Install recommended plugins for your theme

WHY ARE RECOMMENDED PLUGINS NEEDED?

Any time you activate a new theme on your blog, the theme vendor may recommend installing and activating plugins that can help your customization/setup process run a little more smoothly. These plugins also typically help you transition content from an old theme to a new one, especially where images are concerned. This article will discuss our currently recommended plugins, what they are for, and how to install and run them.

For all EmPress themes, we currently recommend install of the following plugins:

  • Regenerate Thumbnails — Regenerate Thumbnails will run a process that resizes your existing images, so they fit or scale within your new theme and properly fit within image containers. 
    • If you are starting from scratch and do not have any images yet uploaded to your site, you do not need to run this process.

TO INSTALL RECOMMENDED PLUGINS:

1. Upon theme activation, you will be prompted to install the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin. The notification will look similar to this, and will be located near the top of your Dashboard:

2. Click Begin installing plugin to get started.

  • NOTE: If you are installing an older or outdated version of one of our themes, it may recommended installing and activating the WP Instagram widget plugin. If your theme prompts you to download the WP Instagram Widget plugin, you may ignore this prompt, and instead, follow instructions in this Help Desk article to install an Instagram feed. 

3. Beginning installation will take you to a page where you can install and activate the plugin. First, check the box next to the Regenerate Thumbnails title, then click Install. Here is a video showing you the above two steps in action:

4. Wait for the confirmation screen, then click Return to Required Plugins Installer. Underneath the Regenerate Thumbnails title, click the link to Activate. If successfully activated, a notification will appear atop the page. Here is this process in action:

5. You're all set! You can now run the Regenerate Thumbnails process by going to Tools > Regenerate Thumbnails. For more on Regenerate Thumbnails and how to use it to resize feature images for posts, please read these Help Desk articles: