The classic Academica Pro homepage is a static page using one of the theme’s Homepage templates, filled with widgets: the slideshow at the top, three image columns below it, a content column, and sidebars. This article walks through building it.
Go to Pages → Add New and create a page called e.g. Home. Leave the content empty — everything on this template comes from the slideshow and widgets.
In the page settings sidebar, open Template and pick one of the Homepage templates.
Building with blocks or Elementor instead? Import the Blocks Demo or Elementor design from the Demo Importer — those homepages are regular pages you edit directly, and this article doesn’t apply.
Choose a Homepage template
Four homepage variants are available:
Homepage — the default: slideshow at 2/3 width (947×500) next to the sidebar.
Homepage (Full-width Slider) — the slideshow spans the full theme width.
Homepage (Slider in the middle) — three columns with the slideshow in the middle one.
Homepage (Slider at the top) — the slideshow at the very top (1270×500), above everything.
Set it as the Front Page
Go to Settings → Reading.
Under Your homepage displays, select A static page and choose your new page as Homepage.
Add widgets to the homepage
Go to Appearance → Widgets (or Appearance → Customize → Widgets for a live preview) and fill the homepage widget areas:
Homepage: Content Widgets — the middle/content column of the front page. Use the theme’s widgets here: WPZOOM: Featured Category, WPZOOM: Recent Posts, WPZOOM: Testimonials.
Sidebar: Left Column / Sidebar: Right Column — the sidebar columns (which ones appear depends on the template).
The three image boxes under the slideshow (Apply Online, About Us, Academics in the demo) are WPZOOM: Image Box widgets placed in the three dedicated areas:
Homepage (Below the Slider) 1/3 Column
Homepage (Below the Slider) 2/3 Column
Homepage (Below the Slider) 3/3 Column
Each Image Box widget takes an image, a title, and a link — pointing to a page on your site or an external URL.
