Sirup FAQ

You’re reading the comprehensive FAQ for our WordPress theme Sirup.

How to create lead stories?

Short answer: Put all lead stories in the category you defined on Sirup’s options page.

Long answer: First, define a category for lead stories. Go to Manage → Categories and add a new category with a name of you choice (i.e Lead Story). If you already have a category where you want to store your lead stories, you only need to find the corresponding category ID. To do so, move your mouse over your (maybe newly created) lead story category and look at your browser’s status bar. You should see something like this:

http://your-blog.com/wp-admin/categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=5

That means: In this example, the category ID for lead stories is 5. Now go to Design → Sirup Options and enter 5 under “Category ID for lead stories”. After that, you can finally start writing. All you have to do from now on is choose the right category (i.e. Lead Story) before publishing you post.

How do I add thumbnails to posts? (Magazine layout only)

(Before you start — you only have to do this once — go to Sirup’s options page and set the right width for thumbnails. Then check if the given upload path is right. This is very important! If the path is wrong, your thumbnails won’t display! After that, go to Settings → Miscellaneous and uncheck “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders”. Compare the folder on this page and on Sirup’s options page; both have to match.)

Short answer: By using Custom Fields. Key: “Image”. Value: Name of your image + extension (i.e. my-picture.jpg)

Long answer: Upload your picture via WordPress’ post editor. You can use any image format, like .jpg or .png or .gif. You can, but don’t have to insert the picture into your post. Then, scroll down to the box labeled “Custom Fields”. Assign the key “Image” and use the name of your image as the value, as shown in this example:

Click “Add Custom Field” and you’re done. To learn more about Custom Fields, click here.

When I preview your theme on my blog it gives me an (almost) blank screen! Why the hell is that?

Yeah, I know, sorry about that. The reason is that Sirup’s options page only returns values when Sirup is activated. When you preview the theme, it has no values and WordPress doesn’t know what to show. Simply activate Sirup and everything will be fine again.

How do I find the right category IDs for my frontpage?

Please read “How to create lead stories?” again. Your question has been answered there. (Well, OK, once again: Go to Manage → Categories and move your mouse over a category. Then have a look at your browser’s status bar. You should see something like this:

http://your-blog.com/wp-admin/categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=10

The category you just hovered has the ID 10. If you want this category to appear on your frontpage, go to Sirup’s options page and enter 10 under “Category IDs for left (right) column”. I know this seems a bit complicated, but WordPress (2.5 and above) simply doesn’t provide an easier way anymore.

I don’t want those “[…]” on my frontpage! They’re ugly.

No problem. Sirup uses the_excerpt (first 55 words of your post) by default on frontpage posts. If you want to write your own summary, scroll down to the box labeled “Excerpt”:

I want a more personalized Sirup. Will you do that for me?

No, but if you’re looking for someone to do a paid customization for you, you can contact me and I’ll see what I can do. I live in €uroland, btw.

No, no! Sirup is fine the way it is. How can I show my appreciation?

I still have a question…

You’re welcome to go to http://wordpress.org/tags/sirup and post it there. Please do not post support questions on this blog as I will delete them with a ferocious “they’ll never learn” look on my face. (Don’t get me wrong, I will do my best to answer your questions, but I just don’t want my blog or inbox to be flooded with questions. Thanks!)