Blog Feed Options Tab

• This article is relevant for Barton, Pearl and Hayes theme users. For help with setting up the Blog Feed in Rania, Presidio, Miramar, Brevier, or Archer, please click here.

ABOUT BLOG POST FEEDS

The Barton, Hayes, and Pearl themes allow you to create a custom blog feed layout on your Home Page with up to 3 post feeds sections, separated by optional interstitials (a.k.a. content blocks). 

• Post feeds can "continue" the post feed (meaning they automatically feed in the most recently published posts), 
• OR, they may be used as featured post sections to highlight post content of your choosing. This includes assigning a feed to feature a particular category, tag, or even series of individually selected posts.

By default, Post Feed 1 is always enabled, and can serve as your only blog post feed if you prefer a minimal layout. In other words, if you're not utilizing many interstitial content blocks, you don't necessarily have to enable Post Feeds 2 and 3.

If you wish to mix and match post layouts, and/or to break up your post feed with interstitials, go ahead and enable Post Feeds 2 and 3 in the corresponding tabs. Read on for more details about the Blog Feed Options tab, and how to customize.

QUICK TROUBLESHOOTING BLOG POST FEEDS

If you have worked through the Customizer tabs and settings as described in this article, and your blog post feeds still don't look quite right, here are a few things to troubleshoot:

• Have you assigned featured images to your posts? If you do not see images in the feeds, you likely do not have featured images assigned. If you have only published a few posts, you can assign featured images to those posts individually, using the steps outlined in this Help Desk article. If you have a large backlog of posts, check out this Help Desk article with instructions on how to assign the first image in each post as the featured image.
  • How to assign a featured image to a post
  • Assigning featured images to many posts at once
• Did you set up a sidebar? If you're using a feed layout that features a sidebar, be sure to add content to that sidebar so the feed looks populated. Widgets can be added to their corresponding sidebar by going to Appearance > Customize > Widgets.
• Have you published enough content? Often, if feeds aren't working as they should or not populating at all, it's because you don't have enough blog posts published yet. You can either wait until you publish new posts and check your customization settings then, or publish a series of sample/test posts, complete customization, then delete the sample posts.
• Want more or fewer posts to appear? Use the settings within each Post Feed tab to set how many posts appear in a section. You can also change this setting globally by going to Settings > Reading from your WordPress dashboard. Keep in mind that if you have marked any posts as "sticky" in the post Status & Visibility settings, these sticky posts will appear on your Home Page and override your post count settings.

GETTING STARTED WITH BLOG FEED CUSTOMIZATION

1. To setup your Home Page blog feed with various post feed sections, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Blog Feed options.
2. The Start Here tab will outline many of the notes available in this article, for easy reference.
3. From there, work your way down the section tabs from top to bottom, to set up your blog feed as you wish.

POST FEED LAYOUTS: A VISUAL GUIDE

Barton, Pearl and Hayes each feature unique post feed layouts, which may be assigned to the Feeds 1-3 in your Home Page, as well as on archival pages. Below are visuals for each post type offered within each theme's feeds.

To further edit the look and feel of each post feed type, navigate to the Post & Page Display Options tab.

BARTON

In Barton, the four types of post feed layouts are:

• Classic Feed
• Classic (Large) Feed
• Featured Feed
• Grid Feed

Here are visuals for each of these:

HAYES

In Hayes, the four types of post feed layouts are:

• Classic Feed
• Classic (Large) Feed
• Featured Feed
• Grid Feed

Here are visuals for each of these:

PEARL

In Pearl, the three types of post feed layouts are:

• Offset Feed
• Grid Feed
• Classic Feed

Here are visuals and settings descriptions for each of these:

POST FEED 1 TAB

SETTING UP POST FEED 1

1. To access, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Blog Feed Options > Post Feed 1.

2. Remember, regardless of your theme, Post Feed 1 will always be enabled. If you prefer a minimal layout, simply choose your post layout and the number of posts to display, and you're done! To mix and match post layouts, and/or to break up your post feed with interstitials, enable Post Feeds 2 and 3 in the corresponding tabs.

3. Toggle the Continue Post Feed button ON or OFF, depending on your preferences.

CONTINUING YOUR POST FEED

• If you want this post feed to feature your latest posts in reverse chronological order (that is, newest to oldest), be sure to toggle the Continue Post Feed button to ON.
• If you wish to select which posts should appear in this feed, either by picking a specific category, tag, or series of posts, toggle the Continue Post Feed button to OFF.
• If you choose to select your featured posts by toggling Continue Post feed to OFF, use the controls that load to select your preferred category or tag to draw posts from. Or, in the Select Posts box, begin typing the titles of the posts you wish to feature.

4. Select your Post Feed layout.

• Choose from Classic Feed, Classic (Large) Feed, Featured Feed, or Grid Feed. Use the visual guide in the section above for reference on what each feed style looks like.

5. (OPTIONAL) Input a Feed Title Field: This field will appear on particular feeds, and with particular layouts. You may wish to add a title to lead off this feed — something like "Read the Latest" or "New Posts" or "Popular Now."

6. Edit the Number of Posts to Display: Use this setting to change how many posts, in total, will appear in this individual feed.

POST FEED 2 & 3 TABS

Controls in these two tabs will be similar as in Post Feed 1. Click on each, and apply your preferred layout settings using the same prompts in the section above..

Decisions you'll need to make as you set up this section:

• Do you want this feed to continue featuring your blog posts in reverse chronological order? Or, do you want each feed to feature posts from a specific category or tag? Here are some reasons many bloggers opt to feature posts from a category, tag, or selection they choose:
  • If you publish content that spans several different verticals, showcasing your most popular types of posts (e.g. "Recipes" or "Outfits") within a single feed can be a great way to ensure readers see a bulk of content from that category, versus all recent posts.
  • If you don't publish often, surfacing older/evergreen content in this sections may also be beneficial.
  • Create a custom tag like "trending" or "popular," then create an entire feed dedicated to "Popular Posts" — that is, posts you know readers love and always ask about, which you want to ensure are front and center.
  • If you publish content multiple times per day, it may make more sense to leave one feed as Continue Post Feed, and another as a featured post feed, to ensure readers can see several days worth of your content within 2 or more post feeds.
• Want your blog to look more simple, traditional, or classic? Repeat the same style of post feed type in each feed. The repetition will make the design feel more minimal, and easy to follow.
• Prefer a more magazine-style, editorial look? Try mixing up the feeds by adding different layouts to each, to make each section pop and feel unique.

POST FEED NAVIGATION TAB

The Post Feed Navigation refers to the button or buttons that terminate your last feed. They allow users to navigate backwards to access additional older posts. You may be used to seeing these buttons with labels such as "Older Posts," "Newer Posts," or "Load More."

By default, only the older posts button will display as a "Load More Posts" link. You can enable the newer posts button, which will display to the left of the older posts button. 

• If enabled, we recommend updating the older/newer text to "Older Posts" and "Newer Posts", or similar. Alternatively, you can disable the post feed navigation completely, if you don't want readers to navigate backwards to older posts.

INTERSTITIALS TAB

Interstitials refer to the blocks of customizable content that live between each feed. You will add widgets to each interstitial to create uniquely designed layouts that feature your favorite content or calls to action, within the separate Widgets Tab area of the Customizer.

• Descriptions of EmPress theme widgets
• Widgets Tab

Enabling Interstitials

Once you have enabled and customized the Post Feeds you'd like to use, go to the Interstitials tab ( Appearance > Customize > Blog Feed Options > Interstitials) to enable corresponding Interstitials, which will display below those post feeds. 

Adding widgets to Interstitials

Once enabled, customize and add widgets to each Interstitial widget area by going to Appearance > Customize > Widgets. You may need to publish your changes and refresh the Customizer in order to "register" the widget areas. 

BLOG ARCHIVES OPTIONS TAB

In WordPress, "Category pages" might as well be synonymous with "Archive pages." Archive pages are for browsing posts in a category, or when navigating to older posts from the blog home page. The Archive page appears whenever a reader hits an "older" or "newer" page navigation button, OR when they click on a properly linked category (for example, this link to the "Beauty" category in the Hayes theme).

In the Blog Archives Options tab:

• Select your preferred Post Feed layout
  • The optional layouts will match the same options available to you in the Post Feeds, as customized above.
• Want to change how many posts appear on an Archival page? Control the posts per page under Settings > Reading > "Blog pages show at most" setting. 

FEATURED/LATEST POST TAB — HAYES ONLY

In our Hayes theme, the Featured/Latest Post tab will appear under the Start Here tab. The Featured/Latest Post displays at the top of the Home Page, with our "Featured Post" layout. View our separate Help Desk article about this unique tab and its settings here.

• Hayes Featured Post Area

FEATURED POSTS SLIDER TAB — PEARL ONLY

The featured posts slider appears at the top of the Pearl blog home page. Use it to feature specific posts or auto-feed posts from a selected category or tag.

• To turn the slider on, set the Enable Featured Posts Slider button to ON.
• In Number Posts to Display, type in a numerical to determine how many total posts you'd like your slider to feature.

Next, you will want to assign posts to the slider.

• Select Featured Posts allows you to individually select posts. Turn this setting to ON if you wish to assign posts one by one. Assign the posts by typing in their post titles into the Select Posts box; the titles should begin to populate based off keywords you type.
• Alternatively, you can auto-feed in posts based on specific categories or tags. Use the Select Category and Select Tag controls to assign these to the slider. You can also opt to "offset" a particular number of posts, so posts in the slider don't duplicate content that's in your Blog Feed. Set a numerical in Number of Recent Posts to Skip if you wish to take advantage of this feature.