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Wordpress Arthemia Theme – Customization Guide

14 January 2009 5,683 views Comments

Written by: Shamim

Arthemia is a sleek, professionally designed Wordpress template created by Michael Hutagalung. It is available for free and is one of the best magazine style templates out there. With this theme the homepage is no longer a long list of post after post. But the magazine template gives your site a unique look and feel which sets the site apart from its competition. For a full list of features and link to download this theme jump over to the author’s site. However as with any magazine theme, Arthemia can be a bit difficult to setup mostly due to the number of features and options built in to it. Here is a quick and dirty list of things to do when installing Arthemia for your own blog.

arthemia2

Installing Arthemia

Installing this theme is no different than any other theme in the Wordpress directory. Visit the theme page and download it to your computer. Unzip the file. Then upload the files to /wp-content/themes directory on your webserver. Once the upload is complete go to Appearance – Themes and Activate the Arthemia theme.

Arthemia Logo

The Arthemia logo is located in your Wordpress installation directory under themes/arthemia/images/logo.png Ideally the the logo should be about 400px wide and 100px high. This will give you enough room for the 468×60 ad block to the right of the logo. I have had no problems with a logo that is 468×99px. For easiest installation name your logo image as logo.png and upload it in the same directory. When asked to confirm just overwrite the default image. If you are using a different logo size then go to Wordpress dashboard – Appearance – Editor and edit Header (header.php) Look for the following line and delete width=”177px” height=”39px”.

/wp-content/themes/arthemia/images/logo.png” width=”177px” height=”39px” alt=”"

Categories

The first thing you need to do after activating the theme is go to Posts – Categories and create 2 new categories called Headline and Featured. These will be used for the placing posts on the Headline and Featured sections on top of the home page. Headline is the top left large rectangular block. The featured section has a set of 3 or 4 posts and their thumbnails on the top right side of the home page.

Custom Image Field

One of the features of Arthemia is the auto-thumbnail and resizer function that puts an associated image next to the post. This image is then associated to the post on the blog home page, category pages, tag pages and archives. This is done by creating a custom field called Image and the value should be wp-content/uploads/2008/04/pool.jpg or wp-content/uploads/image.jpg unless of course you have the image upload specified to a different directory.

Categories Bar On Homepage

To specify the categories in the bar on the homepage right below the Headline section you have to do a small code modification. Go to Appearance – Editor in Wordpress dashboard and click the Main Index Template (index.php). Then find the below line and change the numbers with the category id’s that you want to display. You can easily find the category id’s by going to the blog dashboard – Posts – Categories and clicking the category name. Then look at your address bar and it will have the ID listed as &cat_ID=7.

php $display_categories = array(3,4,5,8,9); $i = 1;

List Of Posts On Homepage

In most cases you would like to list the latest posts on the home page. If for some reason you would like to block posts in certain categories from displaying then you can specify them in the code. On Main Index Template (index.php) locate the following line and specify the category id’s you would like to block. In the below example the posts in category 27 & 28 are blocked from displaying. In the same line you also have the ability to limit the number of posts displayed per page.

query_posts(“cat=-27,-28&paged=$page&posts_per_page=5″);

Sidebar Ad Block 300×250

Go to Sidebar (sidebar.php) and locate this line and replace it with your ad code.

< img src="< ? php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-content/themes/arthemia/images/banners/square.jpg” alt=”" width=”300px” height=”250px” />

Header Ad Block 468×60

Go to Header (header.php) and locate this line and replace it with your ad code.

< img src="< ? php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-content/themes/arthemia/images/banners/wide.jpg” alt=”" width=”468px” height=”60px” />

Header Links

Go to Header (header.php) and locate this line and add links to sites in between li tags. You can add them before or after the wp_list_pages function. That line basically adds a menu item for every page created on your site. Sub-pages are created and added to the menu items as drop-down links when you hover over the parent page.

