22383 comments found.
I somehow accidentally erased the parallax image & text at the bottom of the homepage Nouveau demo. Now I don’t know how to replicate it. When I try adding a background image to a row, the size of the image and speed of the parallax is off. And when I try to adjust the speed, it just makes the image bigger (which doesn’t make sense to me).
Could you please let me know the defaults for the Nouveau homepage parallax section/bar so I can reproduce it?
Thanks.
Hi,
Here is a little video showing you how the row is setup: https://cl.ly/sNjD
If you notice in the video the theme was using an extra classname bg-fixed in the row classes, this is because before there was no option to select the fixed background under the Design Options tab. But now there is 
So technically the background is not “parallax” but it’s just set to background-attachment: fixed; which makes it stay in place as you scroll on the site.
Sorry for the confusion!
- AJ
Woo hoo! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much!
I have installed a couple of plugins to get it sorted. EWWW Image Optimizer W3 Total Cache
Thanks!
Hi,
So right off the bat using plugins like Image Optimizer would help with speed “scores” but in terms of site speed maybe only help by like 0.01 second. So it’s not crucial.
Using a plugin like W3 Total Cache is very important, but you need to make sure it’s setup properly for your server. Does your hosting company have any guides on their site for proper cache setup? Most good hosting companies for WordPress (WPEngine, Flywheel, Kinsta, Site Ground..etc) actually already have built-in cache so if you use a plugin it can actually slow things down.
Looking at your site speed and waterfall…I get 3.6 seconds load time on Gtmetrix but on my own computer it loads in 0.6 seconds.
Your images are well optimized and they aren’t very large but there are quite a few of them. The slowness shown on Gtmetrix suggests that your server may be loading a bit slower in Vancouver, Canada where the Gtmetrix test is performed. Do you know where your server is located?
If you already have a good server and the site loads fast for you but doesn’t test very well in other location maybe you need to consider investing in a CDN if you have visitors from around the world so that your assets are loaded fast no matter where they are. I personally use CloudFlare as my CDN but there are many options out there.
If you experience a lot of slowness in the backend though when building/managing the site then upgrading to a better hosting company may be good.
- AJ
Several questions regarding categories and tags;
i cannot find any way to customize the look of my tags. The system asked for a thumbnail picture for the tags. These pictures appear as a background for the tag title, which is OK, but oddly, they are darkened and hence, appear ugly and unappealing to the viewer. I’d also like to cusomize the size of the pictures and their location, as I did with the categories, but there does not seem a way to do this without programming.
Additionally, YOAST SEO prompted me to add a text to my categories. The text appears huge on a similarly darkened wall-to-wall “thumbnail”. This is very unesthetic. Is there a way to not show the text to the public and just keep it for the robots for SEO purposes, or at least to be able to customize the size, font, color, etc. And why are the pictures darkened? Otherwise I might consider cancelling both pictures and text.
Are the pictures darkened because it is still under maintenance? Nothing else is.
I also have a ticket with you, but do not know how to access it, though I have the number.
Thank you.
Hi,
This is AJ the theme developer.
The image option for tags is 100% optional and when you add one it is used as the page header background – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/page-header-backgrounds/ – the dark overlay is added over the image because the title is white to make it more visible, very typical for backgrounds added under text.
The images are optional so you don’t have to add any if you don’t like the way it looks on the live site. However, you mention you want to add the image but display it somewhere else. this is very easy with some coded added in a child theme – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/child-theme/ – I can give you the code, but I need to know where you wanted to display the image.
The description is added under the title but you can easily change the look if you wanted with a little custom CSS or even remove it with some code in your child theme, again very easy.
You can also assign an image and disable the title here – https://cl.ly/sMRI
Here is a demo example showing categories with background images in the title – http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/blogdotnom/category/recipes/
Plus you can move the description if you want easily via the Customizer – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/category-descriptions/ – by default it’s under the title but it can be placed above the entries or disabled as you mentioned.
Remember if you don’t like how something looks it can always be adjusted via custom CSS or using a style editor plugin such as this – https://www.wpexplorer.com/customize-wordpress-theme-design/ – while the theme has TONS of styling options under the Customizer it can’t have everything because the theme is very large and modular so it would be too bloated.
Tickets are all email based – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/support/how-it-works/ – but I don’t see anything in our system under your username – https://cl.ly/sNNt – did you open a ticket with Envato instead of with us? The correct way to access our private support is here – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/support/ – as mentioned in the docs and the Support tab above.
- AJ
Thank you so much for the elaborate answer. From what I could understand (I belong in the customer “dummy” category) I changed the setting for “category description position” to “above loop” but it disappeared altogether… !!! No idea where it went…I did not want to hide it altogether because I read somewhere that Goggle doesn’t like it when texts like this exist only for SEO, but …where’s the lost and found here? Are there other options where to put it perhaps?
I was frustrated to find out I could have easily customized the background picture through the wonderful options in the red box if it was a regular post having the “Title style” menu. Unfortunately I cannot do this in a category, or at least I did not find any location where I could do it. I’d like to put the image in center-center position (at the top of the page of course!, but the image should be positioned differently in the title header). The images now are cut and show only the top part that sometimes is nothing but sky or background… . i do not mind the size of the images, and it’s OK at the top of the category page, but would like to have it “cover” or at least “center center”. I would have liked also to change the overlay to less “darkening”.. A little bit is OK.
Additionally, at the bottom of the link you sent it dealt with the non-responsiveness of the site header. I just can’t figure this out. You say that “technically it is reponsive” but also that “backgrounds are not technically responsive”. Then you give some CSS but say it is not advised. So is the solution to disable the TOTAL header entirely and create one via Elementor? I just want to make sure if I do that , no catastrophe would happen. Can I do that globally? (you wrote: “Simply disable the title on the page and insert your image at the top using the “Single Image” Visual Composer module instead.” Does that mean on the single page? I have a complicated header. Not sure what will work, but the way it looks on mobile is definietly not how I want it to look.
Thanks
Hi,
- If you set the caegory description to display above the loop it should be showing right above your posts on the category. If it isn’t can you share sample URL so I can see, it may be a theme bug. But when I test locally it works for me. In terms of SEO, it’s only bad if the text is actually “hidden” so it’s on the page but technically invisible, this would never happen in the theme. If you don’t see it’s either because your category doesn’t have any posts yet or there is some weird bug which I can look at.
- The background image is set to cover by default but the default position is center top. You can easily make it center center by adding this code to your site:
body .background-image-page-header { background-position: center center !important; }
- http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/making-css-edits/
- To change the opacity of the overlay is also very easily, example:
body .background-image-page-header-overlay { opacity: 0.2 }
The default is 0.5 which seems to work pretty good for most images but if your image are very light or very dark changing the opacity may be best 
- I’m not sure what you are referring to regarding the “non-responsiveness” of the site header. Are you still referring to the title area with the background and the category name? If so, this isn’t the “site header” this is just the page header/title area of the page. In terms of the site header it is definitely responsive by default, but if you highly customized it the responsiveness could have broken.
If you do want a custom header design using Elementor though it’s very easy. You can create an elementor Template with whatever you want for your site header then define it under Theme Panel > Header Builder – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/header-builder/ – and it will replace your site header globally.
I hope you are having a lovely weekend,
- AJ
Dear AJ,
I put the code and it worked beautifully, but decided despite it against the category feature pictures altogether. I think they actually clutter the pages and create color cocophony with my template design….
BUT regarding the category descriptions that I wrote and that YOAST recommends to much: The question is that still the category description is not showing even though it is set to “above loop”. The question is if search engines will read it as if it does show, since I did not categorize it as “hidden”. If they will, I can live with it not showing on the page and with category pages being relatively simple.
This is a sample URL.
https://planetsdaughter.com/category/sola-journey/If you need my password etc., I will open the ticket again.
Thanks.
Hi,
If you want to open a ticket you can, or you can just disable the maintenance mode for a bit so I can look and get back to you.
Usually if you don’t see the description it’s simply because you don’t have any posts yet in that category.
If you don’t see the category description then it’s not there at all which means it’s not “hidden”. Hidden means the description is there but there is some CSS making it look like it’s not. Which is considered deceitful to Google.
- AJ
Well, I have posts in ALL my categories. I know the description IS there because it shows if I put “default” or “under the title”, but I don’t like that. It makes the title fat and ugly and you cannot see the breadcrumbs. It only disappears when I put “above loop”
It’s working for me when I test. If you are having issues and want us to log in and look please do open a ticket we are happy to help.
- AJ
A new issue: media attachment pages cannot be reached. Had anything changed in the settings? The button “attachment page” does not show in the media library, and when I link to an attachment page it reopens the post in a separate tab instead, or just opens the media file. Thank you for your help/
Hi,
The theme doesn’t make any alterations to media attachment pages. Are you using Yoast SEO? If so, that plugin has an option to disable those pages. It’s actually best to disable them for SEO reasons. If you are not using that plugin double check any plugins you are using to make sure none of them are disabling attachment pages.
- AJ
Hi AJ,
Not strictly Total related, more Wordpress related, but the forum staff over at WordPress keep directing me over to the codex rather than give me a straight answer – probably because they also haven’t got a clue.
Right, my website at midlandsmaidens-escorts (dot) com is being suffocated by rivals using PBNs. I was wondering if there was a way to manipulate the front page URL to read (in Google) midlandsmaidens-escorts (dot) com/nottingham-escorts so that my website gets a decent boost by using keywords in the URL.
Here’s the rub though – I don’t want to be changing any existing files or folders, and I wanted users to be able to get to the website by typing in what they’re used to typing – ie midlandsmaidens-escorts (dot) com.
There are two options in General Settings I can see that might help out here – the WordPress address url, and the Site Address url.
In your highly regarded opinion, and considering that I know that an edit to the wp-config file would also be needed, which of the above two options in General Settings would need to be changed to midlandsmaidens-escorts(dot)com/nottingham-escorts ?
Thanks for any advice!
Hi,
Honestly, changing the URL is going to do very little for SEO. The best solution is to spend some time getting some quality backlinks with those keywords and if possible run a social media campaign.
Of course adding nottingham-escorts is possible but only as a redirect from the main URL. Which neglects a lot of the SEO benefit you would get from having keywords in your URL because your homepage is redirected which doesn’t look very good.
And you wouldn’t do this by altering the options under Settings > General but by creating a blank second page and setting that as the homepage under Settings > Reading then redirecting your homepage via your .htaccess file over to the actual homepage which you should modify to include those keywords you want.
You could inject extra keywords to the URL without a redirection via a script, but it won’t be visible to search engines so again useless.
The keywords in the URL make very little difference when it comes to SEO compared to the actual content on the page and quality backlinks. Make sure your homepage has the keywords you want to rank for in the meta title. h1 and content. And if you don’t have an SEO plugin installed add one, I recommend Yoast (free is perfect, premium offers very little extra). And that you build up the backlinks and social media presence of the site. Make sure you have Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Pinterest…etc. For your site Instagram and Pinterest could work very well and also for backlinks maybe try leaving some comments or hire someone to leave comments on some related forums, you should find good results from forum due to the nature of the site.
- AJ
Hi AJ,
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, on all the seo tools that I use, the website is racked up at 96%+, (as opposed to sub-40% or 50% for the rivals) for those keywords, so there wouldn’t appear to be anything wrong with the seo. (using Yoast).
I’ve always been active on social media, whereas the rivals haven’t – so it’s looking like their PBNs are taking over.
Dunno, if they’re going to play dirty, I suppose I could report them to Google – but are Google really that bothered about PBNs?
Thanks for the advice, and it would appear that patiently waiting would be the best policy.
Yep, a PBN can get your site penalized or even removed from Google. Not really sure how to report it though…and like you said, do they even care. I’m not sure if Google would care so much especially in your industry.
But changing your url structure will not help you in the cause if your rivals are using PBN’s. The sole purpose of the PBN’s is to generate backlinks and drive traffic by creating a network of blogs owned by the same person (hence the name “Private blog networks”).
So either you need to wait and hope those sites doing black hat SEO get penalized or you need to generate more backlinks then them from other authoritative sources.
In terms of tools used for checking site ranking, Google is very tricky you could have everything perfect but the backlinks are just not there or your site has been penalized and you don’t even know. Make sure you have Google Webmaster Tools setup in case there are some warnings in there.
- AJ
I have one more question.
I have plugin call Let’s Review which use for add the review to my post and it is very important for review blog like mine. This plugin have API that we can use with our theme.
The problem is the API code is something different and complicated than normal HTML for me to use. Also the element where I want to place it are not in your Snippets lists (Even if it there I would impossible to make it). I want to put it at the top right corner of the Featured image (media). Just like the Demo of the plugin here https://demos.codetipi.com/letsreview/ The API look like this http://docs.codetipi.com/lets-review/#api
I also want it to appear the same for the featured image on Single blog post too. Here is the blog with review but I only put review at the bottom of the post. https://www.wpthaiuser.com/google-analytics-post-pageviews/Thank you so much.
