ToolPlaybook Docs

Appearance

Customizer reference ​

Everything editable without touching code lives at Appearance → Customize. The theme adds seven sections under the standard WordPress ones. This doc lists every field, where it renders on the front-end, and any gotchas.

Open the Customizer at /wp-admin/customize.php (or click Customize from the top-bar when logged in).

Customizer landing screen

Site Identity (WordPress default section) ​

  • Site title — used as the header logo (rendered as "ToolPlaybook" with the second word tinted, if the brand-split setting is on)
  • Tagline — not shown on the front-end by this theme (safe to leave blank)
  • Site icon — the browser tab favicon

ToolPlaybook · Branding ​

  • Primary accent (indigo) — colour picker. Drives buttons, links, chips, score bars, active states. Default #4F46E5.
  • Accent (hover / deep) — the darker shade used on button hover and small tag text. Default #3730A3.
  • Brand name colour split — dropdown (On / Off). When on, a two-word site name like "ToolPlaybook" renders with the second word in the accent colour. Turn off if you want the whole name in the ink colour.

Gotcha: the accent colour flows into CSS variables (--indigo, --indigo-tint) that dozens of components use. Picking a colour with poor contrast against white will make chips and score bars hard to read. Stick to something in the same lightness range as #4F46E5.

ToolPlaybook · Homepage hero ​

Every field here overrides the default copy on the homepage hero. Leave empty to fall back to the prototype defaults.

  • Eyebrow text — small caps line above the headline (default: "Operator-tested · No pay-to-rank")
  • Headline — the h1 (default: "The SaaS playbook for people who run the business.")
  • Lead paragraph — the intro paragraph. HTML allowed via wp_kses_post.
  • Primary CTA label — the indigo button (default: "Browse reviews"; button always links to /reviews/)
  • Secondary CTA label — the ghost button (default: "How we test"; button always links to /about/)

Content model note: if you create a page at slug home (via Pages → Add New), its editor content is not used — the hero always renders from these Customizer fields. Only front-page.php runs here.

ToolPlaybook · Disclosures ​

  • Footer affiliate-disclosure text — the boxed line at the bottom of every page. HTML allowed via wp_kses_post. Default is the FTC-safe wording.
  • In-review affiliate-disclosure text — the smaller notice shown at the top of every single review, above the overview. HTML allowed via wp_kses_post.

Both fields honour markdown-style bold if you wrap in <b> or <strong>.

Gotcha: if you clear either field entirely, that disclosure block disappears from the front-end. Compliance-wise, that's not what you want. Keep both filled.

  • Footer tagline (under the logo) — the descriptive paragraph in the first footer column (default: "Independent, operator-tested reviews of the software that runs your business.")
  • Copyright line — the "© 2026 ToolPlaybook..." line at the very bottom. Leave empty to use the default (which auto-updates the year).

ToolPlaybook · Top strip ​

An optional announcement bar that renders above the main header on every page (for promos, launch messages, freeze notices, etc.).

  • Show top announcement strip? — dropdown (Off / On). Off by default.
  • Top strip text — the message. HTML allowed. Use <b> for bold key words. If Off is selected, this field is ignored (the strip never renders).

Example content: <b>Launch week:</b> Try our new CRM comparison tool → <a href="/reviews/">Browse reviews</a>

Blog Sidebar ​

Controls the sidebar next to every single blog post. Not shown on single reviews or archives.

  • Newsletter card title — heading on the newsletter card (default: "Get the shortlist")
  • Newsletter blurb — descriptive paragraph under the title (default: "One email a week...")
  • Newsletter form shortcode — paste a Fluent Forms shortcode here (e.g. [fluentform id="2"]) to replace the placeholder form with a real one.

If the shortcode field is empty, the sidebar renders a styled placeholder form — visually identical, non-functional (does nothing on submit). Wire up Fluent Forms → create a newsletter form → copy shortcode → paste here.

Featured reviews mini-list: not editable. Always shows the top 3 reviews by Overall score.

  • Primary menu — assigned to the "Primary" location. Renders in the header (Home / Reviews / Blog / About / Contact by default).
  • Footer menu — assigned to the "Footer" location. Renders in the footer's SITE column.

If a menu isn't assigned to a location, the theme falls back to a set of default links (Home / Reviews / Blog / About / Contact). To customize, create a menu at Appearance → Menus and assign it to Primary or Footer.

The footer's "CATEGORIES" column pulls automatically from the review_category taxonomy — it's not menu-configured. Add/rename Review Categories to change it.

Widgets (WordPress default section) ​

No widget areas are registered. The theme doesn't use them — sidebars are custom-rendered in template-parts/post-sidebar.php. Ignore this section.

Homepage Settings (WordPress default section) ​

  • Your homepage displays — set to A static page
  • Homepage — leave empty or set to a page called Home (the theme uses front-page.php regardless)
  • Posts page — must be set to a page called Blog for /blog/ to work as the blog index

Gotcha: if "Posts page" is not set, /blog/ will 404 or render a stub page. This tripped up staging once. Always set it.

Additional CSS (WordPress default section) ​

Add custom CSS here if you need one-off overrides. Loaded after the theme's theme.css, so anything here wins.

What is NOT in the Customizer ​

Some things live in code and aren't Customizer-editable by design:

  • Featured Reviews sidebar list — auto-generated by Overall score DESC. To reorder, adjust scores.
  • Top-scored tools right now (homepage section) — same. Score-driven.
  • Category chip labels — set in inc/template-tags.php via tpb_category_short_label(). If you rename a Review Category, its short label may drift. Edit the map if needed.
  • Footer categories column — pulls from Review Categories automatically. Add/rename terms to change it.
  • Comment count / discussion prompt copy — hardcoded in comments.php. Small edit if you want to change it.

If any of these become common asks, they can be lifted into the Customizer as a follow-up.

ToolPlaybook theme handoff docs

Built for ToolPlaybook.com