didn’t need to import anything because it’s pretty easy to change the way the theme looks via the Customizer so I just want to make sure people importing sample data are aware of all the available settings.
- AJ