An Introduction to Genesis Home Page Options
Most Genesis child themes use a widgetized home page. This means the home page is not set up as a regular page. Instead it is a combination of theme settings and content within preset widget areas.
Having a widgetized home page is preferred because it gives theme buyers maximum flexibility in creating a home page for their website or blog. It allows you to change options and content to fit your specific needs.
We design our child themes with specific types of content in mind for each area of the home page. Even though we do this, it does not mean that you can’t put other content into these areas. We’re just trying to give you a head start and a push in the right direction.
Keep in mind – WordPress has 20,000+ plugins, which leads to thousands and thousands of options for widget usage on a child theme’s home page. We can’t begin to style for all of those options, so content replacement on the home page may need some additional tweaking to the CSS file. While many plugins and/or content changes will look great, not all will. So you’re free to replace out the widget suggestions we have for your own content or widgets, but remember you might need a little extra styling done for this addition or change.
Patricia Versions 2.2.0 and Later
Starting with version 2.2.0, the widgetized home page is now configured by using a page template on the page chosen in Front Page Displays (see below). Using a page template offers more flexibility for configuring the home page (whether it’s static content or widget driven) and the blog page.
Setting Up the Home Page
- Create a new Page for your home page
- If you want to display static content, leave the page template as Default Template
- If you want a widgetized home page, change the page template to Widgetized Home Page
- Go to Settings -> Reading
- Check A Static Page for Front Page Displays
- Select the new page for Homepage
- Save
- If you are setting up a widgetized home page, please follow the instructions at Home Page to configure at least one widget area. Otherwise, the static content of the Page will display.
Setting Up the Blog Page
- Create a new Page for your blog page. You do not need to put content into this page; setting it as the Blog Page will handle the output.
- Note: Due to changes in Genesis 3.0+, there will likely no longer be a Blog Page page template. Please leave the template for this page as Default Template.
- Go to Settings -> Reading
- Check A Static Page for Front Page Displays
- Select the new page for Posts Page
- Save
Previous Versions of Patricia
Setting Up the Home Page
- Go to Settings -> Reading
- Check Your Latest Posts for Front Page Displays
- Save
Now visit the other topic posts within you’re theme’s instructions to learn how to set up each content area.
Setting Up the Blog Page
You do not need to set the blog page in the Reading screen. You simply create a page within WordPress and set that page’s template to Blog. This is done right within the page itself.
