This page is about how to get the most out of Canvas, the theme by Woothemes – “probably the best theme in the world” ; ) On this page we hope to feature all of the Canvas resources we have built up for you.
If you’re not already a Canvas user, and you are looking to create a WordPress site, we highly recommend using Canvas as your theme. Why? Here’s 5 quick reasons (there’s more, but 5 should be enough to convince you)
1. It’s super flexible. Check out all these different sites created with Canvas.
2. It’s mobile responsive, which means it automatically resizes your website for different devices with different screen sizes like mobile phones and tablets.
3. It’s currently on version 5, this means it’s super robust with nearly zero bugs.
4. It’s developed by a solid company, Woothemes who have a sustainable business model and who are heavily invested in it as one of their main products.
5.It won’t break the bank. Ok, $99 is expensive compared to a lot of themes, but you get what you pay for. There are premium themes and there are premium themes.
Convinced? Good – let’s take a deeper look.
Before you start
Why not seeking out some inspiration from some sites that have already been done using Canvas?
Check out these posts and try not to dribble:
10 of our favourite Canvas created sites of all time
10 sites we created with our customers in 1 day on Canvas
Get started
Once you have purchased Canvas from Woothemes, the next step is to get started. The first thing you will need to do is create a child theme.
See our video here to create a child theme in one-click.
You’ll then want to download our blank canvas child theme.
Once you’ve created your child theme, it’s time to role up your sleeves and start fleshing out your site. All themes look great on the demo website, but when you first get started it can be daunting because your website is just an empty shell. If you’re feeling like you need some help at this stage, you should consider signing up for the PootlePress Academy which includes the Canvas MasterClass. For $75 for a whole year including support, we think it’s great value.
Now get ahead
Ok, so you’re starting to understand the best theme in the world, and are making it do what you want. But a really good tip is that you don’t have to do everything yourself from scratch. Having seen our customers using Canvas and building on it lots ourselves, we know there are some common things people want to do. So we have developed 5 free child themes that will save you time doing some key things…
1. Aligning the logo to the right of the header – download
2. Add social icons to header – download
3. Add a text description to Canvas Menu items – download
4. Canvas and BBPress fix – download
5.Widgetised header – download
Go even further
Advanced users will also want to use Canvas with other plugins to do even more awesomeness. For example, check out our tutorial here on getting Canvas working with with BBPress to have awesome looking forums.
What happens when you get stuck?
Even very experienced WordPress experts get stuck. One of our most popular resources is this helpful post of 65 Canvas tricks and CSS Tweaks for Canvas. It’s one of the most popular pages on our site and we know Canvas users come back to it again and again.
We also have a some other canvas help tutorials, when you get in a pickle:
How to add Infinite Scroll to WooThemes Canvas in 2 simple steps
How to add your own links to the Canvas footer area
Don’t forget as part of the PootlePress Academy you also get access to our Support forums where we are constantly answering those canvas questions our community has.
What next?
Canvas 5.5 has just been released and we will be releasing some updates and new stuff for you to enjoy. To find out about this as soon as it happens (and for plenty of Canvas goodies) sign up to our mailing list.