Hi,
If you just want to show the overall rating on the entry featured image it’s pretty easy via your child theme’s functions.php file:
Example:
// Show rating on entry media
add_filter( 'wpex_get_entry_media_after', function( $after, $instance ) {
if ( class_exists( 'Lets_Review_API' ) ) {
$lets_review_api = new Lets_Review_API();
$lets_review_final_score = $lets_review_api->lets_review_get_final_score( get_the_ID() );
if ( $lets_review_final_score ) {
$after = $lets_review_final_score . $after;
}
}
return $after;
}, 10, 2 );
You may have to add it inside HTML with some custom CSS though, the API doesn’t explain if the html is included with the end result or not.
But there is no hook on the single posts media so the only way would be to either insert it at the top of the content:
add_action( 'wpex_hook_content_top', function() {
if ( class_exists( 'Lets_Review_API' ) ) {
$lets_review_api = new Lets_Review_API();
$lets_review_final_score = $lets_review_api->lets_review_get_final_score( get_the_ID() );
if ( $lets_review_final_score ) {
echo $lets_review_final_score;
}
}
}, 0 );
Or to replace the media block completely. I’ll look at maybe adding a hook though for a future update as I do see it could be useful.
- AJ
Yes AJ It would be helpful if we have hook for media too. I was tried to replace the overlay tag1 with the API code but mixing php+php is too complicated for me 
I will try your code. Thank you so much.
Just to let you know that I am successfully add the review rating data to the entry media. Have to write custom CSS though but it turn out the way I wanted. I prefer to use other style for the single post media.
Thank you so much for your help. Emily
Awesome!
What’s going on. Couldn’t hear a word from theme author. To top it all, my previous comments are tagged supported. which is outright false. Very pathetic!!!
Hi,
You left 1 comment 2 days ago which I just replied to. I do apologize for the delay, support is usually much quicker but I was sick last week and this weekend was a holiday weekend. Most support is provided via the ticket system – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/support/ – where i have a team helping me out incase I get sick or I am not available and so you get the quickest help possible.
If you want you can reply back to my previous reply or here. Happy to help!
- AJ
Hello AJ, hope all’s well with you?
I’m using parallax background images in rows at the top of some pages, and I’m using a minimum height on those rows. http://aptstudios.co.uk/dev/studio/On very large screen sizes the minimum row height is creating a very shallow and wide crop of the image (because the screen is very wide) meaning the interesting part of the image is lost/cropped.
I understand why this is happening, but was wondering if you have a clever work-around for this – something equivalent to a percentage row height, or different row heights for different screen sizes?
I’m already showing/hiding rows for mobile and desktop sizes and can’t make a combination of showing/hiding 3 rows (mobile, desktop, >1280) work!
Thank you Pete
Hi Pete,
So first of all I see what you are doing hiding/showing content at different devices so you can have those titles on the left side. Wouldn’t it be easier to just use a little CSS to offset the content on the left (give it left padding) for larger screens then for the titles have them adding inline with the content and use a unique classname on each title to give them an absolute position on desktop. Example: https://cl.ly/sKxz (make sense?)
Regarding the background rows. Im looking on an iMac 30’’ at full-screen and it looks ok to me. But 99.99% of people never view a website at full-screen, much less on huge monitors. I honestly wouldn’t worry about it and cater to the majority of your viewers. That said, I think a fixed background – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/fixed-row-background-images/ – instead of parallax may work a bit better and you will have a bit more control over it’s positioning.
- AJ
Hello AJ,
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the extra advice and code – I think if I knew what I was doing with code, then what you suggest would be easier!
I’m actually showing/hiding different content for mobile only to reduce the fixed height of the rows at the top of the page, so that the title below the main image is visible on a small mobile screen. Does that sound bad?!
I know you’re right re. catering for the majority of screensizes, and I should probably compromise more on the image composition across devices.
Thanks again Pete
Hi Pete,
So for mobile honestly I would just recommend hiding the row with the background from mobile – https://cl.ly/sO9V – it’s not really needed it’s just there because it looks nice. People on mobile just want quick answers they don’t care so much about the site’s “prettiness”. Alternatively you could give the row with the background a custom classname and then reduce it’s hight on mobile – I can help with the CSS if needed/wanted.
- AJ
Thanks AJ,
I’ll remember that and may well come back to you in future for help with the CSS – sounds easier than my clumsy approach. This site is for a garden designer and at the moment it is all about showing the pics, even on mobile.
Hope you have a good day,
Thanks Pete
Got it. If you need anything else let me know have a nice day as well.
- AJ
Hey AJ, we do have a problem with the theme (or WPBakery) concerning the backround (the CSS property is “backround-attachement”). It started about 8 days ago… without us having installed any updates. On the whole page our backround pictures don’t show up anymore. Well, they show up for a second, but then they disappear. In DevTool we can see, that even the backround is set as a picture in wordpress, the page uses “color fill” backround. We deleted the pictures and set them new but nothing helps.
