A place for your stories.
A guide to making it yours.

BEFORE THE FIRST CHAPTER

Start here.

Elsewhere is a Ghost theme for travel journals, visual essays and thoughtful field notes. You manage stories, images, members and site settings in Ghost Admin; no theme-code editing is needed for the controls documented here.

Have these ready

• A working Ghost 6.x site and an owner or administrator account with permission to change its theme.
• elsewhere-0.5.20.zip, plus the included routes.yaml extracted when you reach the routes step.
• Your logo, publication description, original or licensed photographs, and a few stories.
• Transactional email configured by your host if you want to test member signup and sign-in.

The theme ZIP contains templates, assets and setup files. It does not contain the demo database, sample members, demo photographs, server credentials or SMTP configuration. The complete customer product also includes a separate optional demo import with licensed photos; see Import demo content. Admin labels can vary slightly between Ghost versions.

01 / GET SET UP

Install the theme.

1. Open Design & branding

   In Ghost Admin, open Settings → Design & branding. Choose Customize, then Change theme.

2. Upload your ZIP

   Choose Upload theme and select elsewhere-0.5.20.zip. Upload the ZIP itself, not its extracted parent folder or the full development workspace.

3. Activate Elsewhere

   Wait for validation to finish, then activate the theme. Open your site's public homepage in a new tab. Existing content is used immediately; missing editorial content gets an empty state or a hidden section.

4. Choose demo content or your own pages

   Activation does not create your pages or menu. Import the optional demo first, or create your own pages. Follow the pages and routes setup before adding navigation links to those archives.

OPTIONAL / SAMPLE PUBLICATION

Import demo content.

The complete product includes demo-data/elsewhere-demo-0.5.20.zip: 14 English stories, five pages, seven supplied tags and 25 individually credited photographs. It is an optional native Ghost content import, separate from the installable theme ZIP.

1. Install and activate Elsewhere

   Extract the complete product and upload only theme/elsewhere-0.5.20.zip as your theme. Keep the separate demo ZIP intact.

2. Open Universal import

   In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Advanced → Migration tools → Universal import. Some versions label this area Import/Export. Select demo-data/elsewhere-demo-0.5.20.zip and allow the background import to complete. Do not upload it through Change theme. Check Posts, Pages and Tags after processing; an “Import in progress” notice alone does not confirm completion.

3. Review starter content and URL collisions

   Ghost retains existing content. A fresh Ghost site already contains an About page, so the imported About page may become about-2. If you do not need the starter page, change its slug to about-this-site and unpublish it, then assign about to the imported page using the About template. You may also unpublish the starter “Coming soon” post. On an existing site, review links before changing any URL; do not overwrite an established page blindly.

4. Set routes and menus separately

   Follow Pages & routes to upload routes/routes.yaml, merging existing routing where needed. Use the two-level menu instructions for Primary Navigation. Add Photo credits → /photo-credits/ in Secondary Navigation before displaying the demo publicly.

5. Personalize your publication

   Choose your own title, description, logo, fonts, palette and theme options. Imported stories belong to your site's existing owner; no fictional staff profile is created. Set the author's name, bio and portrait in Ghost Staff. Membership, real email delivery and paid billing remain separate site setup tasks.

Select the demo import ZIP

1. Select elsewhere-demo-0.5.20.zip. Wait for processing, then verify the imported content.

What is included?

Photo licenses and credits

Original demo prose is dedicated under CC0. The photographs retain their individual CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0 licenses; they are separate from your commercial theme license. Read all photo credits and the demo reuse terms. Keep source, author, license and modification notices, including ShareAlike conditions where applicable. No photographer endorsement is implied. Open copyright licenses do not necessarily clear privacy, publicity or trademark rights for every intended use.

The import includes a published /photo-credits/ page and captions. Keep a visible footer link while demo photos remain, including destination and About images. If you replace the photographs, review all remaining uses before removing credits. Sample copy is illustrative and is not verified travel advice.

Check the result

• Confirm 14 imported stories and five imported pages; use the internal #elsewhere-demo tag to identify them.
• Check Home, destinations, both format archives, About, a photo essay and Photo credits on desktop/mobile in light/dark.
• Open the images and gallery, then search for “Atlantic”.
• View the members-only and paid samples signed out: titles/excerpts may appear, but the protected body must remain hidden.
• Keep existing content and settings; replace the sample prose, identity and media as appropriate before launch.

For cleanup, review content marked #elsewhere-demo and its actual slugs before changing or deleting it. This marker is not an automatic rollback. Do not delete existing content or media solely because it shares a country tag.

02 / MAKE IT YOURS

Brand & navigation.

Logo, colours and fonts

Open Design & branding → Customize → Brand. Set the publication's logo, accent colour, heading font and body font. Keep a readable logo for both colour schemes; check its appearance on a narrow screen as well as desktop. The theme contains the logo within its header slot without stretching it.

Ghost's heading/body fonts are also carried into the theme's styling of native Search, Portal and Comments, with system fallbacks. A font must support the characters used in your content. Brand accent is separate from the four theme palettes; check links and buttons after changing either.

Brand: logo and typography

1. Save applies your changes after editing.
2. Upload your publication logo here.
3. Choose the heading font and body font in Typography.

Set the menu

Open Settings → Navigation (or search Settings for Navigation). Add your labels and destinations, then save. Use your own site address when Ghost asks for a complete URL.

Primary navigation appears in the header and the mobile menu. Secondary navigation appears in the footer. Keep labels short enough to scan. The header already provides a membership button, so an extra signup menu item is usually unnecessary.

To link directly to native Portal, use /#/portal/signup for signup, /#/portal/signin for sign-in, or /#/portal/account for a member's account.

Set up a two-level primary menu

Ghost stores Navigation as a flat list. Elsewhere turns a row whose Label starts with a single hyphen followed by a space into a child of the preceding top-level link. This works in Primary navigation only; the footer stays flat.

1. Open Settings → Navigation → Customize and choose Primary.
2. Add the parent with its normal label and real destination URL.
3. Put each child directly below its parent. Start the child's Label with - , for example - Japan. The URL is a normal URL without a prefix.
4. Use the drag handles to keep the rows in order. A new label without the prefix starts the next top-level item.
5. Save, then reload your public site. The displayed child labels will not include the prefix.

Label entered in Ghost	Destination path
Journal	/journal/
- Photo essays	/photo-essays/
- Field guides	/field-guides/
Destinations	/destinations/
- Japan	/tag/japan/
- Italy	/tag/italy/
About	/about/

Navigation: parent and child labels

1. Choose Primary. Secondary/footer navigation stays flat.
2. Place both prefixed children directly after Journal.
3. Destinations starts a new parent; its prefixed children belong to it.

How readers use the menu

Desktop: the parent remains a clickable link. Hover over its group with a mouse, or use its separate arrow to open the child links. Enter/Space toggles the arrow; Tab follows ordinary links. Arrow Down/Up opens the list and moves between children. Escape closes that submenu and returns focus to its arrow. Clicking outside or moving keyboard focus away closes the desktop disclosure.

Mobile and smaller screens: open the header menu first, then use each arrow to open or close its group independently. Several groups can remain open, and a long menu scrolls inside the panel. Escape closes the current submenu first; another Escape from a closed group closes the overall menu and returns focus to the header button. Following a link or clicking outside closes the menu. If you open Portal from the menu membership link, closing Portal returns keyboard focus to the header menu button.

One child level, with no new theme setting

Use exactly - Child label. Extra hyphens do not create a third level. A prefixed first row with no parent remains a usable top-level link, so a configuration mistake does not lose its destination. To return to a flat menu, remove the prefixes and save. Do not add the prefix to footer labels.

THE JOURNAL'S STRUCTURE

Pages & routes.

If you imported the optional demo, these pages already exist. Verify their slugs and templates instead of creating duplicates; resolve the starter About conflict described in Import demo content.

Create the following in Ghost Admin → Pages. Enter a title, set the exact URL slug and choose the matching Template in the page settings. Publish each page; a saved draft is not enough.

Upload routes.yaml

Download the included routes.yaml ↓

1. Extract routes.yaml from the theme ZIP to your computer.
2. Find Routes in Ghost Settings. On the tested version it is in Labs.
3. Download your existing routes as a backup. If they contain custom routing, merge the Elsewhere definitions instead of replacing them blindly.
4. Upload the included or merged file, then visit the Journal, Photo essays and Field guides archives.

These channels preserve root story URLs such as /a-quiet-morning/. Archives paginate in groups of nine stories; the Home limit does not control this. With more than nine matches, check the Older stories link and page two. Keep the Photo essays and Field guides pages published while their routes are enabled.

Create destination tags

In Tags, create a public destination such as Japan or Portugal. Give it an image and description, then attach it to a published story. Public tags with published stories form the Destinations index; internal tags are excluded. The first public tag is the story's primary tag and influences its label and related stories.

About, authors and additional pages

The About template includes your page content and up to three contributors with published stories. Edit each staff profile's name, biography and portrait in Ghost. Author archives also support an optional cover, location and website; their story count and pagination are automatic.

Contact, FAQ and policy pages can use the Default page template and your own content. You do not need to create pages for the homepage, Journal, individual tag archives or author archives. Add only the links you want to show in Navigation.

03 / TELL THE STORY

Write your first story.

1. Start with the essentials

   Create a new Post. Add a title, body, feature image, descriptive alt text and optional caption. In post settings, add a custom excerpt for a considered introduction on cards and in the article header.

2. Choose the destination and format

   Add a public destination tag first. For a visual story, add the internal tag #photo-essay and choose the Photo essay post template. For a practical guide, add #field-guide; the default post template is suitable.

3. Set Featured and access

   Use the Featured switch to make a story eligible for featured selections. Choose Public, Members only or Paid members only in the post settings. Featured is an editorial flag, not a separate access level.

4. Preview before publishing

   Use Ghost's Preview to review the post. Check the public page on a narrow screen too, including long headings, captions and galleries. If the story is restricted, compare an eligible member with a signed-out visitor.

5. Publish or schedule

   Choose Publish and follow Ghost's review steps. Select a future publication date/time to schedule; check the site's timezone before confirming. Publishing to the website and sending an email newsletter are separate choices in Ghost.

Unpublished drafts and scheduled stories do not appear in public collections before their publication time. An image-less story remains readable and receives a text-based layout where supported.

CURATE WITHOUT REPEATING

Build your homepage.

Home combines automatic editorial selections with your Ghost content. You control the headline, source choices and selected sections in Customize → Theme.

1. 01

   Introduction & cover

   Four text settings shape the introduction. The cover prefers a Featured story, falling back to the newest story when none is featured.

2. 02

   The latest journeys

   Choose a source and 3, 6, 9 or 12 cards. The cover is excluded. Formats reserved by enabled photo/guide sections are also excluded.

3. 03

   Photo essay & field guides

   Select one latest/featured photo essay, and an independent number of latest/featured guides. Both require their internal format tags. Off hides a section and releases its format reservation back into the journeys feed.

4. 04

   Destinations & author

   The homepage shows up to four public destination tags with stories. The author introduction uses the author with the most published stories and their Ghost profile.

5. 05

   Letters from elsewhere

   The guest signup invitation opens native Portal. Its Home visibility and button label are editable; the signup heading and description use the theme's English copy.

An enabled Featured source with no eligible story stays empty rather than using an unrelated fallback. Smaller results are expected when there are fewer matches. These choices affect Home; the complete Journal and format archives remain available.

YOUR CONTROL PANEL

All 20 theme options.

Open Design & branding → Customize → Theme. Choose Site wide, Homepage or Post and save your changes. Brand controls, navigation, staff profiles and post access belong to Ghost and do not use this twenty-option allowance.

Each entry lists its available choices, default value and what changes on your site. The design-setting screenshots below show Ghost Admin 6.72 with Elsewhere 0.5.16, whose twenty controls are unchanged in 0.5.20; scroll inside the settings panel to reach each group. Numbered outlines identify the controls to use.

