On this page you will find everything you need to install your child theme.

The install process and general customisation process outline below is the same for all child themes, however we have also created documentation related to each child theme that covers its unique elements.

After going through all the steps below, come back and review the extra information related to your purchased child theme.

If you have any technical problems with installation itself, please submit a ticket.

Submit A Ticket

Getting Started

Accessing your product

After making your purchase, you will be emailed a receipt for your records. Within your email, there will be a link to download your files.

You will also have an account created on this site. You will receive a separate email with your account logins. Once you are logged in, you can also access your files from the Downloads section.

The child theme file also contains the licencing keys to access the relevant cloud library, and will be automatically connected during the install process.

If you have any trouble accessing your download files, please submit a support ticket and we will assist you.

Before you begin

Before you can import your child theme and content, you will need to ensure you have set up on a brand new installation of WordPress.

If you are new to the WordPress backend, we recommend adjusting the following core settings before you proceed to the next steps.

We recommend you update the following WordPress settings before continuing on with the next steps:

  • Settings > Permalinks – Set permalink structure to Post Name.
  • Settings > Media – Set Medium image size to 500px for both width and height.

Installation Instructions

In your WordPress website, ensure you are logged in as an Administrator and navigate to the backend area of your website.

Installing Plugins

Although it seems a bit back to front, we recommend you install the required plugins for your child theme first. These are required as a minimum to ensure your content import works.

  • Kadence Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks for Page Builder Features
  • Kadence Templates

To install, go to Plugins in the dashboard side menu, click the Add New button, and then search for each one. Click Install and then Activate for both.

Installing Child Theme

Now you are ready to install your new Child Theme!

As part of your order confirmation, you would have a link to download the relevant child theme file. Ensure the ZIP file is downloaded to your desktop.

In the Dashboard side menu, go to Appearance > Themes > Add New.

Select the zip file from your desktop then click the Install button to upload it. Once that is done, click Activate.

The Kadence parent theme will automatically install as part of this process. You can choose to install it directly from the WordPress repository first, then install/activate your child theme – it just adds an extra step.

Now that your Child theme is active, if you view the live site, you will see some of the changes already taking place on your site, mainly with the header and footer areas.

Now it’s time to import the child theme content which automatically creates all the different pages for your website.

Importing Content

To import all the child theme pages and content, you will need to use the Kadence Starter Sites plugin, which is a free plugin from the WordPress repository.

If you have followed the previous steps, this should already be installed and activated on your site.

If you haven’t done this step, after installing the Kadence theme, a notification will usually appear at the top of the page asking if you wish to install this plugin. Click the Yes button to install and activate it if you haven’t already.

If you happen to dismiss this notification accidentally, you just need to go to Plugins > Add New. In the search field type in “Kadence Starter Sites” and then click the Install and then Activate buttons.

Now that the Kadence Starter Templates plugin is activated, in the Dashboard side menu, go to Appearance > Kadence > Starter Templates.

You will see three Logo options appear, being the Red Lilly logo, Gutenberg and Elementor.

You must select the Red Lilly logo, and then you will see your Child Theme layout display. Click on it and then a pop up window will appear with some options you can enable / disable.

Our Child Themes are developed with minimal additional plugins, therefore you shouldn’t need to install anything extra. However, in the instance that there is an additional plugin that is needed, you will need to enable installing it to get the full functionality of your child theme.

Under Advanced Settings, you will see the following two options:

  • Import Customiser Settings
  • Import Content

We want to keep both options enabled as this will create the new pages and import all the layouts and content.

Click the Start Importing button and wait momentarily for everything to finalise.

Once it’s all done, a Finished! View your site button will appear. You can click on this to view your site on the front end. Your website will now look very similar to the demo website on the Starter Sites website.

Congratulations you have completed the initial install of your new child theme. Now on to the fun part of making it your own.

Images

To create our child theme demo content, we use a combination of free and paid stock images. Our main sources of images are from Unsplash and DepositPhotos. 