Your help would be highly appreciated
Any hint or recommendation?
Thanks a lot, Chris
Hi Chris,
This is AJ, I hope you had a nice weekend. Can you please share a live example with the issue so I can inspect the code and see what’s going on? That’s the only way I’ll be able to help since this isn’t a known bug/issue. Thanks!
- AJ
Hey AJ. thx for your quick response. Could you please give me a hint what you mean by “live example”? you mean the link to the homepage so you can check it? It’s www.bringliesel.de And e.g. here https://www.bringliesel.de/#macher and here https://www.bringliesel.de/#sortiment should be a picture. However, the picture disappears after a second and “color fill” backround is loaded…
Does it help you?
Thanks a lot AJ! Chris
Hi Chris,
When I look at the site I see all the background images but there is a little security concern because the background images are loading via http and not https – https://cl.ly/sNUk – so depending on your browser or browser settings they may not be displayed.
When setting up HTTPS some servers/plugins (not sure how you did it) will automatically for https on any assets displayed on the page.
This is usually caused if https isn’t setup correctly. Make sure under Settings > General that your Wordpress and Site URL’s both contain https. Example: https://cl.ly/sNNR
This is how WordPress knows to display assets using https or not.
- AJ
thanks a lot AJ – I will look into it and let you know!
Hey AJ, you were right concerning the https issue, however, as you can see here, it doesn’t have anything to do with the error: https://www.bringliesel.de/jobs/ the picture is also on http and it is displayed without disapearing after a second. The proplem only occurs on our main Site… not on the sub-pages… Is there anything else you could think of? As mentioned before, it seems that there is a backround colour loaded automatically after a second (even there is a picture set as backround)...
Thanks a lot, Chris
Hi Chris,
It has actually been brought to my attention after some other customers reported the bug and my doing some research that it’s actually a re-paint bug in Chrome from one of their latest updates
If you check in Firefox it will display correctly.
The bug is related to the fixed background position – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/fixed-row-background-images/ – there really isn’t any “fix” because the background-attachment property with a fixed value is a normal function – https://www.w3schools.com/CSSref/pr_background-attachment.asp – it’ literally an issue with Chrome so it can’t be fixed theme-side.
Sometimes using a smaller image for the background works but of course you lose that extra quality. The only real “fix” is to either ignore chrome and set a background color so at least it’s not white or remove the fixed position until Chrome fixes their issue.
I use the fixed background on this demo – http://totaltheme.wpengine.com/paris/ – and I don’t see the issue but I am also using smaller images and I don’t have a slider at the top of the page. A slider does add extra javascript code running on the page which may be overloading chrome a bit combined with the fixed background. I’m not entirely sure since there is very little info online about why the issue happens in chrome but many have the problem 
- AJ
Hey AJ,
thanks for your response! We actually now manually deleted the code part “background-attachemend: fixed…” in the CSS of the theme. Now it works also for chrome again and pictures are loading normally…
Greetz, Chris
just purchased this theme. demo importer for base theme failed for Import XML Data (pages, posts, meta data, terms, menus, etc). I am setting up a project on local server. No matter how many times i tried , it never loads including slider revolution issues.
Lost more than 3 hours. I seek a refund.
I have not even downloaded the purchase license.
Hi,
This is Aj the theme developer. I hope you had a nice weekend, it was Father’s Day here in the USA 
You can seek a refund here – https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/202821460-Can-I-Get-A-Refund-
But before doing that, it’s best if you can fix the issue. The base demo should import in just a few minutes (definitely not 3 hours) without issues unless there is a server problem. Since you are working locally are you able to see any errors in your error logs? Usually the issue is a memory limit or max execution time. I would recommend setting your PHP memory limit to 256 and your max execution time to at least 300.
I don’t understand how you haven’t downloaded the theme if you are trying to import the sample data. Make sure when importing the sample data to use the version found here on the marketplace.
Also if you are having issues with the built-in demo importer you can try this plugin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/one-click-demo-import/ – which is fully supported by Total since a recent update. This plugin uses a different method to import sample data which can be better on slower hosting environments.
