Features & Support
Version 1.1 - GET IT HERE! - $49
Metropolis is a clean, minimalist, yet super customizable theme that works with any type of blog. Like our other themes, Metropolis offers features that no other themes provide: the Sticky Post and Featured Posts. Read more about Metropolis’ features below and feel free to contact us for support and questions.
- Posts: Featuring, Sharing, and Sticking
- About section
- Photos: Instagram and Flickr
- Comments: Disqus
- Music: exfm and Spotify
- Analytics: Google and Clicky
- Custom Fonts: Google and TypeKit
- Social Icons
- Color and Image Options
In addition to the features listed above, Metropolis offers endless scrolling and several other configuration options.
Posts
Metropolis offers a unique design for every single post type: Text, Photo, Photoset, Quote, Link, Chat, Audio, Video, and Answer. Each post displays with the date and time, source, notes, and tags. In addition, Metropolis gives you the ability to share posts with the most popular social networks and feature posts in a couple different ways that no other theme does (besides the other themes Business Bullpen has developed).
Featured Posts
The featured tag enables you to display the most recent posts of a specific tag. For example, it allows bloggers to display their most recent original articles, musicians or music lovers to display their most recent audio tracks, or photographers to display their most recent photographs. In short, it’s designed to give you an opportunity to highlight your featured posts long after they have fallen off the first page of your blog.
Metropolis displays up to two featured posts in the about section of the theme. To enable the featured tag, all you have to do within the customize section is:
- Insert a tag in the featured tag text box
- Use that tag on at least one post
- Define the label for the featured heading
Sticky Post
With Metropolis you have the ability to “stick” one post at the top of your blog regardless of the date and time of the post.
Let’s say you always want to display at the top of your blog:
- An “About Me” post
- Your most recent original long-form blog post
- An introductory video
- A quote that you live by, or
- An advertisement
The sticky post feature allows you to do any of these things. With the sticky tag you can highlight whatever you want in your blog’s top spot. (The theme will not display the sticky post twice on your blog and it will only appear at the top of your blog.)
Here’s how you set it up: In the customize section, enter the sticky tag and use that tag on the post that you would like to always display at the top of your blog. The most recent blog post with the sticky tag will always appear at the top.
Sharing Posts
Metropolis enables you to display share buttons for the following social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Tumblr. Within the customize section, check the “Show Sharing Features” box to turn on this feature. Please note that the Tumblr button will only be displayed at the bottom of permalink posts. The Pinterest button is only used for photo (not photoset) and audio posts (only if album art exists).
About Section
Metropolis offers you the ability to consolidate a variety of content in an about section, which can be used to communicate more info about your blog or about you. You have the option to include the following content in the about area:
- Blog Title (display by checking the “Show Title” box in the customize section for Metropolis)
- Blog Portrait Photo (display by checking the “Show Portrait” box in the customize section for Metropolis)
- Blog Description (display by checking the “Show Description” in the customize section for Metropolis)
- Latest Tweet (displays your last tweet in the About section by entering your twitter username in the “Twitter Username” field of the customize section for Metropolis)
- Featured posts (displays your two most recent featured posts - see Featured Posts for more detail)
- Recent photos from Instagram (displays your most recent Instagram photos - see Instagram photos for more detail)
- Recent photos from Flickr (displays your most recent Flickr photos - see Flickr photos for more detail)
- Liked posts (displays your 2 most recent liked posts by checking the “Show Likes” box in the customize section for Metropolis)
- Blogs you follow (display by checking the “Show Blogs I Follow” box in the customize section for Metropolis)
Photos
Instagram Photos
You can display your latest Instagram photos with the Metropolis theme. The photos will appear in the About section of the theme. In order to display your Instagram photos, you will need to get and copy your Instagram access token here and then paste it in the customize section of Metropolis.
You can also enter a heading/label that is displayed with the Instagram section and the number of photos to display within the Instagram section. You can enter either up to 12.
Flickr Photos
You can display your latest Flickr photos with the Metropolis theme. The photos will appear in the About section of the theme. In order to display your Flickr photos, you will need to get and copy the Flickr ID associated with the Flickr account that you would like to use within the flickr section and then paste it into the customize section of the Metropolis theme.
You should also enter a heading/label that is displayed with the Flickr section and the number of photos to display within the Flickr section. You can enter either up to 12.
Comments
Disqus
You can add comments to Metropolis by using Disqus. If you have an account, you will copy the shortname you designated for your blog when setting up your Disqus account and paste it into the “shortname” field in the blog’s customize section.
Notes
So Tumblr’s notes aren’t technically comments, but they are close enough. Metorpolis will display the notes that you receive with each and every post. To turn on this feature, please check the “Show Notes” box in the customize section.
Music
exfm
exfm is one of our favorite music services. We’ve integrated the exfm site player so when people visit your blog, they can play all of your audio posts (excluding Spotify posts) without having to click each post. Checking the “Show exfm Player” box will display the exfm music player at the bottom right of the browser window.
You can also customize the color of the player. See the Colors section for more detail.
Spotify
Metropolis supports the Tumblr-Spotify integration so you can post songs and albums from Spotify to your heart’s content.
