HotWP Documentation

HotWP is a responsive, mobile-friendly, three-column magazine and blogging theme for WordPress. It includes Customizer theme options, 2 navigation menus, a featured posts slider, clean post listings, full-width templates for posts and pages, a sticky menu, left and right sticky sidebars, a header banner area, a 4-column footer, header social buttons, a built-in header search overlay, and a scroll-to-top button. The theme is starter-friendly and easy to set up.

Requirements: WordPress 5.0 or later and PHP 7.2 or later. HotWP 1.0.8 is tested up to WordPress 6.8.

Method 1: Install via WordPress Dashboard (Recommended)

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Appearance → Themes → Add New.
3. Search for HotWP in the search box.
4. Click Install on the HotWP theme, then click Activate.

Method 2: Upload via WordPress Dashboard

1. Download the hotwp.zip theme file from WordPress.org.
2. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
3. Navigate to Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme.
4. Click Choose File, select the hotwp.zip file, and click Install Now.
5. After installation, click Activate.

Method 3: Upload via FTP/File Manager

1. Download the hotwp.zip theme file and extract it.
2. Connect to your server via FTP (FileZilla) or use your hosting File Manager.
3. Upload the extracted hotwp folder to /wp-content/themes/.
4. Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Appearance → Themes and activate HotWP.

You can import the demo content, widgets, and Customizer settings shown in the HotWP theme demo.

If your website already has existing posts with featured images, it's highly recommended to regenerate thumbnails after activating the HotWP theme. This ensures that all images match the new theme's layout and display sizes.

Regenerating thumbnails is optional if your site is completely new and doesn't have any uploaded images yet.

However, if you imported the demo content, regenerating thumbnails is essential to display images correctly across the site.

1. Install and activate the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.
2. Go to Tools → Regenerate Thumbnails.
3. Click the "Regenerate Thumbnails for All x Attachments" button to start the process.
4. Wait until all images are regenerated. This may take a few minutes depending on your media library size.
5. If you want, you can deactivate and delete the plugin once the process is complete.

This step ensures clean image alignment and sharp visuals throughout your website using the HotWP theme.

Use the WordPress Customizer to add or manage the header image that appears at the top of your site.

How to add a header image

1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Header Image.
2. Click Add new image and choose or upload an image. HotWP's suggested dimensions are 1250 × 200 pixels.
3. Crop if prompted, then click Publish.

Useful options

• Add new image – upload or choose an image from the Media Library.
• Randomize uploaded headers – rotate randomly between multiple uploaded header images.
• Hide image – remove the current header image.

This theme includes two Display Locations for menus: Primary Menu, and Secondary Menu.

Right after installing the theme, WordPress may display your existing pages as the default menu items in these locations. You can replace them with your own custom menus containing links, categories, pages, and more by following the steps below:

1. Go to Appearance → Menus and click the create a new menu link.
2. Enter a name for your menu in the Menu Name field.
3. Select a display location for your menu by checking one of the available options under Display location
4. Click the Create Menu button.
   
5. To add items to the menu, use the options in the left-hand column—select the pages, posts, categories, or tags you want, then click Add to Menu.
6. To create dropdown menus, simply drag and nest the submenu items beneath the parent menu item.
7. Once you've added your links, click the Save Menu button.

HotWP includes a featured posts slider for the default latest-posts homepage. It can show recent posts or posts from one selected category.

How to configure

1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Theme Options → Slider.
2. Check Enable Slider.
3. Set the number of posts, then choose Recent Posts or Category Posts.
4. If you chose Category Posts, select the desired category.
5. Choose whether to hide slide categories, author, date, or comments, then click Publish.

There are 13 widget areas in the HotWP theme. You can place WordPress core widgets or compatible plugin widgets inside these areas.

1. Header Banner

   Located in the site header and intended for content such as a 728 × 90 banner. This area appears only while Hide Header Content is unchecked.

2. Sidebar 1

   Normally located on the left-hand side of the page.

3. Sidebar 2

   Normally located on the right-hand side of the page.

4. Top Full Width Widgets (Home Page Only)

   Full-width area at the top of the homepage. It is shown on the front page only and not on paged views.