- AJ
I’ve been using Total on a bunch of sites over the past year or so and I’ve run into an issue with the standard Visual Composer row background video. It loads a default YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMJXxhRFO1k) when there’s another video set as the background so that as the page loads, you see the first couple of seconds of that video and then it flickers to the actual one you have selected in the backend editor. It’s set in a config file at /wp-content/plugins/js_composer/config/containers/shortcode-vc-column.php and I’ve had to go in an delete that default value, which is obviously not good since it will be overwritten every time there’s an update to VC. Can you add an override in the theme to not use that or is this something that needs to be brought up with Visual Composer? Thanks.
Hi,
This is AJ the theme developer. I hope you had a great weekend and Father’s Day.
So if you set a custom video it’s impossible for it to show the default one first because the custom video overrides the default variable/value for the video. I’ve tested locally and live and I don’t have the issue either. Are you able to share the URL so I can inspect the source code? It seems more like perhaps the video is enabled on both the row and the column but only a custom video was selected for the column so you have 2 video backgrounds going on.
- AJ
Than you.
Hi,
I hope you had a great weekend. I am not seeing the page title anymore on the site, but generally if you are seeing it it’s because it’s enabled under Appearance > Customize > General Theme Options > Pages : https://cl.ly/sKoe
- AJ
I’m hoping someone in here can help me. I am wanting to have a text overlay the featured image for specific category thumbnails. The text overlay I want is the name of the category.
Hi,
This is AJ the theme developer. Nice to hear from you again, I hope you had a great weekend.
Adding a category overlay on the thumbnail is very easy via a little child theme code since there is a hook named “wpex_get_entry_media_after” which you can use. I can assist with the custom code, but I need to know exactly where you are wanting to add this (page builder module, archives, main blog only, etc). Also you say for “specific category thumbnails” can explain what you mean by that? Thanks!
- AJ
Hi AJ,
I have a blog category “For the Record” that I would like to have as a static text/category overlay. If you look at http://staging.uaoh.net/category/for-the-record/ you will see what I am wanting to do. So far, I am uploading an image with the overlay, but in the long run this seems like extra work to me as I will not be able to re-use those photos elsewhere on the site unless I upload a duplicate photo without the overlay.
As always, thanks.
I haven’t seen this site yet, must be a new one you are working on, cool – Definitely remember your username and icon though 
For the overlay it would be very easy to add and you can just create a new overlay style – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/create-new-overlay-styles/
So in your case it appears you want an image to be added on top so all you need to do is return your custom “For the record” image. The code would be very easy. Example:
// Define new overlay style
add_filter( 'wpex_overlay_styles_array', function( $overlays ) {
$overlays['for-the-record'] = 'For The Record';
return $overlays;
});
// Define output for the "for-the-record" overlay
add_action( 'wpex_pre_include_overlay_template', function( $style, $args ) {
// Custom output for YOUR_OVERLAY_NAME
if ( 'for-the-record' == $style ) :
// Only used for inside link position
// This means it's part of the image link so it can be clicked along with the image to access the post
if ( 'inside_link' != $args['overlay_position'] ) {
return;
}
// Overlay Ooutput
$output = '<div class="for-the-record-overlay"><img src="YOUR_IMAGE_URL" /></div>';
// Echo output
echo $output;
// Important -> prevents the theme for checking for overlay template part
return;
endif;
}, 20, 2 );
Then you could go to Customize > Blog > Entry and select your new overlay style from the setting dropdown.
This will just place the overlay under the image so with a little CSS you can give it an absolute position and a 100% width to ensure it stretches across the image.
Alternatively you can use HTML to create this overlay, but I thought you wanted to use an image.
- AJ
The code would be added in a child theme of course – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/child-theme/
Thanks so much for your help… per usual you are right on.
I have one question about this. How do I filter the overlay to only show when my blog category = For the Record? All other blog categories will NOT have an overlay.
Edit the if statement:
if ( 'for-the-record' == $style ) :
To this:
if ( in_category( 'for-the-record' ) && 'for-the-record' == $style ) :
However, if it’s for the specific category only you don’t have to use an overlay function you could just hook into the wpex_entry_media_after function instead to automatically add this code without having to choose an overlay style. Example:
add_filter( 'wpex_get_entry_media_after', function( $after_content, $instance ) {
if ( in_category( 'for-the-record' ) ) {
$after_content = $after_content . '<div class="for-the-record-overlay"><img src="YOUR_IMAGE_URL" /></div>';
}
return $after_content;
}, 10, 2 );
This would probably be best, sorry I should have mentioned it previously! (it’s a much never functionality added this year)
- AJ
You are my HERO!
Nice
Definitely a much better solution!