Analytics
Metropolis supports two analytics services: Google Analytics and Clicky. In order to use either or both services, you will need an account with Google and/or Clicky.
Google Analytics
Copy your Google Analytics site ID (e.g., UA-XXXXXX-X) from your Google Analytics account and paste into the “GA Tracking ID” field in the customize section for Metropolis.
Clicky
Copy your Clicky site ID from your Clicky account and paste it into the “Clicky Site ID” field in the customize section for Metropolis.
Custom Fonts
You can control the fonts of Metropolis by entering the font type within the “Body Font Stack” and “Header Font Stack” field in the customize section of Metropolis. Enter web-friendly fonts, Google Web Fonts (if you have added the fonts to the Google Web Fonts option), or TypeKit fonts (if you have entered your TypeKit ID).
Google Web Fonts
As a default, Metropolis uses Google Web Fonts, but this option lets you change the Google Web Fonts that we have included. Please note that you have to separate each new font with a pipe.
TypeKit
TypeKit enables you to add custom fonts to your blog. In order to use TypeKit, you need to have a TypeKit account and then set up you blog within TypeKit and associate fonts to it. You will need to enter your TypeKit ID in the customize section for Metropolis once your TypeKit account is set up.
Social Icons
Metropolis offers over 20 social media/elsewhere icons, which display under the header. The color of these icons are controlled by the Text color option in the customize section for Metropolis. Checking the “Show Social Ions” box will display the social icons you’ve provided URLs for.
You can display the logos and links to the following sites by entering the full URL (include http://): About.me, Amazon, Blogger, Delicious, Deviant Art, Dribbble, exfm, Facebook, Flickr, Forrst, GitHub, Google Plus, Instagram, Lastfm, Linked In, Picasa, Pinterest, rdio, Skype, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Vimeo, WordPress, YouTube, a website URL, and email address.
Colors and Images
Metropolis offers a variety of color and image options that will enable you to customize the look and feel of your blog.
Background
This sets the background color of the site.
Header Background
This sets the background color of the header where the title of your blog appears.
Text
This sets the color of the text within the posts along with the color of the social icons (on hover).
Link
This sets the color of links.
Link Hover
This sets the color of links when the mouse pointer hovers over the link.
Accent
This sets the accent color of the theme.
Post Border
This sets the color of the border around all posts.
exfm Body, exfm Display, exfm Font, exfm Playlist
These options set the colors for the exfm music player (if you have it enabled).
Background
You can use the browse button here to upload a custom image that will serve as the background of the entire site. The image will automatically repeat vertically and horizontally.
Header Background
You can use the browse button here to upload a custom image or logo that will link to the home page of your blog. If you want to use a repeatable image as a background, upload an image of any size. If you want to insert a custom logo, upload an image that is 750 pixels in width and 115 pixels in height (the height must match the “Header Height” value in the customize section for Metropolis - 115 pixels is the default). Then make sure that you check “Use Header Background As Logo” in the customize section for Metropolis.
Support
Business Bullpen is here to help you get the most out of your theme. You can email us at metropolistheme@businessbullpen.com with your questions and suggestions.
Please note that we will do our best to answer your HTML and CSS questions, but if you have customized the HTML or CSS, then we cannot provide support for changes that you have made to the theme. We do try to address the most common CSS/HTML questions within our FAQs. We also provide tips for our Tumblr themes on our own blog.
Thank you for using our theme! We hope you like it as much as we do.
FAQs
1. How do you implement the sticky post?
In the customize section, first enter the sticky tag (e.g., “sticky” or “original posts”) and then use that tag on the post that you’d like to be displayed at the top of your blog. Only your most recent blog post with the sticky tag will always appear at the top.
2. Will the sticky post show up twice—once at the top of the page and once in its original position?
Nope, but once you remove it as a sticky post, it will show back up in its original position.
3. I’ve followed your instructions for implementing the sticky post and featured tag, but neither are showing up on my blog. What’s the problem?
Sometimes the sticky post and featured tag won’t display because the Tumblr API is temporarily unavailable. Be patient. It will come back online soon.
Please don’t use a double quote in the sticky label and tag or featured label and tag.
4. How do you implement the featured tag?
In the customize section, enter the tag name in the “featured tag” text box (e.g., “photos” or “coli music” or “funny videos”). Next enter the label for the “featured heading”—this will be the heading that appears above your posts (e.g., “My Pics” or “Fave Tunes” or “Funny Videos”). Use your tag on at least one post to see it appear.
5. I want to use a logo instead of text for my blog title. How can I do it?
Create an image that is 750 pixels in width. The height can be whatever you would like, however make sure you change the value of the “Header Height” field to match the height of the image you create. The default height is 115 pixels. Once your image is ready, upload it as the “Header Background” in the customize section for Metropolis. Then make sure that you check “Use Header Background As Logo” in the customize section for Metropolis.
6. Some of my photo posts aren’t filling up the entire width of the post area. How come?
Anytime you upload an image that is less than 700 pixels in width, the photo will not extend to the edges of the allotted space for photo posts. You can change this though. Within the customize section for Metropolis, check “Scale Photos”. Now all of your photo posts will be increased to a width of 700 pixels if the original photo is less than 700 pixels.