< li > < a href = " < ? php echo get_option('home'); ? >/”>Home< /li >
< ? php wp_list_pages('sort_column=menu_order&title_li='); ? >

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  • All your help for arthimia is good but i want ask a question, how i can put and achore text link on heading of post in single post u see it deisable if you move cursor on heading of post it dosnt work
    so pls tell me how i make my heading also link active.
  • Lindsay
    Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. It made setting up the blog very easy.
  • Thanks for sharing.
  • Reasonably nice theme, I'll plan to try it out.
  • Quick update - yes I really like it so far, not too hard to work with either.
  • I have nothing in my header.php! WTF?
  • Rai
    Very informative! I am so glad I found this post of yours as I have been having a hard time customizing the arthemia theme for my website. My sincerest thanks for posting this information!
  • sympledouglas
    This is a very cool template. Thank you for the instructions, it was of great use. I'm currently using it on my website, but I do have a few questions:
    1. How do I post images without that border around them?
    2. How do I change the color of the drop down menu?

    If anyone's a graphic designer or could help me with the info, please respond or send a message to my email: symplelifestyle@gmail.com and we can maybe workout some sort of agreement

    Thanks
  • bykidzforkidz
    I use arthemia wordpress. I have a problem viewing in IE. The side bar is listed after all the posts on the Home page is listed. The sidebar is empty untill all posts of the Home is listed. I do not have this problem with Firfox, Google Chrome or Mozilla.

    Do you a fix for this
  • I have a problem with arthemia............My website doesen't look good if firefox and IE but its working fine in CHROME http://beingpc.com/
  • Wow, this is a big help! This practically solved all my problems with arthemia.
    I just have one question left. Photos still don't show on my blog (In headline, features and posts list) even if I followed your custom image field tip. Check it at http://weeqender.com/.

    Any thoughts on this? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
  • Figured out why. I wrote the wrong address of the image but everything is working now. Thanks! The article is really useful. Thanks!
  • Hello,

    Thank you for the explanation.
    But I am facing a problem in the theme.
    Whenever I put some headline post, the blog only shows the headline post image. Nothing else.
    Please check the problem here http://www.td1.us and help me out.

    Thanks in advance.

    Regards,
    Robinsun
  • Thanks for this guide. REALLY. REALLY Helpful.

    I am having a time with the custom image portion. I uploaded my new picture to both:
    content/uploads/2009/11/bplan.jpg &
    wp-content/uploads/image.jpg

    The image is not showing.

    I created a text post and filed it under Headlines. So the post shows. I created the custom field in the specific post with the name: image and value: wp-content/iuploads/image.jpg.

    Any ideas? Thanks for all the information already
  • writerandchick
    Thank you so much for the customization guide. I am wondering is there a way to add images to the browse category section?
  • ShannonOD
    I just can't even begin to tell you how helpful this is! I think I would have abandoned the whole theme if not for your comprehensive overview of how to use it! Truly, everything was spot-on - only thing I had to followup on by looking in the comments was the image/custom feature - working like a champ now!
  • nevermind... figured it out... feel free to shoot me an email if you come across the same issue.
    i guess im smarter than i guve myself credit for =P
  • hey guys, i really like this layout... but i want to show the entire post on the front page for the most recent posts... instead of just showing a small excerpt. any help on php to throw in the index.php file?
  • Perry
    Hey, how did you change it to always show the full post (or at least the first bit of it) instead of the excerpt?
  • Avelino
    What is the difference of this free theme "arthemia" compared with arthemia-premium?

    How the theme can be changed to other language, like portuguese?

    thanks
  • Rich
    How can I change the look of the comment box... I don't much like it as it is with the bevelled edges...

    Thanks
  • The template is a nice one. The placement of the browse categories is excellent,
  • How long have you been blogging...your good at it.
  • Thanks for the info. This theme is great once setup.
  • Great post. I've not heard of this WP theme before but will be definitely checking it out after reading this. Thanks!
  • this theme is definitely one of those hidden gems that deserves special attention.
  • dr_whom
    Great tutorial and a big help - many thanks.
  • I wished I'd had it when I first started bumbling through setting up this theme a few months ago--you could have saved us countless hours (and relationships). We eventually Forrest Gumped our way through it--still not sure how, but we did.