Images have been left as the default file name to easily identify where they originated from. 

You are able to use the Unsplash photos on your website as these are free stock images. Licence details can be found here: https://unsplash.com/license

Images from Deposit Photos are required to be purchased directly from their website if you wish to use them on your website. Be aware, if you chose to use these images without purchasing a licence then you may be liable for damages for copyright infringement.

Theme Customisation

Colours

Fonts

To change the fonts used on your website, go to the WordPress Customiser, and navigate to Colours & Fonts > Typography.

You can then change the base font which is what’s used for the paragraph text on your page.

You can then adjust the heading font, by either selecting a different font (if required) and then adjusting the size and weight.

Note: if you make changes to your child themes default font settings, remember to also check and update the responsive settings (i.e. tablet and mobile view).

For beginners, we recommend sticking with Google font options for body text and headings.

For unique stand out font, choosing a custom font helps to give your website a pop of style. However, you will need to either install via a custom font plugin or add the required code to your child theme functions.php file.

If you would like some suggestions for good font combinations, you can refer to our typography guide.

Check licencing requirements.

Other Font Settings

Kadence allows you to load the Google fonts you are using on your website locally. This helps to improve your website speed.

Simply go to the WordPress Customizer, and navigate to General > Performance.

Under Performance, you’ll see options to Load Google Fonts Locally, simply click the toggle to enable. If you are using custom fonts on your site, you can also enable the option “Preload Local Fonts” as well.

When you change these settings, we recommend flushing local font files to clear cache.

Customiser - General - Performance - Local Fonts Settings

Buttons

The theme button styling can be adjusted in the WordPress customiser. Go to Colours & Fonts > Buttons.

  • Button text is set as either white or black depending on the contrast required for the primary colour used.
  • Button background and borders are set with the Global Colour 1 as the Normal state, and Global Colour 2 as the Hover state.
  • Border can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number. Turn off the border by selecting the X from the drop down.
  • Border radius can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number. Entering 0 will make hard corners (rectangular) and increasing the number will make the corners rounder.
  • Padding has 4 boxes which represent top, right, bottom, left spacing. It’s best to have top/bottom and left/right as the same values.
  • Font settings can be adjusted for the font displayed, the style (e.g. how light or bold the font is), the size and transform options (e.g.all uppercase)

Logo

Content Customisations

Each child theme has been designed to look a particular way so that all blocks elements match and look good together. However you can choose to make adjustments to different elements to meet your own branding requirements as well as to match your personal design preferences.

Changing Text

Changing Images

Contact Form

Kadence Blocks Default Settings

Kadence Blocks has the option to add some default settings for individual blocks to help speed up the building process.

Changes made to the default block settings does not change the settings of blocks already being used on the site. These settings only apply to new blocks as they are added.

Any extra default settings for an individual child theme will be detailed in the supporting docs for that theme.

For our child themes, these are the default settings we adjust:

* For responsive settings: D = Desktop / T = Tablet / M = Mobile

Row Layout

  • Padding (Top & Bottom): 3XL (D) / 2XL (T) / XL (M)
  • Content Max Width Inherit from Theme: Enabled
  • Inner Column Height 100%: Enabled

Divider

  • Height: 10px
  • Divider Colour: Global Colour 7

Advanced Text

  • HTML tag: Paragraph
  • Font size units: Rem

Advanced Button

  • Colour Settings (Normal) Text: Global Colour 9 (white)
  • Colour Settings (Normal) Background & Border: Global Colour X (Secondary theme colour)
  • Colour Settings (Hover) Text: Global Colour 9 (white)
  • Colour Settings (Hover) Background & Border: Global Colour X (Secondary Alt theme colour)

Kadence Blocks Colour Options

With the kadence Blocks Settings, there is an option to add extra colours that can be used throughout your website. These colour options are on top of the theme global colours set in the customiser.

The extra colour options we set by default are: