We hope you will enjoy using The Sophie as much we did when making it! Your site is going to make you stand out in the industry through it's minimal and striking look.
To kick things off, we wanted to introduce you to what we at IDCO call the “No Panic” buttons. These are built-in so you never have to feel like you broke it. 😘
At the top right of your Wix editor, you’ll see two arrows - one to Undo and one to Redo. Use these whenever you made a change you don’t like and want to go back a step.
Accessing Site History
Additionally, Wix is working hard to autosave your work continuously. If at any point while updating your template you’d like to go back to a previous draft, use your Site History to access it.
In the Wix Editor:
Go to Site in the top menu
Click Site History
Select Continue to Site History
Here you can preview and reinstate previous drafts. In order to ensure your work is not lost, remember to Save your site frequently (we don’t like to rely too heavily on auto save).
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PRO TIP: While this guide is in page order and you can go in any order you'd like, we always like to start any site customization by first uploading the portfolio. See PORTFOLIO PAGE section below for steps to do so. Knocking out the portfolio upload first gets project photos ready and organized to make customizing much more seamless!
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HOMEPAGE To Upload Your Logo Instead of Text:
Click the text box
Hit the Trash Can in your tool bar on the right (or hit delete on your keyboard)
Hit the "+" sign in the menu on your left
Select Add Image
Upload your Logo
Hit Done
Drag + resize your logo as you'd like in your header
Once placed, right click the image and select Pin To Screen. This will keep the image in place as you scroll. Tweak settings to your liking.
Once pinned, right click the image again and toggle on Show On All Pages to ensure your logo appears on all pages of your site!
Updating Your Homepage Hero Image
Click on the main strip, then click again to select the column containing the main image
With the right column selected, click Change Column Background
In the popup window, select the Image button
Select the image you'd like to feature, then select Change Background
Editing Text Elements
Click on any text and click on the Edit Text button.
That's it!
From here you can format everything from color, font type and size to inserting a Hyper Link to link to other pages or external websites.
Editing an Image on your Site
Click on the image and a pop up will appear
Click on Change Image to change your image
Select an image from your Media Gallery or Select Upload Media to add a new image
Note: The "Our Story" and "Our Services" section is setup as a Repeater element, so any edits you make to format (font, spacing, etc.) will be reflected in each container to ensure they match!
Project Feature Section
You'll edit the image in this section the same way you edited your hero image but changing the column background. Once you update the column with your chosen image, you can readd the dark tint by again selecting the Change Column Background button and selecting Settings. Here you can edit the image opacity and decide how much dark tint you'd like!
With your updated image and opacity, you can edit text and update the Take The Tour button to link to your chosen project. To do so, select the button and click the link icon. In the popup, select the project you want to link to from the dropdown menu and select Done.
*Note: You will need to upload your portfolio and publish your site (without your domain connected) before you will be able to link a button to a specific portfolio project. See PORTFOLIO PAGE section below for steps to upload your portfolio.
Blog Feature Section
The section at the bottom of your homepage is meant to feature a chosen blog post. You'll want to update text, update the image and link the Read The Latest button to your featured post. Note that you'll need the live post link to connect this button! If you aren't implementing the blog portion of your template, you can simply delete this section or change it to feature something else—like an About blurb or whatever you wish!
Tip: Don't forget to Save your work at this point!
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ABOUT PAGE Your about page contains text elements and portfolio features neatly displayed with the help of Strips.
Text
Click on any text and click on the Edit Text button as you've done before. Update your About Page text to tell your brand story.
Editing an Image on your Site
Click on the image and a pop up will appear
Click on Change Image to change your image
Select an image from your Media Gallery or Select Upload Media to add a new image
At the bottom of your About page, simply select the column and click Change Column Background like you did on your homepage!
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SERVICES PAGE
Simply update text and change out images as you've done before!
Note: The Services and Featured Projects sections are setup as Repeater elements, so any edits you make to format (font, spacing, etc.) will be reflected in each container to ensure they match without adding any extra work to edit each section yourself!
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PORTFOLIO PAGE
We've developed an entirely bespoke Portfolio for you in The Sophie Template. It's the most technical page on your site, but this tutorial will walk you through how to auto-populate new portfolio projects + uploading individual category galleries
ADDING YOUR PORTFOLIO PROJECTS
From your Wix editor navigate to the Content Manager by selecting the second to last icon on the left-hand menu
Select Manage Content
Select Portfolio
Adding your Portfolio Projects to the Database
The portfolio page is set up as a 'template' for your portfolio project. Unlike the other pages on your site, each project will be updated in your database.
You'll see what looks like a data spreadsheet
The first few lines consist of placeholder projects so you can see how each project should appear
You can select each column and update each project with your project content
Click the cell under the Image column, a "+" will appear
Click the "+" to upload the primary (or featured) image which will show on the Portfolio Landing Page
Your photo gallery will appear for you to select the primary photo
Select Add to Page in the lower right corner to save your photo selection
Under the Gallery Column click the "+" to Edit Items
Click the orange Add Media button
In the top left corner, click Upload Media
Upload all of the photos for that specific project
To select more than one in your Media Gallery, hold Command + click
Click Add to Page
Drag and drop your images in the order you'd like them to appear on the individual portfolio page
Click Done
The additional columns will be filled in with your project details.