    Still, I am very curious, much in the same spirit of big-b-rad, how you managed to get the custom subscribe buttons code modifications. I have been searching online for awhile now, looking for an answer. I look forward to your post on this subject, as I'd hate to waste away another
  • next
    Did you need to do anything to get comment threading to work other than enable it in Wordpress? Arthemia Free sure doesn't seem to be compatible out of the box.
  • Kay
    Excellent guide. Stopped me from pulling out my hair. Just one question on the front list posts on the main page. I've made only five posts Sticky, and in that line you mention about determining how many posts to put on the main page " query_posts(”cat=-27,-28&paged=$page&posts_per_page=5″); " I indicated only five posts. Yet seven or sometimes eight posts are showing up on the main page. How do I prevent this from happening? Anyone?

    Thanks a lot.
  • you might have to adjust the size of the logo image. or adjust the image size variables in the html code.
  • good_taste
    Hi, I have been able to remove the header space used by the advertisement, because I am trying to get my own image header-logo to span all the width across the top part of the page ocupying the space left by the ad. What I did is delete the part of code that limits the height and width of the header logo, but what happens is that my image shows up really small on the top left corner. Do i need to do something more complex than that to use all the top space of my webpage?
  • Joe
    Thank you SO much for this information. I knew nothing about html or wordpress and was terrified of code. It felt like walking on the moon but I set the theme up and made it work thanks to your great walkthrough. Amazing. Much love.
  • Thanks so much for the above informations, they are very helpful for me and the cutomization of my blogs...!!!
  • Quick question...

    How can I reduce the text length in the featured section?... at this moment it shows around 19 lines of content, I'd like to reduce it to half of the text. Is there someone that can give me a quick advice?

    Thanks!
  • dropdown menu not work in IE 6 what should i have to do for it

    pls reply
  • Terry
    wonder why arthemia developer had to renser thier images in png and not gif / jpeg might create problems for some plp........
  • Gemma
    Hi all,

    I can see my thumbnails but every single image on the page is a broken link even though I am replacing the images in the folder?

    Can anyone help?
  • As far as I have seen the theme is SEO optimized. You have to configure Wordpress accordingly to follow SEO procedures for maximum effect. In addition you can use All-In-One-SEO plugin which will give you far more options and control over your site's SEO.
  • OFT
    Is Arthema SEO ready / optimized? I have heard people say yes and people say no but no official answes from the arthema pages.
  • Hi Simon

    When creating a post in the custom field area type Image and then the url where the image has been uploaded to from wp-content onwards and hit publish
  • Techvirgin and Michael Thank you for your help and guidance, trying to setup Arthemia template on my blog,these are my issues:

    1. After Headline and Featured categories are setup,and the index.php updated to reflect the categories to be "shown" and "not shown", the Headline and Featured contents dont showup on these sections.

    2. When I change my Browser Categories, the "Graphic" ads are displayed out of the page and displayed outside the boundaries , how to fix that (in the "white" part of the browser template)

    3. How do I reduce the font size for the Article heading?

    4. Can someone please guide me step by stem how to create a "image" custom feild, do I have to creat e this field for each categories?

    I am a newbie, and your expert comments are most welcome.

    Peace

    Appreciate your help.
  • here are a few things you can do -
    1. check the permissions on the image directory - set to 777 to check if that works
    2. use a jpg or png image
    3. make sure the custom field is called Image and the value is set to wp-content/uploads/... and there is no "/" in front of it.
  • Hi Techvirgin,

    I already setup custom image field as you mention before but still cannot shown the picture. Already check the image directory is valid since the image can shown in single post view. But cannot shown at home page. Do you any idea?