Site wide: colour and cards

1. Set the membership button label.
2. Choose the default colour scheme.
3. Choose a coordinated palette.
4. Choose Landscape or Portrait card images.

Site wide 4 controls

Homepage: copy and visibility

1. Choose the Theme tab.
2. Edit the hero eyebrow, heading and description; the second heading is farther down.
3. Turn the destination and homepage signup blocks on or off. Show home author is below them.

Homepage: sources and limits

1. Choose the journeys Limit.
2. Choose Stories to show.
3. Select the Home photo essay and Home field guides sources, then set Field guides limit.

Homepage 12 controls

Post: reading and related stories

1. Choose Standard or Large reading text.
2. Enable the automatic table of contents.
3. Enable related stories below posts.
4. Choose the Related posts limit while the block is enabled.

Post 4 controls

Related posts switched off

1. Turn this switch back on to reveal Related posts limit.

Home field guides set to Off

1. Choose Latest guides or Featured guides to reveal Field guides limit again.

THROUGH THE LENS

Photography & reading.

Prepare your images

Upload good-quality originals sized for their intended display, and compress them sensibly before uploading. Keep important subjects away from the edges of grid images, which are cropped to your selected ratio. Ghost creates the theme's responsive image sizes automatically; you do not need custom image folders or server rules.

Provide useful alt text for meaningful images and use captions for credit or context. Use only photography you own or have permission to publish. Demo photographs are not bundled in the theme ZIP. The complete customer product supplies them in a separate optional import; keep the demo photo credits and licenses.

Use native editor cards

Add image and gallery cards from Ghost's editor for photography. Use headings, quotes, callouts, toggles, bookmarks, buttons and media cards to vary longer stories. Review externally embedded content separately: its availability and behavior depend on its provider.

Open the photograph viewer

In a readable article, select the cover or an unlinked image/gallery photograph to open the viewer. Use Previous/Next, Left/Right arrows or the on-screen controls. Close with Escape, the close button or the backdrop. Keyboard focus returns to the image and your reading position is retained. Linked images keep their own destination.

Add a table of contents

Enable Show table of contents and use at least two visible H2/H3 headings in the post body. The contents list is automatic and collapsed initially on mobile. It does not list headings in hidden content or expose a restricted body to guests.

Related stories

Enable Related posts to show other stories with the same primary tag. If the current post has no primary tag, the theme selects latest stories instead. A tag without other matches hides the section. The current story is always excluded.

A LITTLE FURTHER, TOGETHER

Members & payments.

Elsewhere uses native Ghost Search, Portal, membership and content access. Configure your publication's membership availability, free signup and Portal choices in Ghost Settings. Search opens from the header; guest membership buttons open Portal, and signed-in visitors can open their account.

Transactional email

Your host/server must be able to send Ghost's signup, sign-in and account emails. Configure SMTP at the hosting level and verify actual inbox delivery. This service is separate from the theme; the ZIP does not provide email credentials or a mail server. Bulk email newsletters use Ghost's separate delivery configuration.

Paid subscriptions

Connect Stripe through Ghost when paid subscriptions are available for your business and required by your publication. The theme cannot create a Stripe account or enable payments on its own. Without paid subscriptions configured, paid posts remain restricted and the theme explains that subscriptions are not available yet.

Before launch, test signup, email confirmation, sign-out/sign-in and access restrictions. Test payments only in the payment provider's test mode until you deliberately go live.

YOUR FINAL CHECK

Comments checklist.

Comments use Ghost's original helper and hosted interface. There is no theme-specific Comments bundle, code injection or runtime patch to install. Enable Comments in Ghost Settings for all members or paid members, according to your publication's policy.

1. Publish a readable test story and enable Comments at site level.
2. Visit it signed out and check the native signup/sign-in invitation.
3. Register a test member and follow the confirmation email.
4. Open the story as that eligible member, write a comment and submit it.
5. Reload and confirm the comment remains. Check a reply if you intend to use threaded discussion.
6. Repeat on a narrow screen and in dark mode. Check the text field, submit button and comment text.
7. Sign out and verify member/paid stories remain restricted.

If a confirmed member still cannot comment, review the site's Comments policy and the post's access. Paid-only discussion requires the appropriate paid access; a free signup does not grant it.

READY FOR THE ROAD

Launch & update.

Before launch

• Publish the four setup pages and upload the correct routes.
• Check menu/footer destinations and your own domain throughout.
• Review Home, archives, tags, authors and a story on desktop/mobile in light/dark.
• Check titles, excerpts, image crops, alt text and credits.
• Try Search, signup, email confirmation, sign-in and your Comments checklist.
• Check a signed-out request cannot read a member or paid story body.
• Remove private fixtures and replace sample identity, copy, photographs and policy pages.
• Verify real email delivery and, if used, the intended payment-provider mode.

Update the theme safely

1. Back up the existing theme ZIP, content and routes. Record your custom settings and any code edits.
2. Read the new version's notes. Test on a staging site when possible.
3. Upload the new Elsewhere ZIP and activate it. Review all settings, especially options that were renamed or replaced.
4. Update routes only when the release instructions require it. Preserve custom routes and existing post URLs.
5. Repeat the short launch checks. Keep the previous ZIP available for rollback.

Direct changes to theme files may be replaced by an update. Keep a separate record of custom code and reapply it only after checking compatibility. Theme uploads do not replace your posts, members or uploaded media.

WHEN SOMETHING LOOKS DIFFERENT

Troubleshooting.

An archive is missing or returns 404.

Confirm the exact page slug, matching template and Published status. Upload the included routes and check that existing custom routing did not override its channel. Pages used by the photo/guide routes must stay published.

A story is missing from Home.

Check its publication status, selected source and format tags. The cover is excluded from other Home lists. Enabled format sections reserve their stories even when a Featured source has no match; choose Off to release that format into the journeys feed.

A photo essay or guide does not appear in its archive.

Use the exact internal tag with the leading #. A template selection alone does not determine archive membership. The archives are independent of the Home source controls.

A Limit option is hidden.

Enable its parent block. Home field guides Off hides Field guides limit; Related posts Off hides Related posts limit. The saved value is retained.

The table of contents is missing.

Enable the setting, add two visible H2/H3 headings and check a readable post. Pages do not receive the article contents feature, and restricted bodies are not available to guests.

The colour scheme does not match the default.

A visitor's explicit light/dark choice takes precedence. Use the header switch or compare a fresh browser session. Palette, Brand accent and default scheme are separate settings.

Fonts look different in Search or Portal.

Save the Brand font choices and reload. Check that the font resources load and contain the characters used in your content. The native interfaces retain their own layout while following the chosen families.

My imported About page is at /about-2/.

Ghost kept the original About page. Review it first, rename its slug if appropriate, then give the imported custom About page the required about slug. See the demo import steps. Do not import the ZIP again to fix this.

An image is missing.

Open its original upload URL and check Ghost's storage/image service. Re-upload a broken source. The theme asks Ghost to generate responsive derivatives and does not depend on demo-server image URLs.

Member email does not arrive.

Review SMTP settings and host delivery logs, then check Inbox and Spam. A successful SMTP connection does not prove delivery. The theme does not send emails independently of Ghost.

A guest can see a member story's title.

Titles, excerpts and access labels can remain visible on cards. The protected body is governed by Ghost. Test the full article as a guest and verify its body stays restricted.

Comments does not show an editor.

Check that Comments is enabled, the article is readable and the member is confirmed and eligible under the discussion policy. Try a normal browser if an embedded browser is blank.

ATELIER THEMES

A little help along the way.

Email contact@atelierthemes.com with the theme version, Ghost version, browser/device, affected page and the steps to reproduce the issue. A screenshot often helps. Share a staging URL if the issue occurs there.

Single Website license · Support policy · Refund & cancellation policy · Screenshot image credits

Do not include passwords, API keys, payment details, private member data or sign-in links. Hosting, SMTP, newsletter delivery, Stripe and third-party embed issues may require the relevant service provider's help.