Table of Contents

• About The Theme
• Installation
• Child Themes
• Theme Options
• Home Page Options
• Appearance
• Destinations
• Travel Directory
• Master Pages
• Blog Posts
• Plugins
• Support

GoExplore! - WordPress Travel Theme

About The Theme top

This theme is designed for use with WordPress v4.2 or higher. The code was written to be backwards compatible where possible, however we recommend you use the current WP version when possible. If you are not using WordPress 4.2 or higher and can upgrade your site we recommend you do this before installation.

Although every effort has been made to ensure the theme is bug free and easy to use there is always a chance errors may occur. If you do find a problem please notify us immediately through the ThemeForest account page or our Help Center so we can ensure it gets fixed as quickly as possible.

Theme Support

Visit our Help Center for theme support.

If you find yourself needing help, visit our Help Center. You can find many articles, written and video tutorials on the Help Center.

Installation top

Installing the theme can be done two ways. You can upload the theme ZIP file using the built in WordPress theme upload, or copy the files through an FTP client.

1) Using WordPress Theme Upload

Be sure to extract the file "theme-goexplore-vX.X.X.zip" from the ThemeForest download before uploading. Using the ThemeForest ZIP file directly will result in a "Missing Style Sheet" error.

1. Login to your WordPress admin.
2. In the "Appearance > Themes" menu click the button "Add New".
3. At the top of the page click, "Upload Theme", then click the file input to select a file.
4. Select the zipped theme file, "theme-goexplore-vX.X.X.zip", and click "Install Now"
5. After installation you will receive a success message confirming your new install.
6. Click the link "Activate"

2) Uploading by FTP

1. Login to your FTP server and navigate to your WordPress themes directory. 
   Normally this would be "wp-content/themes"
2. Extract the files from the zipped theme.
3. Copy the folder "parallelus-goexplore" to your themes directory.
4. After the files finish uploading, login to your WordPress admin.
5. In the "Appearance" menu click "Themes"
6. Click "Activate" for the theme "GoExplore!"

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Activate the Theme

Once the theme is installed, you can activate it from "Appearance > Themes" by clicking the "Activate" link for "GoExplore!".

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Enabling Permalinks

After installing the theme you should setup your permalinks. Navigate to Settings > Permalinks and select "Post name" as the new setting. You can optionally choose any of the options, except "Default", for this value.

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Demo Data(Optional)

A full demo content file is included with this theme, "demo-content-goexplore.xml". After importing this data you will have all of the demo content. It is optional to import this content.

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Finished with Installation?

Once the theme is installed you can configure it for your content. See the sections below on configuring the theme to start adding your content.

Creating a Child Theme top

A safe way to make custom template files and modify the code without directly editing the theme is by using a WordPress child theme. There are a few extra steps required with this theme to make a child theme. These steps are detailed here.

You can view the full instructions for making a WordPress child theme here: WordPress Child Themes

1. Give the child theme a name

Inside the "wp-content/themes" folder create a new folder with your child theme name, for example we will call ours "dora".

2. Add a style sheet

Create a file inside the "dora" folder named "style.css" with the following content:

/*
Theme Name: Dora
Description: Child of GoExplore! theme by Parallelus
Author: Your Name
Template: parallelus-go-explore
Version: 1.0
Tags: one-column two-columns three-columns left-sidebar right-sidebar fixed-layout fluid-layout responsive-layout buddypress custom-menu editor-style featured-images flexible-header full-width-template sticky-post theme-options threaded-comments translation-ready
*/

3. Enqueue the parent theme style sheet

Create a file inside the "essence" folder named "functions.php" with the following content:

<?php
function theme_enqueue_styles() {
  wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );
?>

4. Copy the assets

Copy the entire "assets" folder from the "parallelus-go-explore" directory into the new "dora" theme folder.

IMPORTANT: When you update the parent theme, remember to also update the 'assets' folder in the child theme, i.e. copy that folder across again from the parent theme folder to the child theme folder, overwriting the old 'assets' folder.

5. Copy the data settings

Make a "data" folder in the child directory and copy the "data/pages" folder from the GoExplore! theme into the child theme's "data" folder.

IMPORTANT: When you update the parent theme, remember to also update the 'data/pages' folder in the child theme, i.e. copy the 'data/pages' folder across again from the parent theme folder into the child theme's 'data' folder, overwriting the old 'pages' folder.

6. Activate and setup the child theme

First, go to Appearance > Themes and activate the Dora theme.

Next, go to Appearance > Menus > Theme Locations and make sure the menu options are set to the correct menus.

NOTE: Child themes have their own settings, which means that the child will begin with default settings. It won't inherit the parent theme's settings.

Theme Options top

This section provides a brief overview of the theme options, setup and configuration. It will help you get started quickly by introducing the theme structure and settings. After activating the theme, you should see a Go Explore! menu in the left admin sidebar.

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Theme Options (Go Explore! > Theme Options)

To start, configure some of the default design settings found in "Go Explore! > Theme Options" area. Set the options to customize your site.

Theme Options > Defaluts

Design

• Logo, Site Title, Favorites Icon, Mobile Bookmark Icon

Headers

• Use Page Headers, Header Styles

Footers

• Footer Options, Footer Styles, Footer Content

Sub Footers

• Sub Footer Styles, Sub Footer Content

Blog

• Blog Style, Blog Image Layout

Error Pages

• Error Page Select

Theme Options > Colors

Links

• Link color settings

Accent Colors

• Accent color settings

Main Menu

• Menu color settings and styles

Theme Options > Fonts

Body Font

• Body font color, style, size and family.

Heading Font

• Heading font color, style, size and family, heading specific sizes.

Theme Options > Navigation

Navigation

• Search, Social links

Theme Options > Login Screen

Design

• Logo, colors and background images

Homepage Options (Go Explore! > Home Page)

When activated, GoExplore! will generate a custom homepage for you. The Home Page options allow you to organise the way your content is display through a series of settings.

The default theme styled home page is only shown when you have the WordPress Reading settings for "Front page displays" configured to "Your latest posts". If you specify an alternate setting and configure the front page setting to "A static page" it will override the entier home page. Using "A static page" will tell the theme to show that page using the specified template in the page settings. This completely overrides the theme's home page options in favor of a page template.

Change this setting by going to "Settings > Reading" in the WordPress admin.

Home Page > Content Sections

Header

• Color, background, size, title and content.

Sections 1-5

• Home page content soures, styles and layout.

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Content Sections

The homepage is composed of different sections that let you decide what categories you want to show and alter the way they display. They are briefly presented below.

Section 1 - Featured

This sections lets you showcase up to 6 featured destinations. You can show / hide the section, select your featured destinations and change the background color / background image for the section.

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Section 2 - Text and Search

This sections lets you customise the search section. You can add 2 content blocks - these are created in the Content Blocks menu item on the left admin sidebar - and select a width ratio for both (1/2 and 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3, etc). You can then select under which content block you want the search bar to show.

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Section 3 - Accordions

This section showcases up to 3 destination categories of your choice in a fancy accordion display. For each accordion, you can set a title, intro text and select what category you want to display. It will show the last 3 entries for that cateogry.

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Section 4 - Slideshow

The Slideshow section allows you to display a destination category in a full-width slider layout. You can also decide to show a custom Simple Slideshow or Slider Revolution instead.

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Section 5 - Blog Posts

This section lets you choose how you want to display your latest blog posts. Select what category of posts you want to show, how many posts should appear and chose your favourite layout to display them.

Home Page > Advanced Settings

Advanced

• Custom CSS class for the page headers, custom CSS to override the theme styles.

Appearance top

This section provides a brief overview of the appearance options, setup and configuration.

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Sidebars (Appearance > Sidebars)

Create custom sidebars for adding widgets and assigning to articles.

Go to "Appearance > Sidebars" to create new sidebar areas.

Go to "Appearance > Widgets" to populate sidebar areas.

To integrate a sidebar into one of your articles you can assign it in the article's Sidebar Options metabox.

Menus (Appearance > Menus)

To create a menu or attach an existing menu to the theme, go to "Appearance > Menus".

Attach the menu by setting the "Theme Location" in your Menu Settings.

There are two menu locations in GoExplore!: Main Menu and Top-Left.

If you imported the demo content you will have sample menus already listed. Select the desired menu and load it by clicking the "Select" button. Scroll to the bottom of the menu and select it as the desired location. Don'y forget to save!

Learn more about WordPress Menus

Destinations top

Destinations are the first level content type in GoExplore! All the content you will add (travel guides, directory items) will be related to a specific existing destination.

For that reason, it is a good idea to start off with setting up your destinations when creating your website with GoExplore! You will find a Destinations menu in the left sidebar of the WordPress admin.

Before starting with the creation of new destinations, it is worth spending a few minutes reasoning about how you want to structure your destinations.

Parent / Child Relationship

Destinations are created with a parent / child relationship. As an example, multiple cities can be children of the same parent country. Countries can be children of the same continent, etc.

Take a minute to think of the broadest destinations your website will present, and start by creating these as 'parent containers'. You will then be able to assign your children destination to the appropriate parent via the Destination Attributes option on the right sidebar.

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Destination Categories

Destination categories are a very important aspect of your content in GoExplore! - they will allow you to organise your destinations under different 'themes' or 'types'. You could for example group together the 'beach' destinations in one category, the 'mountains' destinations in another.

These categories will help you segment your homepage sections such as the accordion or the slideshow.

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Adding a New Destination

Once you have a good idea of what destination structure you want to adopt (parent level, categories), you can start creating one by going to Destiations > Add New.

The creation of a new destination is pretty straightforward. Add a title (name of the destination), an introduction text and main content.