    Thanks.
  • hey, you're post is surely a big help for me!! thanks a lot! I can now make the images show up n the front page.
  • That is a very interesting option to have. You should leave a feature request with the developer of Arthemia theme for adding sub categories to the colored category bar.
  • guido
    hello everybody !I'm an arthemia enthusiastic blogger...I was just figuring out how to add subcategories to the category bar...I mean, I don't wanna subpages for the built in top menu, but for the colored category bar..Does anyone know how to do it ??Thank you very much!
  • Thanks for this guide, it's fantastic. I'm currently setting up Arthemia, and it's exactly what I needed.
  • Julie C
    I'm going nuts. Somehow I managed to remove the Arthemia logo, but not replace it with my own. I've followed all the instructions, but nothing is working. I love this theme, but this is nuts.
  • Hi Guys, nice blog :) , Jess
  • Thanks for above informations. very helpful for me.
  • Hi Guys, nice blog, intelligent and informative writing! a definite keeper :) Cheers, Sandra
  • THANK YOU! Couldn't find anywhere else to explain how to take care of the ad spaces.
  • TBC
    I really enjoyed this guide. I wished I'd had it when I first started bumbling through setting up this theme a few months ago--you could have saved us countless hours (and relationships). We eventually Forrest Gumped our way through it--still not sure how, but we did.

    Still, I am very curious, much in the same spirit of big-b-rad, how you managed to get the custom subscribe buttons code modifications. I have been searching online for awhile now, looking for an answer. I look forward to your post on this subject, as I'd hate to waste away another three weeks stumbling through the process if it's something that can be done in a good 10 minutes.
  • yeah... arthemia with intense debate... sure is a good one. we use it too. :)
  • sounds like my post helped someone! the footer populates using widgets. i will describe the code for the subscribe box in a future post. its basically a variation on the email form by Feedburner.
  • for the thumbnails to show up properly the image must be hosted on the same server as wordpress & the Image custome field must be set for a value starting with wp-content/...
  • ok so i know if i host an image on my server it shows up on the site as a thumbnail just fine, but when i use a photo from nother site like photo bucket, the image does not show up on the site, the thumbnail becomes a empty box witha X inside it. any ideas ?
  • Thanks for this guide. Life saver!
    I am translating Arthemia to French but there is one thing I can't change: the "x views" item. Where can I find it to change 'views' by 'visites' for example?
  • Thanks for creating this tutorial, it was a real help
  • @AB1 - make sure you created a custom field called "Image" and also 2 categories "Featured" and "Headline". Note that under the Image custom field the value should begin with "wp-content/uploads/...." That is everything you should need for images to show up as thumbnails on the front page.
  • AB1
    About custom image, I have messed with this code till I am Blue in the face, Tried everything on their forum
    I cannot get pictures to show up on main page.
    Please help.

    <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" target="_blank">">
    <img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/scripts/timthumb.php?src=/<?php
    $values = get_post_custom_values("Image"); echo $values[0]; ?>&w=100&h=65&zc=1&q=100"
    alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="left" width="100px" height="65px"
  • Arthemia is compatible with comment threading. For best results i am using intense debate . Before that I was using comment threading in the built in Wordpress system.
  • abojehad
    hi
    what about compatible with 2.7 comments thread?
  • Custom image field is located below the Edit Post area and allows authors to associate fields for various variables. For more info check out Wordpress help page on Custom Fields -> http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Custom_Fields
  • Custom Image Field - please elaborate more ... I could not understand how to go about this...
  • you are welcome. the subscribe buttons are a code modification of the embed code provided by Feedburner. I will go in to the details in a future post.
  • Glad it helped. The dropdown menu appears automatically when you add a "sub-page" Basically write a new page or edit an existing page and define a parent page.
  • Thank you so greatly for this awesome guide - you hit almost everything that the creators site didn't mention... I'd love to see how you've added the RSS / large social button on the side bar w/ the email subscription too...
  • I'm just starting my own blog and love the Arthemia theme, but couldn't find any support. This post was a life saver. Thanks! Would you be willing to share how you populated the footer? Also, is the subscribe form on the side bar a plugin? I love it.!
  • This is very good, but it misses the one thing I was really puzzled about when I set up a site for my wife. How do you get the drop down menus to work?
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