Hi, how to purchase the theme for unlimited sites? for web design agency? I really like the theme, It is very flexible, the hooks are very powerful, what i can suggest to put in the hooks to make it more powerful is that if you can make the hook areas read a PHP, if you can do that, that will make the site more developer friendly and i can purchase more of this theme…Please add it 
Another thing is, as mentioned above, where can i purchase a theme for unlimited sites? and its for Agency, that can be use for multiple or unlimited clients?
Thanks
Hi,
This is AJ the theme developer. I hope you had a nice weekend!
- I could temporarily enable the extended license function but it’s very expensive, like $4,000 – a better idea is to have your client purchase the theme. This way you don’t pay for it but also when you are done with the site if your client needs extra help they can contact me for free since they bought the theme
- Adding PHP function to the hooks dashboard in the admin is a very bad idea because it’s only possible to do so using the eval() function – http://php.net/manual/en/function.eval.php – which is extremely dangerous and security is always a primary concern on mine.
However, using hooks in your child theme’s is extremely easy! Have a look here – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/action-hooks/
- AJ
cool, can i purchase multiple Total theme in 1 account?
by the way, how to use this total tweaker https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/total-tweaker-plugin/ ?
im looking around at the wp-admin sections but i can’t really find where to use the tweaker, it is not installed. Please help
thanks
Hi,
- Yes you can purchase unlimited licenses under 1 account. But if you have your client purchase support generally it’s better because then after you are done setting up the site if they need help they can ask me and not bother you
- The Total “tweaker” plugin is for developers. It’s only an example of how you could use a plugin to modify the theme via hooks/filters. What you do with it is entirely up to you and you would basically just delete everything as it’s only an example. If you are a beginner I would recommend instead using a child theme – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/child-theme/ – which is much easier and child theme’s take priority over plugins.
- AJ
hi AJ, yes i understand it, i just want to know where can i see the tweaker section after the plugin is installed? i cannot see it in the WP admin sections. I know how to use the child theme, I am just curious on this tweaker plugin, pls guide where to locate it after i installed it. Thanks
hi AJ, can you answer my query please specifically. thanks 
Hi,
The plugin itself doesn’t do anything or add any “sections” to the site. It’s just an example of how you could add code via a plugin instead of a child theme. If you look at the code – https://github.com/wpexplorer/total-tweaker-plugin/blob/master/total-tweaker.php – you can see in the example all it does is disable the title on WooCommerce pages.
If you rather use the plugin then a child theme and you want to edit it you would go to Plugins > Editor and you can locate it on the dropdown on the right side to modify the code. However, it’s always recommended when editing code to do it locally instead using a real editor and update via SFTP.
- AJ
Total theme will not install in Word Press vers 4.9.6-en on my site hosted by Heart Internet. Help please
Hi,
This is AJ the theme developer. Thank you for your patience. I was sick on and off last week. I see you haven’t opened a ticket yet, where you able to fix the issue?
Usually installation errors are from uploading the incorrect folder or the server needs an increase in it’s upload/memory limit – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/theme-installation-errors/
If you are still having trouble please let me know so we can get this resolved ASAP.
I am not familiar with Heart Internet (I only recommend and work with managed WordPress hosting companies like WPEngine, Flywheel, Kinsta…etc). It looks like a UK based company with many options so you may want to also be sure your server is setup to work well with WordPress – https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/ – and make sure you have at least 256MB allocated to PHP memory, at least 20MB upload limit, at least 300 for the Max Execution Time and at least 32MB for the Post Max Size. Dedicated WordPress hosting companies generally have this by default but if you are using a non-managed WordPress solution then you should verify to make sure your site doesn’t have any errors or runs very slowly.
- AJ
Hello AJ,
I’ve tried the “Mailchimp form” module (with correct ID).
Is it “normal” that only the email field appears ?
Michel
Hi Michel,
This module by default only displays the email feed due to it’s default design (left input / right button). You could always use Mailchimp’s direct embed functions though to insert a subscription box with name field. Because of GDPR I prefer to grab as little information as possible though 
- AJ
Thank you AJ, I was just wondering, and will do as you say.
Michel
With the Lefty demo, is there a way to add social media icons below the menu like this: https://d1nvcfeljt87mm.cloudfront.net/items/3A0l1a0H2r1a2w0f3p3J/Screen%20Shot%202018-06-15%20at%2012.58.17%20AM.png
I also notice that when using the left navigation, I can’t make a row “stretch row and content with no padding” without the content going behind the left navigation area. Any fix for that?
Hi,
I hope you had a great weekend and Father’s day.
