Showcase Tab

This article is relevant for Barton theme users only.

Click below to jump to various sections of this article:

GETTING STARTED: HOW THE SHOWCASE AREA WORKS

The Barton theme features a unique Showcase area at the top of the page, allowing you to feature a one, two, or three column design. Within each column, you may choose to:

Feature a blog post,
OR convert the column into a widget area.

This flexibility provides countless ways to design the top of your Home Page, including stacking multiple widgets atop each other in a single column. With the Showcase features, Barton theme users may design their Home Page to look like an informational services page, or as a content-rich, editorial blog—or even a little bit of both.

The Showcase area may be as short or long as you choose. Beneath your Showcase, Barton can feature up to three additional blog post feeds which may be turned on or off. However, if you prefer to keep your Home Page on the shorter side, it's not necessary to enable these additional post feeds. For more information on setting up Barton's blog post feeds, click here.

ACCESSING THE SHOWCASE OPTIONS TAB

To access the Showcase Tab, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Showcase Options.

EDITING THE SHOWCASE LAYOUT

Exploring the Showcase Options Sub-tabs, editing your Showcase layout, and assigning a post vs. widget area

The Showcase Options tab is divided into five sub-tabs, as follows:

Start here → Simple explainer tab, with basic instructions on how to use the other sub-tabs
Showcase Column 1 → Contains controls to turn Showcase Column 1 on and off, and to set whether the column features a blog post or widget area
Showcase Column 2 → Contains controls to turn Showcase Column 2 on and off, and to set whether the column features a blog post or widget area
Showcase Column 3 → Contains controls to turn Showcase Column 3 on and off, and to set whether the column features a blog post or widget area
Post Display Options → If you have opted to display a blog post in any of the Showcase Columns, this tab controls display options for those posts (including post date, category link, comment link, and post excerpt details)

EDIT YOUR SHOWCASE LAYOUT

Decide how many columns you would like to feature in your Showcase: one, two or three.

For One Column:

Click into the Showcase Column 1 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 1 button to ON.

For Two Columns:

Click into the Showcase Column 1 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 1 button to ON.
Then, click into the Showcase Column 2 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 2 button to ON.
Two columns are now available in your Showcase.

For Three Columns:

Click into the Showcase Column 1 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 1 button to ON.
Then, click into the Showcase Column 2 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 2 button to ON.
Last, click into the Showcase Column 3 tab and toggle the Enable Showcase Column 3 button to ON.
Three columns are now available in your Showcase.

SET YOUR SHOWCASE FEATURES: BLOG POST VS. WIDGET

Within each Showcase Column tab you've enabled, choose whether you'd like to display a featured blog post, or a widget area.

If you select a featured post, additional settings will load which provide controls over which post is featured in the Showcase.
If you select a widget area, after publishing your edits in the Customizer, a new widget area will be registered under Appearance > Customize > Widgets.

Here is a video showing you the above section in action:

EDITING BLOG POST SETTINGS IN A SHOWCASE COLUMN

CHANGE FEATURED BLOG POSTS

If you choose to feature a blog post in any of the Showcases, an additional set of options will load in the Showcase Column sub-tab. These options give you control on what post content is fed into the Showcase area. You can:

Display your latest blog post automatically
Select an individual post to feature
Auto-feed in a post from a selected category or tag

Display Latest Post

If you'd like the Showcase to always feed in your most recent post, simply toggle the Display Latest Post button to ON.

NOTE: If you are featuring a post in a Showcase, the latest post will always be the default post fed in, unless you select otherwise with the additional settings below.

Select a Featured Post

With this setting, choose individual posts to feature in your Showcase column. Selecting a specific featured post is a great way to feature older post content, popular posts, or evergreen content (such as DIYs or tutorials, especially if they're related to seasonal content that's relevant each year).

1. Toggle the Select Featured Post button to ON. Be sure that above, the Display Latest Post option is toggled to OFF.

2. In the Select Posts box, a list of recent posts, followed by an alphabetical list, will populate. Click to select any you wish to feature. OR, try typing in a few words from the title of the post you wish to feature. The dropdown list will auto-update to feature any blog posts featuring those keywords in the title.

NOTE: While the Select Posts feature will let you add more than one post to the field, only the first post in the series will be displayed.

Here is a video showing you these steps in action:

Auto-feed a post from a selected category or tag

A final option is to auto-feed in your blog post based on a selected category or tag. This is a great option to utilize if you are featuring a multi-column Showcase layout.

For example, in a three-column Showcase, Showcase Column 1 could feature your latest post, with Columns 2 and 3 featuring posts from your most popular categories. Were you to design your Showcase this way, we've included the option to "skip" a set number of recent posts, so you don't end up with duplicate post content in your Showcase!

1. Begin by ensuring the Display Latest Post AND the Select Featured Post buttons are toggled to OFF.

2. If you want the Showcase to feature a blog post from a particular category, simply click on the Select Category dropdown, and pick your preferred category.

3. If you'd rather the Showcase feature a blog post from a particular tag, simply click on the Select Tag dropdown, and pick your preferred tag.

4. If you want the Showcase to skip a set number of posts from, type in a numeral into the Number of Recent Posts to Skip field. If you are featuring more than one Showcase column with blog posts, this control provides a way to prevent duplicate post content from appearing at the top of the page.

Here is a video showing you these steps in action:

EDIT POST DISPLAY OPTIONS IN SHOWCASE

The Post Display Options sub-tab allows you to toggle ON/OFF:

Post date
Post category link
Comment count/link to comments
Post excerpt
Control the length of the blog post excerpt
Edit the "read more" button text

To access this panel, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Showcase Options > Post Display Options. Edit the settings as you wish. If you are featuring blog posts in more than one Showcase area, the settings you implement here will apply to all blog posts in the Showcases.

ADDING WIDGETS TO A SHOWCASE COLUMN

Instead of a blog post, any Showcase column may convert to a widget area.

1. Ensure that the Showcase column you wish to convert to a widget area is enabled/set to ON. (Review "Editing the Showcase Layout," above).

2. Under Content to Display, select A widget area.

3. You must now Publish your changes in the Customizer, then refresh the page. Doing this will allow the new widget area to be registered in the theme.

4. Navigate to the Widgets tab in the Customizer. You'll see a corresponding tab named after the Showcase column you just converted to a widget area. Click on the Showcase widget area, then begin adding your favorite widgets to the new Showcase widget area! Below is an example showing you this in action. In this example, the user is adding a Barton: About widget to the top of Showcase Column 2:

The final widget might look something like this:

5. Multiple widgets can be added within a Showcase widget area. Stacking widgets together can create an immersive, content rich experience for your readers! Here's an example of the Barton: Featured Posts widget stacked atop a Barton: Subscription widget in Showcase Column 2: