Ella theme was recommended by a bunch of people, but I can’t tell you how it performs since I can’t set it up. And I’m wasting my time posting this just our of pure frustration and anger. All their documentation is wrong, nothing is accurate or specific enough to be helpful. No response to the service ticket I initiated, and they deleted my pending post from their facebook page after I joined the group. Literally zero resources on how to set up and implement their features, and they are ACTIVELY deleting and ignoring my questions.
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What does that mean? What exact steps are you confused about?
Thanks for replying but oofff, I don’t even know where to start. Just a few examples:
They claim to have multiple themes for different industries (fashion in my case) but no documentation on how to change them. Their online documentation is not clear on what any of the directions actually do, and even if I take a wild-ass-guess maybe changing the theme is under “Install Layout” and I follow the directions, they are incomplete. Delete the *json code and “*PASTE the copied preset from the external file.” WHAT EXTERNAL FILE?
The homepage header has multiple “style menues” that each have their own settings but turning them on and off do naothing, so there’s no indication of what any of the styles do or if/when people can see them, or what the changes actually change.
The Homepage lists the header photo as a slideshow (when hover on “slideshow it highlights the main header area}, but provides no way of adding images, slider settings, etc. There is nothing to indicate that this is actually a slideshow and I’m convinced it isn’t.
The list goes on and on. None of the very few videos on Ella 7 are relevant or accurate. And again, I put in a ticket days ago with no response, and posts on Facebook for help never went passed “pending” and were deleted. I can’t imagine a company trying harder to make me hate them. I’ve spent days trying to figure this out. And although I’m not a web designer or “computer guy” by any means, I was an engineer, I have multiple patents, I’m not dumb. I set up my current shopify theme just fine. It’s just this theme seems to be purposely opaque, most likely to force people to hire someone to do it for them (which I’m probably going to have to do).
Ok, I see some things that appear to be lacking in understanding, which is at odds with your assertion of running a successful current theme. But that’s okay because not all themes are alike. You have downloaded the theme files and successfully uploaded the theme zip into Shopify, and are able to both open the theme editor and the code editor. I was expecting this to be where you had trouble.
Yes, some paid themes, even ones in the Shopify Store, have different “theme styles” built into the theme itself. Madrid Theme, for example, has several options to choose from:
It looks like your theme has external files in the package you downloaded, and depending on which “style” you want, you would simply copy the contents of those files and paste them into the various required files within the code editor. It would be a good idea to go through the package you downloaded, or the documentation site where you bought the theme, and see what files these instructions are talking about. It looks, from the Ella tutorial, the files are in “data ella.zip”: https://youtu.be/D7u__qmZYZ0?si=PYWC6Bhu54YCuQtF
So what you’re doing is changing the templates according to what “style” you want. To me, this seems pretty cut and dry, although a weird way to do it.
Slideshow - It looks like this is either your image or an image that came with the theme. In any case, see these three items? You have the “Slideshow”, then “Slide”, then “Group”. And you have “Add Block” in each of these things. If you want more images, you need to add more blocks or Slides. You have to click on these things to know the settings of them.
These are the settings for the “Slide”. Click on the “Group” and you will see settings for the “Group”. Add as many as you like. It does say “Add block”, and it looks like there is another “Group” below it that needs attention.
Header - It’s the same. Each item you select on the left will show its settings on the right.
Again, a weird way to change layouts and theme styles, but editing the theme itself should be a piece of cake. You just have to navigate around within the theme editor and get to know the theme. some themes are really good. Others are not.
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Thanks so much for your comprehensive reply. Can’t argue that it’s a complete lack of familiarity. I have been able to fix most things (although there is still a disparity between what the demo shows and what the theme actually does, confirmed through HaloThemes support). I may have higher expectations for the documentation, but it’s still only through their support, you, and other help that I was able to understand what I was looking at. And they responded to the ticket request, just never sent me any notification. So it just seems to be more painful than it needs to be. Thanks again for your thorough reply.