There ins’t a built-in way to add the social under the header, the main reason is because of responsiveness since the vertical header turns into a single header on mobile there isn’t room left for them. However, it’s very easy to add either via a theme hook – http://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/action-hooks/ – or if you want to use this little plugin – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/extensions/vertical-header-widget-area/ – to insert a widget area under the menu then you can use the social widget to add the icons 
Stretched rows always stretch to the full-browser screen, that is their purpose, and since the vertical header is on the side then it will be over them. With this layout style you generally wouldn’t use stretched rows. If what you want is your content to “expand” to the full-screen you would instead use the site width options – https://wpexplorer-themes.com/total/docs/customize-your-layout-widths/ – so your container width which by default is 960px you could change to a percentage like 100% so your content is fluid with the whole window if that’s what you want.
- AJ
Hi AJ,
Started looking for a Facebook feed, then realised there was probably one already in the widgets – which there was – so job done.
However – is there a way to customise the feed for a dark background website?
I can grab some css for the text, no problem – but the #fff background is not playing nicely at all!
Hi,
Are you referring to the “Total – Facebook Page” widget? If so, this pull the widget directly from Facebook – https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/page-plugin/ – which is an iFrame so you can’t actually re-style it because you can’t target iFrames via CSS 
- AJ
Yes, that’s the one.
I’m plodding along with it at the moment, but if you reckon that it cannot be customised, it’s looking like a third party plugin is needed.
Thanks anyway.
Yes, unfortunately you can’t stye iFrames. One thing I do want to mention though is with the new GDPR rules even showing the Facebook page plugin could cause some concern which is why a lot of people are not adding it to their sites anymore – so just a heads up. Using a plugin that hooks right into the Facebook API to only show your recent post may be best. If GDPR is a concern just make sure that the plugin isn’t also trying to auto log in the current visitor into Facebook or accessing their data.
That’s actually a Google bug it happend to me a year ago and it took some time for Google to fix it up. Not really sure why it happens to be honest it just fixed itself on my site.
I will remove the “home” link from the schema markup in the upcoming update to see if that helps. But I will also be updating schema markup in the near future to use jSON markup instead of inline markup. But it does require a full re-write of the breadcrumbs class so it takes some time.
- AJ
No problem AJ. I have research and found the fact that it is because of Google thing. Thank you so much.
I still removed the home link from the schema markup for the upcoming 4.7 update, I think it should help. On the main Google structured data documentation they say not to include it in one paragraph then in another they say to include it, so not really sure what’s best. That’s why I will be switching the breadcrumbs to use jSON instead which can include more data for Google.
- AJ
Hi there, password protected pages doesn’t work it won’t take the passwords and just redirect to the please enter your password.
Hi,
It’s working when I test locally and on my live site. Have you installed any plugins recently that could have broken the password functionality?
Also have you tried clearing your browser cookies?
Password protected pages is a WordPress related function so it doesn’t even come from the theme. If you try switching themes you should have the same result.
- AJ
Hello there, i’m finally building my own company website. Decided to go with WP and have been playing with a free theme on our website for the past month. We uploaded some content – not yet finished, but we are ready to go with the real deal – Total is our choice to go, our only question before proceeding, as we are going to learn a new theme and its features, could our current theme be live while we prepare the content and arrange our new website with Total? Is that even possible? Thanks in advance
Hi,
Thank you for your patience. This is AJ the theme developer I was sick in and out last week 
What I would recommend is you setup a stagging site which is a duplicate of your current site on a temporary domain or subfolder/subdomain of your current site where you can set everything up with the Total theme and then once it’s all ready you can merge it over with the live site.
Most of the good WordPress hosting companies have stagging functionality built-in, like WPEngine which with 1 click you can duplicate your site then with 1 click move the updated site to the live one. If your hosting doesn’t have that, there are some plugins out there you could use if you don’t know how to do it manually. But working on everything separately and leaving the current site intact is the best way to go.
- AJ
Hi AJ, thanks for your reply and hoping you’re well now.
Thanks for this great theme, I’m really amazed at the wonderfulness of WordPress and how user friendly and yet at the same time über-configurable theme you have made available with Total.
Me myself not being a web developer at all but rather an enthusiast, decided to go all in and start my website from zero using your theme leaving my first steps behind, and at the same time taking a Udemy course on WP.
I’ll be sure to pick your brain on some Q&A, if I don’t find an answer on this big and friendly community first 
Have a great one!
Neil
Hi Neil,
Yes much better now, thanks 
I’m glad you are really liking the theme so far if you have any questions or suggestions just let me know.
- AJ