Slideshow - Centered Images/Stretched Images

There is no simple "fix" button to make everything work exactly as you desire. The default generator does the best it can to fit your image into the slider depending on the layout you have chose for the theme. (1-column, 2-column or 3-column) If you would like your images to look the best possible then the largest image you use should be the same size as the height and width limits defined in the theme settings for your thumbnails, while maintaining a good aspect ratio.

In my opinion everything should be determined based on the size you plan to use for your image slider, then the other display type images should be a scaled down version of that with a good aspect ratio. You should also have an image editor and "max size" canvas template set up to allow you to center images within your thumbnails.

[Image size suggestion notes area]

Firefox only: get an add-on called fireshot and set the preferences to your liking and it will generate a pretty decent image.
Paint.net: You can use pain.net to determine proper aspect ratios for your images and create a canvas template for centering images.

Another solution provided by member @BP:

Add this to user.css ".featured-article"

.featured-article {
background-position: top center !important; 
}

Note: You must use !important to override the style background-position: 0 0; applied within the element itself, otherwise it has priority.

Sidebar Tabbed Widgets:
My Favorite - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fun … ebar-tabs/

Why you ask?
I realize that it is older, but to my knowledge still works great. The Fun With Sidebar Tabs allows you to add up to 9 tabbed widget areas to your theme (allowing any number of tabs within those tabbed widget areas) using the default widget areas supported by the Arras theme.

How to use it?
Appearance>Widgets
At the bottom left of the screen there is a box which asks you how many tabbed sidebar areas you would like. After you've set that it will add "Tabbed Sidebar #" boxes (however many you've selected) into the "Available Widgets" pool. It will also add a new widget area box to the right of the pool area named "Tabbed Sidebar #".

Now what you do is take the "Tabbed Sidebar #" widget from the "Available Widgets" pool and add it to say the "Primary Sidebar" widget area on the right. Now you can add ANY available widget from the "Available Widgets" pool to the "Tabbed Sidebar #" widget area on the right and it will give you options to give the widget a name and styling options.

On your front end you should now see the tabbed widget you've added.

Honorable Mentions:
Pretty much anything in the Wordpress plugin directory.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sea … &sort=

Full Width Pages/Posts: (For 2-column layouts)

Things needed:

• Custom Post Templates: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cus … -template/ For easy choosing of templates.

Add the following to the "user.css" file:

#contentfw {
    margin:0;
    width:960px;
    overflow:hidden;
}

For Posts
Copy the file "Single.php" and rename it to "posttpl-[YOUR TEMPLATE NAME WITHOUT THE BRACKETS].php".
Example: posttpl-fullwidthpost.php

Add the following to the top of the page:

<?php
/*
Template Name Posts: Full Width Post
*/
?>

Change the following:

<div id="content" class="section">

to:

<div id="contentfw" class="section">

Remove the following from the bottom:

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

(In some cases you may need to add </div> after removing the sidebar)

For Pages
Copy the file "page.php" and rename it to "pagetpl-[YOUR TEMPLATE NAME WITHOUT THE BRACKETS].php".
Example: pagetpl-fullwidthpage.php

Add the following to the top of the page:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Full Width Page
*/
?>

Change the following:

<div id="content" class="section">

to:

<div id="contentfw" class="section">

Remove the following from the bottom:

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

(In some cases you may need to add </div> after removing the sidebar)

Now all you need to do is choose the "Full Width Post or Page" custom post template meta box in the Add/Edit post screen.

Note: Sizes and names may need to be adjusted to fit your theme style.

What are the default size settings for the post thumbnail/featured slideshow images?

This all depends on page style and custom edits, but the default settings look best at:

2-column
Single Post Thumbnail     Width 620 Height 250
Featured Slideshow             Width 640 Height 250

3-column
Single Post Thumbnail     Width 470 Height 250
Featured Slideshow             Width 490 Height 250

How can I make it easier to get help with my website?

• Be patient

• Edit your profile by clicking "Profile" in the top menu of this forum. Next click on "Identity" and add your website url to the "Website" field.

• Be very detailed and clear

• List your host server details (PHP Version & other relevant information)

• Arras Theme Version & Wordpress Version

<<-----This will add your website link on your profile for the forums.

How can I add a new widget area?

(This particular example based on a single column layout)

Open launcher.php

Find:

register_sidebar( array(
    'name' => 'Bottom Content #2',
    'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widgetcontainer clearfix">',
    'after_widget' => '</li>',
    'before_title' => '<h5 class="widgettitle">',
    'after_title' => '</h5>'
) );

Add below that, this:

register_sidebar( array(
    'name' => 'Bottom Content #3',
    'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="widgetcontainer clearfix">',
    'after_widget' => '</li>',
    'before_title' => '<h5 class="widgettitle">',
    'after_title' => '</h5>'
) );

Open home.php

Find:

<div id="bottom-content-2">
    <?php if ( isset($sidebars['sidebar-5']) ) : ?>
    <ul class="clearfix xoxo">
        <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Bottom Content #2') ) : ?>
        <li></li>
        <?php endif; ?>
    </ul>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>

Duplicate this, rename the CSS style and add it just below the original.

