The Valerie Template Walkthrough
- Anastasia Casey
- Aug 21
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 10
We hope you will enjoy using The Valerie as much as we did when making it! Your site is going to make you stand out in the industry through a refined and classic look, channeling simplistic typography and neutral tones.
Introduction to The Valerie Template
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 make 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. To ensure your work is not lost, remember to Save your site frequently (we don’t like to rely too heavily on auto save).
Pro Tip for Customization
PRO TIP: While this guide is in page order, you can go in any order you'd like. We always like to start any site customization by first uploading the portfolio. See the PORTFOLIO PAGE section below for steps to do so. Knocking out the portfolio upload first gets project photos ready and organized, making customizing much more seamless!
Homepage Customization
Upload Your Logo Instead of Text
Click the text box.
Hit the Trash Can in your toolbar 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 and resize your logo as you'd like.
Introducing Strips
Elements across your site are held neatly in place with the help of a building element called a strip. A strip is a building element that keeps everything in place on your site. It also ensures that your content is responsive when viewed from different devices like mobile, tablet, or desktop.
Updating Your Homepage Hero Image
Select the hero section.
Select Change Background.
Select Image in the pop-up.
Choose the image you'd like to use as your hero image from your gallery.
Then click Change Background.
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.
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 hyperlink to link to other pages or external websites.
Updating Your Featured Project Section
Update text to reflect the project you'd like to feature.
Select the gallery element and select Manage Media.
In the pop-up, add, delete, and rearrange your featured images.
When complete, click Done.
Going down the page, update text as you see fit.
Footer Customization
And now we have reached the end of our Home Page at a section called the Footer. Your Footer is the bottom of your website that appears on every page—it only needs to be edited once.
Buttons can be edited by double-clicking to select and clicking Settings. Here you can edit the button text and link.
Tip: Don't forget to Save your work at this point!
Studio Page Customization
Text Editing
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.
Change Column Background
To change the background of a column, double-click the image column and select Change Column Background. Then select Image, choose the image you'd like to add, and click Change Background.
Services Page Customization
This service page was made to be beautiful and straightforward, featuring lovely images of your work and clear text describing your services.
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.
Change Column Background
To change the background of a column, double-click the image column and select Change Column Background. Then select Image, choose the image you'd like to add, and click Change Background.
Text Element Editing
Click on any text and click on the Edit Text button.
You can now edit and format everything from color, font type, and size. Refer to your Copywriting Guide for our prompts to writing the perfect service page.
Process Section
Simply edit the text as you've done before.
Don't forget to Save your work at this point!
Portfolio Page Customization
We've developed an entirely bespoke Portfolio for you in The Valerie Template. It's the most technical page on your site, but this tutorial will walk you through how to auto-populate new portfolio projects and upload individual galleries.
Adding Your Portfolio Projects
In your Wix editor, open the CMS (Content Manager) via 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 six 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.
Shop Page Customization
With the clean and beautifully laid out design of The Valerie, we added an affiliate shop page so you can share all your favorite products with your followers.
If you have a RewardStyle account and are utilizing the affiliate shop page in your template, this is a great place to feature a few products you've curated for your shop!
Similar to your homepage shop feature, your Shop pages are currently set up to feature a manually created gallery of products. You can also replace the gallery element with a code block to embed an LTK/RewardStyle widget (see this post for a walkthrough of updating a code block with LTK/RewardStyle code!)
To edit the product gallery, select the gallery element and click Manage Media. You can then upload photos of each item you'd like to feature and add a corresponding shoppable link to each image.
Rinse and repeat these steps for all shop category pages and don't forget to save your work!
Blog Page Customization
We've thoughtfully designed your beautiful blog, 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.
Press Page Customization
Similar to your portfolio, your Press page items are edited in your CMS.
From your Wix editor, navigate to the CMS (Content Manager) by selecting the second to last icon on the left-hand menu.
Select Manage Content.
Select Press.
Add in your press information here, and your Press page will automatically update accordingly!
Contact Page Customization
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).
Client Portal Customization
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 left-hand 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 then 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 left-hand 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 can access with the direct link.
Rinse and repeat for each button on the page!
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.