Leave the last two Columns as they are (the links auto-populate)
Rinse and repeat the steps above for all of your projects. Once everything is all set, you can Publish your site so your projects will be visible in your Editor!
Note: publishing your site will not make your site live to the public unless your domain is connected.
That's it! Feel free to email us at support@idco.studio if you get stuck.
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SHOP PAGE
With the clean and beautifully laid out design of the Sophie, we added an affiliate shop page so you can share all your favorite products with your followers.
You are able to add new products from RewardStyle and paste in your new HTML to update the shop pages.
If you're not familiar with RewardStyle, you can read our blog post here. If you already have a RewardStyle account follow the steps below to begin editing:
1. From RewardStyle, you'll want to compile all your products in individual folders. Then go to TOOLS in the menu > Boutique
2. You'll customize the size to 900 px in the left-hand column, 3 or 4 columns depending on your style preference, and select 'other' as your web platform.
3.. You can now copy and paste your code into your Wix shop page. From your Wix Editor click on the product grid > Select Edit Code > Paste in your new code from RewardStyle. Then click Update.
Rinse and repeat for each shop page with your corresponding category folders.
Note: Be sure to check desktop + mobile before publishing ( you may need to make the widget larger in height to showcase all your products).
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BLOG PAGE
We've custom coded your beautiful blog design, and Wix makes it super easy to update your blog posts without touching a hint of code! From your Site Dashboard (Site > My Dashboard) select Blog. Here is where you can manage everything for your blog.
From here, you can:
Create a Post - click this to write a new post
Manage existing posts
BLOG EDITOR
When creating or managing posts, you'll be working in your Blog Editor.
Below the post insert, you will find your input buttons.
Add an Image
Add a Gallery
Add a Video
Add a Divider
Insert HTML Code
On the left side of the screen, you will find your Post Settings
Click and a side menu will appear.
Here you can set your:
Categories - you'll want to place your blog post in a category for organization
SEO - Wix does an awesome job walking you through optimizing your blog post for SEO
Author - leave it blank or add a team member
Add an Excerpt - You'll want to add a 3-4 sentence description of your blog post to appear on your blog landing page, as well as in Google search results
Cover Image - this is the primary image of your blog post, a horizontal image will work best
Display Cover Image
Feature This Post - make sure to check this box to ensure it shows in the footer of other blog posts for easy cross reference
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CONTACT PAGE
Simply edit the text as you have previously!
Editing the Inquiry Form
You can change any question by first selecting the form itself, and then selecting the element and clicking 'Edit Field'.
To add an additional team member to receive notifications of inquiries:
Click Settings
Select Form Settings in the pop up
Click Email Notifications
Click the "X" to save and close
Note: Your inquiry form allows for 10 fields. If your form exceeds 10 fields, you will have to upgrade to a paid Ascend account (Wix's CRM platform)
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CLIENT PORTAL
For a full video walkthrough of how to set up your Client Portal, click here.
We recommend keeping the Client Portal page as a template, and creating duplicate pages for each client.
To create a copy, head to Pages in your lefthand sidebar. While hovering over the Client Portal page, select the ••• button and click Duplicate Page.
Once duplicated, you can rename the page and customize that page for the specific client. To create a custom link, click the same ••• button and select SEO Basics. From there you can change the URL slug to be a specific client name or project name so you can share a custom, direct link with your client. Note: be sure to create a COPY of the Client Portal page for every client. Screenshots are used for demonstrative purposes only.
You can also add an extra layer of security to the (duplicated) page by password protecting it. In the page settings, select the Permissions tab and the select password. You can then assign a custom password to that specific page to share with your client.
Once your new duplicated page settings are all set, you can jump into the page itself and customize each element for your specific client. Image, text, etc.
The buttons on this page will be used to link to the files you wish to share with your client. To update a button, select the button you wish to update and select the link icon.
In the popup window, select Document from the lefthand sidebar. From there, select Choose File.
Your document library is separate from your media library, so here you can upload non-image files (PDF, DOC, etc.) that you'd like your button to link to that your client with the direct link can access.
Rinse and repeat for each button on the page!
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FOOTER
At the bottom of your site is a section called the Footer. Your Footer only needs to be edited once and appears on every page of your website.
Updating Your Social Links
The social links in your footer are setup as simple text links. Simply highlight the text you'd like to link and click the hyperlink icon. Here you can paste in the direct link to your social profile!
To edit the remainder of your footer, simply double click the text and add your own info!
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You're all set! Remember to reach out to us at support@idco.studio if you get stuck, or reach out in the Facebook group for design ideas and further support.