The UT WordPress Theme is the default WordPress them for University of Texas. This theme replaces the outdated UT Responsive Theme which was retired by the University Blog Service 09/2021.
The new theme is built on the Genesis Framework and is visually more contemporary and has the same appearance as the standard UT Austin Drupal pages. This theme makes it much easier to match departmental and college branding, and give a more integrated look for our WordPress sites.
Out of the box the theme looks like this, see the links to sample builds (with alternative styles) below.
New Features
Not only does it have a new look but the UT WordPress Theme adds a couple features to the roster of items found in the older UT Responsive theme.
Homepage Feature Widget & Genesis Responsive Slider Plugin
The Homepage Widget allows you to display a homepage hero image, featured posts or pages story, or a fully functional image and video slider. The hero image/featured page or post option is powered by the Genesis Responsive Slider Plugin. Instructions for using the Genesis Responsive Slider can be found on the University Blog Service’s documentation site here.
If you questions about using the Homepage Feature Widget, or need us to activate the Genesis Slider contact your Fine Arts Web Team at cofawebmaster@austin.utexas.edu.
Custom Menu Access
With the new theme content editors now have the ability to create custom menus! Through the ability to create custom menus, you have much more flexibility with:
- Deciding what pages do and don’t get added to your navigation.
- An easier drag and drop method for adding an removing menu items
- The order of your navigation parents and children.
- Customizing link text.
- Adding links to pages not found on your website as well as adding post categories and tags as nav links.
For more information on how to create custom menus please visit our instructions page here.
Customizable Responsive Menu
The UT WordPress Theme uses the Responsive Menu Pro plugin to provide mobile menu functionality. The plugin is customizable to integrate with the styles being used throughout the website.
Sample Builds
COFA Office of Career Services: Standard COFA Styles
Longhorn Music Camp: Standard UT Styles
Butler School of Music Operations: Homepage Top area to host hero image. Using standard styles for BSOM site.
Longhorn Band: Homepage Featured Stories with Genesis Slider.
Game Development and Design Website: Homepage Feature area to embed YouTube video
