Why Doesn't My Selected Theme Look Like the Preview?
-
I am new to WordPress and really liked the style of the theme ‘Harmonic’. When I went to customize the page, the Harmonic theme was not there and a crummy and tacky white background and black text with a header photo took it’s place. Why can’t I customize the EXACT demo that it showed me. I have been working on this for about an hour and I am extremely disappointed with this confusing bureaucracy of simple web page building. Highly considering switching website providers if this problem is not fixed.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
Hi moniwinters,
You have to know that you can get a description for each theme on WordPress.com. Here is the one for Harmonic: https://wordpress.com/themes/harmonic/
Please refer to the following page to know how to set up your front page: https://harmonicdemo.wordpress.com/front-page-setup/
Happy blogging!
-
Hi Monica, looks like you’re on your way with Harmonic. It’s definitely one of the more complex themes to set up, but hopefully the guides Heliodore pointed you to above are a help. If you’re stuck on anything specific, please let us know and we’ll be glad to help. The main reason your site looks different than the demo at the moment is that your homepage is set to display the latest posts, while the demo has a static homepage set. To set up a static homepage, follow the steps here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/
Once your page is created, assign it to Harmonic’s Front Page template.
From there you can go into the Customizer and start setting up your front page sections as you like.
-
Hi, I’ve spent all day trying to get the Harmonic theme to work like the demo site, I’ve followed the front page set up instructions, but it’s still not working like the demo site..I’m about to give up. The first screen show the theme’s default slide “bcg_slide-1.jpg” – I want to replace this with my own background but I have been unable to update this slide. I also would like to add text content over the background, but I do not see what “page” is connected to this. PLEASE HELP!
-
Hi, sorry you are having problems. Is this the site you are wanting help with: https://monicawintersblog.wordpress.com ?
Right now I see you have the main page set to show your blog posts and I’m seeing a page titled Home that has been moved to the trash.
We can help you get things set up. First thing to do would be to either restore the Home page from the trash and make sure it is set to the Front Page Template and then set that page as your static front page at Settings > Reading.
The images for the different sections of the home page (Title, News, Page, Widgets and Portfolio Front) are set in the Customizer under Theme Options. You can open each of those sections in the Customizer and then add or upload and apply the images you wish for the different sections.
In the customizer under Theme Options, you will also need to set which sections you wish to have visible on your main page. That happens under Visibility. Check the sections you wish to have visible.
Let’s start with that and we can go from there.
-
Hi, thank you for the fast reply. The site is: http://kristinareikocooper.com/home/
I have the site set to static homepage (not blog posts) using the Front Page Template, and I have all the visibility display settings set to display. I have jet pack installed, and set to infinite scroll as well.
However, within the Customizer > Theme options, the only options I have are: Portfolio, Visibility, Page, Widgets. The Page & Widget sections are the only place where I can upload a background, but it does not update the default slides. I don’t seem to have the different sections of the home page (Title, News, Page, Widgets and Portfolio Front).
In case it helps, I’m running the latest WordPress 4.4.
-
@jldrue, you are using WordPress but you are not hosted here at WordPress.com. For self-hosted WordPress sites such as yours using Harmonic, there is a dedicated Harmonic Support Forum at WordPress.org where you can post to get help.
At Dashboard > Updates, make sure you are using the latest version of Harmonic. If not, go ahead and update it. Also make sure you have the latest version of Jetpack installed. Any plugins that need updating should be listed on the main updates page.
Also make sure that Jetpack is connected back to WordPress.com.
On my self-hosted test site with Harmonic and Jetpack active, this is what I see under Theme Options in the Customizer: https://cldup.com/KoHA_3k5qQ.png . In all but “portfolio” at the top, I have a button that allows me to upload and/or set a background image for those sections.
Go to Jetpack > Settings in your dashboard and make sure you have Custom Content Types activated. Next go to Settings > Writing, scroll to the bottom and make sure that Portfolio Projects is activated and has a number set in the display at most… projects and save.
For general questions on self-hosted WordPress.org installations, visit http://wordpress.org/support/.
The differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
If you can post in the WordPress.org Harmonic forum, we can help you there for further questions on your self-hosted site.
-
Thank you again, after confirming all of the above was set correctly, I realized the issue in looking at your screenshot. In Theme Options in the Customizer, the theme was missing the Title, News and Portfolio Front. So I deleted the theme and after re-installing..voila! That fixed it :)
The only thing is that I can’t figure out how to add content to the home page. Is it possible to add additional content aside from the tagline and logo? -
The “Page” section on the home page will show whatever you type into the home page content area in the page editor. If you look at the demo site and scroll down to the section called “Front Page, that is the content that was typed into the page.
-
I was referring to the landing page which displays only the tagline and logo, is it possible to add additional content to the first slide that appears (above the home page)? Or alternatively, is it possible to change the order of the slides so that the home “Page” section comes first?
-
Neither of those two things is possible without getting into creating a child theme and modifying the PHP/HTML template files. If you need further help, could you please post in the Harmonic forum for self-hosted users as thesacredpath mentioned above? Thanks!
https://wordpress.org/support/theme/harmonic
You’ll need a free WordPress.org account to post – if you don’t already have one, you can register here:
- The topic ‘Why Doesn't My Selected Theme Look Like the Preview?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 
