You've just purchased Semplice – congratulations and welcome to the family!
This guide will help you get started with installing Semplice, explain how Semplice works, and give you a brief overview of how to use our editor.
Installing Wordpress/Semplice
Semplice runs on WordPress software (which is free to download at WordPress.org), but you won't interact with WordPress after you install Semplice. Semplice has its own visual content editor built on top, making it easier and more fun to build your site. If you've used Wordpress before, you can install it like you would a theme.
For help on installing Wordpress, please check out our guide here. To learn how to install Semplice, view this guide.
If you have an existing site already, we recommend building your new Semplice site in a separate install so you can keep your current one live while you work on the new one. More on this here.
Activating Semplice
Once Semplice is installed, you'll want to activate Semplice with the license you were provided with in your initial purchase. More on licensing here.
How Semplice works
The Semplice workflow consists of four main areas: Pages, Projects, Customize, and Settings.
Pages are for your main site landing pages, like Home, About and Contact. You can also add a Portfolio Grid to your page to showcase all your work.
Projects are for your case studies. A project offers the same options as pages but with one key difference: Your projects connect to your Portfolio Grid. If you drag and drop a Portfolio Grid module onto a page, any projects you created will automatically appear in the grid.
Customize is where you can customize the look, feel, and stylings of your site. You can set things such as default colors and grid widths, add custom fonts, create your own typography system, or add page transitions, for example.
Settings is where you can modify site-wide settings, such as your website title, choosing which page to set as your homepage, or adding Google Analytics code to your site.
Creating projects
When building your new Semplice site, it may be easiest to start by building out your projects first. You can head on over to the Projects tab from the Semplice dashboard to get started on your first project.
Since projects are meant to serve as case studies of your work, you can include as much content and information as you'd like on a project page. Be sure to set a thumbnail for your project in the Project settings as well.
Using the editor
Semplice uses a drag-and-drop style editor. There are several key components to be aware of when using the editor:
Modules are the building blocks of your page or project. Simply drag a module, such as a text or image module, onto the page to place it.
It is important to note that Semplice uses a 12-column grid system. Your page is comprised of sections, and within each section are rows consisting of columns. When a module is placed on your page, it is automatically added as a column. You can then drag to resize the column as needed.
Look and feel is where you can set page or project specific settings, such as a background color for the page. More on this here.
Settings allows you to quickly access your page or project settings from the editor.
Responsive tool is what you can use to optimize your site for various mobile devices and screens. More on this feature here.
Versions can be used to save or store various versions of your page. Learn more.
Preview allows you to quickly preview changes you've made, without saving them.
Save allows you to save progress you've made in the editor, without publishing them live to your site.
Publish is what you use to publish saved changes in the editor directly to your live site. You can also use this feature to set your page status to Published, or Draft (not public).
Creating a homepage or work page
After your projects have been created, you'll want to allow site visitors to browse your work. You can do this by using a Portfolio Grid or Advanced Portfolio Grid module. These modules will house all of your projects in a thumbnail grid, and they can be placed on any page in Semplice.
You can choose from many different portfolio grid options and customize every element of your grid to your liking.
Once you've finalized your work page, you can make it your homepage. Learn how to do this here.
Final checklist
Once you've built out your homepage and set it, created all of your projects and projects, added all your custom stylings, and optimized your site for mobile, you are ready to showcase your portfolio to the world!
Here are some final things to check for when getting ready to launch your site:
- Ensure you've set thumbnails for all of your projects. If you are using the Project Panel or Next/Prev feature, be sure you've set thumbnails for these as well in your project settings.
- Be sure our site is optimized for mobile to ensure your content and layouts look great on all device widths.
- Add a favicon
- Add all relevant SEO and page share information.
- Add Google Analytics tracking, if applicable
- Most importantly, give yourself a big 'ol pat on the back – you deserve it!