Front Page Template not showing correctly

Just to add, I tried to use Regenerate Thumbnails, but it is compatible only up to WordPress 3.1 and I am running WordPress 4.1.1 It doesn’t seem to work – nothing happens when I hover over a photo in the media library.

Hi, @deirdremagner,

I also love Sela!! Is it a new theme?

To solve the front page issue, do the following:

1. Create a page. Let’s call it My first home page. On the left (Templates) choose Front page. On the left there is also a filed Featured image – add any image you have – it will somehow adjust itself as long as it is not too small. But off course for the sake of the upload time, don’t upload the image that is too big.

2. Go to: Dashboard/Appearance/Customize/Static front page and choose:
Front page displays as: Static page
Front page: My first home page

And there you go, your site looks like SELA demo. Does it? If not don’t hesitate to write me back.

For the other two issues, I suggest to discuss them when we first solve this one.

Cheers, M4j4

PS the above guidelines assume that you wan’t your page look like SELA demo. If that is not the case, and you want at your front page to have your blog posts, than we should take a different way.

For the image I’ve found out that it works best if its width is 1180 px.

Hi m4j4, thank you for your reply. I followed Step 1 above exactly. I selected a different photo, but one that is also 4752 x 3168, as the featured photo, and it was cropped left. When I go to: Dashboard/Appearance/Customize/Static front page the new page I have created does not appear as a choice among the pages. Should I have saved or published it first? Regardless, the photo does not fill the space.

My belief is, that the Front Page Template is not functioning properly. Everything else about the theme seems fine; the other templates are ok, but the Front Page template does not display correctly.

I think it SELA works. I’ve just downloaded it and managed to do things you cannot …. hmmm … what to do?

What is the name of the page that you want it to be front page? Yes, you should publish it to see it in Dashboard/Appearance/Customize/Static front page

Have, you – it the page editor – chosen a Front page template for her (there are 3 templates, I think: Full width, Grid and Front. Choose Front.

Anything better?

I had to title the page “Welcome” – and that appears in the white box in the center of the featured photo.

At the moment I’m trying to create the front page sidebar widgets to see if they work correctly. But if you look at the third sidebar widget, it is higher than the others, despite being exactly the same size!

I have tried everything I can think of to enlarge the featured photo- nothing seems to work. I like this theme, but I am ready to throw it away!

Ok, sorry, I fixed the alignment of the third widget. I’m sure the photo problem HAS to be something simple…such as alignment, but I cannot find anything!

Hi, I’ve just checked https://www.theamblingblog.com

And it starting to look nice!!!

Just that big main image. Are you sure it is not less than 1180px width? Please check…

Okay, now I see that your main image’s natural size is 4752×3168. That is very very big.

Can you re-size it to the width 1180px? And see what happens?

I think I know what could be the problem.

Try uploading your image again. Follow these steps.

1. Rename your image on your computer (so you destroy all history connected to it)
2. Go to to the page Welcome and on the left add Featured image.
3. When you add it, WordPress will ask you if you want to Crop it
4. Go crop it and then select it.

Look ate the page again. Is it any better?

It could be that because you did not crop it before the ratio between image widths and height is different than Sela’s default one. Sea’s default one is 1180x610px

If the above trick does not work, try uploading this main image that you have but in the exact size of 1180x610px. This could mean that you will have to cut some part of your image because of the different widht/height ratio.

Hi m4j4,

Success!!! Thank you!
I uploaded a totally different photo and, as you suggested, resized it to width 1180. It came out much wider for some reason and filled the space. I’m not sure how a smaller photo ended up wider, but I’m not going to worry about that! At least now I can fit whatever photo I want to that space!

I have learned SO much about the theme – for instance, when you click “size” in the media page, there are a variety of “sela” sizes for various things like testimonials, or grid photos, etc.

I am truly grateful to you for all your patience and help.

Okay. Great. its always nice to help somebody.

One thing I wanted to tell you about your images (not just the big one, but also the three widget ones. They seem very large – when you open the page they it takes a lot of time for the to upload. Have you noticed? If I was on your place I would re-size them. (make them much much smaller)

Here I’ve found some px guidelines regarding that:

Quick Specs (all measurements in pixels)
The main column width is 620 except in the full-width layout where it’s 778.
A widget in the sidebar is 250.
A widget in the Footer Widget Area or Front Page Widget Area is 320.
The featured image on the front page and on pages works best with images at least 1180 wide.
Featured Images for posts should be at least 820 wide by 312.

But be careful also about the resolution of your images. As far as I know, for we, 72px is enough.

***

What about social icons in the footer Have you figured that out , too.
Yous should go to Appearance/Menus and create a new one. Than you should go to Appearance/Menus/Manage Locations and assign this new menu to the SELA’s Social Menu. Here you will notice that SELA supports two menus: Primary Menu and Social Menu. In the same way as we just assigned your new menu to Social menu, you can do for the Primary Menu.

Hope it helps,
Cheers,
M4j4

Thank you SO much for all your time and help.

Yes, I noticed that the photos were loading slowly. I shall work on that. I just added them as they were, without changing the size. So many things to learn!

I shall try the social menu as well.

Do you know anything about the testimonials page? If I add that page, will they automatically appear on the Front Page also, as in the example?

I have searched for such a long time – and tried so many different themes to finally find one that I liked and looked the way I wanted it to! You can imagine my disappointment and frustration when I simply could NOT get it to work. Thank you, thank you! I really like the theme and am now happy to be finally learning to use it. Your assistance has been invaluable.

I’m so glad to see that m4j4 has been able to help you get Sela set up the way you want it. Thanks, m4j4!

Once you add some testimonials they’ll be displayed automatically on this automatically created archive page, and two randomly-selected testimonials will be displayed on the front page.

You’ll find more setup info for Sela here:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/sela/

Just let us know if you need further help. I’m glad you’re liking Sela and that m4j4 has been so helpful.

Thank you, as well, Kathryn. This is the first time I have used the WP support forum and I will happily recommend WP to anyone. You guys have been so helpful.