5. Top Full Width Widgets (Every Page)

   Full-width area at the top of every page.

6. Top Widgets (Home Page Only)

   Located at the top of the homepage content area. It is shown on the front page only and not on paged views.

7. Top Widgets (Every Page)

   Located at the top of the content area on every page.

8. Bottom Widgets (Home Page Only)

   Located at the bottom of the homepage content area. It is shown on the front page only and not on paged views.

9. Bottom Widgets (Every Page)

   Located at the bottom of the content area on every page.

10. Footer 1

    Left footer column.

11. Footer 2

    Middle footer column.

12. Footer 3

    Middle footer column.

13. Footer 4

    Right footer column.

HotWP includes two custom page templates you can use for full-width layouts without sidebars.

• Full Width, no sidebar (Page) — Template for pages (template-full-width-page.php)
• Full Width, no sidebar (Post) — Template for posts (template-full-width-post.php)

How to apply a template

1. Edit a page or post in the WordPress editor.
2. In the Page Attributes (or Post Attributes) panel, open the Template dropdown.
3. Select Full Width, no sidebar and update/publish.

HotWP combines standard WordPress Customizer controls with theme-specific settings. Site Identity and Colors appear inside the Theme Options panel; Header Image and Background Image remain standard top-level Customizer sections.

To see HotWP's theme-specific options:

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Appearance → Customize.
3. Click on Theme Options.

HotWP is translation-ready and includes a translation template. It does not include a dedicated rtl.css stylesheet or other built-in RTL-specific styling.

🌐 Translating the Theme

The theme includes a hotwp.pot file located in the /languages folder inside the theme directory. You can use this file to create translations in your own language using any of the following tools:

• Poedit – Desktop translation editor (view tutorial)
• Loco Translate – Translate the theme directly from your WordPress dashboard (view tutorial)

After translating, save your files as:

• hotwp-[language_code].po
• hotwp-[language_code].mo

Place them inside the /languages folder in the theme.

RTL Languages

For an RTL language such as Arabic, Hebrew, or Persian, expect to add and test custom RTL CSS for layout direction, alignment, and spacing. WordPress can load an rtl.css file automatically when one is supplied, but HotWP 1.0.8 does not bundle that file.

Here are some best practices to improve your site's performance and SEO when using HotWP:

• Use a caching plugin — Install W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache to improve page load times.
• Optimize images — Use plugins like Imagify or EWWW Image Optimizer to compress images.
• Use a CDN — A Content Delivery Network (e.g., Cloudflare) serves your content from servers closest to your visitors.
• Install an SEO plugin — Use Yoast SEO or Rank Math to manage meta tags, sitemaps, and structured data.
• Keep WordPress updated — Always use the latest versions of WordPress, themes, and plugins.
• Minimize plugins — Only keep the plugins you actually use.
• Use quality hosting — A good hosting provider makes a significant difference in performance.
• Set featured images — Always set a featured image for posts to ensure proper display in post summaries, the slider, and social sharing.

In this section, you'll find quick answers to the most frequently asked questions about using the HotWP theme. If you can't find your answer here, you can contact our support team for more help.

This section covers common technical problems you may encounter. If your issue isn't listed, reach out to our support team.

The HotWP theme is released under the GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL v2). You can use the theme on unlimited websites and modify the code.

What's included in free support:

• Help with theme installation and setup
• Bug fixes and troubleshooting related to the theme
• Guidance on using built-in theme features

What's not included in free support (but available as paid tasks):

• Theme customization or resolving third-party plugin conflicts
• Custom coding or feature implementation requests
• Performance tuning, SEO setup, or server configuration assistance

If you need help, please contact us. We typically respond within 24-48 hours on working days.

Contact Support

Upgrade to HotWP PRO

For more features including color options, font options, news ticker, related posts, and much more, consider upgrading to HotWP PRO.

The following is a log of all updates and changes made to HotWP. We recommend always using the latest version.

HotWP uses the global WordPress date format for normal post metadata. Change it under Settings → General → Date Format; the reference values below follow the standard PHP date formatting rules used by WordPress. Slider dates are fixed to the Y-m-d format in HotWP 1.0.8 and cannot be changed through the Theme Customizer.