How to Evaluate BoldGrid Inspiration

BoldGrid comes with a variety of pre-built websites, called Inspirations. Inspirations are fully designed, content rich templates that you use to quickly create your website with. After installing an Inspiration, you simply replace the included content with content you choose, to customize your website. We will show you how to evaluate your chosen inspiration and also show you how you can preview the other Inspirations that are available within BoldGrid.

Evaluating a BoldGrid Inspiration

If you have already installed an Inspiration, you can simply visit your website and click on the links in the navigation menu to review your pages. While you are looking through the site, make sure to click on all of the pages and scroll down through each one. Make note of any content that you would like to customize or modify later. Build a list that will help you efficiently follow up on each note regarding your desired changes.

Also, consider what devices your visitors will use most. Every BoldGrid Inspiration is already developed with a responsive design. While you are reviewing your site, visit the site from a tablet and mobile device. This will allow you to notice any changes you may want to make for your visitors that are using alternative devices.

BoldGrid simplifies the process of selecting an Inspiration, by providing in-depth previews and immediate customizable options that you can review and consider for your website. In the following sections, follow the steps to learn how to evaluate a BoldGrid Inspiration.

Previewing an Inspiration

BoldGrid provides a beautiful interface for selecting and previewing the MANY available Inspirations (and their included content). To begin evaluating them, follow the steps below, so you can preview/choose one that you would like to further evaluate.

1. 

   Log into your BoldGrid Administrative Dashboard.
2. 

   Click on the Inspirations option from the Dashboard menu options to the left. The first tab displayed is the Design tab.
3. 

   Click on a category from the Category Filter that relates most to the content of your website. This will filter Inspirations that are built with the selected category of content.

   

   You can also review all the categories with the All filter selected. In this case, the theme name and category are displayed on each Inspiration (e.g, Swifty - Photography).

4. Scroll through the page, hover over an Inspiration that calls out to you, and click on it to open up a larger preview. After the preview is displayed, you can also use the left and right arrows to navigate through previews of the Inspirations available, for the category you selected.

   

   You do not have to commit to an Inspiration immediately. Click the Select button for an example of one you like, so you can continue to follow the rest of the steps in this guide. You may return to the Design tab, to select another Inspiration to evaluate, as often as you need. Again, the simplicity is that you do not need to install a whole website, just to review the content. For our example, we will choose the Swifty - Photography Inspiration.
5. 

   Notice, your preview now loads in the Content tab. You also now have the ability to click and scroll through the pages to preview the full content.

Next, we will proceed to select options for content. These options can be applied to any Inspiration you choose, by selecting them from the Content tab. Continue through the next section with the example you selected for now. Below you will find more details about the available features you can add to ANY BoldGrid Inspiration you choose.

Selecting Inspiration Content

Once you have selected an Inspiration from the Design tab, you can select options from the Content tab to preview additional content that is available for that particular one. Follow the steps below to better understand these options while evaluating the Inspiration you chose.

1. 

   By default, the Base Pageset is selected. This pageset includes the least amount of pages, so you can get started quickly. The Five Page Pageset contains five pages to give you a little more to start with. However, while we are still just evaluating things, select the Kitchen Sink option under Pageset. The preview will be generated now, to include ALL the pages that are available for the Inspiration you selected.
2. 

   You can scroll through the homepage to preview its content. You can also evaluate each page. Simply click on each link from the navigation menu to review the content included on that page.
3. 

   The next option for content is to add a Blog functionality. If you are considering a blog for your website, you can click on the Blog toggle button, to enable it. Again, your preview will load and you can review the blog component of your site, by click on the Blog link in the navigation menu. With BoldGrid, you can even see sample blog posts (included with each Inspiration) to assist with your evaluation and decision!
4. 

   The final option for configuring content included with your Inspiration is the Coin Budget. Each Inspiration contains many stock photo images that may require purchase. The image content is purchased by using Copyright Coins. Consider and then choose your Coin Budget by clicking on the option under Coin Budget.

   Copyright Coins allow you to easily purchase content licenses. You will not be charged for these licenses until you download images without watermarks. For more information, please see How to Use BoldGrid Coins.

   NOTE: Any image within the Inspiration that you do not purchase will need to be replaced with a graphic that you provide. Stock images that require purchase will have a watermark across the image.

Alternative Views

Remember, while evaluating an Inspiration you want to consider what it will look like on mobile and tablet devices. Those views may appear differently than the view from a computer. Follow these steps to preview an Inspiration (and content) using the mobile, tablet, and desktop previews.

1. While in the Content tab, three icons appear at the top of the preview section. You can click on each icon to see the responsiveness on each device. Switch between the Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile views by clicking on each icon, from left to right.

Views
Desktop	Tablet	Mobile

2. Don't forget to check each page while you are clicking on the different device views. This will ensure you are evaluating the appearance from multiple devices that your visitors may be viewing your website from.

Now that you are familiar with using the Inspirations plugin for evaluating an Inspiration before you install it, you can start from the Design tab and repeat the process, until you find your favorite! If you want to learn more about installing an Inspiration, check out our guide on How to Install an Inspiration.