Change your blog style and layout

Changing your blog style is not just for layout, but also for what style of featured image you want. You get 5 blog styles, 6 (Masonry style) with the pro version:

  1. Left featured Image - Left aligned featured image with no left or right sidebars
  2. Top Featured Image - Top featured image with no left or right sidebars; layout is left aligned
  3. Top Featured Image Centered - Top featured image with no left or right sidebars and the layout is centered
  4. Top Featured Image Left Sidebar - Top featured image with a left sidebar column
  5. Top Featured Image Right Sidebar - Top featured image with a right sidebar column

Screenshots

Here are examples of available blog style options in the order of the list above:

When you choose your style of layout, it’s best to prepare your featured images to be sized for the choice you make so that page load times can be limited. Your width can be as wide as 1140 pixels, and your height can give you a bit more flexibility as there are no restrictions. Just remember if your image is quite tall, it may look odd on the front of your site. Here is a guide for featured image sizes:

Top Featured Image - you can have up to 1140 pixels in width and height can be up to you
Left Featured Image - I would recommend not going wider than 400px.
Height - This can be almost any height, but keep it reasonable.

Note If you started off with larger images, and then change your style to the Small style, you will still be OK because the layouts will force the image to resize (downsize). Just keep in mind that the larger your image, the bigger the file size.

Change Your Blog Style

  1. Go to Appearance >> Customize >> Blog Options
  2. Find the “Blog Style” setting and make your choice (default is the Top Featured Image Right Sidebar)
  3. Click “Save & Publish” at the top of the column.

Single Post Layout

In addition to the blog’s home style and layout, you also get the option to select the layout for your full post view — this is when you click on a “Read More” link and view the post in full.

  1. Go to Appearance >> Customize >> Blog Options
  2. Find the “Single Post Layout” setting
  3. Click Save & Publish

Blog Post Summaries

The blog post summaries are the “intros” that you see when you first go to a blog. This is normally recognized when you see each summary with a title, perhaps a featured image, and then the “Read More” button or link. Post summaries are only part of a full post and will only show on the blog’s home page.

With Opportune Pro, you get a couple of options to display your summaries:

  • Content - This is going to give you a summary that can include formatting, images, and a “Read More” button.
  • Excerpt - This gives you a set number of words that keeps each summary consistent; no formatting, no images, but will give you a “Read More” button as well.

To learn more about content vs excerpt options in our themes, you can refer to the Basic Theme Setup tutorial called “Use Excerpts for your Blog Summaries“