Start Your Website With The Astra Theme – Astra theme is one of the popular WordPress themes. A free version is provided through the WordPress theme directory, and the premium version is sold separately for more features than the free version.
Starter Site Template
Most of the premium themes that come out these days provide templates designed in the form of a finished site. The Astra theme also provides a template function under the name of ‘ Starter Sites ‘ that allows you to take the finished site design and apply it right away.
Astra theme provides various types of design templates according to the purpose, so if you find a design that fits your site concept and apply it immediately, you can create a great website or homepage without much difficulty.
Usually themes that provide templates in this way will internally use a page builder to organize their site’s templates, and so is the Astra theme.
However, unlike normal themes that support only one specific page builder, the Astra theme allows you to select and use one of four popular builders: Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, and Gutenberg. It could be said to be more versatile.
Installing Astra Themes And Templates
Then, let’s install themes and templates. You can simply search for the theme on the WordPress dashboard and click the āInstallā button. Now, if you āactivateā the installed theme, a message prompting you to install the āstarter site templateā appears at the top of the screen.
After pressing the āStartā button and waiting for a while, the screen to select the page builder to use appears as follows. As mentioned earlier, the Astra-themed starter site template supports 4 types of page builders, including Elementor. Therefore, you can choose and apply one of the builders that you use on your site or that you prefer.
The types of design templates you can use depend on which builder you choose. You can check which builders support which templates on the Starter Site Templates page provided by the Astra theme site.
Let’s select āElementorā here. (The reason I chose Elementor is because it offers a little more templates compared to other builders). You will then see ā Astra Starter Sites ā Your Library of 100+ Ready Templates! A screen will appear where you can choose one of the various templates with the title.
As of this writing, a total of 112 templates are currently available. However, not all of these templates are free. If you click the āFreeā tab to check out the free templates, a total of 51 types are available! Can I choose one of these and install it?
Here, we will randomly select the āPet Servicesā template.
After selecting a template, click the āImport Siteā button on the preview screen. Then the template installation process proceeds as follows. This process is automatic and can take quite a while, so you can have a cup of coffee and wait patiently. It’s all over! My site says it took 2 minutes and 22 seconds.
Now, if you click the āView Siteā button to check my site, you can see that the Pet Services site has been applied well as follows.
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Astra Theme Customization
After applying the template, the rest is customizing. It would be a job to change the logo and main image to match the concept of my site, and to adjust the navigation menu and page composition.
For this part, follow the instructions for a typical WordPress site. Usually, you can adjust the necessary settings in the āTheme Design > Customizeā menu.
In particular, Astra theme provides āTheme Design > Astra Optionsā menu, which is convenient because it allows users to change settings or adjust the design in one place more easily.
In that case, go to āTheme Design > Astra Options > Astra Starter Sitesā menu and select another template to apply. However, do not forget to check the āDelete Previous Imported Siteā checkbox before āImport Siteā!
FYI, once the selection and application of the theme template is complete, the Starter Sites feature is no longer needed. You can also find the āAstra Starter Sitesā plugin in the list of installed plugins and disable it.
Stay tuned for other posts to be added in the future for more details on how to use the Astra theme.
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