TidyMag Documentation

TidyMag is a clean and modern magazine WordPress theme to create an elegant and eye-catching website. It features a responsive and mobile-friendly design, Customizer theme options, 1 navigation menu, full-width templates for posts and pages, a sticky menu and sticky sidebars, left and right sidebars on singular posts/pages, a header banner widget area, a 4-column footer, 2 social button locations, a scroll-to-top button, and more. The theme is very starter-friendly and easy to set up.

Method 1: Install via WordPress Dashboard (Recommended)

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

Method 2: Upload via WordPress Dashboard

1. Download the tidymag.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 tidymag.zip file, and click Install Now.
5. After installation, click Activate.

Method 3: Upload via FTP/File Manager

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

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

If your website already has existing posts with featured images, it's highly recommended to regenerate thumbnails after activating the TidyMag 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 TidyMag 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/upload your image (recommended width: 1270px or larger).
3. Crop if prompted, then click Publish.

Useful notes

• The header image is displayed above the header content area and is linked to your homepage.
• The suggested header image size is 1270 × 200 pixels; the height is flexible.
• To remove the header image, open the Header Image section in the Customizer and click Hide image, then Publish.

This theme includes one Display Location for menus: Primary Menu.

Right after installing the theme, WordPress may display your existing pages as the default menu items in this location. You can replace them with your own custom menu 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.

There are 11 widget areas in the TidyMag theme. The free version does not bundle custom widgets; use WordPress core widgets or plugins of your choice inside these areas.

1. Header Banner

   Located in the header of the web page, next to the site title/logo.

2. Sidebar 1

   Left-hand sidebar for your singular posts/pages.

3. Sidebar 2

   Right-hand sidebar for your singular posts/pages.

4. Top Widgets (Home Page Only)

   Full-width area above the posts, shown only on the homepage (first page of the latest posts).

5. Top Widgets (Every Page)

   Full-width area above the main content, shown on every page except the 404 error page.

6. Bottom Widgets (Home Page Only)

   Full-width area below the posts, shown only on the homepage (first page of the latest posts).

7. Bottom Widgets (Every Page)

   Full-width area below the main content, shown on every page except the 404 error page.

8. Footer 1

   Footer column 1.

9. Footer 2

   Footer column 2.

10. Footer 3

    Footer column 3.

11. Footer 4

    Footer column 4.

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

• Full Width, no sidebars (Page) — Template for pages (template-full-width-page.php)
• Full Width, no sidebars (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 sidebars and update/publish.

To see available WordPress Customizer theme options:

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

Along with the option sections documented below, the Theme Options panel also includes informational sections: Getting Started (quick links to the theme documentation and contact form) and Recommended Plugins (links to WP-PageNavi and Force Regenerate Thumbnails, which work well with this theme).

TidyMag is fully translation-ready and includes a translation template file you can use to translate the theme into your own language.

🌐 Translating the Theme

The theme includes a tidymag.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:

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

Place them inside the /languages folder in the theme.

↔️ RTL Language Support

TidyMag does not include a dedicated RTL stylesheet. If your WordPress site language is set to a Right-to-Left (RTL) language like Arabic, Hebrew, or Persian, you can add direction-specific adjustments using the Additional CSS section in the Customizer (Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS).

If you're customizing your site with RTL content, make sure your text widgets, menus, and custom styles are also RTL-compatible for best results.

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

• 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 the posts layout and when sharing on social media.

In this section, you'll find quick answers to the most frequently asked questions about using the TidyMag 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 TidyMag 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 TidyMag PRO

For more features including color options, font options, more post styles, custom widgets, related posts, and much more, consider upgrading to TidyMag PRO.

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

You can use the following date format values to control how dates appear in various places such as custom widgets, post metadata, news tickers, and more. These formats follow the standard PHP date formatting rules used by WordPress. Refer to the table below to choose a format that best fits your design and content style.