You don't need to go in too much details in the content area. As you will see below, the destination page can be populated with content from a few other content types, such as directory items, guide pages etc. Think of your content here as a simple introduction to the destination.

There are useful page options below the main content box, such as blog display options, a checkbox to show / hide directory items on that page, as well as a google maps URL field.

You can select categories on the right sidebar, as well as set the parent / child relationship accordingly.

At the bottom of the sidebar is an important option: the featured image. The image you select here will be used for the header section and the different displays throughout the site (homepage accordion, featured destination, slideshow etc.). Be sure to upload an image with a good enough resolution (around 2000px wide), since it will display in full-width of the screen in the header section.

Travel Directory top

The travel directory in GoExplore! allows you to list products and services in organised sections for each destination. Think of it as a mini 'Local Yellow Pages' directory.

Directory Types

Each directory item will be related to a single destination and a single directory type (category). You need to set up your directory types before you can assign a directory item to it.

For each directory type, you can enable one or both rating systems: star rating (quality) and dollar rating (price). Users will be able to sort the directory items by ratings within a directory type page.

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Add a New Directory Item

Once you have defined a few directory types, you can start adding directory items by going to Destiations > Directory Items.

Just like for the destinations creation, you have a title field, as well as an intro text and main content fields. You can assign your item to a destination and a directory type on the right sidebar, set up the ratings and choose a featured image for your item.

The directory item creation page presents a few more specific fields that allow you to add information about a listing, such as contact details, opening hours or any type of information you'd like to show. These elements of information will show in a sidebar block, next to the featured image:

Destination Master Pages top

Master pages in GoExplore are an advanced way to structure your destination pages output by creating re-usable sections of content that will be available for each destination (if needed).

Think of these master pages as custom content you may want to use to structure your destination presentation.

Some good examples of master pages would be:

• Before you travel - Planning your trip
• Weather Information
• Destination Highlights
• Events
• Popular Itineraries

When presenting a destination, you would probably be tempted to structure your content with a few headers and sections. That's exactly what the master pages are used for: to help structure your destination presentation in an organised way, which is re-usable across different destinations for a consistent layout.

Mater Pages are available form the left admin sidebar via Destinations > Settings > Master Pages:

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Adding a New Master Page

To add a new master page, click on the "Add New" button just under the master pages tab (see image above).

Creating a master page does not involve much work - you simply need to enter a title for that master page, and speficy if you want to set a parent / child relationship with another existing master page.

The real work behind these master pages will be in the individual destination pages, as you will learn below.

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Adding Destination-Specific Content to a Master Page

Once you have created a master page, you will be able to add content to that page for each destination you have created.

From any destination page in the WordPress admin area, click on the Pages tab on top, as shown below. You should be able to see the list of existing master pages and start filling them with your destination-specific content.

Once you have filled a master page with content, it will start displaying in the destination page!

Blog top

Blog posts in GoExplore! come with 2 preset styles (card or image-left) and 2 image orientation (vertical or horizontal). The default settings can be set in the Theme Options.

Adding a New Blog Post

Blog posts are created the standard WordPress way, via Posts > Add New. GoExplore! offers custom settings for each post, such as the header size, color, background image, title display. You'll find such options in the New Post admin page in the right sidebar

NOTE: If you want to make use of the "Intro Text" metabox on standard WordPress posts and pages you will need to install and activate the Classic Editor plugin. This is the only current solution which provides the full functionality of the theme's UI as intended during the development of the theme.

Content Blocks top

Reusable content structures for sections of your site. Content Blocks are for creating content that is embedded into pages, footers and headers as needed.

Using Content Blocks

Static block content can be inserted into your home page, footers and directly into other content using the shortcode: [static_content id="id-or-slug"]

When inserting a content block with the shortcode, the ID should be the slug for that block. The slug is found just below the title field when editing and appears as the end of the URL path to the page: "mysite/featured-products/"

Plugins top

The theme supports many plugins, some are included with the theme and others can be optionally added if you choose.

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Included

The following plugins are included in the theme. You will be automatically prompted to install these plugins when the theme is installed.

Travel Destinations

A custom plugin developed for this theme. It provides a way to create destinations and a directory of related content. This plugin is required to achieve the full functionality of the theme.

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Optional

The following plugins are optional. Using them will provide added functionality to the theme if you choose to install them.

Ninja Forms https://ninjaforms.com/

The easiest and most flexible WordPress Form builder! This plugin is used to add the contact forms.

Documentation and Resources

• Getting Started
• Installation

Support top

If you have trouble using the theme or need a little help, we have a number of support tools available.

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Visit our Help Center to find written and video tutorials, a dedicated support forum and expert support team members waiting to answer your questions.

Written Tutorials
Video Tutorials
Support Forums

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Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this theme. If you need assistance or have questions please let us know and we'll be happy to help in any way we can.

Thank you,
The Parallelus Team