Example:

<div id="bottom-content-2">
    <?php if ( isset($sidebars['sidebar-5']) ) : ?>
    <ul class="clearfix xoxo">
        <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Bottom Content #2') ) : ?>
        <li></li>
        <?php endif; ?>
    </ul>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>
<div id="bottom-content-3">
    <?php if ( isset($sidebars['sidebar-6']) ) : ?>
    <ul class="clearfix xoxo">
        <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Bottom Content #3') ) : ?>
        <li></li>
        <?php endif; ?>
    </ul>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>

Now all you need to do is add a new style called "bottom-content-3" and add it to your user.css.

Here is the default code for both of the bottom content widgets:

#bottom-content-1, #bottom-content-2 {
    float: left;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 30px 10px 10px 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    width: 320px;
}

If you'd like something that looks exactly the same then all you have to do is add the new style. Something like this.

#bottom-content-1, #bottom-content-2, #bottom-content-3 {
    float: left;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 30px 10px 10px 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    width: 320px;
}

Or

#bottom-content-3 {
    float: left;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 30px 10px 10px 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    width: 320px;
}

If you'd like to control the styling separately from the default widgets.

*Note: The above code may need to be modified slightly from site to site depending on the layout style you are using, but this should get you in the right direction. You can also attempt to use this as an example to test adding widgets to other areas.

1. Think of the homepage as a overall view of your content. The homepage has content areas which are determined based on the categories you select in Arras>Theme Options>Home. Any and all categories (and stickies if you have those selected) selected for each area will be shown in the homepage content areas. The top are is referred to as the "Slideshow" content area. The area just below that is referred to as the "Featured Posts #1" content area. The area below that is referred to as the "Featured Posts #2" content area and the area below that is referred to as the "News Posts" content area. Each of these content areas can have the same or different categories assigned to them. Any post you have assigned to those categories will show up in the content areas as you arrange them.

2. The blank area and the sidebar on the far right are widget areas. You can only assign widgets to them. You can use the basic "Text Widget" to attempt to add a table if you like.

rfrank - You've added the new CSS style and code to the home.php page?

nh - You have to change the widths for each bottom content widget style.

I changed the width for the original bottom widgets and tested the following in firebug and it works:

#bottom-content-1, #bottom-content-2 {
    float: left;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 0 10px 10px 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    width: 165px;
}

Nothing is official as every site will vary depending upon the styling applied. What I've suggested above is what looks best visually on a fresh install of the Arras theme, 1.4.X and up.

If your asking if you can use one width for both 2-column & 3-column styles then the answer is no.

If you are asking if you can use one set of numbers for both thumbnails in each of their own layouts (2-column/3-column), then yes.

Want additional featured content areas, rounded edges, social icons & more?

A guru has created a child theme capable of adding multiple features to arras. Please see if this satisfies your needs first.
http://www.arrastheme.com/forums/topic3 … re-ii.html

We're sorry the theme doesn't support your feature.
Suggest a new feature - http://www.arrastheme.com/forums/forum5 … uests.html

It's not simple, but not all that hard to change the width of the theme (sidebars and content). Depending on your layout and needs, the following tutorial will need to be adjusted to fit your needs. The info below is based on the layout with left and right sidebars around the content.

It is highly recommended that you are using Firebug for Firefox to test out and manipulate the changes in the tutorial below.

Note: All adjustments are made in the user.css file as an override.

Adjusting the main content area
The main content is the area that holds the sidebars and content. We are going to change that to 1200px.

Default Code:

#main {
  margin: 0 auto;
  position: relative;
  width: 960px;
}

Adjustment:

#main {
  margin: 0 auto;
  position: relative;
  width: 1200px;
}

Note the change in width for the adjustment.

Adjusting other content areas to fit our new width
Now that we have defined our width of 1200px in the example above, we have to decide what widths we would like the other elements of our content to be (keeping in mind that we will have 10px of spacing around each element). Although we have 10px around our elements, doesn't mean that you will assign a padding or margin of 10px to each element as it may only apply to one element and not the other(s).

I'm going to make my sidebars a width of 300px

Default Code:

#primary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -960px;
  width:220px;
}

#secondary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -220px;
  width: 220px;
}

Adjustment:

#primary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -960px;
  width:300px;
}

#secondary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -220px;
  width: 300px;
}

Note the change in width for the adjustment in both primary and secondary sidebars.

At this particular point in time you should notice that all the changes are basically done, we just need to move the content area.

Default Code:

#content {
  margin: 0 220px 0 230px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

Note the margins of 220px that were for the original sidebar sizes of the primary and secondary sidebars.

Adjustment:

#content {
  margin: 0 220px 0 310px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

We've now adjusted the content to float 10px to the right of the left or primary sidebar. We now have to re-assess the secondary sidebar and adjust it's margin accordingly.

Original Adjustment:

#secondary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -220px;
  width: 300px;
}

New Adjustment:

#secondary {
  float: left;
  margin: 0 0 0 -60px;
  width: 300px;
}

This should put the sidebar on the far right as you would expect with a 10px margin. (I used firebug to make the visual adjustment)

Now all we have to do is readdress our content area with the following to get it centered up and looking good.

Original Adjustment:

#content {
  margin: 0 220px 0 310px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

New Adjustment:

#content {
  margin: 0 60px 0 310px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

Note the width of 60px to match the -60px from the adjustment for the secondary sidebar.

You should now have a working 1200px wide main content area. Similar techniques can be used to adjust the header and footer accordingly. As far as the featured slideshow is concerned, you will need to adjust the height and width in the theme settings to fit your needs.

Enjoy!