From time to time questions about tweaking and adding fun and fascinating features to sites come my way. There are some great things you can do with WordPress. Some would argue that if you can imagine it, WordPress has the flexibility to get the job done. Not so surprising is the fact that WordPress continues to gain notoriety in the age of user friendly content management systems. It simply outshines so many options and outperforms a static html website for an electronic portfolio hands down.
So, The question has now come a couple times regarding customizing the “Optimize” theme from the guys over at WooThemes – specifically about changing the Portfolio Page. Perhaps the ability to change the behavior of this page will be available in later editions. Regardless the question has a fairly straightforward answer when it comes to a slight adjustment in how the portfolio page template behaves.
Here is the latest letter to the editor from Lisa:
I’m modifying optimize and I want to get the portfolio to function like it does on your site. (I.E. using read more links and excerpts that go to the full post.) Any chance you can tell me how you did this or provide me with a link to the instructions you used?
Lisa
Great question, and here is the long and short of it:
- The post content loop needs to be changed to the excerpt. Open archive-portfolio.php in the theme folder, find and change this code in the main content div (approx. line 52):
<?php the_content(); ?>
to this:
<?php the_excerpt(); ?> - The link to the full post needs to be added. Insert the link to the full post with this line directly after the excerpt call:
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="btn">Read More about This Project</a> - And finally make sure to follow the steps necessary to create new portfolio items. a. Create a post in the designated category for the portfolio with a title and full content; b. Upload the thumbnail and full portfolio images, c. Create your hand-crafted excerpt directly in the excerpt input below the post editor, publish and enjoy.
Too cool. Similar changes can be applied on the homepage template (index.php in the theme folder) with some helpful results. What more would you want from a portfolio page and post combination on your website?
Have a question or a tip you want to submit regarding page templates, WooThemes or WordPress templates? Are you building a portfolio site? If so, what theme are you considering and what functionality would say is crucial for your site? Be sure you do not miss Cameron Chapman’s post over at Smashing Magazine’s writeup on building the ultimate portfolio website with WordPress.
