How to Set Up Featured Posts Slider

The theme is equipped with a Narrow Featured Posts slider, and a Full-Width Featured Posts slider. With just a few clicks, it’s easy to add either of these sliders to a Page or Post on your site.

1. Activate Featured Posts in Theme Settings

On the Theme Settings page, click the link for “Featured Posts.” You’ll see a setting titled “Featured Posts on Home Page.” By default, this setting is set as “No.” If you’d like to place a Featured Content slider on the home page, simply select either the Narrow or Full-Width slider. The default setting will display up to 5 featured posts.

Note: You can also add the Featured Posts slider to the top of any individual Page or Post. Simply look for the Solostream Post Options on the Add Post/Page screen, and check the setting labeled Add Featured Articles/Posts to This Post (if you are using a static page as your home page, this is the method you’ll need to use to add the slider to the home page).

2. Select Some Posts to be Displayed in the Featured Content Section

If you want a Post to appear in the featured content section, simply tag the post as “featured” (without the quotes). To add a tag, simply find the “Post Tags” metabox on the right side of the Add Post screen and enter it there. If you don’t see the Post Tags metabox, click the “Screen Options” tab in the upper right corner, and activate it.

You can also display WordPress Pages in the Featured Posts slider. You’ll just need to install the Page Tagger plugin, which will allow you to tag your Pages with the “featured” tag.

Please Note: The slug for the “featured” tag must be featured for the slider to show posts. Make sure that it’s not “featured-2.” You can change it – if necessary – in your WordPress dashboard under Posts >> Tags.

3. Adding Featured Content Images

Ideal Featured Content Image Size

• If using Narrow slider – ideal image size is 680px wide by 300px height.
• If using Wide slider – the ideal image size is 800px wide by 450px height.

Important: for best results, ensure that your original images are at least the sizes indicated above. WordPress can crop larger images down to size, but it will not enlarge images that are smaller.

Selecting Your Featured Image

The simplest and best way to select your post thumbnail or featured article image for a post or page is to upload the image, then use the Set Featured Image function on the media uploader (click thumbnail to the right).

You can also use the Featured Image metabox that appears on the Add Post/Add Page screen. If you do not see this box, click the “Screen Options” tab in the top right corner, and select it from the list of options.

Important: You should always use the Featured Image function. This is the best method for assigning thumbnail images and featured article images.

4. How to Show a Video Instead of an Image

If you’d prefer to show a video in the featured slider, you will need to paste the video embed code into the Video Embed Code field. You’ll find this field on the Add/Edit Post/Page screen under the Solostream Post Options.

Note: for best results, always use the iframe video embed code, if it’s available. Youtube and Vimeo are two examples of providers who offer this sort of video embed code.